How to Create an Effective Workflow
Lesson 2 from: Workflow, Time Management and Productivity for CreativesLisa Congdon
How to Create an Effective Workflow
Lesson 2 from: Workflow, Time Management and Productivity for CreativesLisa Congdon
Lessons
Class Introduction
14:49 2How to Create an Effective Workflow
06:37 3Organizing a Workflow Document
31:17 45 Tips for Managing Your Workflow
15:57 5Working with a Rolling To-Do List
03:04 6Setting Up Your Rolling To-Do List
25:38 7Time Blocking: What it is and Why it Works
05:05 8How to Use Time-Blocking Effectively
22:29Lesson Info
How to Create an Effective Workflow
So let's, you ready to dive in to the first tool? Okay. So. Talk about organizing a workflow. What is a workflow? How many of you have heard this term workflow before? Okay, lots of you. So, workflow can mean lots of different things. It literally can, your workflow can mean literally, like, how you work through a project, like an illustration or a piece of art, like what is your creative process, it can mean that. It can mean something way bigger, too. But, when we're talking about workflow for this class, what it generally means is the intentional planning of your projects from start to completion. Workflow organizes the flow of your work as you begin, work on and complete a project. So, tracks the progress or plans the progress from start to finish, okay. It also organizes all your projects in one place so you can see at a glance all of the things that you're responsible for. This was a big one for me. I would say the vast majority of my stress when I first started out, like, not wh...
en I really first started out but when my career started to take off and I started to have a lot of projects for the first time and I didn't know how to balance all of them, I think it was Michelle who was commenting that she, that's what she struggles with. Most of my stress came from thinking that I was forgetting something constantly. Like I know there's something I should be doing right now but I don't know what it is or, like, I got an email about a project but I never put it in a central place with my other projects so all of the things I was responsible for were sort of sitting in all of these different places and then I was constantly worried I was forgetting something. So having a central place to organize your projects is really important and that's part of what your workflow does. As creatives, we work mostly on projects that have a start and an end, which is great. Things like completing assignments from clients, engaging in personal projects or daily challenges or working on a body of work for a gallery show, these are a few examples. Our projects come in various grain sizes. Some projects are short and quick, right? Things you could do literally in an hour and some are weeks long, they don't all fit in the same box and they should be treated differently. Sometimes projects are long commitments that take weeks or even months. Organizing and tracking them despite their depth or breadth is really important. So just like with any job, staying organized amidst multiple projects is crucial. Workflow planning encourages us to think about everything we're responsible for currently. So what is it I have on my plate today? Next week, like, what am I responsible for? Even if I'm not gonna work on it today. Knowing and having your head wrapped around everything you're responsible for is part of what workflow does for us. Part of what it forces us to think about is how long each project or assignment might take. We don't ever really know. But taking an educated guess to start is really important. How we will organize our time to complete the project. The order in which things need to happen to complete the project efficiently, both within and between projects. So which projects need to happen in what order and inside of projects, the sort of smaller task is inside of a project. And what other projects are happening simultaneously and how we can work all of them and still make progress. And that's one thing that the to do list and time blocking will really help with. When we think intentionally about these things, we are more likely to feel in control of our time, less stressed and finish projects on schedule. Okay. Workflow systems help us to not forget anything, as I mentioned, half of our stress is worrying we're forgetting to do something important because it's not captured somewhere. So you wanna think of workflow not jut as the organization of your projects but the recording of the organization of your projects in a central place. If you could remember everything you're responsible for, you wouldn't need a system, you wouldn't be in this class, this class wouldn't exist. If our brains were wired for that, we wouldn't need systems but they're not. This place is your workflow document. So workflow documents, I'm gonna show you an example shortly. They record projects, one-off tasks and what I mean by that is, like, oh gosh, somebody from a magazine or a blog wants to interview you about your work and you have to complete the interview questions or somebody's requested that you send them images of your work for, ya know, to be part of something, like things that take, ya know, maybe at most an hour or two, sometimes even just 15 minutes. Anything you need to complete or deliver, we call these deliverables, I'm gonna use that term a lot. Anything you need to deliver to another person or a client or even to yourself. If you are somebody who does a lot of personal projects, like I do, and by personal projects, I mean personal creative projects. In order to stay on top of those, you need to include them in your system because what's the first thing to go when we have a lot of projects? Our own work. And sometimes that's the most important work we do everyday is personal work, personal projects, personal daily challenges. You can even have a section for your projects in your personal life as I mentioned earlier. I keep, I'm gonna talk about keeping a rolling to do list and a notebook and I have a section in here for, like, random stuff outside of my work life. But my work life and my home life are so intertwined that I can't separate it and so I don't have a spot in my workflow for personal projects, I just have a spot in my notebook but that's what works for me but I know some people who keep a section in their workflow for big projects, home projects, life projects.
Class Materials
Bonus Materials with Purchase
Ratings and Reviews
Tessa Crowther
Overall, I'm super happy I took the course! As an entrepreneur, artist, and tiny business owner, it's nice to hear perspective from people who have gone through and are going through similar things. Be prepared for some slides to be read word for word (not my favorite thing), and for some thoughts to be a bit scattered and unorganized. However, I got some good information and will implement some of her ideas in my own time management. I paid for the class as a single class, so I'm not sure I'd recommend paying that full single price, but I would definitely recommend the class if you have a class pass! Overall, I would recommend, thanks Lisa!
a Creativelive Student
Thanks Lisa! Wow. I found this class very inspiring and exciting. Besides the logging and planning parts that really amuse me in general, I found the idea of setting boundaries and working while keeping distractions in check quite revolutionary. I can see how working focused on x thing for a period of time over several days can work wonders in completing projects. Super recommended.
Juliette
I just love love love this system(s) AND the fact that Lisa explains them so clearly -and leaves the space to each of her students to "be creative" and adapt the system to your own way of working too. I found this course right on time in my life where i needed to clean out things, become more efficient and calmer too. I think Lisa's systems are indeed a perfect way to calm down any anxieties caused by too much / too few work, overwhelm and such... THANK YOU Lisa, merci beaucoup !