Photographer's Wedding Season Calendar

Speaker 1 0:10

I'm always really curious as to like what other photographers calendars look like and how they schedule their days , their weeks , their months , their work . So I thought it'd be kind of fun to just like talk about , like what my calendar actually looks like for like july and august , when it's really busy . Yeah , be so for real . Be so for real , okay . Um , I'm just gonna dive in . So I have like 30 something weddings this year . I'll say 32 , 33 maybe . Um , there's a lot of weddings for me personally and for a lot of weddings for you yeah , some photographers I think can do like 40 50 .

Speaker 1 0:43

A lot of photographers are like around 20 if they're doing a lot of other things . When I'm in a year where it's like this is all I'm doing , which is kind of what this summer is , I'm like weddings . Are it like I'm not taking out any family shoots ? Really , in the summer I'm just doing weddings and elopements . I'm doing like two to three a week .

Speaker 1 0:59

Okay , yeah , from like june to october and you do quite a few weekday elopements so a lot of them are like three to five hour elopements on like tuesdays you have days which are typically like a bit like they're less .

Speaker 2 1:11

You have very many back-to-backs . Do you have any three days in a row ?

Speaker 1 1:15

I try really hard to not double book in terms of like double booking . Obviously I'm not double booking , like booking myself on the same day , but I try really hard to not do back-to-backs when I can . So I have a couple , I think . I'm just looking at my calendar now . Um , there's like two or three weekends where I'm doing like two in a row , like a Friday and a Saturday . But I do try really hard to not do that like .

Speaker 1 1:38

I much prefer like Tuesday , thursday , saturday is my ideal week and that's what I try to book out as much as possible . That's what I aim for is like a full day wedding on a Saturday . And if I wasn't doing like a ton of elopements and I was doing like engagements and families instead , it would probably be the same where I'd be like Saturday is a wedding , tuesdays and Thursdays are shoots and that gives me that day in between to just like physically

Creative Wednesdays and Work-Life Balance

Speaker 1 2:02

recover . Yeah , I find like once you're doing like two or three in a row , the day that you're like I can do it , no problem , but the next day can be kind of a write off physically because I'm just like bone tired . Yeah , you gotta like drink electrolytes and get back in shape so by spacing it out like that , like I can still work monday , like monday , friday , you know , and like have those days to like do stuff okay , yeah , so about 30 for the summer .

Speaker 1 2:32

In the summer for you is like july august july and august are definitely like the busiest , yeah , and then june , september , october are and october is pretty busy yeah , it started like . It's just sort of like it starts in june , it ramps right up to october and then it drops off pretty quickly yeah , I don't usually have anything in november no , as soon as , like , the hurricanes start , it's yeah , all right so and like two a week , usually , like one full one too small and then a small one or two small ones .

Speaker 1 3:00

Yeah , and you so I'm working with like three clients a week on average . Yeah , um , I take two days off a week . One day is just to like recover , enjoy sundays typically , and wednesdays I call my creative day . I've been doing this for years . I wrote this is my put in the woo woo music . I signed a contract with the universe about five years ago that I would rest and be creative on Wednesdays in exchange for inspiration and creativity and fulfillment , and I try really , really hard to keep that in place . Some days days , I would say often it looks like going for a hike and a swim in a pond and like being in nature , meditating , maybe picking some blueberries . It can look like sitting in a hammock in the park and reading a book , going for a bike ride , getting my favorite coffee and treat on a walk somewhere , maybe meeting up for with a friend for like an afternoon , like you know tea or something .

Speaker 2 4:15

So you're not like sitting down with a notepad and watercolors and making yourself be creative no , no , no .

Speaker 1 4:20

it's just time , like idle time , to think about new ideas and dream and basically letting myself like just be a creative thinker . Okay , I find like my best ideas you know , like I was like my best ideas come in the shower . That's because you're turned off and you're just like relaxing .

Speaker 2 4:36

Amen yeah .

Speaker 1 4:37

So when I'm like lying in a pond is when I'm often thinking about business , but in a fun way , right , it's when I'm like I mean it would look really cool is if I went to this location with my clients and did like this thing , and I'm like planning out a photo in my head . Cool , yeah , that's what my wednesdays look like , okay . And then , uh , monday , tuesday , thursday , friday , I'm working pretty well like all day editing marketing , answering emails , all that sort of stuff , and then in the evening going to a shoot . And then on saturdays it's the full day , okay . So four days a week I'm working like currently 12 hours in the summer , yeah , okay ,

Monthly No-Peopling Weeks

Speaker 1 5:20

yeah .

Speaker 2 5:20

And then saturday , I'm working like usually nine to ten right , yeah , okay , um , do you take any like aside from your structured week to week time ? Do you have like I know you don't work your birthday ?

Speaker 1 5:34

I never work . My birthday is a sacred day . I've never worked my birthday and that's one of the benefits of being self-employed .

Speaker 2 5:41

Nothing quite quite as fun as somebody inquiring on Alex's birthday and being like , sorry , it's company policy .

Speaker 1 5:50

Well , we did have someone this year who wanted my birthday and I was like I'm actually not available that day , but I am available the next day or the day before . And they were like OK , and I said I was like it's my birthday and they were like oh my God , absolutely , we're not getting married on your birthday . And I said I was like it's my birthday and they were like oh my God , absolutely , we're not getting married on your birthday .

Speaker 2 6:04

That's weird .

Speaker 1 6:07

I love my clients so much .

Speaker 2 6:08

It's such a good life .

Speaker 1 6:10

So , aside from my Wednesdays and my Sundays and your birthday and my birthday this year , I'm aiming to take one week a month , which I pre-scheduled before inquiry started coming in . I do the same thing for next year already as well . Yeah , learned this from a colleague who suggested this , and it is so good . One week a month where I don't have any face-to-face clients and it's a week to catch up no peopling , no peopling , so I can sit in my pajamas all day , all night , and just edit , okay , and during that week week like , emails are typically like not as intense because I'm not like planning yeah , a shoot , like you know , for that day or whatever . So there's like less emailing . I really try to just like .

Speaker 1 6:53

That's so nice you can like look ahead , though , and like get all like like a catch-up because ideally that will be my catch-up week that will bring me back to like , hopefully , editing Q0 .

Speaker 2 7:05

Yeah , always and always , just like staying on top of it . Yeah , because your delivery times are really quick .

Speaker 1 7:10

Yeah , and when you're dealing with like 30 plus weddings , yeah , you need to set time to edit .

Speaker 1 7:15

And I think something that's really important to note is that when you put a week blocked off per month , it didn it didn't hurt your bookings oh yeah , no , people just filled in the other in the gaps and it also because I'm like I'm taking that week , I don't mind booking every other week , solid , yeah . So I'm like if I have a tuesday free anywhere in the summer , I'm like that's available . Yes , right , that's available for booking , if as long as it's not in that week off okay yeah , right on .

Speaker 1 7:49

So that's the other thing I do is trying to plan in hours for specific tasks . Yeah , so I often don't do this like far in advance , but like maybe the week of when I'm planning out my week . So right , I do this thing every single Monday . We call it our egg and tenner . Egg or tenner , which is at 10 am . We eat eggs and plan out our weekly schedule . Yes , we do . It's not that deep , it's not that deep it's eggs

Weekly Planning with Egg and Tenner

Speaker 1 8:10

at 10 .

Speaker 1 8:10

It's just really nice to have it be an external thought , it is the best thing I could have ever done for my business , I think it is because we take like up to 30 minutes both to just like write out what we need . What are the most important tasks I need to get done this week and I break them down into like business life yeah , oh yeah .

Speaker 2 8:30

It's everything we don't just talk about like the shared business , it's like don't need to put flooring down in the basement and get groceries and get the car detailed . It's also on the list , right like do we need to get the car detail ? Yes , that , yes , that wasn't on the anchor tenor . Yeah , it's picking up meds making appointments . It's also answering a very specific email . Like sometimes I'm like answer emails , and then under it I'll be like answer Samantha . Yeah , because there's . You know , there's a difference . There's general emails and then there's like ah .

Speaker 1 9:07

I really have to like answer this one email and it's gonna take . Yeah , that had like eight questions in it and I was like this has been on my brain for like a day now to like , screenshot a map and send like a vendor referral , yeah , yeah , yeah , totally um .

Speaker 1 9:18

So yeah , monday mornings planning that out and giving myself that like half an hour to look ahead at that week , and what I do then is then I take each of the things that I wrote down . That's like in my brain , basically I offload my brain and then I schedule it yes , yeah , I put in like approximately how long I think it's gonna take .

Speaker 1 9:36

So let's say , if it's like edit this wedding , I'll put in , like you know , say six to ten hours or whatever . Yeah , and then I'll schedule , okay , that's maybe two four hour blocks this week . So I'll put it in , okay , monday afternoon and , uh , wednesday afternoon or not wednesday , monday afternoon and thursday afternoon , right , are blocked off for editing that wedding . Okay , cool , and then I fill my week up with all my tasks until my week is full I call it a task bank yeah , that's it .

Speaker 2 10:02

That's a great way , and I fill it in like when you used to have word banks and you have like the . So I have like monday , tuesday , wednesday , thursday , I fill in the slots of those of the week that are , uh , that are like unmoving . So like , yeah , recording our podcast , tuesday , yeah , you know late morning , and then I go to my task bank and I pull from my task bank and I fill it into the week , yeah , same yeah okay , I find that works really well and then just things get done because they're on my calendar and if it's like literally blocked off time my calendar , I get the notification 10 minutes before .

Speaker 1 10:36

Do this thing . Yeah , I'm pretty good at listening to my calendar . Like you need to have a relationship

Calendar as the Boss

Speaker 1 10:40

with it where , like you're actually going to do the thing that it says to do . It's in charge it's in charge .

Speaker 2 10:43

Yeah , like my calendar is my boss , which is why everything goes into my google calendar .

Speaker 1 10:47

Like literally , my friend texted me and said she was coming for a visit and I was like what date ? And she told me and so I put it into my calendar and sent her a google invite . I put my friends vacation . I put like if we're going out for like a dinner with a group of friends , I'm sending them google calendar invites for it um , I have .

Speaker 2 11:01

Uh , what's I gonna say ? Oh , I have a recurring Mary Brown's Big Mary Monday . Every Monday at 5.30 , I get a Google Calendar notification that it's Big Mary Monday and I don't have to go get a .

Speaker 1 11:16

Big Mary . I love when someone asks you if you're available on Monday and you go , let me check , I have something on my calendar . And then you look and you're like , oh , it's Big Mary Monday .

Speaker 2 11:24

Yeah , I can do it do you want a big mary ?

Speaker 1 11:27

I could pick one up so that's really it , like it's not , you know , I I find like it's . It's been going on 14 , 15 years and I feel like this works really well and has been working really well . The adding in the week off with no peopling is a new one that I'm really , really excited for , and I'm maybe I'll come back in a few months and tell you how it's going . Yeah , that'd be nice , but I am really looking forward to that , and I think it's also just nice in the summertime to have a week where , like my , evenings are free and I think I can plan in my friend stuff then too it's gonna be really good for your brain to not have the fear that you're missing something .

Speaker 2 12:00

Yeah , like that , that like . Or the waiting mode that you're missing something . Yeah , like that , that like . Or the waiting mode that you get in because you always have an appointment or a wedding or something you have to do later is really . I think it's going to be really nice to be like I don't have to see anyone for a week . Yeah , Okay , that's , that's my schedule .

Speaker 1 12:20

That's your schedule . I that's your schedule . I would love to hear you want to send me a message on Instagram with things that work really well for you with scheduling . I'd love to hear . I'll just share them on my story if we get any really cool ones . So if you have a really good scheduling hack or something that has really helped you with keeping a consistent calendar in any way , reach out , let me know . I'll be on my way home .

Speaker 2 12:44

You'll be on your way home .

Speaker 1 12:45

I'll be waving at you from the sky while this episode is coming out perfect .

Speaker 2 12:49

Coming back from spain with a tan . Hopefully not because you're going to be wearing so much sunscreen and hopefully really strong glutes from all my ass glutes , strong ass . All right , alex , and I hope you've enjoyed your trip . I hope .