4 Tips for Busy “She-EO’s” to Live By

{ By Emily O’Connell, Editorial Coordinator }

One of the issues facing female entrepreneurs is this idea of having everything organized.  All business owners have to juggle personal life, professional life and sometimes family life (heck, sometimes those intertwine but for the most part, it’s all a balancing act).   Many women also maintain the housework after they get home from work.  While we understand men work in the house as well (let’s not get that  totally wrong here), us ladies typically look after the children when they get home from work.

Being able to stay organized is imperative – back before COVID, everybody was expected to hustle 24/7.  Now, we can slow down (a bit) and manage expectations accordingly.  Busy mom’s aren’t as worried about schlepping kids to practice or lessons, they can focus more on day to day tasks at home.   However, the success of juggling work and life requires some serious organizational skills.

Even if you aren’t a busy mom – if you’re a single SHE-eo or boss lady, dating around casually or enjoying solitude, there’s still much to be said about staying organized.   Here are a few tips to live by that can help stay organized or help foster the organization in you:

1. Calendars

Yeah we know, calendars can be annoying to maintain.  If you’re any working woman, having a calendar, planner or notebook are beyond helpful for organization.  And if you’re working toward digital minimalism and no longer using the calendar app on your phone, a paper calendar works just as well.  Personally, I use both. I use a paper calendar for appointments and my iPhone for business meetings.  Eventually I’ll consolidate all together, but for now, this works for me.

2. Business Finances

There is a right way and a wrong way for this one. The right way allows you to automate everything. Any other way of manual entry of finances is too much.  Quickbooks, for example, is obvious and intuitive to use, though there are plenty of others online (just make sure it has key features).  You can link your cards to the software then let it do its thing so you don’t have to.  As long as your purchases are on your card linked, it’ll show up on the software. 

3. Organizing Notes

There’s research on what’s most effective when it comes to note taking.  When I’m in a conference or in a meeting, I tend to take physical notes. It helps with retention, because I tend to get distracted when I’m taking notes on my computer (let’s be honest).  Note taking on a computer works only if there’s a place to store them and if you actually go back to read them.  I remember having taken so many notes during meetings on my computer only to have them sit in a file and not go anywhere. 

You might use an app to take notes that go somewhere and save them, or you might have a notebook for a specific subject (just like the middle school days).  It’s important to try different things until you find what sticks.  

4. Organizing Wordays

There are many types of business women with multiple streams of income, which is why this is the most important rule – to manage and organize your days.  

First, it helps to put your phone down. I know, it’s crazy but this is what helps! 

Are there important calls that you need to take? You can program your phone to a specific ringtone so that you know when these calls are coming, otherwise you can mute your phone when you’re working.  Also, it’s probably essential to set hard boundaries as an entrepreneur, because let’s face it, sometimes it feels like there’s always more that you can be doing.   Maybe your hard stop is 6pm, allowing you to spend time with family or friends, or hit the gym, etc.  Put it in your calendar and make sure to stick with it.

There’s always work upfront to get things set up. But once they’re set up, being organized should actually be LESS work for you. And if it’s more (after you’re used to the way it works), then the system is not right for you. Try something else.