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Working in social media can often feel like a 24/7 job because, let's face it, social media never sleeps. But you didn’t choose to be a freelancer to work every hour under the sun (and moon), did you?

But with a few tweaks to manage your time better, you can save time and free up some hours to spend with your family, friends or the next binge-worthy Netflix drama!

Six ways to get more done in less time.

• Create templates for everything
• Rethink your email signature and autoresponder
• Use a project management system
• Put practices in place to stop doom-scrolling
• Become a repurposing pro
• Automate

#1. Create templates for everything

Every element of your business can probably be streamlined with a template. Set them up once, and you’ll be able to quickly grab and tweak the right template when the need arises.  

Here are some examples of templates you should have within your business:

Email templates

If you ever send an email more than once with a similar message, you should turn it into a template to save time. This way, you never have to waste time trying to find the right words; you can simply grab the template, make a few changes, and hit send. 

Here are a few examples of email templates you will regularly use; what else can you add?

• Discovery call invitation
• Proposal follow-up
• Price increase
• Overdue payment
• Testimonial request

*The Social Media Managers Toolkit includes a whole byu

Business process template examples

Like your emails, any process or service you deliver in the same way more than once should have a template so you can complete it quickly and without stress. 

The most important template to have in your business is a high-converting client proposal document. Here are some other examples:

• Onboarding questionnaire
• Social media audit
• Social media strategy
• Client report

We’ve saved you time and done all the hard work by adding all of these templates and more to The Social Media Managers Toolkit.

Creative templates.

Creative templates are particularly important if you are short on time to market your business. Having a bank of branded social media templates where you can quickly add an image or message is a total game changer.

The templates you need will depend on the platforms you work on and promote your business on, but here are a few examples:

• Canva carousel templates
• Reel cover templates
• Profile banner templates
• Blog cover templates

We love the Your Template Club templates and will often dive into those when we need a quick image for a post.

#2. Rethink your email signature and autoresponder.

It’s so easy to get distracted when an email arrives in your inbox, isn't it? But there are some simple ways to ensure that you can stay focused on your to-do list and deal with emails only at set times during your day.

Set expectations in your email signature.

We loved this example from Inner Hub® member Jen Tsang, who added this in her email signature to set expectations with the recipient:

“While I have sent this email at a time that works for me, I do not expect you to read, respond or take action outside your regular working hours.”

Use an autoresponder even when you are not out of the office.

Your out-of-office autoreply shouldn’t just be reserved for holidays! This brilliant feature can help you manage emails without needing to take any action.  Consider adding the following points to your autoresponder:

• A timescale during which they can expect a response from you.
• Answers to your most regularly asked questions.
• Details on how to apply to work with you.
• A link to a freebie to get people onto your email list.

#3. Use a project management tool like Asana.

We put this off for far too long! But using a project management tool really can help you to stay organised so that you can work more effectively in the time you have available.

There are so many tools available out there, and sadly, none of them is perfect. Our best advice to you is to pick one, go all in and stick with it for at least 6 months before jumping ship.

We love Asana, but we have previously tried Monday.com, ClickUp and Trello. We’ve settled in Asana for our day-to-day business planning and management, despite missing some key features for us. But we also use Trello and Airtable for project planning and organisation.

#4. Put practices in place to reduce doom scrolling!

Look, no judgment; we all do it, but the doom-scrolling needs to stop and is probably the one thing taking up most of your valuable time!

But working in social media, it’s pretty impossible not to open social media apps during the day. And once you’re in there, it’s hard to pull yourself back out. 

So here are 2 tips that help us:

1. During your work hours, only open social media platforms on a desktop device. No mobile scrolling!
2. BEFORE you open any social media platform, set a timer for 20 minutes. As soon as the timer goes off, leave!

We’d also highly recommend using your phone’s built-in focus settings to avoid being distracted by notifications throughout the day. Instead, have set times that you check your or your client's social media notifications (and set a timer when you do!)

#5. Become a repurposing pro!

“I don’t have time to…. Create a lead magnet/write a blog/market my business [delete as required].” 

We hear you! When you are busy working with clients, it is very easy to neglect your own marketing. But when you focus on repurposing, this becomes super simple and requires very little time.

4 steps to creating content using a repurposing model:

1. Pay attention to the questions you get asked regularly. Keep a list on your notes app.
2. Organise the questions into themes, e.g. platform/marketing-based and business-based.
3. Once a quarter, make time to create a lead magnet for one theme and answer every question in detail.
4. Once a month, write one blog per question with a detailed answer.

Over time, you will have created some brilliant resources to pull information from for social content, and the next time someone asks you the question, you will have a resource you can quickly direct them to!

Plus, your website is more likely to be discovered via Google when people look for this information!

One of Laura Moore’s best-performing blogs was created this way. She was constantly getting questions about how to get the swipe-up feature in Instagram stories, and even now when swipe-up is no longer a thing, that blog still drives tons of traffic to the website!

#6. Automate as many processes as possible

Adding automation to your business is a brilliant way to save time and remove tasks from your to-do list. If you're wondering what you can automate, you might be surprised to hear that anything you do the same way more than once can usually be outsourced or automated.

Here are just a few things you could automate pretty easily in your social media business:

• Automate your social media reports using tools like Agorapulse.
• Use a tool like GroupFunnels to automatically save people's email addresses when they join your (or your client's) Facebook group.
• Stop sending your monthly invoices manually by setting up automated invoicing in your preferred system.