If you’ve been event planning for any significant amount of time, you likely already have a few tips and tricks up your sleeve for staying organized. But in today’s ever-so-fast-paced event planning world, you can always use some fresh organizational ideas to add to your method. Here are some of the hacks and insights to inspire you!
All Your Notes in One Place
Event planners have a lot of meetings and conversations. And there’s always going to be some note-taking involved. One organizational tip from all the top planners is to keep one dedicated notebook or tool for ALL your notes. That way, you’re not frantically searching for notes on sticky pads, at your desk, in your car, or on your phone. When you commit to keeping all your event-related notes in one place, you’ll always know where to look to find them.
Scanning Docs on the Go
Vendor agreements and client contracts can easily get misplaced, especially when you’re on the go, racing to the next appointment. Consider keeping a digital scanning tool in your car and at your office. You can quickly scan those important documents and send them directly to your pc for safekeeping. And if you do happen to spill coffee on a contract or misplace it, you’ll have the digital scan safely waiting in your inbox.
Start Using an Egg Timer
Here’s another brilliant organizational and time-saving solution. Get yourself an egg timer. Use it to help you avoid spending too much time with emails, marketing efforts, or falling down the rabbit hole of YouTube videos or Pinterest event ideas. Set your time and manage your time, allowing you to stay on top of your to-do lists and schedules without falling behind.
Evaluate Tasks on Mondays
Many top event pros say they break up their schedules into short, mid, and long-term tasks. And each week, they spend some time on Monday evaluating and plotting their activities for the next seven days. This reflection period allows you to get organized and precise about how you plan to spend your time. It’s also a great way to mentally prepare for those especially hectic weeks.
Clean Out Your Binders
Many event planners keep a primary “event binder” that they carry with them everywhere they go. If you have such a binder, or maybe a notebook or go-to software, keep it clean. In fact, think like Marie Kondo – if it’s not inspiring joy (or helping with your events,) get it out of your binder.
Keep a ‘Not Today’ List
Sometimes, you feel like all the things come at you at once. You’re knee-deep in one event planning strategy when your phone rings from another client. An email pops in from a vendor with questions. A colleague texts you for help with their project. Stay organized by keeping a running list of “not today” tasks. As those unanticipated requests come in, evaluate them quickly as a “today” priority or a “not today” task that can go on tomorrow’s schedule. Then, tomorrow, you can review that list and add them to your to-do list. This is especially helpful in keeping you focused on the tasks at hand without overlooking any new, impromptu requests.
Use All the Fun Apps and Tools
You don’t go anywhere or do anything with your cherished mobile device or tablet. So, start browsing all the fun and incredibly efficient organizational apps designed for busy event planners. They’ll make tackling tasks a breeze and will help keep you on top of your game. Here are a few tech ideas and apps to consider:
- Smart Notebook – turns handwritten notes into digital cloud docs
- Joint Event Calendars – allows everyone on your team to share schedules
- Habitca – a gaming app that makes event planning fun
- Eventilla – registration and ticketing platform, with barcode scanning
- Paperless Transactions – allows you to build custom event pages
- SmartWaiver – great for easily handling waiver signatures for an event
Get organized with some of these brilliant ideas and useful insights! And get in the room this October by attending The Event Planner Expo 2023! Learn more and secure your exhibitor spot on the tradeshow floor while space is still available! It’s the number one events industry conference!
