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 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, 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 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 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.