Real Talk: Secrets to Being Productive
Dear readers and friends, As the seasons change and we are soaring into the busy wedding season, we find that the pace we are moving has to be much quicker and at a larger load. In order to breath life into our events, we'd like to share the key elements we at Team Shawna Yamamoto play by.
Take time to organize your work area, whether it be your desk or garage, put everything back where they belong. Give each item a home so they are not just lingering around in your space. Know where to find what you are looking for when you need them so that you are not driving out to buy more of what you already have or waiting on your amazon order in order to continue production.
Time yourself to see how long it takes to create your project, start-to-finish. You will find that time seems to disappear when you are busy working or having fun! After all, time is of the essence and time is money, right? It's a natural thing to do while the SY & Co. team works nowadays, when you do a task you always want to remain cognizant of how much time it is taking!
Get to know the strength and weakness' of each teammate, although it is important for each member to know how everything is done. We all have different skill sets and some people can execute certain projects with perfection while it may be a struggle for others. For example, it may take person A 30 minutes to upholster a chair like a professional while it takes person B 2 hours to upholster that same chair at equal or lesser quality.
Attitude is everything. Sometimes, we all have an off day or we suddenly realize that we've hit what we call in the studio, "crunch time." Crunch time is that time when you don't really have any more room/time for error, and remaining positive during this time is everything. A positive environment is a creative environment, and it's important to be emotionally intelligent and aware of how you feel, why you feel that way, and how it is affecting those around you.
These are so important! At this point, I'm not sure how the SY & Co. team would function without having so many organized task lists! Pro tip: know how your stress works. Do you work better with handling the biggest tasks first? Do you work better handling the tasks that need to be completed first, first?
And by goal setting, we mean realistic goal setting. Sure, we all have ambitious goals and we're all dreamers at heart, but it is important to set goals that are both realistic and attainable (which is really anything you could imagine, so long as you put in the right amount of effort).
Although thinking ahead really comes with experience, it's important to imagine what could go wrong in any situation (but surely not to dwell on what could go wrong). For example, when we are moving a lot of props that have been painted, we always want to bring a few cans of spray paint for last minute touch ups. This isn't an excuse to be reckless and scuff things up, but it's a perfect example of thinking ahead and being ready for anything!
Support and love those around you! Because when the going gets tough, it's a hell of a lot easier to go through when you know that you can count on those around you. And that's another thing, surround yourself with good, wholesome people that are going to support you no matter what (and be sure to do the same for them).
Major pro tip! Bleach can look like water in a spray bottle, and nobody wants to spray bleach on a beautiful bouquet! No but really, that's a perfect example of labeling everything! Sometimes when life starts to move fast we all start to get fuzzy brains and forget what we right down, or why we write certain things down. Make sure you label your notes, calendars, and everything else :)
