Book Marketing For Authors Blog 20- Make Time Work for You instead of Against You

Make Time Work for You instead of Against You

 

We all have the same 24-hours each day to work with. We all have the same 86,400 seconds each day to use. However, some of us use these seconds, minutes, and hours better than others. As a self-publishing indie author, almost every one of those 86,400 seconds is essential. Hey, I told you before, and I’ll tell you again. This is not an easy business. Authorpreneurship is a tough business. It’s not easy changing the world for the better through your own writing business. But, you are one of the brave ones who is going to try, anyway.

I get up at 4:00 AM every single day, even on Sundays and vacation days. I do this seven days a week and 365 days a year. And I’ve been doing this for over a decade now. Imagine how many of those 86,400 seconds I have won back by just getting up earlier… Are you willing to seize those extra seconds, too, by getting up earlier?

Blocking and consistency are the keys to success in making time work for us instead of against us. As indie authors, there is a lot of things we have to get done. Some of you want to latch onto something and sprint all the way to the finish line. However, while you’re doing this occasional sprinting, you’re ignoring about a dozen other things. Then you wonder why you can never seem to get done, or even make any progress. There just doesn’t seem to be enough time in the day.

Guess what? You have the same 86,400 seconds every day that I have. So, whatever I can get done in one day, so can you. The secret to doing what I do and keeping your life in balance is through blocking and consistency. Block your day off into 30-minute segments and work hard and efficiently on different things during each one of those time blocks. This way, you’ll always be keeping some balance in your life, not neglecting any one thing, and making some progress on all fronts. And as authorpreneurs, we do indeed have a lot of fronts to contend with. So many fronts that it overwhelms the ordinary person.

Have a goal and a purpose when you set out to do things, especially in social media. Facebook and its companions can be a huge rabbit hole. We can easily get lost here and lose all sorts of time that we can’t get back. Remember, we only have 86,400 seconds each day. Make your social media time work for you instead of against you.

Have a plan first. Then go on and post and maybe like 3-5 others post. And then move on to your next social media channel to do the same. If your 30-minute block expires and you’re still on social media, consider how you can streamline what you’re doing, as well as how to keep the surfing temptations to a minimum. Social media is awesome. But it can suck a lot of our precious time right out of our day.

In addition, when it comes to emails, paperwork, and all the other administrative tasks that we have to do, let’s do our best to be organized and decisive. Try your best to touch everything only once. Let’s not put things off to later. Try not to throw things into piles.

Multitask when it makes sense to multitask. For example, while driving our cars to work, it makes sense to listen to an audiobook to increase our knowledge and skills. Continue to listen to that book while standing in line at the post office. We can also dictate into our phones our next book on our early morning walks. When it comes to being efficient and multitasking, our imagination and wills are our only limits.

Every one of us loses at least an hour a day to inefficiency. Imagine what we could do with 30 more hours every month devoted to our authorpreneurship business. Now imagine the additional time we can add because we’re multitasking when it makes sense…

Try to schedule everything and pay real close attention to the time you’re spending on every task. Don’t spend too much time on social media or emails. Schedule email time. Studies show that people spend about six hours a day on their email.

Be sure to have some balance and have some fun in your lives, too. But, record your favorite shows so you can fast forward through commercials and watch your favorite shows in less time. We can watch 60-minute shows in 40 minutes. Do that twice a night, and you have just found 40 more minutes to get something done without sacrificing any of your shows or downtime with your loved one.

*Watch this FREE video lesson on this chapter:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NdpDK1uFC4s&list=PL_-39bUXJitwL8cHUpiZ5mO0-JJuaPOVl&index=21

 

              

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