Simple but Effective Monthly Planning

1. Welcome to Class: Hello, Skillshare. Let's plan together. This isn't one of those intense productivity classes to change your life and become a millionaire. This is a simple, but, of course, still effective monthly planning class coming from a small business owner who has run their own business for 15 years. When I say I've tried it all, I mean it. I've tried gorgeous elaborate paper planners and bullet journals, as well as digital planners and tools like asaana. None of these ever really worked for me and always left me feeling like I wasn't being productive enough or would cause me to put so much focus into the actual planning or finding the perfect system that would finally make me rich and famous. So I didn't get any work done at all. Not to mention obsessed that my planned pages had to be aesthetically pleasing. That, of course, never happened, and it's a lot of pressure to put on oneself, especially when running your own business. It's hard enough we don't have to plan perfectly, too. So I finally figured out a system that works for me and I've been using this for the past few years. In this class, I'm going to share how I plan monthly to push my small business forward, but without too much stress or huge expectations, realistic goals. Maybe this method will be a little life changing for you, but I'd rather not boast that. Hello, everyone. I'm Kristina Hultkrantz illustrator and surface designer from Maria Fred Sweden. I've been working as a full time illustrator since 2010. So it's been a while. Welcome to my CheeryPink Studio. I've had the pleasure of working with huge clients like Hobby Lobby and American Greetings to name a few. Figuring out what I can manage to do realistically in one month has taken a while. But now that I have all of my content is easily scheduled. I get all of my collections done for my agent, and I even have some wiggle room for when the unexpected happens, like, I get sick or kid gets sick, or have a doctor's appointment. Or sometimes you just have one of those off days, and that's okay, too. And it's nice to have a little bit of room in your schedule, and it's not planned minute to minute or day by day. That's why I really love working with a month at a time. Another huge bonus is that I've scheduled in play art time, my fun Fridays, so that I know that I have enough time in the week in the month to get everything that I need to get done. But I also feed my arty soul by having a day each week where I can play with art supplies, make paintings, make messes, experiment, watch creative classes, et cetera. And that is really important to me. This class is great for anyone who runs a small business and would like a simple but effective way of planning their monthly content. All right, come plan with me. Let's get started. 2. Supplies and Class Project: The supplies that you will be needing for this class are a wall calendar, a monthly wall calendar, and make sure that it has a lot of space to write. So it doesn't have you need to have some space to write, but it can be any brand, it can be any theme, it could be cats or playing like buying. You will also need some sticky notes, a pencil. And then all the other materials are optional if you want to use highlighters or colorful pens or stickers and anything like that. But that's completely optional, and that's like you do you, okay? And the class project is going to be to share one of your spreads. You can of course share your calendar spread without any of your personal appointments and things like that. Please don't share anything personal like that, but just share when you've started to set up your page and if you've decorated it nicely and you feel like that, and you're excited about planning your month with me. 3. Why a Monthly Plan: All right, in this section, I'm just quickly going to cover why I have settled on monthly planning as my way of planning and all the other things that I've tried and why it didn't work for me and why I think monthly planning could work for you as well. So let's get into that. Alright. So without boring you too much, I just want to go over quickly why I've settled on working month to month. So previously, I have purchased beautiful printed calendars planners. You know, the ones that are bound, and they're like day planners or weekly planners, and they're beautiful and somebody else has designed them. I also bought this beautiful cover one year, and I used this for a few years, and you would buy the inserts for that year. After I bought some like pre bought inserts, I started making the inserts myself, but then I started, like, obsessing with what pens and what look and all of that. And it got just I just got really obsessed with that, and I noticed that it was just making me focus on the looks rather than actually getting something done. So then I moved towards a digital planner because then I could make it beautiful. Like, I spent some time probably in Canva and found a template that I liked, and then I made my own calendar that I could use digitally. So I didn't have to worry about, you know, wasting paper and printing it out and I could easily have this. And I always have this with me because that's where I work for the most part. But again, just I made it too complicated, like with monthly reviews and weekly reviews. And it just became too much information to fill in. So again, I was planning more than actually doing and getting stuff done. I just became a distraction from what I should actually be doing, and that's not the point. I think a schedule or a plan should help you rather than inhibit you from actually getting what you're supposed to be getting done. But anyways, I thought that that was good for a while. But then finally, I settled on just using a monthly setup. So I've settled on using a monthly calendar, just a simple wall calendar that you can find in any office supply store. And these are just really working for me. I have found these monthly calendar pages. I used these for a couple of years, and I thought that that was really helpful, and I could just rip off the page when the month was done, and that was over with. And this past year, I've been using this calendar that it was quite pretty, but it's also very plain. It's just the months view, and there's room in each day to write some things. And I just keep it simple. I just really like seeing my months at a glance, everything that I need to get done in one month rather than focusing on what I need to get done in one day because that can change. So I just put in the tasks that I want to get done on the days or when content is going to be published. But it doesn't matter to me if I got that done the month before or if I got it done the day before or the day of. Like, as long as it's getting done, it doesn't matter what day it is. So that's something. I don't plan my days on what I'm going to do on each day. I just see what's going on my calendar, when I need to fill out for the upcoming weeks so that I always have that wiggle room. I always want to be ahead of my content and the things that I'm doing in case something happens like getting sick, et cetera. Like now, I feel like I'm starting to get a sore throat, so I'm trying to get through this class real quick so that I can edit it while I'm sick. We'll see, maybe it's just a weird winter thing. It is November. Anyway, that's why I have settled on and I just really love. Getting to see all the things that I need to do in a month rather than that week because sometimes you get done with the stuff that you need to do, and then you can get the next week stuff. You can get on top of that. And then, so the next week after that, if you feel like if you have something else like here, when I've highlighted here, this is when my kids go on some kind of, like, vacation from their school. This was a Spotlov in Swedish. And so then I know, like, I need to get these things done. Even though they're gonna be posted that week, I have to get them done sometime here or even in January. This is February. So yeah, it just really works for me to be able to see all this and I will go into what I do and all of that, real soon with my posted notes and figuring out what are the top priorities of your business. These are the top priorities of my business right now. But these are things that can change. I also would like to mention, for the most part, I don't write anything personal in my business calendar. I use Google Calendar for my appointments with dentists and doctors and coffee dates and kids' activities and things like that. I make sure that that's all digital, so that's all clean, so I don't have those two worlds mixed up, my personal life and my business life. So this is really just my to do lists and all the tasks I need to get done for my different content platforms and classes and my collections and all of that. So yeah, I just want to mention that I, for the most part, don't write anything like that in. I will write in, like, my kids' vacations, and that's usually it that I put in, so I like, know stuff like that. So I just wanted to mention that. So I just want to keep it really focused and really clean so I know exactly what I need to be working on. So the type of calendar that I suggest you work with is a monthly wall calendar. If any type, it can be any theme, it can be like birds, or it can be plain, like the one that I'm going to be using for my business, you just have to make sure that there's enough space for you to write for each day. I really like this one. This one's from the Swedish brand. Bird Bird? I don't know where Gulers. Oh, this is Gler's trading. Whatever. It's a Swedish brand. It doesn't matter, but you just find a wall calendar that you like to look of that has nice paper. Maybe it's not too slick and has enough room for you to draw, not draw. That has enough room for you to write some things on each day. In comparison to this beautiful calendar with birds that we're going to be hanging just as a nice, like, arc piece. This one doesn't have any room for writing, but this one we just have as a visual, so you remember, like, what day? What day it is? In our kitchen. But I just wanted to mention that. So this is the calendar that I'm going to be using in this class to start planning my my year next year, since we're getting close, it's November 2025 when I'm filming this. And here's the current one that I am using. So, this one's a little bit prettier, but I quite like that this one's even more plain. 4. How Much Can You Do in a Month: All right. In this section, we're going to get into the nitty gritty of the class. How can you figure out what you can manage to do in one month and what do I think that you should be focusing on to move your business forward if you're just starting out? I'm going to help you with as many ideas to be productive and actually work on the things that matter for your small business. All right. Now it's time for me to chat with you a little bit about how to figure out how much you can manage to do in one month. This course is going to be personal to you, whether or not you are working full time with this, part time, you have kids, you can work nights, weekends, it totally depends, but I'm going to show you what I do, and then you can work around that. I will also give you some ideas if you're just getting started in Surface Design or what I think you should be working on. So for me, I have set my business up into three sections, I would say. I have my pink light agency, and there I am required under contract to supply 12 artworks per month. And I usually set that up as two collections per month of six. So I do one collection in a theme. Usually, also, I do this theme that I do with my patron group, and then another one I do whatever theme I feel like doing or that my agency is calling for something. So that's my top priority. I have to get two collections, ten per month, or I can also, set this up in different ways. I can do four collections of three or 121 offs if I wanted to, but for the most part, two collections per month. And again, if I get those done on the first week, that's cool. If I get them done on the last day, it's cool. So that's just my first priority because I am a working artist, and that's something that I'm focusing on and working towards thankfully because I am under what's it called? I'm represented by an agent. I don't have to do any marketing of my work, so that section is gone from my world, which is very nice because pitching emails is not fun. But if you are just getting started out, that's something you'll have to be focusing on. And I would say that would probably be your second tier that you're working on. Because I love creating classes and content, my second thing that I work on is content creation. So I have these Skillshare classes. I don't do them every month, so they're kind of like an add on. So I don't know. Like, they're kind of down here in my, like, news section or, like, other stuff. It's hard to Hard to say. But anyway, so I have my two patron groups. I have Collection Club. I'm sorry that this feels like an ad, but I just need to mention to you what I do. Yeah, if it's interesting. So yeah, I have Collection Club, where I do surface design things, and then I have Fun Friday, where I post like RD videos every Friday, we're talking about supplies and doing different themes and drawing together. So that's what I do for that, and there's a lot that goes into that, and there's a lot that takes up my calendar. Because there's certain content that I want to be published on certain days. And this is the same thing if you have a blog or something like that or an online shop, maybe you also can apply that so that maybe you have a goal of creating two new products per month. And then you have maybe a blog or newsletter that you write to your customers maybe twice a month or once a month, and you are promoting your new things that you're creating. And then I have other things. Like, I have my Substack, which is kind of like a blog newsletter hybrid, so I do that twice a month. Or I do a few. No, actually, I have several. I have the monthly newsletter. I have a newsletter here on Skillshare. I promo my patron groups. I have a theme that I always talk about in Substack. And then I have a feedback session every other month, and then I write a November recap. So I mean, these are all stuff that just I don't know. You have to figure out what you think is good amount of marketing on your website, blog, a newsletter. I've built up to this, and this is the exact amount that I think is perfect for me. It's not too overwhelming, but it's enough that I feel like I'm getting my artwork out there and I'm getting not my artwork. I guess my teachings out there because I'm not promoting my surface design art. I'm more promoting my groups and my teachings here on Skillshare. So that's what I focus on. Those are the three main things that I focus on. And then when I have class like this, then I'll have another little post a simple post it that this one right now, it's in November because I'm filming it here. This just a simple can add it on in here too, I guess. Yeah, we'll go. I have actually already filmed the intro, so I'll check that off because checking off stuff is really The best. Alright, so that is what I plan every month. There's also certain things that are in my calendar that I don't have on a posted. These are just my main three things for my agent, my patron, and then the other my blog, I guess, my Substack, and Skillshare is on here too. So I have things like, um, I always look at my finances for the previous month on the first Monday or the second Monday. Um, I always write money because I always have to remember. That's something I forget to, like, look in my accounts to make sure that all of my my bills get paid automatically, you know. And sometimes I, yeah, I don't want to make I want to make sure that my bank account has enough money. I have different accounts and saving accounts that I'm moving money towards, so I don't always have every all of my money in my checking account. That's just a little side note. I think those are the only, like, those kinds of things. I pay pre taxes every month, so I make sure to write that in my calendar as well. But other than that, it's mainly just putting in my content and when I want to put them in, and I check it off on the day when it has been scheduled for that day. It's not the way I work, it's not like I want Oh, it's 7 November. I'm going to do this and this. I hope that I've already done all of these things before November even started. That's how I like to work. So now today is I don't even know what day it is. What day is it? Like? It's the 18th, I think. And so I need to I'm behind. I haven't done this yet, but I'll do that today. I'll do that today. I check that off. And yeah, then I start working on the next week and when those things are done, I work on the next week and I'm just constantly being on top of my work. I just really like that and having that work for me. Okay. So you might do other things such as run an online store or work on a freelance. Basis. So you'll have to account for those things that you want to be able to do in a month realistically. And I would if you're going to be doing this planning with me, like, stick to what you know, you can get done, especially with the time that you can get things done, especially if you're working part time, or maybe you're working full time, so then you really don't have much time to do your work as I do who has a full workday. If you're just getting started in service design, I highly suggest that you also focus on creating maybe not two collections, but one collection a month, and then your next section is going to be finding clients. You need to schedule in time in your month. Maybe the first week you plan your collection and you start creating your collection. Then the last weeks when you're finishing your collection, you also need to be researching clients, and then the last week when your collection is finished, you need to be pitching to your list of clients. Then after a week has happened in the next month, most likely, you'll be following up on your previous collection, and then you just keep rolling and you do a new collection, and then you find even more clients to research. Maybe you give yourself the goal of five new clients per month. You research those, and then you pitch them, and then you follow up and you just have that rhythm. And then when that starts feeling like that is totally doable and manageable, then you can add in things like starting a newsletter and a blog where you talk about your process or whatever you want to talk about. Or just building up that list so that you can later if you want to teach a class or if you want to offer digital brushes or if you just want to make it easier on yourself to pitch your work to clients, you can build up a private art licensing list that you send out a newsletter to those people. You have to ask them permission, of course, to put them as a subscriber to list. But that's also an option. So, you just keep adding another section that you could work on. Maybe for you, it's important with social media marketing, making sure that you post every Friday on Instagram. But for me, I've fallen very out of love with social media, and I have noticed that it hasn't really done anything for my business whatsoever. So I only use Instagram organically. When I really want to post something, I will, but I don't have a schedule for that, but maybe that's something that you want to focus on. Another great option is Pinterest. I would actually love to use Pinterest more because I do actually think that that would be very helpful and beneficial because I'm on Pinterest every day all day, so I should have my work up there. So that's another thing. But again, start with the basics, creating new work and getting it in front of clients, emailing them directly. That's the way that you're going to actually get your work in front of buyers, not by posting on Instagram or Pinterest or writing a blog. But those are just, like, nice add ons that you can work on once the other things fall into place. So that's my easy setup for your month and what I think you should be focusing on. And then, of course, if you want to do fun things like YouTube or Patron and Wow, those become even more for your workload, but they're so much fun, I have to say, I love my patron group. I love writing on my blog. I love creating these Skillshare classes every so often, a few times a year. It's so much fun, and it's a different type of creativity. So I just wanted to mention that, too. But yeah, my takeaway is start small, and then build up over time. 5. Setting Up Your Calendar: Alright, and now it's time to actually get into setting up your calendar with me. So let's get into it. In the next few sections, we're going to be planning together. Alright, now it's time to actually start planning my month. So I'm going to plan January 2026 so exciting and my new wall calendar. And I also want to mention I don't actually hang this up. I just keep it in my drawer and my desk. So this isn't something I just pull it out and I think it's quite easy to work with. I love that this one's a little square, so it's even smaller than the calendar I used last year. So Again, this one's in Swedish, but you can totally get what's going on here. I mean, my weeks in Europe, they start with Monday through Sunday. I don't do anything. I don't do any work on the weekends, so that's why I cover up my weekends with my posted notes that works for me. But a post it, I mean, they could be hanging off the you can just fit them where, you know, they fit. I use these sticky notes. I just bought a new one. I like that they're color coded for different things, only just because not because really any other reason. So I'm going to just I separate them so that I have the different colors. Yellow, I like to use for my patron because 'cause I like yellow. It's funny. This is the same pack, but they're different colors. They became even more pastel now. Oh, well, and then pink for pink light for obvious reasons. And then blue for the other ones. I also have green. Should we go for green this year? Very difficult decisions, but these are, like, just like, please don't spend so much time. Should this be my color pade? I think so. We can use the blue for extra stuff, like, when I do Skillshare classes and stuff. Alright, so I like to put pink plate on the top, 'cause that's my biggest priority. Yeah, I'm gonna align it, so it at least looks really good. And then patron is my second priority. I'm slightly annoyed that that one's wrinkled, so I'll use lap for something else. Since this is a video, I need to make it look nice. Alright, and then the last one, I swear these are also, like, thinner. Like, they've become cheaper. Everybody's trying to save money, and I guess that's good, and then they use less paper. So we like that. Alright, so here's my little post hits for later. And then I'll just use I usually use just a regular pencil to pencil in stuff. I ripped out the stickers from my previous year's planner just to use because why not? But, again, this is totally optional. So let's decorate just for funzies. Um, I don't decorate that much. Here, Frye. That's fun. So we'll just put that on the Fridays 'cause obvious. And then what else should we use to signify January? Usually should be like a done bell because everybody starts working out, but I don't I don't think so. We'll just do a little star here. See? See? And then, like, this has made me happy enough. Here it says atoraT do. So that is nice. We obviously gonna do some things to do there. Uh, I have let's see. Do I? What do I do? Yeah, up here, I usually have some things. Like, I have a few things that I write, like, my Collection Club and my other theme, so I remember what I'm doing. Um, but I'll do that later. Maybe we can use these beautiful remember. What color should we have for This peach is calling to mean. Okay. Remember. Should I do this over here? Alright. Again, so that's enough of that. So using previous months as my template, I'm going to figure out what I'm supposed to be doing. So for me, again, this is personal. Like, this is what I need to get done, but for you, it could be different. So I'm just going to write pink light. And maybe yours is your collection, and they're going to write out how many you want to try. Like, are you going to do just a mini collection this month with three things? I'm going to do I usually set up with my two of six, but this I can change. And because it's in pencil, it's easy to, like, change, like, if I decide to do a collection of eight instead, I just add some squares, or if I do four, I'll just add another one down here and split it into another section. You know, it's not that important before I have written one, two, three, four, five, six, but maybe I'm gonna keep it even cleaner this year. Like, I can see that this is six. I don't need to write six. And then I'll usually write the themes that I'm working on. I have no idea what I want to work on then, so I will leave that for another day. Okay. So that is that. And then I move on to the next one. Also, I want to mention this one, I don't put those into my calendar at all. I don't know when I'm going to work on certain things. So for me, like I said, I don't it doesn't matter to me if I get the first collection done, like, on the second or if I get both of my collections done, like, on the last week, it doesn't matter to me. I will figure out the time to focus on that when I have all this other content done, too. Like, I just figure that out as I go, what I feel like doing on that certain day or certain things like that. There are other factors for me, like when I create content for my newsletter or for patron or Skillshare when I need to film, I have to pick days where my husband is not at home working because he's loud. And in the background, we don't want to have, like, some dude talking, so I have to only film on certain days. So, that depends week to week when he goes to the office or not, you know. So those are sometimes something that I can mark in. Like, usually on Wednesdays, he goes in. So Wednesdays is usually like my main filming day. But that can change. So again, that's why it's nice to have this open. I'm just like, know when I need to get done, and I can pull certain things over. So here I have Patron is my next one. And I have the two groups. I have Collection Club, and I have Fun Friday. And then I have lots of to dos there. I'm not going to bore you with all the different things that I do there. Also, it just feels like I'm promoting that too much. But anyways, I have certain things that I do, and I will pull those over into the calendar when I want those to be scheduled. I usually schedule them like I've mentioned many times beforehand. So I would fill that in and I would pull all those dates into the calendar. Like, on Friday, I always want to make sure that they land on the Friday. So that's pretty easy. So I know that I have one, two, three, four, five this month. I need to create five content things for Fun Friday. So that's how I do that. Alright. Next step, we have, my other stuff. I call it news. It's like my newsletter. I could call it Substack, but it's other stuff. But okay, so I have my news. And this is, of course, you could call it marketing. And here I have have one, two, three, four, five things I only do feedback sessions, whoops I and like, wipe my eye makeup off. Thankfully, I can't see my eyeballs anymore. Okay, five things this month, I guess. Five. So I have my No, January. I'm in January. I have to remember that I'm not doing December. So I will actually have six things. Okay. January news. That's my general newsletter that goes out on it will go out on the first. So I could put that in. Jan News. And then I also do Skillshare news because I like to promote what I'm doing everywhere else. Smart. I'll put that in here, skill. On the first of the month, it usually has a lot going on because I also promote when I'm in my patron what's happening for that month comes out two videos. Okay, so I have, yeah, here, my Collection Club and on Friday promo on my blog, Substack newsletter thing. And then I have a Substack theme video that I do every month. And the promo here, maybe I'll put that on the Monday. Because I don't want it to be everything happening on that Thursday. It depends on how the month is set up. Like, if the first is on the Monday, then maybe I would do the promo on Wednesday or Thursday, you know, whatever I feel like. It doesn't actually matter. As as long as you're like, doing something. Alright, and then I have so the theme video, again, I could, like, plan that I think is gonna be like a review of review of 2025, like all the things that I've accomplished, just focusing on that, I don't know, all the artwork that I created or my favorite things or the books that I read. I don't know, stuff that I did in 2025 that I'm very pleased with. I think that would be a good video. And then I do a Substack feedback session. I do free feedback sessions every other month. So I do that, and that's usually I always do my feedback session in Patron on the last Wednesday. So here I can write that in. I know that. Mm. So I do that feedback, and then sub feedback. So then I always make sure that a week before that I announce feedback session. A week before, so people have time to send in their work. So that's just how I work, like adding in the different things. And here, the first Monday of the month, I told you I do my finances, so that would be December finances. I make sure to write everything in my little Excel sheet and I do air table and I make sure that I've saved all my digital receipts and all of that, being good girl. All right. And I, I usually pay my pre taxes there, pre scout. Um, yeah. Again, I like writing to check my money situation, the money. So they have everything for all my bills they get paid on that week. Right. And then the last thing was, I guess we can do 2025 recap rather than just December recap. On my blog, that's in written form, usually. I don't do a video for that. So those are the things that I do every month, and I just pull start working on that. And this is just so clean and it's so easy and it's not modeled up, like, with my blog. Some people, you know, you can write a to do list, like, outline ideas. Write the post, publish the post. Like, I don't want to I just like when it gets done, completely. I don't need all the small tasks, then I will check it off. So that's how I set up my monthly calendar without it feeling too overwhelming and without it being too fancy and I can't get it done and I can't see everything that I need to get done. That's just simply how I do it. I fill all these things in, I pull them over when the content's going to be published, and then I get them done when I can. And hopefully, I get them done like a week in advanced at least. But it's also okay if sometimes I get it done on that day. And sometimes stuff happens and I don't get it done. And there's nobody except for me who's just gonna get slightly disappointed. But obviously, your followers are going to understand if you get sick and you weren't able to post a video because your throat was scratchy or, you know, something like that. Life happens. It's not the end of the world. So yeah, that's how I set up my little calendar. And I hope that this system was inspiring and helpful and simple but also efficient for you. And you set this up in a way that's going to help you and your business, like I mentioned, if you're a surface designer like me, that you create a collection per month or maybe two smaller collections, doesn't have to be as much as what I do. And then you do something to promote that. By pitching, I highly suggest that you promote your work by directly pitching your work to art buyers via email directly to that company. It does take a lot of work to figure out how to find those art buyers. But once you do and you can kind of, like, guess email addresses, it's usually the person's name at the company.com. You know, I sometimes you can get really lucky by doing that and using a little sleuthing on LinkedIn to figure out who is the art director or creative director or even sometimes they're called art Buyers on LinkedIn for that company. Yeah, and then you need to do something to do marketing on social media, whether that's Instagram, Patriot not Patron. Yeah, it could be Patron. YouTube, um, a blog, a newsletter, something, start something that the one that feels the most fun to you could be like a whole Patron group like I do, or a YouTube channel that you want to get started. But again, focus on the two things that are really, really important, which is creating new work and getting it in front of buyers, and then you can do the fun stuff on top of that like I do. Yeah. So happy getting stuff done. 6. Planning Larger Projects: I wanted to quickly mention when you are planning something bigger than can fit into your planner like this or on a post it. Like, I showed you that when I plan my Skillshare class, it looks like this, but I want to be honest with you, like, no, it is bigger than this. This is maybe just like my things that I definitely need to get done, but I do actually have a bigger plan, but that's digital. I write a doc, like a Google Doc every time I'm planning a class, and I write all the class titles, and I do all the sections. I write out my script of what I approximately want to talk about in each section so that I'm prepared and yeah, so it's not as simple as this. And I also want to mention, like, using a simple to do sheet like this, that's really cute that you can write to do for projects that are bigger, such as if I think here I was updating my website. So that obviously has a lot more to do than just writing, like, website update, and it could be nice to have something that also has a little bit more information. So I just want to mention, like, this is, like, the cleanest version of what I'm doing every month, and this is usually like my month to month things. But when I have extra stuff, like a class or if I'm updating my website, I will use other tools. So I just wanted to mention that so you don't think that I'm like, I don't know. Magnificently organized. Like, I have everything in my head, and I got everything perfectly organized. So no, I obviously have I obviously also have a running to do list. Like, the updating your website, I feel like that could be constant, like, just a to do. Always. And, I mean, there's always things to do. And there's, like, I have a dream of opening up my my own online shop again with art prints, and I just haven't gotten around to that, but that's something that I could put in work and start writing to do for, like, and then really write it out, like, plan ideas. Make the prints, set up the website, shop and then had listings. Like, it does help to break down really big tasks. But these are the tasks that I do so often, so I don't need to write out that I'm going to figure out my ideas for my collection. But again, if that's something that you like doing, please go for that. If you want to do sketches, final, and then I don't know if you call it publish them to your website maybe, or to your clients or pitch them, that could be a little list and you could write that in the calendar if that works for you. Again, this is so personal to what you want to do. Like if you have the idea of all the first of the month, you figure out what theme your collection or collections are going to be for that month, and then you give yourself a week to get the ideas drawn and your color palette chosen, and then you use your calendar to give yourself deadlines. I think it does actually work, but also if you get it done before then, it's exciting. I really like that idea that you can check off something before you're even on that day. Yeah, I just wanted to mention that too. 7. Getting It All Done: Alright, I'm going to just chat to you about how to get this all done. Just real quickly. I want to give you a little pep talk because I know that you can, and I know that it feels overwhelming, and I know that you can definitely add to that toto list. But what if you really just focus for a while on those really important things like getting your work done and getting it out there? Especially getting in front of buyers to their email, not just focusing on Instagram or other fun stuff. I mean, yes, those can bring in tons of success and YouTube channels. I know they feel so sparkly and amazing. We all follow some creative YouTuber and their life just seems so amazing. But anyways, you can't get focused on stuff like that, focus on things that are really important. And you can manage to get it done. I want to mention that I think you should work month to month. Maybe as the month is coming to a close and the last week you start planning the next month or maybe in the middle of the month, you plan the next month and just go from there. Don't plan out your full year. Sometimes it's difficult to know what's going to happen in three months, five months, six months, all the way to the next day, end of the next year, that just seems so far away. So maybe at the most plan three months in advance. Especially if it's these kinds of things that you know you do every single month, you can plan, like, when your content is going to be published, but maybe you don't have to exactly plan what themes you're going to be doing or what you're going to be talking about on your blog. Just know, like, well, you always post your blog on the last Friday of the month or whatever, you know, something that feels good to you and your schedule and when you're not working. I mean, I feel like I'm just blabbing and you can totally get this. I hope that you understood. Yeah, I think you can get it done. Just set realistic goals for yourself. Don't start off with creating two huge massive collections. I've been doing this for six years with my agent. I think I'm actually on my seventh year, I've created hundreds of collections, and now two collections, I would say I would boast that it feels easy. Now, I mean, sometimes it's not easy. If I get really sick, but of course, my agent is they're human, and they know, if I'm really, really sick, like I had pneumonia one year, really, really bad. I obviously couldn't work for a few months, and I gave them one collection per month for a few months, and that was totally fine. So put realistic goals, make sure that you have wiggle room. Like my Fridays, I didn't mention that in the class, I don't think. I always make sure to have that open like I have content scheduled, but I make sure that it's always done. So on Fridays, I can just play with my art materials and paint in my sketchbook, take a Skillshare class, whatever I feel like doing that day. That just feels like such a beautiful end to the week. And before it felt really self indulgent. But now I've realized I get all of the stuff that I need to get done Monday through Thursday, even more efficiently and faster because I know I want to have that day to myself on Friday where I can just fiddle with paints and pencils. I I definitely makes me more efficient. I think also being a m has made me incredibly efficient. I know about time management and doing too many things at the same time. That's something also, if you have to schedule around my workdays aren't as long as people who don't have kids, and sometimes I forget to not compare myself to other women who don't have kids, and I see that they're working and creating these things or working until ten at night, which, I mean, I don't think is particularly healthy unless they got up at, like, 12 in the morning, you know? Their life just is different to, uh, mine. So yeah, also, again, I don't want you to compare yourself. I've put in tons. Right now, it's empty, but my usual calendar is full of de dos and things that I'm checking off and working on. But I have a full time day, for the most part. I work from, like, nine t two, so I don't have, like, a 40 hour work week, but I have plenty of time to get lots of stuff done. Oh, right. That is definitely it. Now I don't think I have anything else that I can share. I think that I have, like, bared my planning soul, and I think that you're gonna manage this so well. Thanks so much for watching this class. This has been so much fun to share. 8. Next Steps: Alright, that's it. Thanks so much for watching this class. I want to leave you with a few next steps so that you feel like you know what to work on after creating this monthly planner setup. And hopefully, this class helps you to feel more confident about what you can accomplish in a month and what you should be focusing on, what I think you should be focusing on, or what you think you're going to try for a while and see how that works out for you. And, of course, this can be tweaked. And as that monthly schedule gets more and more easy, you can add to it. So your next steps are, of course, to follow this monthly schedule and plan just a few months in advance. And then as this monthly schedule feels when it starts to feel easy, you can always add another step, or another task or another goal that you want to accomplish. But just don't start off doing everything all at once. It's really overwhelming. I also want to mention, please don't get caught up in all the bells and whistles of different planners and all the different beautiful pens and stickers and things and obsessing about themes, if that's something that you really enjoy, of course, do if it's something that gets in the way for you like it did with me, it just made me distracted. It just made me feel like I had to start over my page. It just made me waste so much time that I could actually be doing something that was better or more important for my business than making my calendar look good. I just wanted to remind you of that. It's just a planner, and this is just a helpful tool to just make sure that you're getting enough things done each month. It doesn't have to be aesthetically pleasing. You can just, like, just use pencil. And then every so often, maybe twice a year, you can evaluate what you're doing for your business. Has anything that you have been working towards paid off? Has any of the marketing that you've been trying or the pitching that you've been trying helped? So maybe you should amp up doing that. Like, maybe you should pitch more or maybe you should market yourself more in a different way, depending on what you've been focusing on. So really take the time to evaluate what you're doing, so you know that you're not just putting tons of work into something and it's not paying off. 9. Where Else Can You Learn with Me: So that's it. Thanks so much for taking this class with me. I really hope that it has inspired you. I don't I said in the intro, I don't want to boast that it's life changing, but it could be if you've been stuck trying to be, like, super hyper productive and making the most beautiful calendar planner in the world. And that just takes up so much of your time. And maybe just this simple wall calendar of monthly planning will feel like a breath of fresh air. I really hope so. It really did for me when I like, got rid of all those other planners I was using, and it was just too much, and it was this became so simple, and it really helped me just focus on what I actually need to get done and I can see how I'm getting it done all in one place. Rather than flipping through tons of pages of what I've done and what I have to do. So I really hope that you find it helpful. If you'd like to hang out with me outside of Skillshare, you can find me on Instagram at Kristina Hultkrantz or my website, Kristina hultkrantz.com. And if you would like some help with your Surface Design collections, you can find me in Collection Club. On Patrin. We work on a different theme every single month to build your portfolios for Surface Design. It's really amazing group. We've been going for three years, so there's three years of content. So it's like 36 different themes that you can check out. They're all available when you jump into the the group, the membership. And then I also have fun Friday. If you want to do some art play with me, and I post fun little art videos also with a theme every month, I would love to have you there. That's it. Make sure that you are following me here on Skillshare so that you'll be notified when I post my next class. Bye.