Fashion Designer #1
- You walk into your office first thing
- Admire the sunshine streaming in the windows
- Check out the fresh flowers on your desk
- Dig the calm color on your walls
- Notice that you can see your desk – not just piles of paper all over it
- Light an appropriately smelly candle
- Fire up your computer
- Check messages on the machine
- Oh, cool, 2 clients left voicemails wanting to re-order
- Another message from someone who just heard about and wants to order for the first time
- Another from a reporter wanting a quote from you about your line
- Your assistant hands you a steaming cup of coffee
- You check the clock and still have 15 minutes before your first appointment
- Aaahhhhhh… let the day begin
Hmmmmm.
Or perhaps it’s more like this…
Fashion Designer #2
- You walk into your office first thing
- Smell something funky
- Realize it’s dirty water in a vase from last week
- Meant to throw those out – making you dry heave
- Dig on your desk trying to figure out what time is your first appointment
- While looking for your calendar, 2 piles of fabric headers topple off your desk
- 4 voicemails on the machine
- Your sewing contractor’s screaming in two of them about some missing pattern pieces
- Third voicemail is from a customer telling you not to bother shipping that order
- It’s 5 days late and she cannot accept delivery
- Last message is your intern telling you she’s sick and can’t make it today
- She’s really sorry
- 87 emails in your Inbox
- Finally find your calendar and to-do list
- Too much on there to fit on one page
- Or was this last month’s list
- Start to feel overwhelmed
- Start to feel frustrated
- Can’t possibly get it all done
- Not even sure what to do first
- Wishing you were out sick too
- Gotta get contol of your business, your time, your life
- Gotta find a better way
- Isn’t this supposed to be more fun?
What’s the difference between these 2 days? Time Management!
Designer #1 feels…
- In control
- Ready to face the day
- Organized
- Low stress
- Has her act together
Designer #2 feels
- Already exhausted at 9 am
- Overwhelmed
- Burned out
- Not having fun
The first designer has figured out how to manage her day and her time so she…
- Gets more done
- Feels in control
- Is PRO-active in her work, not RE-active
- Has a sense of direction
- Sleeps better at night
Hang in there. Help is on the way.
Time management is the #1 issue fashion designers ask me about. Here’s some of my other blog posts on time management for fashion designers.
But the next 2 weeks of blogs will also give you tips and solutions to your time management issues, specifically geared towards those in the fashion business Stay tuned…
