LINDSAY’S OCTOBER LETTER: THE ART OF PLANNING AHEAD & THE BENEFITS IT BRINGS

Like you’re barely completing your to-do’s on time, and the list is constantly growing? As an ever-busy college student, I’m assuming the answer is yes. 

So, do you want the bad news or the good news first?

That feeling will not magically disappear after you graduate. In fact, life will probably get even busier. Bummer, right? 

You are not alone. I feel this way too! Running Student-Made can certainly bring my to-do list anxiety to a whole new level at times.

And I think they can help you combat this always-playing-catch-up feeling and stay ahead of the game, too.

Surprisingly, this first step doesn’t even involve planning, scheduling or doing much work at all. It just involves stepping back, looking at what’s on your plate and asking yourself some big, important questions. 

If you’re someone who struggles to say no, and subsequently finds themselves over-committed… I’ve been there too! The struggle with this is that you’re setting yourself up for a pattern of feeling behind, and even worse… unproductive. When in actuality you’re just taking on more than you can physically handle. 

So, before you go about mapping out any of your long-term plans or goals, be sure to consider your bandwidth and capacity to succeed at what’s in front of you.

For those of you who are planners, I heard you say “Easy, I got this one!!” For those of you who were not born with this particular gift… I’m getting radio silence. That’s because this step will take more time to acclimate to, but just know that it’s an essential piece of the puzzle. 

The trick to this is looking at the BIG picture. Rather than looking at one or two weeks into the future, start by looking at the entire semester or even the entire year– knowing that, yes, some things will move around a bit. But the purpose here is not to plan for each little thing as it comes, but instead identify broader periods of time where the big things are happening, and work backwards from there… 

This might look like broadly outlining your midterms and final exams, and then based on those dates working to determine when you need to start studying, finally leading you to see when you’ll need to have your study group finalized by. 

This might look like broadly outlining the most popular months for sales, and then based on those dates working to determine when you need to have your new products added to the Item Log, leading you to pinpoint when you need to start making your products. 

You can apply this template to anything… start big and plan backwards from there. Without even knowing it, you’ll be creating an outlined schedule of how to complete your most important tasks, ahead of time.

So you’ve mapped things out and now have a pretty good understanding of your main focuses, and the general time you’ll be working on them. Developing deadlines is arguably the most important step. It’s what turns your outline into a plan. 

Here’s the trick… set a series of personal deadlines for yourself, before the “actual” deadlines. This is what will keep you feeling ahead and fully prepared for any task. You’ll start with the broad template you mapped out earlier, and gradually narrow your focus to specific dates.

Here’s an example for Student-Made about being ready for holiday sales.

Be ready to take advantage of holiday sales by December 1st

1. Have my holiday products completed by October 15th

2. Upload new products to my Item Log by November 1st

3. Begin promoting my products on the site by November 15th

4. Be making holiday sales by December 1st 

As you’ll see, getting yourself ahead to take full advantage of the holiday traffic starts NOW. If we’re being honest, it started even before now. December 1st is NOT the date to have in your head!

A new month means a new opportunity to plan ahead and prepare to accomplish more than we ever thought we could! And you bet we’re in this together, because I have a whole slate of to-do’s for continuing to make Student-Made even better.

Whether you’re a Creator or a Manager, I invite you to use the tools outlined above to help you establish your personal deadlines and make this the most successful and impactful season of Student-Made yet!