A Week in the Life of a Creative Entrepreneur

I know the life of a creative entrepreneur and working at home can be highly glamorized and seem like the perfect job situation. So I thought I’d share a little bit of my day to day with you! I have mentioned that I try to batch work in past posts about my daily routine and being productive and I still try to work that way in order to be most productive, however there always seem to be other things that pop up and require my attention and this week was no different from Monday morning and on! I hope you enjoy a little look into my work life as a creative entrepreneur.

MONDAY

So here goes, I’m (obviously) starting with Monday in my week in the life of a creative entrepreneur. I tend to go back and forth between more bullet point like lists and detailed paragraphs depending on how interesting the items I’m working on are or just how “chatty” I felt at the moment.

8:30am Breakfast while checking email and starting on scheduling Tailwind pins for the week

9:00am Not planned, but dealing wth SSL issue on website – ticket in with SiteGround to fix their mistake

9:30am Back to Tailwind and scheduling pins for the rest of the week

10:10am Back to dealing with website issue (https expired even though I renewed it awhile back)

10:42am Heading out to pay UPC bill (yes we have to pay bills in person here in Budapest) & grab some groceries for dinner, too frustrated with SG and need fresh air

12:45pm Made it back home finally, checking on website issue and having a quick lunch plus another espresso to get through the rest of Monday

1:00pm Watched TED talk on Joy while I ate

1:15pm Website still not fixed so working on some client work for a little bit

1:42pm Client edits done and sent out plus website is now FIXED! YAY! Going to jump on working on formatting tomorrow’s blog post finally! (still love SG even with the issues)

2:35pm Finished tomorrow’s blog post, all formatted and designed and ready to go. Now checking emails before moving on to next task

2:45pm Going back over to do list for the week and prioritizing what needs to get done each day and how to chunk it out to be the most productive – I try to do this on like a Friday for the week ahead but just now getting to it 

3:10pm Brain dumped to do list for this week and prioritized it: 1) end of Christmas in July sale post 2)August newsletter 3) Client graphic 4) Office hours questions for Thursday 5) IG posts for the week 6) Friday blog post 7) Add new Etsy items – at least two 8) Simplify and send Etsy survey email 9) Create and fill out monthly review sheet 10) Catch up on subscriber tribe videos 11) Bazaar and holiday item planning 12) Brainstorm email subscriber freebie ideas

3:19pm Starting #1 from to do list and working on the post for the end of Christmas in July sale

3:58pm Finished Christmas in July post and scheduled it for IG, now jumping ahead to do more IG scheduling in Later for the week since I’m already in that mode

4:07pm Jumping to August newsletter stuff since I need some of that content for my IG posts

5:08pm Finished IG posts until Monday and got a good start on the August newsletter, will need to finish that up tomorrow first thing so it’s ready to go out Tuesday. I’m going to quick do a little bit of the client graphic work before I call it quits for the day

5:27pm – The day has won I’m done, time to start working on dinner and relax for a little bit. If I have down time later maybe I’ll work on something else from to do list

TUESDAY

8:14am I have been up easing into the day since 7:10 but am now getting into work, starting again with going through email and responding to new Etsy orders yay!

8:42am Now time to get back to working on the newsletter for August plus some client work

10:34am August email is done and scheduled. Also client draft is done and sent to client!

10:59am Working on Etsy and new products designs and listings along with some fun time sketching (I don’t do enough of this)

1:23pm Been sketching and scanning and cleaning up art for awhile so time for a lunch break

1:49pm Back to work on new designs and products

3:18pm Spent quite a bit of time on the “art” part which was nice and got one new item listed on Etsy which included writing the description, creating the images, and finding the keywords to maximize my SEO. Plus I have some other art created to use for future designs so time for a break from designing for today. Also received more Etsy orders so going to quick get them ready to go before moving on to another task

3:34pm Etsy order fulfilled, need to take a little break

4:02pm OK back at it, going to try and knock off a few easier items from my to do list, starting with the office hour questions and simplifying + sending out recent shop purchases followup emails

4:35pm Done with those little tasks (always feels nice to cross off multiple things on the to do list quickly!) now working on creating a monthly review sheet for Proof & Parchment so I can track my business a little better and be more accountable and intentional each month with goals

5:27pm Already got a survey back from the ones just sent out and received a nice message from a previous customer, happy dance time 🙂

6:05pm Review sheet pretty much ready to use tomorrow! Done for the day and have to quickly get ready and head out for 7pm crossfit class with the hubby

WEDNESDAY

7:14am Starting the day with some yoga at home! (have actually been up since 6am though)

8:29am Yoga is done and breakfast is made plus my espresso so time to get down to business. Going to start where I left off and finish up the business review sheet plus input my July stats since it’s August

9:55am July sheet is done feels like a little bit of a roller coaster looking over the ups and downs from the month but I guess that is what the beginning of a business is like, some months are better than other, so let’s hope August is a great month for Proof & Parchment. Now moving on to fulfilling a few Etsy orders!

10:19am Done with Etsy orders for now so doing a few random admin things like email, file organization, going over surveys, adding testimonial images to Etsy, etc

10:43am Moving on to the blog, I have not been able to get ahead of my weekly posts yet, maybe one of these months I’ll be able to write multiple posts at once and get ahead (that’s the dream right?) so now figuring out what I want to blog about this week

12:02pm Making progress on blog post, taking a little break for lunch

12:47pm Back to work on Friday’s blog post

3:03pm Blog post for Friday is DONE along with the write up, graphics, Pinterest imagery, and scheduling. Pretty happy with the post on my monthly tracker, can’t wait for it to be live! Time for a little break since I can’t stare at this screen anymore.

3:36pm Posting an Etsy update then going for a walk to get fresh (but super hot) air and look for a watermelon for my kombucha!

5:11pm – Back home with watermelon, now trying to get a few more work things done

6:23pm Done for the day time to make some dinner!

THURSDAY

6:51am Jumping into work early, getting some Etsy orders fulfilled before breakfast

8:09am I have breakfast and coffee around and going to keep working on Etsy stuff, need to get banners updated since my sale is over

10:05am Finished updating Etsy plus created another product listing along with the write up, imagery, etc and published it! Another cross off the to do list. Now I am getting ready for a mid day workout at crossfit

12:52pm Back home from the gym and eating a little lunch while getting back to work

3:49pm Been working on updating and tracking Etsy listings including fun SEO stuff plus working on adding more pins to my Pinterest boards. Need a break from the computer to bottle my kombucha!

6:08pm Prepping for office hours at 6:30pm with Subscriber Tribe

7:57pm Office hours are finally over, long evening working, time to wind down now

FRIDAY

7:35am Up and doing a few work things early this morning before heading back to crossfit

8:25am Finished up client hand lettering work, now running off to the gym and going to deliver hand lettered certificates: 2 stones 1 bird!

10:43am Home after the gym and getting a few things at DM (kind of like a CVS) showered then working on food – crockpot stuff for dinner and lunch for me right now

12:09pm Done with lunch and odds n ends finally and can get to doing some work. Starting with NAWA newsletter since I volunteer with the organization and am in charge of the announcements

12:58pm Sent out NAWA email and finished a few other small tasks along with finished the workflow for posting my Friday blog post. Back to my original to do list for the week which is almost completed. Going to go through content in the Subscriber Tribe and try to get caught up on the courses and what action I need to take

5:32pm Done working for the day and week! Jumped all over from task to task this afternoon but finished up my to do list by catching up on Subscriber Tribe videos, brainstormed ideas for new email subscriber freebies, and came up with a plan for upcoming holiday season & bazaar! Also organized some more stuff in Trello, pinned a little bit more, and wrapped up some Etsy orders. I’m done!