Welcome to another episode of the podcast, today we are going to talk about time. 

In working with my cookbook coaching clients, mastermind groups, and on my own projects, I realize the importance of planning my time to get the most out of my week. I’ve always had a pretty consistent pattern for activities done on a weekly basis, but use care when planning tasks for work, book writing, free time, and family activities. Planning ahead of time keeps projects moving along in my business and sets up the time to enjoy activities with family and friends. I once heard the analogy that a calendar with a well-planned week is like a river. It has strong banks, a certain direction, and flows quickly with energy and focus. A week that isn’t well planned is like a lake – big, open, and lazy – beautiful to look at, but lacking direction and focus. Lakes are nice for weeks of vacation but in order to schedule time for everything I enjoy I prefer to use my calendar like a river. Each week the flow takes me where I want to go, and not where it wants to take me.

1. Make decisions and move forwardThe best thing we can all do to become more in charge of our time is to decide ahead of time. Plan for tomorrow and the next day, today. Decide ahead of time when you are going to work, eat, answer email, shower, exercise, read. Decide what projects you are going to focus on. Decide what you are going to say no to. Decide, decide, decide. So much of our time is wasted in indecision. Your ability to be successful is directly related to making decisions (and sticking with the decisions you make.) Read more in the book Decide: The Ultimate Success Trigger by Jim Palmer.
2. Plan your perfect weekOne reason calendars fail us is that we don’t schedule the time to do things we enjoy. Want to go out with your mate on a Thursday night each week? Then put it on your calendar. Want to walk the dog each evening? Or relax for a half-hour every afternoon? Read a book a week, or learn to crochet? Put these fun things on your calendar.
3. Honor your planIf you don’t hold yourself accountable, no one will. This is especially true for business owners. Do what you say you’re going to do when you make your weekly plan. You deserve not to let yourself down.
4. Complete itemsDon’t quit before you finish. Trust yourself to finish. Get started, get busy, and finish or close the deal. Quitting is failing ahead of time. If you want to write a book and you think I can’t do it, it’s too hard, no one will like it, so I just remember that you are getting the results your thoughts created. You don’t do it, it seems hard, and no one will like it because it’s never been published.
5. Treat time like a friend Everyone thinks that a lack of time holds them back from their cookbook writing dreams.II totally get it. This is what we are led to believe. We've got no time. We're crazy busy. Time isn’t on our side. What if we flipped the conversation. And we treated time like an old friend. A friend who is always by our side. Ready to serve our every need. That's what time does you know. It's always here, right now, at the exact moment we need it. When it's time to take a walk or pick up dinner from the nearest restaurant, time presents itself. What if we talked to time like an old friend.  It's so great to see you. I've missed you. I'm sorry it's been so long since we last spoke. What if we admitted we have plenty of time to do what we really wanted. And that time is on our side. Because it is. And it's always presenting itself, patiently waiting for us to use it to our advantage or for the advantage of others. It gives and it gives. What if we started to see time as truly the one resource we have that really matters. Time is here to help us grow and evolve. Time is here to help us get our cookbooks published. Because when time isn't around anymore, then our dreams aren't either. For now, all we have is time. New minutes. New hours. New days. New months. New years. And that's a beautiful thing.

Things We Mention In This Episode:

Learn more about How to Get Paid to Write a Cookbook during this free masterclass 

Decide: The Ultimate Success Trigger by Jim Palmer