Hopping into Time

Time management in pursuing my author career and small business as a full-time employee

Flowers bloom from a cold, winter's frost. The sun rises and the moon falls, the midnight hour of eerie ghosts and slumbering breaths awakening under magnificent rays. The weather turns with a blink of the eye, moving from a crisp, warm day to gray clouds and stormy seas. Life fluctuates. It changes from one to the next.

But what doesn't change----is time.

Time passes. It fades. It's a never-ending cycle of trying to stay one step ahead and not letting it pass too quick.

So how do I manage my author career and small business as a full-time employee?

Here are 5 essential steps in maintaining my sanity, my dreams, my passions, and keeping food on the table.

1. Set your priorities! For the day or for the week, jot down what is most important for you to accomplish. Is it writing that draft chapter? Or writing two sentences or three? Cleaning the house? Getting those taxes done that you've been putting off for so long? Write them down and stick to ONE per day.

2. It's okay not to work on your craft every single day. It will lead to burnout, stress, anxiety, and that's not fun for anyone.

3. Set goals. I have weekly goals, monthly goals, and yearly goals. These are NOT expectations. I dream big, so I set myself up in a way that I'm always reaching.

4. Now that leads to...setting realistic expectations for yourself. You have a deliverable due this week? You're going out on vacation? Don't set your goals so high that you're reaching for the moon when you don't even have a rocket ship to fly you there.

5. Calendar!!! MUST have. If you want to stay on top of everything: personal events, business events, when that next event sign up releases, reminders for doing blog posts, monthly newsletters, or keeping your mental headspace in check, put EVERYTHING on the calendar. Send yourself notifications, reminders, and most importantly, spend just a few minutes each morning to get yourself acquainted with your week or month.

“Time passes. Even when it seems impossible. Even when each tick of the second hand aches like the pulse of blood behind a bruise. It passes unevenly, in strange lurches and dragging lulls, but pass it does. Even for me.”

―Stephenie Meyer, New Moon