I get asked a lot, “how do you do it all?” I am a full-time law student and part-time blogger. I work out about 4 times a week. I see my friends and family every week. I also visit my boyfriend in NYC every weekend. Oh, and I also sleep and eat somewhere in between all of those things.
Are you exhausted from reading all that? So how do I do all of that? It’s not easy, and I probably make it look easy, and sometimes it’s easier than others. But my secrets are organization, prioritization and support from my family.
My key to organization is the Day Designer Planner.
I found this planner my freshman year of college and never looked back. It is pricy but so worth it in my opinion.
I am a paper and pen kind of gal. The Day Designer lets me plan out every single day from 5am until 9pm at night. I definitely don’t have every single second of every single day planned out, but I do have most chunks of my day planned.
I have the day-by-day layout, so I can see every day for the entire year. Okay, so I’m not crazy and I don’t plan out my entire year... but when I get my schedule for school, I always block out my classes for the entire semester so I can see what I am working with. I also schedule in any important trips or doctor’s appointments! I also write down birthdays and any other big monthly event. And that leads me into prioritizing things!
Prioritization
Guess what, you can’t do everything. And there aren’t enough hours in the day to do everything. But by prioritizing what is important to you can help lead you to success.
I have been in school my entire life, and honestly, I can’t wait for it to be over (I will probably regret I said that in a couple of years). But school has always been my priority so that is why that is the first thing I lay out in my planner. I write out all my classes and if I have syllabi, I write down all the assignments so I can see what free time I have to work with. And it’s usually not a lot. When I am not in class, the rest of the time gets split between homework/studying, my blog, exercise and socialization.
After classes and schoolwork, my next priority is Tall and Preppy!
T&P is my child, and I am so proud of the little business I have grown over the past (almost) 6 years. Based on my school load, every month, I pick a day at the end of the month, and I plan out all the blog posts I want to write and put them down in my planner. I also look at any collaborations that I have coming up and figure out when I can shoot and post the content.
Sunday nights, I sit down with my beloved planner and figure out what Instagram posts I am going to post, and what time I am going to post them. I give myself a half hour block every day of uninterrupted posting and engaging time on Instagram. I also write out my captions. On Sunday’s I set up the photos that I am going to post on Instagram on the LIKEtoKNOW.it app, where you can shop my outfits (follow me @tallandpreppy). I also think of any IGTVs, or Reels I want to film. And finally, I pick out what outfits I want to shoot to post for the following week. Up until this year I used to take pictures every day of my outfits and then post them the following day, but with my insane law school schedule, and being remote most days, the only way to do it is to batch shoot content once a week for the following week. The outfits that I shoot actually end up being the outfits that I wear to class, so it usually works out because then I shoot pictures ahead of time for the week that I am actually wearing the outfits! And thus, my outfits for the week are already picked out.
My small business is always moving! I get new emails about collaborations every day. I am always checking my email and negotiating with brands. I have learned to be flexible with my blog and the posts I plan, because things change! I also try to pitch to brands every couple of weeks. (You can read my blog post here about how I pitch to brands).
After looking at blog stuff, I figure out what times I can work out during the week.
And finally, I squeeze in some family, friend and boyfriend socialization time.
Some people probably think I do too much. Don’t get me wrong, sometimes it can be stressful having to do all of these things. But going to law school, blogging, working out and seeing my friends and family makes me so incredibly happy that I couldn’t bear to not do any of these things.
If I do get stressed, I think back to my priorities. The most important things I do first: schoolwork and then do the rest when I can. I always think to myself: what can I do right now that will make me less stressed?
Understand, that not every day goes perfect to plan. But I find that being super organized helps me get everything I want to and need to get done, done!
Family Support
Fortunately, I live at home so a lot of what would be stressors for me, aren’t. I don’t have an income or pay rent. My mom makes me dinner every night. She also does my laundry. So, I am blessed to have the support from my parents to help support me as I go through law school. My mom also takes my weekly blog pictures, so I don’t have to use a tripod or find a photographer. But when I was in undergrad and living away from home, I had a weekly appointment with the washer and dryer in the basement of my dorm room. I never cooked, so I can’t speak to making dinner every night, but I bet with some organization and planning, dinner time can’t be that bad either.
I hope you learned some organization tips from this post. And hopefully you don’t think I’m too crazy. But if you do, welcome to my world!
Thanks for reading!
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