We've all heard the joke about creatives leaving the 9-5 to work 24/7. Some days that seems more accurate than we may want to admit, so today, we gathered five pieces of advice to help you speed up your workflow!

1. Stay organized. Keep your gear in the same designated spot to ensure it's always ready to go and easy to locate. Immediately knowing where everything is will save you time when preparing for jobs and keep you mentally organized. Maintain a detailed inventory of your memory cards and film rolls to account for if anything goes missing.

Categorize and organize your hard drives and digital files as well. You'll be able to find particular jobs faster, and it will make it easier if you want to share images from your archives.

2. Automate. In your CRM program, create and automate a custom workflow, so you'll never miss a beat. You'll be able to stay on top of everything without spending more time. Questionnaires, emails, and payments will automatically send on your set schedule, so you never have to think about it. Your business will be running like a well-oiled machine which will speed up the backend process.

3. Email templates. Create your own or find ones to purchase, but having email templates will save you the time of wondering what to say. You'll be able to reply to inquiries in minutes when you have a template to copy and paste. Keep them conveniently accessible on your computer or input them into your CRM program, and your inbox will go down in no time. Don't forget to personalize your messages when relevant!

4. Don't overshoot. When you're more intentional behind the camera and purposeful when you click the shutter, you'll also save time when culling. Imagine how nice it would be to have way fewer images to cull through from the start!

5. Outsource. You can outsource just about every aspect of your business that may be time-consuming or doesn't come easily to you. When you outsource, you're enabling yourself to spend more time on different areas and broadening your workload capacity.

At the Ginger Lab, we recognize that time is precious and that there are dozens of other things you'd rather be doing than sitting at your computer. That’s why The Ginger Lab was born – as an affordable and accessible resource to help photographers free their time for their favorite things.

We hope you take advantage of all the resources available to speed up your workflow and help your business run effortlessly!