So this week’s episode is all about the five things that you should organize in your online business. And I wanna start off by talking about why being organized is so helpful, cuz I know that some people absolutely hate it, it’s a struggle form ’em, or they’re not good at it.
For someone like me, It is essential to making my life easier.
So earlier this year, I started to suspect that I had ADHD. I have been working with a therapist on managing my ADHD, trying to go the route of not medicating for it right away to see if it’s manageable between diet, supplements, and some therapy work. And so far it’s going great after only a few months. Learning that I had adhd and discovering it… suddenly it made everything about myself and my life click.
Finally, I finally understood things. Understanding all of this helped me to understand how my brain works, and it was like this light bulb moment of, oh, so that’s why I do that, because I love to know why. Why do we do this? Why do we do it that way on just about anything.
So for me, I’m able to sit there and think about, okay, how do I use this? Or how can I use this tool or whatever this space to make my life easier… use it in a way that’s simple and not overcomplicated. And that ability, because I’m also highly forgetful from my ADHD, and I’m also impatient. I hate to search for things and waste time means that being organized for me is the key to having a successful day or struggling and fighting my brain all day and fighting to figure out where did I put this?
Or trying to make my brain remember where I store this specific type of file, for example. So for me, organization is super, super helpful and key to a good productive day for me. Now that I’ve told you all about my ADHD, let’s go into the five things that you should be organizing in your business.
A Treat to Help You Organize Your Online Business
Speaking of organizing your business, have I got a treat for you. You’ll hear me talk about it a lot over this episode, but my favorite tool to organize my business is Asana. But I know how overwhelming it was to get started with Asana. Which is why I had to make my Asana Setup Guide. It’ll walk you through everything you need to know to get started with Asana. So go grab your free copy of the Asana Setup Guide below.
*Note: Links with an * are affiliate links. This means I make a small commission at no extra cost to you. I only recommend products I love and use in my own business.
Now that you’ve grabbed your copy of that, let’s dive into these 5 things you should organize in your online business. I don’t know about you, but I’m super excited for these.
No. 1 - Your Documents
This is your computer folders, files, things like your Google Drive. Anywhere that you store files for your business should be organized in a way, whatever way works for you, your brain, and how you like to lay things out.
I can’t give you any specifics on how, because everyone’s gonna be different, what may work for me may not work for you and vice versa. So what I can say is, as you go into organizing things… if you can keep things consistent across all platforms or as consistent as you can. Let’s face it, not every platform can be consistent.
But some of the things I like to do to help myself be consistent is using consistent color coding. Sometimes I’ll even throw in emojis. I use that in my Asana because it helps me easily kind of see things and then it’s not just a big block of text.
And the other favorite thing that I love to do, this is probably my biggest tip right here, is however you’ve laid out your Asana, or if you use ClickUp or Trello, whatever it is… try to lay out that folder organization… that structure in your Google Drive or your Dropbox, or wherever you store your files.
Because then they mirror each other and then you don’t have to go searching for things. And then it’s, you know… okay, so all of my content creation gets stored in this section in Asana, so it’ll be in the corresponding matching folder in my Google Drive, and that makes it so much easier.
Related Reading: How to Organize Your Business As a Solopreneur
No. 2 - Your Calendar
Sometimes I feel like my calendar’s the bane of my existence, and I don’t know if this is because I’ve got ADHD and sometimes using a calendar is too restrictive for the ADHD brain or if it’s because I have this time management issue. I’m terrible at figuring out how long something will take me, at how long I should block for it.
So some different things with your calendar that you could do. You could do time blocking, so maybe you spend a certain amount of time on certain days or every day on, you know… your email. Maybe you’re cleaning out your email folders and responding to students or clients. Maybe you spend a certain amount of time on client work or creating new digital products and offers.
And then you can use that in conjunction with batching. So one of the things that I like to do is to batch all of my tasks. I like to group all of my tasks that are the same into a certain day of the week.
For example, I have one content creation day a week, but over the course of the month, I'm making four blog posts.
So I spend the first day recording and editing, and then next week I’m getting the graphics and working on things like that. So then I’m not having to switch between doing one post all day for that one day of the week and then repeating the process. I can record four posts in one day and edit them and know that I have that part done. I don’t have to touch my mic or my recording software or my editing software for another month.
So you could also use a calendar app. Right now what I love to do is I love to give myself parameters, and it’s something new that I’m trying because my ADHD brain doesn’t like to come into my office and be like… okay. I have to do this today, even though my brain really wants to go do that.
So what I'm trying to do is give myself a list of things. I have to do for the five days of the week, so I have to have one content creation day a week, and I have one client day a week.
I also have one admin day a week where I do things like organization and some cleanup because I can be a little scatterbrained sometimes. So keeping it clean and organized, that maintenance helps me. Things like… like background stuff, things that maybe it’s something I wanna play around with or like logging all my receipts and my transactions in QuickBooks, that kind of thing.
You could set this up in Trello, Asana, or ClickUp as, you know… like a board style, and you have your list of, these are the things I still have to do this week and you know, here’s what I’ve done this week. And you can lay it out that way. Whatever works for your brain is the best thing to do
No. 3 - Your To-Do List
So way, way, way back, many years ago when I first started getting into the blogging and the online business world. I was this person where I didn’t want to put something down digitally because I was afraid I’d forget it.
And I look back and I go, my gosh, Danielle, that’s like a terrible ADHD symptom. Come on. Terrible in terms of… it was running my life and how I did things, that it actually made me more stressed to do it that way. So I used to write things down on sticky notes, on pieces of paper. And I would have to hope I didn’t lose it, which seemed silly.
Thinking back on it, I go, my gosh, if you’d have just known about these other tools. You know this better way to do something, it would’ve made life so much easier.
So my favorite thing now is to have a running to-do list.
You can put this in a board, in whatever program you like, and it’s something that I keep a running to-do list of all the things I need to do for these topics. That way when I go to work on them, I can reference it easily. It’s all digital and I know right where it’s at because that’s one of the things, again, with my ADHD where… object permanence.
And it’s that whole like leaving like kitchen cabinets open because you’re forgetful. It’s that out of sight, out of mind type thing where if I can’t see it, I’ll probably forget. But if I put it in the same place every time and that’s where it goes, then it’s easier for me to remember.
So putting your to-do list somewhere that you can reference it over and over again. Something that keeps it digital, that you’ll remember where to look at it on a daily or a weekly basis, makes life easier. Because then you don’t have to find the piece of paper that you’ve… you know, randomly scribbled it on.
No. 4 - Your Content Creation Process
So many of you don’t know this, but a large number of years ago, I’m not gonna say how many. I was really wanting to get into the blogging world and I wasn’t confident in my business ability at the time. So I was like, I’m just gonna start with a fun little bogus blog. Just do a post a week and do some posts on social media and I’ll call it. And I’ll just kind of have fun. I no longer do that one anymore. It’s not something that is my passion that I love to do.
But when I was making those posts, I didn’t have a system for consistent content creation the same way every time. Sure. I had some notes on like image sizes, like all my images are this size or like branding parameters. But I didn’t have a… do step one, then step two kind of system for all of it.
So now I have a system in Asana where I have a board and I have a column, a list you could call it, for every category on my blog. And then all of my ideas about blog posts for that category go on those boards. They go under the respective list.
And then I have a separate board, a separate project you’d call it in Asana. Where I actually plan out with due dates, my content calendar for the next month.
So I always have my next batch loaded in.
So what I do with this is I store my ideas on one project in Asana. And I store my actual content I’m creating in another project on Asana.
And then as I go to build out my calendar, I’ve created templates for everything, so that way I have my workflow based on type. So if it’s a Pinterest pin, it has a different workflow than a blog post, to an email, to the podcast.
So from there, I have a template for all the different types of content I create from social media to my blog to the podcast. And I’ve loaded in my workflows for every specific element. So that way when I go to make a new task, on my content calendar. I can load it in, I can use my template, and then it’s much easier to set up and I’ve planned it out in advance. And on top of that, I have my checklist of all the things I have to do. That way I don’t have to think about it every time. It’s already there.
Related Reading: 5 Things I Love About Asana
No. 5 - Your Offer Creation Process or Client Work
So this is something that, depending on what you do, it can look very, very different for many different niches. Someone who works one-on-one is gonna have a different setup than someone who does project based work. Or someone who does you know, products or things like this, or courses. So it’s gonna look very different.
But keeping it organized, having a tool, can help you build the right system. So the first couple of times I did client websites. I didn’t have that system, so I was kind of winging it each time. But then when I implemented a system of, this is how I do it, this is what makes my life easy, this is how I remember everything, and this makes things easier.
For client work and even for like… course creation, there are standard things you always make with any course. For example, your sales page, course logo, you’ve got the outline you’re gonna have to create. You’re probably gonna have workbooks, videos, all these things.
So having a template that you can look at and reference and then customize for each offer you’re gonna make makes it easier. So I like to have a project in Asana just for each individual offer I’m gonna create. Because then everything for that offer is there. I know everything I have to do. I can see what’s done, what needs done. And I can plan it out and outline it and know that all of my notes are right there at my fingertips.
Those 5 Things You Should Organize In Your Online Business
So to recap, those five things that you should be organizing in your online business are your documents, folders, and files. Your calendar, your to-do list, your content creation process, and your offer creation process or your client work process. Those are the 5 things you should be organizing in your online business. And be sure to grab your copy of the Asana Setup Guide so you can get started being more organized in your business.
