Photographer Productivity: How You Can Make the Most of Your Time

Being a photographer can be time-consuming. There's a lot for you to do, but you might feel at times that there are only so many hours in a day that you can dedicate to your work. And this can be frustrating to someone who wants to maximize their income in this profession. Since gaining more time is out of the question, the only thing that you can do is make the most of it. 

You can start becoming more productive by following these helpful suggestions:

Leave Some Jobs for Others
When you're a photographer, especially one who's working mostly on your own, you tend to go and do everything. Unfortunately, some tasks, such as putting the finishing touches on your photos or promoting yourself on social media, are going to eat up a lot of your time. Thankfully, there are photo-editing companies for photographers whom you can contact for help. If editing is one of the main activities that take up most of your time, you can opt to let them work on it regularly and focus on your other tasks.

Create a Schedule and Stick to It
One of the reasons photographers fail to become productive is that they let their different activities dictate them instead of taking control. For example, a meeting with a client can take you longer than expected simply because you didn't set boundaries time-wise. It's your business, so you have to take charge of what you're going to do. Set a schedule for everything, and be prepared to say no to an activity that will disrupt it or negotiate for a different time for it.

Think Batches
You can go faster when you finish all instances of a specific task in succession. For example, when you're going to edit your photos, you can do it for all clients that need them in one go. Even with your schedule, you can also apply the batch concept. For example, you can dedicate a particular day for meetings with clients, so you can book them all on that specific day and leave the other days and hours for your other tasks.

Get Rid of What You Don't Need 
Of course, there will be things that will come to distract you. If you want to become productive, you have to get rid of them or at least move them to a time when you're not supposed to work. For example, if there are non-work matters such as with family and friends that aren't urgent, then you can attend to them later in the day. Just nicely let the people involved know that you need to focus.

Being productive will mean that you can do more and earn more with your business. Take note that it's not about you driving yourself to the ground. Rather, it's about setting everything up so that you can have time for both work and yourself. You still do need to rest so that you can do your best when you work the next day.

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by Iconic Chica Mag Contributors