Prioritising

Prioritising...it is so simple when given due thought however it can upset the whole logistical flow if you miss even one little (but important) thing.
I am not entirely sure how I thought I was prioritising my orders from my London party at first....maybe it was by who ordered first on the day or what I thought I was in the mood for but anyway what I had not done was look through my orders as a whole and see how much work each order was and how long it would take to do. When taking the orders I did a rough calculation but I did not sit down and work it through with all my material once I returned home. So inevitably I focus on one thing and forget all others for few days until.... I get an email asking how it's going with one piece (which is so very simple and quick to do that I really should have done it first), it is then I realise my error.
It's so funny, so friggin simple yet I don't do the things that I know I should....I guess I have no real discipline yet when I comes to orders and prioritising them as I have not done it before but I am very much a girl who only has to be told once (unless it's my parents!!). I promptly sat down and wrote a time each ticket would take to complete, measured all the materials I would need and then set about putting the work in to my diary which gave me a much better idea of realistic due dates for items. I then emailed those customers left who would be expecting a short turnaround time to let them know when to expect their items....and now I feel like I actually have a grip on things again.
Lesson for me here: When I get back from a big ordering event allow time to plan all the orders in to the diary (prioritise with small, easy ones first as those people will expect a shorter turnaround time) and then mail out the due dates to the customers. It is great for keeping the communication channels open too and that is very important when dealing with long distance customers.
So once the smaller orders are complete I will re-assess my time line and if I am still on target I will mail out the expected due dates to the people with slightly bigger pieces ordered and start the communication up with them again.

An update on the time management thing too, it works!!! It is not easy getting up every day at 6am but it really works and I am treating my silver more like a job now, with my daily schedule, and it seems to be going much smoother.

Items slowely getting up on the new website: