As you probably gather by the lack of consistent / regular blogs being published here, I’ve sorta been in over my head. In some ways – in over my head “awful”. In other ways – in over my head “exceptionally amazing!”. Everything from personal items to a mile-long client project list to kids home full-time for the summer – I’m just now starting the process of getting myself re-organized and back on track.

Kids return to school officially this coming week. While I am sad to see them return to school and will miss a house full of noise (and clutter), I’m truly looking forward to that deep cleansing breath. And more time on the calendar to work with clients and blog!

The last 3 summers I have seen a big uptick in summer projects / client needs. Makes sense because families generally make a move over the summer and need help with unpacking or getting a closet designed / organized. This summer, again, was a busy one and I was grateful. But when I felt like balls were beginning to drop, and they were, I had to get the project list out of my head and onto the wall.

Visuals help in ways I can’t possibly describe. I’m a visual anyway = what I do for a living is completely visual. But when it gets really overwhelming, and feel as if I’m drowning in the details, a visual saves me. Better than writing it down in a pretty journal. Better than making lists digitally. Both which I have done and shared here on the blog. But that visual helps SO MUCH when the overwhelm kicks in.

DIY PROJECT WALL MANAGER

So with a few moments to spare and a couple inexpensive office products, I created a DIY project wall manager. This will not only work for you if you run a business or have a high-stress job with lots of balls to juggle…it would be great for home management as well!

( poster board | post-it notes | my desk | back wall desk | drawer system )

HOW TO MAKE A DIY PROJECT WALL MANAGER

Creating this simple yet life-saving wall manager was fun and inexpensive. All it took was:

4 thin poster boards

washi tape or push pins

a ruler

sharpie

and post-it notes

That’s all, my friends!

Now I’m sure you are going to ask for a close-up…unfortunately, I can’t do that because it’s full of real client names and upcoming projects I have to stay tight-lipped about. However, you may get a good idea from this side view…

What I did was create a grid using a ruler and sharpie, wrote the categories in the grid headers, and then added post-it notes under their appropriate category.

I have a few items I’m keeping track of here – one being blog / influencer related projects … the other being a work flow for client projects.

The blog / influencer categories are:

Blog Partnerships

Social Media Partnerships

Magazine Partnerships

I have a few companies I’m partnering with in the coming months for blog posts, like DIY tutorials (these will be so fun and I’m beyond excited!). And I have some very big news in the coming weeks about a couple magazine features…one including an editor coming to spend 4 days with me and we are shooting a garage I designed / organized (I died, yes!). These partnerships require staying on top of deadlines and details.

The business categories include my workflow:

New Consults

Scheduled Projects

Projects to Schedule

Waiting for Install

Wait List or Out of Area

Completed Projects to Add to The Portfolios, Social Media, Etc

For example, when I have a new consult with a client I add their name it a post-it and place them under “new consults”. If they hire us for the project, their post-it moves through the workflow of scheduled or to be scheduled. Once completed they move to the portfolio phase.

It’s been VERY helpful! But especially helpful for the last phase – adding projects to the portfolio. 99% of my projects are photographed with my iPhone. I needed a better system for uploading those images off my phone and onto the computer. Now I upload them to the computer in individual folders. And when time allows or I have someone hired to help with this part of the business, we can grab a post-it from this wall manager and work on that one project for about an hour or so – getting the blog post up, images onto social media and into the various portfolios / new website.

It’s a simple system and is working well for me! Maybe you too!

You can see from the above image, I started with just 2 poster boards but quickly added 2 additional. It’s been incredibly helpful!…

( rug | shelves | jeans | my desk )

This system is not costly, as I said. If you use washi tape or push pins, it’s easy enough to hang anywhere – no tools required!

Was great yesterday to sit down at my desk for an hour. The kids were watching a movie, I grabbed a post-it for the portfolio and knocked out this project that occurred nearly 6 months ago! Felt amazing! Really looking forward to more time here on the blog with all of you…and getting the various portfolios / channels updated in a timely fashion.

This system would work well no matter what your business is, where you work or if you’re looking for a system for home management, kids chores, behavior chart, etc. Really hope this is an answer for some you as it has been for me!

SHOP THIS WALL MANAGER

You can find the products I used for this wall manager here…

Look forward to sharing more you! Have missed being here regularly. Don’t forget that if you’re wanting to keep up with the day to day, you can always find me on the regular at the Simply Organized Instagram feed. I’m there posting one time per day, in general. And always respond to comments. Come join me!

Back soon!

xx

Sam

*some affiliate links were used for your convenience. you pay nothing more by clicking any links anywhere on this website – i promise! thank you for supporting this blog so that i can continue to bring you excellent organization ideas!