by Alan Oram

Here’s a simple 5 step plan for protecting your creative thinking time, and 9 key tasks our creative agency employs, along with practical tools to help, and which might be useful for you and your team to try.

5 steps to protecting your creative thinking time

1. Set a date

Create defined moments in your day/week for creative thinking. Mornings are often best.

2. Build some walls

Protect that time. Block it out in your diary. Maybe work from home or get out of the office for a while.

3. Empower others to do the same

Even if they are not comms pros, think what would help others. For example, create guides to help them how to do some of the work themselves (when appropriate). This could include a simple guide to filming on a phone or creating and delivering great presentations. All things that will be good tools for new team members too.

4. Outline a clear process

Develop briefing sheets and templates for others to help shape what they need from you without needing your time. Your team and colleagues will appreciate it.

What else can we do to encourage ideas to flourish?

We often think of creativity as free and fluid but having some structures and processes in place (a few of those solid slabs) can help bring clarity and aid forward planning for you and your team. This in turn can lead to a little more time, or at least headspace.

While managing time and resources may not seem like the most obvious or exciting way to unlock your team’s creativity, it can certainly help.

So, what does this all translate to in practice?

To help, here is a run through of some of the tasks the team here at Alive with Ideas often need to cover and the tools and processes that help us in doing so. The specific tools mentioned aren’t important, the aim is better understanding your workflow, processes and rituals. Get the structure right and you’ll be able to make better use of your time by streamlining the tasks associated with them.

9 key tasks a creative agency employs

1. Creating a proposal

There’s no specific software we use, but we do have templates ready to go in Word, InDesign and PowerPoint. They’re a tried and tested structure we can use as a consistent starting point. They also include frequently used slides, which are adapted and updated from project to project. This gives us a head start when we need to put something together.

2. Estimating/quoting

This is how we let the client know how much we think the project will cost and the time associated with it. Even if you’re not cross charging it can be useful to include an estimation of time for each element of the project, so clients are aware of the number of hours/days/weeks you intend spending on something. This is the commitment you are making to them. They may not understand how long it takes to do great work – this is an opportunity to let them know. Our quoting system has templates and is prepopulated tasks meaning that we can (at times) be efficient at putting them together.

Tools: ProWorkFlow, Harvest, workflow max

3. Project plans:

A detailed breakdown of the project and all the individual elements and related tasks, with dates for completion and milestones.

Tools: Excel

4. Raising job numbers

Having a consistent job number and name across all tools, systems and filing is essential if you are juggling projects. This will help you identify the specific project, especially when you archive your work, or if you have similar projects running concurrently.

Tools: ProWorkFlow, Harvest, workflow max

5. Consistent file structure

Have a consistent file structure too for the project folders on your server/shared drive. This will help everyone to pick up on projects when needed.

6. Timesheets

Tracking time against a project can help you see if your estimation was correct, or you’re over or underservicing. It also allows you to learn how long projects and tasks actually take in reality, versus estimates. It can be an eye opener and helpful for more accurately costing up future projects.

Top Tip: Timesheets are a headache – and no one likes doing them! Make it really clear why you need everyone to be tracking their time. It’s not about ‘big brother is watching’, it’s so you can better learn what are effective projects and why.

Tools: ProWorkFlow, Asana, Avaza, Monday other stand-alone apps

7. Project status

We broadly track each projects’ progress as it moves through the process. This gives us an overview of what projects we have on and what stage they are at. To do this we use Kanban style software – basically a scheduling system designed for lean manufacturing, but which works for any production process.

Tools: Trello (free options available), Favro, Flow

Trello also has add-ons and other tools that plugin, so it’s worth exploring all its capabilities

8. Allocation of project work

Who is working on what and when? This requires having some insight into the task and then some scheduling and forward planning. We use a calendar style system, where we can schedule a team member’s time to a certain projects and tasks in hours, days and weeks.

Tools: Float, Teamweek, flow

9. Communication, collaboration and sharing:

Keep the team connected wherever they are and support sharing of ideas and resources. This is really useful for making the most out of those gaps in between tasks and sharing ideas and stimulus as you find it in a way that everyone can see and access. It’s also good for banter and sharing feedback to everyone.

What we do…

Messaging – DMs, groups and channels
Staying connected to team discussions when out of the office
Channels – A range of channels have been setup for various things. Here’s just a few…
- Inspiration – things we find and such as links to websites, animations and videos that we like in some way. Random stimulus.
- Specific Projects – When appropriate we set up a channel for us to share briefs and ideas on a project. Anyone can contribute. We get more ideas from more people.
Fun stuff including a channel called ‘Winstagram’ – images relating to Winston our office dog

Tools: Slack (free options available), Workplace, Yammer

In summary…

It’s about finding and using the tools that are right for how you want to work. Think about your customer journey and how you want to design the service you offer, then match the workflow and tools as needed – but just be ready to adapt.

I’d love to hear your thoughts on this.

Alan Oram is Creative Director at Alive with Ideas @AlanHasIdeas