3 Recurring Checklists to Implement In Your Business to Save 10+ Hours Per Week
As a freelancer you probably wear a lot of hats. Especially, once you start taking your business “seriously” with marketing, client delivery, lead generation, admin, and the list goes on.
How much time do you spend on all of these tasks per week? Or maybe a better question to ask you is, “How much time do you spend trying to figure out what to focus on each day?”
When you get trapped in the constant decision fatigue cycle and have no structure to your week, you might be spending too much time trying to figure out what tasks need to be done.
Time is money, as they say and you have no time to waste on the mundane daily, weekly or monthly tasks that keep you focused on your goals, business operating smoothly, and clients happy.
There is a solution for this business chaos and I’m excited to share it with you. It’s a signature system I’ve developed in my own business that has supported my fluctuating energy, creativity and keeps me on track to reaching brand growth goals.
The key to these checklists are to batch the tasks that typically get scattered throughout the week. You can either do them in the morning when you start the day or towards the end of your “work” shift.
What really matters is that you complete the checklist when you say you do. And if you really need the accountability – schedule it in your calendar.
There are 3 Checklists:Daily, Weekly, and Monthly.
The Recurring Checklists That Can Save You 10+ Hours Per Week
The Daily Checklist
The daily checklist is for the day-to-day admin or marketing tasks that need to be done each day of the week for your business to gain the visibility you desire, sell your services and serve your current clients.
The goal is to try to keep it to 1-6 tasks per day that don’t take more than 1 hour.
Some examples of daily tasks are:
Calendar & Energy Check-In
3 Major tasks for the day
Post Content & Update Statuses on Calendar (if not scheduled)
Engage with community and lead follow ups
Respond to emails / client messages
The Weekly Checklist
The weekly checklist is the checklist you do once per week. Whether you choose to do it on a Monday, Friday, Sunday or whenever works best for you.
These tasks are to help you prepare for the upcoming week, settle or reschedule tasks, and stay organized.
Just like the daily checklist, the goal is to not overload the task list, though since you’re only doing these tasks once per week, it could take you up to 1-2 hours.
That’s the maximum I would recommend and at first, it might feel like it takes you a long time to complete but once you get into the habit of using the checklist, the tasks can become easier and faster.
Some examples of weekly tasks are:
Update promo / launch / kpi trackers
Plan next week with project tasks
Send proposal follow ups
Update P&L / money sheets
Check bank accounts
Prep content topics for next week
Organize inbox, delete junk mail, flag anything necessary and schedule emails for Monday
Organize photos on camera roll
Clean up desktop
The Monthly Checklist
The monthly checklist is the checklist you do once per month. You can choose to do this checklist in the beginning, middle or end of the month.
The goal is to prepare for the next month, get organized, clean up any workspaces you use (for example I use Notion), distribute money with your own strategy, on or off board clients, and more.
This list typically takes a couple of hours or an entire work day, though you will be so glad you scheduled this into your calendar.
I think of the monthly checklist as a “CEO” day where you give your business the dedicated time and love it deserves so everything doesn’t get messy, scattered, or confusing.
Some examples of monthly tasks are:
Update promo / launch / kpi trackers
Plan the month ahead (projects, collaborations, promos/launches)
Update lead tracker and CRM
3 major goals for the money
Income report and update P&L / money sheets
Money distribution to different accounts i.e. taxes, profit, business ops, owner, etc.
Check bank accounts
Rough content marketing plan for the month
Organize content calendar and topic ideas
Organize and prepare project folders for the month
Organize camera roll
Customize This System For You
Like I’ve mentioned before, the key is to have dedicated time, days and focus to complete these checklists. If you feel like the daily or weekly tasks are taking too much time to complete, I recommend removing all distractions from your environment.
Another thing that you can try to do is scattering these checklists throughout the month. For instance, you could do 3 days of the “Daily Checklist” per week and 2 days of the “Weekly Checklist”, and maybe twice a month you do the “Monthly Checklist”.
Your business and capacity is unique to you. These are just systems that you can try implementing for yourself to save more time, reduce decision fatigue, and have the energy and space to actually work on the tasks that will grow your business.
The Free Life System Reset Planner
If you need to figure out how much time you actually have or need, download this free resource called the life system reset.
In 30 minutes, you’ll see exactly where your time is going and why your week feels so heavy… then, you’ll map a more realistic version of your week that actually supports your business and your life.
Will you implement these checklists for your business?
