Herding Cats

I’m back at my home office. Yippee! I love being onsite at client locations, but I always feel like my home “ship” is adrift and in danger of sinking. The last three days have been spent getting back into the workflow and tying up a lot of loose ends. Man, it feels good to be back at the helm!

One of the things I worked on today was content for the newsletter. Interestingly, I shot a note off to the rude PR person who discounted my publication because of low circulation numbers. I haven’t yet broken the news to him that his client’s article could’ve been in the issue distributed at the huge conference in a few months. I’ll wait. Maybe he’ll redeem himself. Somehow, I doubt it, but it could happen.

In my short stint away from home, I realized I hadn’t quite organized myself properly. I spend way too much time chasing my own tail, when if I’d only follow my own advice and map out a game plan, I’d be much more productive. So this is it – mornings are spent on projects and meeting deadlines. Afternoons, when I’m able, are spent on marketing, networking and other details. So far, I’ve decided that most of my deadlines are of the Monday/Friday variety. I figure Tuesdays are a good day to settle in to new ventures. From now on, I will call Tuesdays Development Days. These afternoons will be spent learning software, building databases, researching new gadgets, fussing with the websites, etc. Wednesday afternoons may be my designated Collateral Material days. That’s when I’ll write the brochures on my business, send ’em out, develop contact lists, etc.

Maybe those days will change up to meet the work demand. But my point is a plan, any plan, is better than just herding cats and hoping for success.