Tips for Overwhelmed Wedding Photographers / Part 2
How Wedding Photographers Can Reduce the Feeling of Overwhelm //
This article is a continuation to Part 1: Tips for Overwhelmed Wedding Photographers where I talked about why some wedding photographers feel overwhelmed and which negative effects might arise as a result. I also touched upon the benefits of minimizing the sense of overwhelm in your personal life and business.
Before you read any further, I want to quickly inform you about a FREE digital planner that I am making available to you in order to help you reduce the feeling of overwhelm.
My Wedding Season Planner is a digital planner that is custom-designed to help overwhelmed wedding photographers who are feeling stressed out because they are struggling to:
stay organised, keep track of their client work and reach their goals.
Get instant access to the planner: Sign-up now!
Hi, I am Aida, host of My Wedding Season -The Podcast!
If you prefer listening, this blog post is also available in audio format on my podcast: Episode 26.
In part 2 of this series, I provide you with actionable steps to help you minimize feeling overwhelm.
WHAT CAN YOU DO IF YOU ARE FEELING OVERWHELMED?
What I have done to make the information more digestible is categorized it into three parts, which I refer to as the 3Ps: Plan, Process, and Personal Care.
1. PLAN
- Set Goals: Yes, this might sound basic, but yet many people don’t do this. What is great about intentionally setting goals and putting an action plan in place is that it enables you to follow-through and actually make it achievable.
There are a number of ways to go about this, one of the most popular being setting SMART goals. This stands for: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Time-Bound. This way, you are able to track your progress and put yourself into a position to be successful in reaching your goals.
You can do this for different areas of your wedding photography business like finances, booking clients, rebranding etc. - Time-Management: When you are able to manage your time appropriately, you get way ahead of the game. It is extremely helpful to plan ahead and schedule in your tasks, set deadlines and have an overall overview of all your to-dos. Figure out which tools you can utilize to help you out: Is it just a Google Calendar, like my husband,Tim, or are you the type who benefits from using a planner, like myself?
- Organised workspace: I like to describe myself as a recovering chaotic person. By nature, I am all over the place. It takes effort for me to be organised, but I know that I have to get it together in order to get things done and avoid constantly feeling stressed out.
My advice to you is to take a look at your physical space and arrange it in a way that makes sense so that you don’t waste time and energy constantly looking for stuff that you misplaced. And I have learned that reducing stuff to the minimum is extremely helpful – learn the art of decluttering – Marie Kondo your space!
This also goes for your digital space. Do you randomly save stuff onto your desktop? Do your electronic folders make logical sense – do you have a system behind the madness? How about the back-ups of all your client-work. There is nothing like investing in external harddrives.
It is April, meaning that for those of us in Europe and North America, it is the perfect time for a little bit of Spring cleaning! - Prioritize and focus: Knowing what to do and when to do it is the key to moving things along in your business. Sometimes we get stuck in busy work which has little impact on our end goal. Figure out what to prioritize and where you should focus your time and energy.
Periodically evaluate what brings about meaningful results for you and your business. - Batchworking and productivity: If you have been following my work for a little while, you might have noticed that I often talk about batchworking – that is because it has been a game changer for me.
When you block out time to do similar tasks in one go, you are working smarter and becoming more productive. To learn more about this concept and other productivity hacks, read this article “3 Ghame Changer Productivity Hacks”.
2. PROCESS
- Workflows and Templates: Taking the time to create proper workflows and templates saves you so much time and reduces the sense of overwhelm. Given the work required to set it up in the beginning is a lot, but it is so worth it! There is just no need to reinvent the wheel every single time for tasks that are repeatable. It also has the added bonus of staying on brand and reducing human error.
For example, areas in your business where you can introduce workflows include the client journey from a-z and post-session workflows. And the types of templates that you can create include: email templates, wedding guide templates and pricing guide templates. - Delegation / Outsourcing: I have found that one of the best ways to figure out what you can delegate or outsource in your business is to ask yourself the following questions:
What do you hate doing? What is taking up your time? Can someone else do it better?
If you are looking to grow your wedding photography brand and business, it is important to focus on working more on your business instead of constantly working in your business. Free up the time and energy needed to go after big picture goals. - Simplify: Remember that there is no need to unnecessarily overcomplicate things. Figure out steps and tasks that you can simplify, or possibly eliminate.
Consider using the 80/20 rule, also known as the Pareto Principle. This rule helps you focus on the essentials in business. When you apply this principle, you should end up focusing on 20% of the impactful things in your business that will yield 80% of the results that you want to have. - Streamlining and automation: There are so many aspects of your business that you don’t need to be doing manually. This again saves you precious time and energy – and consequently reduces overwhelm.
A few types of softwares that can help: CRM ( for client management), project management, bookkeeping, appointment scheduling etc.
You don’t need to use all of them – only the ones that fit your needs.
3. PERSONAL CARE
Personal care is basically self-care. You should not underestimate the impact and value of taking care of your wellbeing: namely your emotional, physical and mental health.
- Setting boundaries: There are various boundaries that you can set around your business. These could include: office hours, saying no to what doesn’t serve you or your business, and not taking on more work than what you can handle. Making sure that you don’t overfill your plate with to-dos every single moment of every single day is so important.
Setting boundaries also applies to your personal life. If this is an area that you struggle with, I can highly recommend a book by Nedra Glover Tawwab called “Set Boundaries, Find Peace: A Guide to Reclaiming Yourself”. - Rest/health/exercise: There is nothing like taking breaks during the day and getting enough sleep. On average, it is said that people need 8 hours of sleep. Sure this can differ from person to person. The point is,our body and mind require rest and rejuvenation. Lack of sleep even affects our mood and productivity levels – getting enough rest keeps us motivated and lessens the chance of us getting burnt out.
Also pay attention to what you eat and don’t miss out on any doctor’s visits because you are too busy. Get in the habit of exercising – whatever that might mean for you. Even if it is just taking a walk outside and getting some fresh air. - Reflection: I recommend that you take time to be with your thoughts and feelings. If you are constantly on a hamster wheel, you might just be going along with the flow of life and suddenly realize that you took a direction and ended up in a place that you did not intend to initially. I truly believe that it is important to be intentional in how you do life and business. Make sure that you are regularly checking in with yourself to ensure that you are staying aligned with your values.
There are a number of options as to how you can take the time to reflect: journaling, doing a writing exercise, taking a walk alone etc.. Figure out what works best for you and go from there. - Routines / habits: The value of building helpful routines and creating good habits should not be overlooked. On top of that, be sure to treat yourself on a regular basis: go out, hangout with loved ones, enjoy your hobbies, take a trip … binge a Netflix show. Whatever it is that gives you joy.
I actually wrote an Instagram post recently about how I can binge Bridgerton Season 2 and still be successful in business. This post was sparked by messaging that I have been seeing online of people in the industry claiming that if you are not working day and night, you are not fully going after your dreams and are to blame for not achieving a high level of success. I call BS! I do not subscribe to that sort of thinking. I do believe in working hard to make the dream work, but I also believe in resting and enjoying all the good that life has to offer – now, and not just in some distant future.
BONUS: PASSION PROJECTS
When you are running a business, it could be that you spend all your creative energy on serving your clients. Don’t neglect the value of working on passion projects. Create something new – it doesn’t matter if it is “good” or if anyone will see it. It is just important for you to keep your creative juices flowing. If you have a sense of curiosity, follow it and find out where it will lead you.
Don’t forget to get your hands on My Wedding Season Planner 2022 / Digital Planner. The main focus of this planner is to help you become organized, save time and reduce stress. It will help you stay on top of your client work, which will ultimately enhance your client experience. And furthermore, you can keep track of your goals to make sure that you are sticking to them throughout the year. You can find out more details about the planner by clicking over to: www.wedding-photography-podcast.com/planner
If you do decide to sign-up to get instant access, it would mean the world to me for you to share it with your wedding photography friends so that they can get their hands on it as well. To make it super easy for you to share on social, I have a graphic already prepared for you that you can share on Instagram Stories (feel free to download and share the images below). Please tag me @aidaglowik so that I can personally thank you and reshare it! I also want to follow your journey on Instagram.
If you have any questions or comments, just hit me up on Instagram @aidaglowik
Cheering you on,
Aida
BOOK RECOMMENDATIONS
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