A Day In The Life of A Senior Photographer Mom
/5:00am The dreaded alarm goes off.
Confession: I keep a 2nd one set at 5:30am in case I fall back asleep.
I spend all of 30 - 45 minutes getting myself ready for the day. And the next few hours getting the kids up and to school. They’re involved in sports so 6:00am practices are not out of the ordinary.
The good thing is that they begrudging let me listen to my favorite podcasts on the way. I turn it up as loud as I want on the way back home though! Oh yes I do!
7:00am I post to Instagram and engage with my audience for my 2 accounts (photography business and this blog). Everything is preplanned with this amazing tool. It saves me so much time.
I try to check my calendar to refresh my mind and understand how my day will go. I do this while the kids are eating breakfast and getting ready for school.
I then update my Trello Boards with my Top 3 Tasks for the day and any ideas that are lingering in my head. See how I use Trello here in this blog post.
Workout (not as often as I should) & sometimes I just waiting until the afternoon. It depends on whether I have deadlines or not.
I skim email first thing. Notice I said “skim”. I try very hard not to get bogged down in email at this time. This is just to handle any urgent issues that may have popped up overnight. Email is reactive (someone else’s agenda). I try to stay proactive (my agenda & goals) before lunch.
Next thing, I eat that frog (do the thing I don’t want to do first) - Client work, design work, processing orders. The Eat That Frog theory came from Brian Tracy’s book named just that. Basically do the thing that you are least looking forward to first thing in the morning because after that everything else will seem easy. Don't take that the wrong way now! I love my client work, but it's tough sometimes. Haha!
Play with dogs. Because I need the break probably more than they do!
Midmorning: I try to get dinner in crockpot at least a few days a week. Or at least figure out a plan. Tacos anyone???
Now, after this time of day, my days are all different.
I batch everything! So each day is usually focused on one or maybe two different areas of business / life.
Some of my batch work days:
Outlining blog posts
Writing blog posts
Editing & graphics
Course writing (I have something BIG planned. Ahh!)
Social media planning / marketing
Client days (photo shoot, consults or design / order appointments, photographer mentoring)
Current Project
Personal errands
After I work a few hours on my main task for the day I will update Tailwind for my Pinterest accounts. I am amazed at the results I’ve gotten with just working 30 minutes a day with this tools. It's crazy! And I'm so happy to not be on social media all day long anymore.
Play with dogs again. This is basically all day. They are relentless.
Email & calls are handled shortly after lunch each day.
Mid-afternoon: If I don’t have client meetings I am either engaging with other professionals in the industry - Facebook groups, blog & Pinterest commenting or leaving genuine comments on senior instagram accounts. This is focused, intentional work though. Not just scrolling and liking. We have to do this guys! I love this part because it feels like I’m just playing instead of working :)
Evenings: These consist of all the normal mom duties: picking up kids, sports practices & games, dinner . . .
Mama Time! After the kids are settled I try to read (here’s a few of my favorite business books) or catch up on a course I am taking. Continuing Education is so important. If we aren’t learning, we aren’t growing.
9:00 I crash. Hence, my shirt. It's from Saturday Morning Pancakes btw. They're pretty cool ;)
