Now that I’ve talked you into using your creative strengths to increase you business success via a creative business journal, you need to know how to use your journal to succeed.

If you missed the last three posts in the series, check them out here:

1.  Why You Should Start a Creative Business Journal

2.  What You Should Include in Your Creative Business Journal

3.  30 Prompts for Your Creative Business Journal

Create Your Journaling Schedule

To evaluate your creative business journal, you need to be journaling on a regular basis and examining your journal often. But, this does not need to take up a lot of your time—and in fact, it shouldn’t.

I set aside one hour every Monday to work in my creative business journal. During this time, I pick one topic or prompt and go with it. At the end of the hour, I put the journal away and move on. I also have one hour scheduled every month that I reflect on my journal pages that I’ve created in the past month.

So, here’s what you need to do: pick one day per week to work in your creative business journal and one day per month to evaluate your journal. Write them in your planner/calendar now.

Why Evaluation is Important

Working in your creative business journal regularly will keep your mind on ways that you can improve your business. But, if you don’t take any of those ideas and put them into action, what’s the point?

If you’re anything like me, you probably know at least one thing that you could do today to improve your business, but you haven’t done it. For example, you might know that you need to read your camera manual to improve your product photos or that you should order new business cards to include your new logo. So, why don’t these things get done?
It’s probably because you don’t schedule time for them. If you set aside two hours on Wednesday to read your camera manual, you’ll be more likely to actually do it. You’ll be less likely to do it if you just say to yourself, “I need to get around to reading that camera manual sometime.”

If you evaluate your journal, use it to plan actionable steps, and schedule those actionable steps in your calendar, you’re sure to see improvement in your business.

Steps to Take During Your Monthly Evaluation

On the day that you plan to evaluate your creative business journal, you’ll need your journal, four index cards, a pen, and your planner/calendar. After you’ve gathered your supplies, find a comfortable workspace. I like to sit in an overstuffed chair in my art studio with music playing in the background. Then, follow these steps:

1. Look at your first entry in your creative business journal, and ask yourself how you can take what’s on the page and increase your success.

2. Write down one to three actionable steps you can take.

3. Repeat with the next three entries from that month.

4. Include those actionable steps on your calendar.

Let me give you some examples:

One of my entries in my creative business journal revolved around one of my business mantras: continuously look for ways to improve. The actionable step that I wrote down on my index card was to pick someone I admired and start doing one thing that person does successfully. I wrote this down in my calendar as a to-do item. I choose Laura Roeder as the person I admired and adopted her idea to send out a weekly newsletter. Now, I send out a newsletter each week, and it has helped me build stronger relationships with my readers.

Another entry in my creative business journal was about my inner critic. I drew a picture of what I thought my inner critic monster looked like. The actionable step I wrote down on my index card was to spend 15 minutes at the end of the day for one week thinking about my inner critic and if it affected my work that day. I realized at the end of one day that I didn’t send an email about a guest post, because I was afraid the blogger would say no. The next day I wrote the email, and the blogger said yes.

I also have an entry in my business journal that’s all about problems that my customers struggle with and how I can fix them. On my index card I wrote down three posts I should write that would help my blog readers solve their problems and included them into my blog posting schedule.

So, here’s what I want you to do:

1. Schedule your monthly evaluation right now. Don’t wait or put it off, because it probably won’t get done.

2. Leave a comment if you have any creative business journal questions. This is the last post in this series of posts….but, I’ll be back on heartmade soon with other topics!

April Bowles-Olin

April Bowles-Olin works with creative women to lead more fulfilling lives while they make money doing it. She also attempts to add a little prettiness to the world with her art and jewelry. You can learn more about her at Blacksburg Belle or connect with her on twitter @blacksburgbelle.

Image Credit