Making an activity schedule

When you run a business of your own, it's important to keep regular activity going. This helps entice people to come back regularly to see what's new. Even better if you consistently update on the same days each week! I update my regular blog every Tuesday, which means I always see traffic spikes on Tuesday afternoon. People who read my blog are used to seeing my updates then, so they expect to see a new post every week.

You don't have to solidly schedule updates, though, as long as there's activity during the week. This can be anything from new items, updates to existing items, new blog posts, or general updates to your business.

Photo courtesy of ©iStockphoto.com/SparkleArt

For me, I like to create a list of things to do for my shop, and add it to my regular to-do list. But I'm also a huge fan of lists, so I realize it may not work for everyone!

But what if I can't keep up with my activity schedule?
That's a question I ask myself a lot. But by breaking it down into bite-sized pieces you can tackle in a spare 5 minutes here and there, you can get a lot accomplished!

Everyone's needs are different, but here's a rough idea of what my shop's weekly activity schedule is like.

• List one item in the shop each day, if items are ready
• Photograph items once every 2 weeks
• Clean and crop photos once every 2 weeks
• Change unsuccessful listing keywords on one item per week
• Post something to social media sites once a day
• Shipping sold items and answering questions as needed

And that's it!
With the exception of the photography and photo cleaning, which takes about half an hour to an hour each on the days I sit down to do them, everything on my list can be done in 5-10 minutes.

Productivity doesn't have to be scary, but it does take determination. Do yourself a favor early on and figure out what work needs to be done each week.  The earlier you start with it, the sooner it will feel like second nature.