How many times have you, as an event planner, wished for the possibility of more time? Or maybe you secretly hoped for a clone of yourself to get all the things done and checklists tackled. Time to an event planner is just as valuable as revenue. And today, we’re sharing time-saving hacks you can use to preserve every valuable moment.
1. Stick to Your Process
It’s easy to get distracted as an event planner, especially when you feel like you’re diverting into different directions, tackling tasks, coordinating vendors, and meeting with clients. But straying from your process will only consume more of your valuable time. Try to carve out a strategic event planning process that works best for you. And then stick to it. Creating and committing to a timeline, even when those distractions and diversions occur, will be more streamlined for you.
2. Use Every Time-Saving Software Solution
Stop wasting time with old-fashioned methods that consume your time and trade up for brilliant software solutions. Sure, if you feel compelled to keep a physical day planner, it’s ok to do so. But using event management software with digital scheduling tools, multitasking features, and easy-to-use communication elements is going to save you hours.
3. Work and Rework Your Lists
There are so many roles and responsibilities with your job as an event planning professional. You’re changing hats from coordinator, project manager, salesperson, business owner, and communicator. You have to work off of lists and schedules to keep everything straight. But be mindful of working off of those lists and reworking those lists to keep priority tasks and responsibilities at the forefront. Prioritization is key to keeping your focus and not falling behind on all those things you have to take care of and manage.
4. Delegate Anything and Everything
As your event planning business grows, you’re just going to get busier and busier. And there comes a time when you’re ready to start delegating some of your event tasks and responsibilities to others. Anything that seems entry-level or administrative can be assigned to an assistant. Follow-up calls and vendor confirmation conversations can be delegated to other planners within your organization. Get comfortable tapping in others to help you so you can focus more on the priorities that only you can handle.
5. Get Ahead of Deadlines
Event planning means planning ahead. You have to get and stay ahead of deadlines at every phase of the event curation process. This means getting your clients on board with early coordination or marketing. It means starting months in advance with your planning and road mapping, carefully laying in enough time to properly execute every aspect of any New York conference or special event. The second you find yourself behind schedule, the more time you’ll consume trying to catch up again.
6. Templates Save Time
Anything within your event planning process that can be described or facilitated with a template deserves one. Yes, you’ll have variations and unique event elements with each new client. But don’t recreate the event planning wheel every time if you can have a template landing page design, template vendor email, template ad layout, or template press release from which to start.
Start leveraging these time-saving hacks and be more productive with your efforts as an event planner. And for more brilliant insights and industry advice – get your All Access tickets for The Event Planner Expo 2023! Top pros, leading entrepreneurs, and events industry influencers will be there in the thousands. It’s a high-energy networking opportunity for you to learn time management hacks and so much more to grow your New York event business to new heights!
