Finding Time…

Today Michael Hyatt’s post is about creating margin in your life.  His suggestion is a template of the result you have in mind to align your work and play week to. I am a great believer in templates. As a teacher, I worked what I called an individualized education plan for EACH student, not just one with special needs paperwork. As a ghost writer, I work from the end of contracts to daily work, by first aligning the big chunks of deadlines then doing daily goals to meet them. When I sold Mary Kay cosmetics, I won three vehicles by again setting down and figuring out the “big goal”…$16K or 39K wholesale cosmetics sold, then created the plan for how many lipsticks, sets, or new clients that would take to accomplish. Start up strategy is much the same, we set the goals, then we work the marketing, SEO, content, and user interfaces to accomplish those transitions.

We accomplish what we first visualize then create action to actualize.

Visualizing your goal is important, in my opinion its essential.  I encourage people to not just think about what something might be, but go experience a taste of it. Test drive that car. Ask a hotel to show you the $800 suite if that is important to you. Try on the brand you long to wear if that is your thing.  Our recent trip to the cabin was that way for me, we are considering building one very similar, so I wanted to visualize my experience by staying in one to encourage me to make the changes necessary for profit to purchase the provision. Once I have visualized it in 3D, my commitment is usually more powerful for I am a visual learner.

Often as a content coach I am told “I do not have time to write.” As one who is paid to write, I get that concept…however it is visualizing the product that I believe most begin to fail. I write something to the tune of 23 pieces per week for various projects.  Twenty-THREE.  I do not however, sit down and think about writing one at a time.  What do I mean?  I mean that I know each month that I have many places to support, and that they each have editorial calendars and content goals. We have keywords, SEO, and audience preferences to support.  For the most part, I am free to write on the topics I prefer as long as they are in the keyword or content development areas that support the blog, magazine, or book’s pretense and audience preferences.  I do not think simply “one” article to completion, I think on a month or quarterly scale.  If we are doing a series on a topic, then I outline the entire concept of what is to be shared by that author or speaker. We then create imaginary lines on the concepts and begin to fill in the supportive teaching or voice that we would like to emphasize. By the time the objective is firm, it becomes easy to articulate the rest of the post in the description, supporting pieces, and personalization of why that is important.

Templates are important for me not only for writing, but as Mr Hyatt points out, for time management.  When I began working from home full time many years ago, I realized quickly that if I didn’t have target hours for writing, for team phone calls, for authors and speakers who collaborate with me, I would never accomplish anything consistently. Phone calls from cohorts alone can take up your entire writing period if you answer them throughout the day. Personally I am an early riser, so I write almost uninterrupted from 4:30-9:30 two mornings a week. Those 8 hours (with a break for family breakfast) allow me to get through a good bit of writing, yet do not interrupt my family’s time nor do they need me typically in the early mornings. It feels GREAT to have writing handled early in the day when I am fresh and able to think without interruption.

Allyson Lewis, author of The 7 Minute Solution, also focuses on the meaningfulness of what we manage into our lives. Her book encourages us to chose five things before eleven, to create meaningful accomplishments in your life. I agree. We can wish our lives away, or we can engage in what matters to us…its truly a matter of choosing. This week is my daughter’s sixteenth birthday. It matters to me that we schedule our lives so that we are fully present with her on her special day. She has several meaningful activities throughout the week, so we planned in advance to be with her. The template for this week was drawn many months ago….we adjust when needed, but to create Mr. Hyatt’s “margin” that so many of us need in our lives, it first began with a plan with how to make sure that the focus was fun this week, not frantic deadlines.

What do you do to make your life work? I can tell you that this spring was a study for me in what happens when you do not adhere to what works for you. I tried three months without my tried and trusty self made time management template, using one that someone else had suggested for me. The issue with the new method wasn’t it didn’t allow for great planning, the problem for me was the focus was on doing more items, not checking in with end in mind….a daily life I could live with! It is important to evaluate what systems you use, and sometimes there is a revolutionary level new way of thinking, but it is also true the what works for you may be what is best, glean what you can from others thinking or systems, but ultimately developing what works for you is what creates the margins in your life.