It’s funny. If you’re like me, often you want to write, almost more than anything, but somehow you can’t seem to make the time. So you go back to review your goals. Then you try time-blocking. But somehow, even though you’ve carved out those precious writing sessions every week, something else always seems to get in the way.
Enter business coach Dave Luke of Dave Luke Advisory, Inc., who gave me and the Opportunity Knocks peer-to-peer business group I facilitate a whole new way to think about all this.
Realizing your vision is dependent on critical success factors (otherwise known as goals). To make goal setting work, however, you must go way beyond writing down those goals. According to Dave, you must get practical on half-a-dozen interdependent fronts, starting with time.
Time
We all have the same amount of time in a day. That’s non-negotiable. All you can impact are the choices you make regarding how to use that time. In short, it boils down to prioritization. Is your writing more important than making sure you and your loved ones are safe and fed and clothed? Nope. Is your book more important than cleaning out your closet? Most assuredly.
Planning
Now you need to carve out your writing time, not just for today or tomorrow, but for the next 18 months. And yes, that means time blocking. A couple of years ago, I wrote a blog post called “Lessons from My Dogs: Time Blocking” that was all about how my dogs successfully time block their days because they’re so very clear about their priorities.
If you’re clear that writing is a priority for you, then make it happen. I can promise that if you don’t block out time on your calendar to write, those hours and days will get swallowed up by everything else.
How to take advantage of that hard-to-come-by time is another story. Tune in for Part 2 next week. In the meantime, I’d love to know how you deal with making writing a priority.
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