 I can not stress this enough! Being organized is so important in life but even more so in entrepreneurship. When you’re just starting to build your business, it’s essential that you organize your time, all of the relevant information that you’ll be gathering, your contacts, legal requirements, etc.
Everyone has their own method- the key is to pick one and create your ultimate system. Being organized from the beginning will save you so much stress and headache in the long run. If you’ve already started your business and do not have an organizing system set up: DO IT NOW! If you have a business, what’s one organizing tip that you’d give someone? For those of you who aren’t great at organizing, what’s your biggest struggle?
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 “I didn’t get it done today. I’ll do it next week”. “I’ll work harder”. “Things will be different”. I’m sure we’ve all made statements like this to ourselves at one time or another. While a lack of time and having too much to do does play a role in not completing tasks, the bulk of the problems comes from our lack of accountability. We struggle to complete things and vow to do better next time but then next time comes and at first, you’re doing well but a week or so later, you start to revert back to old ways and the cycle repeats itself. Fortunately though, this does not have to be the case. Learning steps to improve your self-accountability and enacting them is crucial to fixing this ‘problem’. If you’ve read the “About Me” section of this site as well as my previous blog post, , then you’ll know that I’m heavily involved in various projects and activities. All of my work along with the responsibilities in my personal life makes it extremely important for me to be accountable. I need to know that I am using my time effectively and that I am being productive. So, what are some steps to help you become more productive:
Being productive means that I am effectively using my time and that I am more likely to be accountable. Here’s a list of ways to hold yourself accountable:
Do you struggle with productivity and being accountable? How are you actively striving to improve this?
 Every business owner has a lot of priorities to juggle and managing how to balance all of these priorities is definitely an art form. On top of all of my business and professional endeavors, I still have my #1 job of being a wife and mother. With all of these roles comes a lot of various responisibilies. I’m known for saying “ I thrive on being busy” and it’s true. I enjoy having a lot going on. On an average day, I’ll have over 20-30 things to do consisting of multiple video meetings scheduled, articles to edit, numerous emails to respond to from SFM manufacturers, SFC Guest Contributors and other contacts, finances to balance and more. Of course, this is only the beginning. I also have an avidly mobile 13 month old who must be fed and played with throughout the day, and lastly, prepping and cooking our family meals. You’re probably wondering, “how does she ensure that she takes care of all of her responsibilities?” Well the key to ensuring that all my responsibilities are done is scheduling. I have a daily schedule that I essentially live by. In my schedule, I allot times for each area in my life. For instance, 9-10am is when I respond to messages, 12-12:30pm is when I work on dinner prep, 1-2pm is when I “learn”(sometimes it’s business related and other times its Islam related). Overall, every second of my day is generally booked from 6:30AM-5:30PM. After 5:30pm, I am usually still working but with less structure. So, how do I make sure I get everything done with my insane schedule? A planner! I am really into organization(a necessity when you’re working for yourself) and a planner, to-do lists and other task management tools are a favorite of mine. When I was still in school, I utilized the New York Public Library planner. I was a big fan of the layout. For the last three years though, I’ve been using Plum Paper planners and they are AMAZING! I absolutely love that I can customize the planner to what suits my needs best. For this year, I ordered a planner as well as a notebook. My planner is where I note all of my day-to-day and monthly outlook events as well as my To-Do list. For the notebook, I wanted to have something aside from my planner where I could take notes and jot down ideas but also have all of the essential things I need to run my business(es). In my notebook, I added the Blog, Sales, Social Media and To-Do List sections. Each of these sections are filled with all of the various common things that one would need for that area. For instance, the “Blog” section has an area to list your goals for the the month, your post ideas, track your expenses/income, giveaways and more. The “Social Media” section starts off with an area to create and develop your entire social media plan and goals for the year and then 12 pages for monthly audits. Having my planner and notebook with all these sections allows me to keep everything organized without needing a bunch of different tools. Despite the workload and constantly being busy, being a business owner is fun. I enjoy the work that I do. I love getting messages from customers letting me know how much they loved their scarf or abaya. I enjoy editing articles for SFC and assisting GLT with building the online community. Overall, being a Boss Muslimah definitely has its challenges but with structure, great organizational skills and a nice planner, things can run smoothly. How do you stay organized? Are you #TeamPlanner or #TeamMentalReminders?
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