Friday, June 26, 2009

Hired Help?

Being so far behind and being naturally disorganized motivates me to come up with genius ideas about how to trick myself into being disciplined and focused.

The other night before bed I was reading The Power of Full Engagement; Managing Energy, Not Time, Is the Key to High Performance and Personal Renewal by Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz (a really interesting book.) I got to thinking that what I really needed was an assistant.

Promptly I got out a piece of paper upon which to list what the assistant could do:
  1. Open the mail, discard the junk, and shred any CC offers.
  2. Update QuickBooks.
  3. Clean the studio and put things away daily.
  4. Enter raw materials inventory data into computer.
  5. Update job costing info on projects sheets.
  6. Organize/file piles of paper.
  7. Organize magazines/library.
  8. Photostyling for product photography.
  9. Help with photography.
  10. Help write Etsy product descriptions.
Having someone help with all of this would free me to source materials, to make more goods, and to put the finishing touches on some patterns for kits I am planning to sell. Also, I could spend some time designing, officially finishing my business plan, and learning more about using Adobe's InDesign and Illustrator.

The issue is that I cannot afford an assistant right now.

However. . . I have myself been a pretty darn good assistant to others and actually have developed some good systems for some small business owners. (Designing systems isn't difficult and is actually sometimes fun--it's the maintaining of systems that is so uninteresting.)

So--I should hire myself (or some part of me) to come in everyday and work as an assistant for an hour. She (I) would get paid (not very much) in funds that could be spent for fiber to make yarn. (Could be this is my way of justifying the money I already spent on roving at the Black Sheep Gathering?)


What a cool idea! I hired her (me II) and knew she should have her own name and intuitively felt her name should be Amelie. (I later looked it up and discovered that the name means industrious and hardworking. Perfect!)

Amelie started yesterday morning. She spent an hour and organized all the magazines. Did a great job! Today she spent a half hour updating the check register. Then she took off and I haven't seen her since.

Hope she comes back tomorrow.


4 comments:

shellie said...

I love this post...i really really do...I think Amelie should come help me to!If only I was a good assistant!

libu said...

that's very funny. good help is hard to find.. I also feel I have to play games with myself to get things done or motivate myself to do what I dont want... good luck with your assistant...

Grace said...

This is so funny and great! I love it!

Katie Wilkes said...

I love it— maybe I should find my inner assistant, too!