Photographers usually organize their business themselves. It’s up to them to decide how to allocate their time. That said, many professional photographers struggle to manage their time, leading to stress and a feeling of being constantly behind in their tasks.
So, how can photographers better manage their time? We have some practical tips on how to organize a photographer’s day and keep everything in check. Keep reading to find out.
Bad Time Management is Common for Photographers
Poor time management often makes many photographers feel they don’t have enough time to get things done. They also often forget things or set the wrong priorities. This is especially true for solopreneur photographers who work more than 60 hours per week. The workload is either too much or too little, rarely balanced. Does this sound familiar?
Better time management and smart task planning help you gain more control over your photo business. Creativity and structure are not mutually exclusive. After all, those who manage their time well are not only more successful but also more motivated and balanced. This has a very positive effect on all areas of life.
3 Best Practices to Better Manage Time for Professional Photographers
1. Set Your Daily Priorities Right
Freelance photographers juggle a wide range of tasks daily to keep their businesses afloat. From project planning and management to self-presentation and client and team communication. Regular website and portfolio maintenance consume significant time, and managing social media profiles adds extra burden. Additionally, working on their photography service pricing and quoting, researching costs or acquiring funding, and drafting contracts and usage agreements needs uninterrupted working time and can’t be done on the side.
Despite the demands on their time, many photographers lack a structured system for task and time management. Proactively scheduling meetings, calls, or administrative tasks is a practice they often neglect. They prefer to take things as they come, to handle things spontaneously—and often prefer to sit for hours editing images (and listening to podcasts) instead of completing urgent tasks.
2. Use Your Time Effectively
Time is a valuable resource for photographers, so use it wisely. Here are five simple tips that will help you manage your time better:
- Work strictly in accordance with your calendar. Don’t just note down your jobs and customer appointments, but also reserve time for office tasks, managing photo portfolios, and website maintenance and acquisition. Don’t wait until you find time for these tasks.
- Determine your daily and weekly work hours. How many hours can you and do you want to work? Set the hours in advance so you can manage your personal life and keep your health in check despite having hectic days.
- Create a to-do list. This way nothing important will get lost and it will help you to organize the next day and week and to see what you have already accomplished.
- Schedule a fixed “weekly” tasks. For example, Monday morning is reserved for marketing and communications tasks, Tuesday is for portfolio and website maintenance, and Wednesday is for accounting.
- For time-intensive tasks, work according to the principle of timeboxing. Decide how many hours you want to spend on a specific task. Set up a timer or block your calendar for easier time management.
For photographers, consciously managing your time avoids frustration that quickly sets in when important tasks are only incorporated into the job on a whim or at random.
3. Allocate Your Time Smartly
Identify the time suckers in your day as a professional photographer. Here are two useful formulas for your time management:
- It is recommended not to schedule more than 60% of your daily work time. Leave 40% open for unexpected tasks and as a buffer for requests and ideas. Give it a try!
- The Pareto Principle suggests that 80% of results come from just 20% of effort. While this concept benefits those who prioritize efficiency, it can be challenging for perfectionists. To maximize your time, learn to distinguish between what’s important and what’s urgent, focusing on high-impact tasks.
Grow Your Photography Business with Better Time Management
Effective time management empowers photographers to nurture their creativity and strategically grow their businesses. While more time doesn’t inherently improve work quality, efficient time management fosters a balanced approach that allows for innovation and expansion.
One practical way to better use your time as a photographer is by adopting picdrop’s photo-sharing app. Sharing photos through Google Drive or ZIP files requires clients to a burdensome process of manually tracking their selections and communicating feedback. This often leads to a frustrating exchange of emails and calls, creating unnecessary back-and-forth.
With picdrop, all you need to do is upload your photos to our online gallery, send your client the link, and let them flag photos they like and annotate areas that need refining. Once they’ve selected the photos, you can directly filter them in Lightroom, Capture One, or your hard drive. No more spending time to handpick the photos or re-uploading them.
Find out more about picdrop’s photo gallery software here, and once you’re ready to give picdrop a try, sign up here.
