We all know it can save you time. Yet, just coming up with a good system seems to take up more time. In the end you just give up trying to make it work. For me, creating a simple yet effective workflow has been a work in progress and I will most likely, never-endingly, tweak my system. Right now though, I have in place a workflow that is producing great results for me and I’m here to share how truly simple it is.

Super Simple Wedding photographers workflow

My super simple wedding photography workflow actually consists of three “mini” systems, shown above. On the left is my weekly detailed scheduled. In the center notice the desktop background on my MaBook. I use this pre-made background image as a template to organize folders and resources. To the right is my M-F to do list, which doubles as my mouse pad. I’ll talk about each of these “mini” systems that make-up my workflow, individually.

{M-F Detailed Weekly Schedule}

Click HERE to view the full doc.

The point of creating any system is to keep things running smoothly. Nothing was more important to this end than to have a detailed weekly schedule. The first step was to create a list of all the tasks I needed to do in my post wedding workflow in addition to other weekly business duties.

Next, I used Google Drive to create a table and made a schedule assigning each day specific tasks and noted the time limits per task. The actual post wedding workflow, believe it or not, only takes up Mon-Wed and Thurs-Fri are split between other business tasks. After determining the time it takes to complete each task, ask yourself, when do I work best? For me, it was for 3 hours in the AM from 9-12, then a 3 hour break for personal things, and then resume work another 3 hours in the PM from 3-6. The most important goal, when creating a schedule, is to force your workflow to mold around your lifestyle and not visa-versa.

{Desktop Organization

Simple wedding Workflow System

Now I needed to address the issue of having all my resources on my desktop organized for quick access. What I chose to do is use a visual tool to organize folders according to the date they’re assigned to. Everyone has a different way of organizing their files so this is by no means definitive, and Mac folder systems work very nicely. However, this system allows me to visually see where each task is within the timeline of my workflow. Which is uber important, especially when you keep yourself to a high standard in delivery time. If you’d like to try it out, you can download the file above and simply use it as your desktop background image. You may need to unsnap your folders from the grid so that you can freely move them into the new areas. On a Mac, right click a blank area of your desktop, choose “Show View Options” then “Arrange by” and then uncheck “Snap to grid.”

{To Do List}

Check out this cool mousepad/to do list.

simple wedding photographer workflow

This piece was such a treasure to find. I didn’t own a mousepad before since I never quite found one that looked pretty enough. I was also looking for a M-F to do list that I could use to note any random tasks that were outside of the norm. This Knock Knock mousepad was the solution and it’s just darling. When your done with your week, simply tear off the sheet and start a fresh one.

So those are my simple and effective tasking solutions. Hopefully these resources can help you increase productivity, improve delivery times and give you peace of mind at the end of the day that the job is done. 😉