It’s true! I do more than eat tacos and play on Instagram all day 😉 I’ve gotten quite a few of you ask me lately if I blog full time, and the answer is – Nope! I work full time Monday-Friday, and I consider the blog to be my “second job.” A few days ago I asked on my IG stories if ya’ll were interested in reading about how I manage my job, my blog, and life in general, and so many of you said yes! I personally find it interesting to hear about people’s day to day schedules and how they manage their time, and hopefully this will help to give you a better idea of what all I do outside of Instagram.

 My Weekly Schedule

Monday-Friday: I wake up at 6am (sometimes earlier) to get ready for work, make breakfast, finish up any blog work day (publish post, respond to emails, etc.) and catch up on Instagram. I’m usually out the door by 8am. I am super lucky that my office has a gym, and I workout there on my lunch break. I will usually stop by the grocery store after work to pick up something to cook for dinner (I buy produce ahead of time but I’m weird and I like to buy any meat or fish the day of so it’s fresh) which puts me getting home from work around 6pm. When I get home, I spend some more time responding to emails and messages, and I post on Instagram. I start cooking dinner around 7pm, which is probably my favorite time of the day. I have always loved cooking and this is kind of my time to relax after a long day. After dinner I watch TV while I work on any blog posts that I have coming up, and I try to be in bed by 10:30pm.

 Weekend: This is when I get most of my blog work done. One day of the weekend (usually Saturday, but it depends on the weather & schedules) is “shoot day” and this is when I shoot my looks for the week.  During the warm months, we shoot as early as possible in the morning because that is when lighting is the best (also to avoid having people in the background of pictures haha.) During the cold months (like now) we have to wait for it to warm up enough to be outside long enough to take photos, and even later in the day this is a struggle because 1. I do not do well with cold weather and 2. I have terrible circulation in my hands and it looks pretty creepy having blue hands in my pictures.  After shooting we have started a tradition of getting tacos & a margarita at our favorite Willy Taco to help thaw us out after the shoot. After lunch, I get home and start going through the photos – hundreds of photos – and this usually takes me a couple hours. After I get through the photos I can plan for the week and decide which looks to use for Instagram posts or blog posts, which photos need to be edited, etc. PHEW!

The other day of the weekend (usually Sunday) I try to keep open so that I have a full day to get anything done that I need to – run errands, workout, things around the house, etc, just whatever I don’t have time to do during the week. I spend so much of my time working that it’s important for me to have a day set aside to take care of anything else that needs to be done.

 Staying Organized

With everything that I have going on, it’s crucial to stay organized. I use two planners – My Simple Elephant planner is dedicated to the blog and I use it to keep track of my scheduled content and collaboration deadlines. I also use it to keep track of my ideas for the blog and I keep a monthly “to-do” list. I am REALLY bad about having a thought or an idea and then forgetting it, so I have to write everything down. My Lilly Pulitzer planner is for everything else – I use it to keep track of meetings, appointments, work events, birthdays, social events, etc. I am sure there are apps or computer calendars that can be used for the same thing, but I’ve always liked writing things down by hand.

 Planning Ahead

This is probably my biggest challenge, because I tend to be impulsive. I typically will post whatever is on my mind that day, and I use Instagram to announce sales that I usually can’t plan for. I use the Preview app to plan my Instagram feed ahead of time as much as possible, and since I link everything through RewardStyle, I will upload posts to LiketoKnow.it ahead of time so that they’re ready to go for Instagram. Side note – You can now follow me in the LiketoKnow.it app and if you do, you’ll get to see (and shop) all of my Instagram posts before they are posted to Instagram!  One of my goals for the year is to be more consistent with my blog posts and this has a lot to do with planning ahead.

 If you’ve read to the end, thank you! I know this post was WAY longer than normal! I’d love to hear your thoughts on the post, and if you have any tips or tricks for organization & planning so feel free to comment below if you do 🙂 

Shop the Post:

top (use code ‘catherinescraze20’ for 20% off!) // jeans // over the knee boots (color is ‘Havana’)