THE GREATEST ENEMY OF GOOD THINKING IS BUSYNESS.
― John C. Maxwell
What image comes to mind when you think of your digital work life and file storage system?
Talking about how to organize B2B content with technology, but that’s a misnomer — there’s no one way to do this for anyone, and not even for yourself over your career. North Star for today: It’s not possible to document all the tools available to help you — they’re literally being invented as you listen to this. What is possible is making sure you support the best framework for you. Then you lean on your network so you can hear about great new things to try through the grapevine.
Cal Newport (Source)
I first heard the framework “capture, configure, control” from Cal Newport. Deep Work Podcast. I’m going to adapt this to “capture, control, create” for the writing process.
The only universal transition is moving from analog to digital, and even that is not a 100% move as you’ll see from the tools I’ve relied on. Even if you use analog tools, you still need to be able to organize information digitally to thrive as a freelance writer.
From a Q&A:
My first inclination would be to print everything out and file them in corresponding folders…very old school, I know :-). I even prefer to read a book, rather than Kindle. I like to hold them, dog ear the pages and underline important things I want to go back and reference. I guess there’s some techie things I’m stubborn to embrace. It’s funny you brought this up because it’s been on my mind recently and I know I need to get those checklists and templates within easy reach – before I talk to my first client.
The process of printing out, storing, reviewing… think of that as a delicacy.
You have to build your own buffet of standard, go-to options first.
MY LONG-LASTING TOOLKIT
- Paper Planner (iCal, Google Calendar, Reminders, etc.)
- (Hobonitchi Techo, but any month view will do)
- Project “Cheat Sheet” for high volume clients (Download PDF here)
- Project Flow Tracker (Notion, Asana, Trello, Monday.com, etc.)
ANTICIPATING THE PROJECT
From scheduling and capacity planning:
Your basic marketing manager expectations:
From a client perspective — so this may vary — most clients realize a need and want to act right away, within 2-3 weeks. “Normal” expectations (Knowing normal is made up):
- Schedule intro call within 3-4 business days
- Schedule follow up or kick off within 1 week
- Blog deadlines 1-2 weeks
- White paper deadlines 6-8 weeks
- Larger projects 8-12 weeks
You want to have systems that give you openings to easily accommodate this kind of thing when you want to.
- Examples:
- No Call Day Mondays
- New client day Tuesdays
- Client calls Tues-Thurs 11-3PM
- Leave Fridays open in case something fun pops up
All of this affects how we do the two things we talk about in a previous training (B2BWI: Scheduling and Capacity Planning Basics).
- Scheduling: How work falls on a calendar, when deadlines will fall, and when you will do different parts of a project
- Capacity: How much work you can do in a given time period, how many clients you can serve best at once
How you use planning skills (project management, tools management) will fundamentally determine how much you can handle (capacity) in a given period of time (schedule). The simple rule: use what works for YOU. What makes YOU faster. It doesn’t matter how great the tool is!
Ex: I know Notion will change my life. I can’t for the life of me find a full afternoon to figure it out. It will wait.
Your tech will evolve. In business, processes and tools break at 50, 100, and 500 employees. In freelancing, that happens at 2, 5, 10, and 15 clients (or projects); or a workload at $1000/mo, $3000/mo, $5000/mo, and $10,000+/month, so go into this choosing some tools, trying some tools, and knowing that as long as you capture, control, and create, you will be OK.
Starter technology stack (“Tech Stack”):
- Calendly – Create a bookable schedule around your needs (SavvyCal, Google “digital scheduler,” etc.)
- Zoom – Record calls (even if you don’t do video) (Microsoft Teams, Google Meet, etc.)
- Descript – Capture transcript of calls (Rev.com, etc.)
SIMPLE TECH FRAMEWORK
Because this could easily spiral out of control, I’m going to use Cal Newport’s framework for deep thinking and deep work, slightly modified. His is “Capture, configure, control…” Today we’re modifying that so you can Capture, Control, Create your writing work
| CAPTURE | Where do you capture and store the information you need so you can access it quickly? |
| CONTROL | How do you make sure you work on the right thing at the right time? |
| CREATE | What do you use to create the final product for your clients? |
CAPTURE (Where do you store the information you need?)
- Calls (Notes app, OneNote, Google Doc, Zoom transcript, .MP4)
- Prospecting call
- Kick off call
- Client Interviews
- Projects (Google Drive folders, Microsoft 365, Notion, etc.)
- Monthly blog articles
- Quarterly white paper
- Ad hoc content projects
- Final clip or finished product (Google Drive, Website (WordPress), LinkedIn, Clippings, etc.)
- Finished projects
- White paper PDFs
- Feedback and testimonial loop
Ultimately, it looks like this:
Over the past 10 years, I can now very quickly identify the work from a project that was finished in 2016 because of the way everything nested into itself. I end up being the digital records keeper for my clients. When they have turnover, I have better records than they do. When agency clients come back, I can reference previous drafts and refer to different versions/interviews, etc.
CONTROL (How do you make sure you work on the right thing at the right time?)
“Write a blog post” → Kick off call, interview, outline, first draft, edits, etc.
You can’t control or plan for anything if you don’t have a grasp on where the details are captured. This is the scheduling part that becomes a significant part of managing multiple clients and projects, which in turn is how you manage a higher workload and income
For me, this looks like layering in analog and digital tracking methods, with a tolerable amount of redundancy:
| Days | Weeks | Months |
Capacity Planner +Calendly | Month planner+Avoid Friday and Monday deadlines | Cheat Sheet+Wall tracker |
- How I spend my days
- Ed Gandia’s Capacity Planner (Google Sheets)
- Calendly to limit when people can book calls
- How I spend my weeks
- Hobonitchi Techo hard deadline in month view, daily planning in week view
- Avoid deadlines on Monday or Friday because I’ve learned I’m bad at that
- How I spend my months
- Wall chart and Cheat Sheet to see overall progress and where I am at any given time
- Also shows me if I have capacity to take on something new, or how much it will hurt
It looks like a lot… but this is how I stay sane through $20,000-30,000 months with 15+ projects going on at the same time (I don’t do that year-round, but these systems allow me to manage it when it does happen).
CREATE (What do you use to create the final product for your clients?)
Developing drafts in Google Docs, deliver with Google Link. Some folks might prefer: Microsoft Word, Notion, Scrivener. I feel confident saying B2B marketing clients prefer Google Docs or Microsoft Word — those two pieces of tech are simply the mainstream option
The only way to get better at your CREATE space is to use it! Get in Google Doc or Microsoft Word. Start trying to make things or change things, send things to your family or friends.
❓❓What questions do you have about capture, control create?❓❓
REAL LIFE EXAMPLES
Zero to Paid (Course)
Scheduling and capacity “year in the life” in my experience…
| $35,000USD/year ($3,000/month) $30/hour, $50-$125 per blog post20-30 assignments per month, 4-5 deadlines per weekAbout one deadline per day, low cost | $89,000USD/year ($7,500/month) $75/hour, $150-$325 per blog post20-30 assignments per month, 4-5 deadlines per weekAbout one deadline per day, medium to high cost | $169,000USD/year ($14,000/month) $125/hour, $500-$1200 per blog post15-20 assignments per month, 2-3 deadlines per weekAbout .5 deadlines per day, medium to high cost (mostly high) |
This is how you map out the schedule:
| Days | Weeks | Months |
| All deadlines marked on monthly calendarTry to schedule SME interviews a week before deadlineEvery Sunday, check the week view to see what’s due | At least weekly, check the week view to map out when I’ll do what I need to doLook at the wall tracker to see if I have correctly prioritize the first drafts that are due | Look at Cheat Sheet to make sure I’ve followed up on any projects that aren’t moving forward on their own |
CONCLUSION
The most insightful, excellent productivity tip written in gold ink and delivered to you by the most attractive movie star in the world, will mean nothing to your work life if you don’t “make it your own.”
What matters now is how you take action on this! Where will you organize the great templates, files, and docs you have from other courses and trainings? How will you make sure inputs have an impact on your outputs? How will you shape your world, instead of letting your world be fragmented?
And of course — adjust as you test it out and go! Your brain may hate the way my brain organizes things. The solution is to try something different, not to try harder.
NOTES
- Hurry up and wait