For many people, watching news is “mandatory” routine, since it’s a way to keep themselves informed what goes on in the world. In other words, we want to be inside the “loop,” so that we know what other people are talking about.

But what if you decided to take another route and get on the news diet? How do you think your life would change or become better? Let’s find out…

4 reasons why you should cut off majority of news from your daily life

Let’s be totally honest here … I still watch news, but I have reduced the number of times I do this on a weekly or a daily basis. There are few reasons why:

• You’ll get the news if it’s important enough

You are well aware of what’s going on in the world without actively seeking the information yourself.

For instance, when the horrible event at Boston Marathon took place, I just happened to hear it on the radio when I was at the swimming hall’s dressing room (the radio is playing there on the background). Later that day my colleague also talked about this at work on a coffee break.

In both of these cases, I didn’t actively seek out  this information and yet – it came to me anyway. The fact is that if the news is big enough, you’ll always receive it somehow.

• Makes you feel annoyed and cynical

There is this certain way I tend to react to most of the news I hear or see: it makes me annoyed and there are two main reasons for this reaction.

First, there is so much negativity going on in the daily news. News broadcasts report of the cruelty and injustice that’s going on in the world and I honestly don’t need to know about it that much.

Second, there is the yellow press with their stupid stories about what celebrities are doing today or who broke up with who.

No thanks, I don’t need that and my life is happier without this extra burden.

• You get overloaded with stuff you don’t need to know

Unfortunately, news broadcasts seem to focus on the negative events for the most part and when you watch the news, you get overloaded with negativity.

For instance, if there was a bomb somewhere which killed 20 people, do I really need to know this and what is its true value in my life? I still haven’t figured this out and in the meanwhile I just shut down my TV for more negativity.

• You are wasting your time

Finally, there is the time aspect when it comes to news and this is a logical conclusion of all the previous points I have mentioned: Majority of times news broadcasts are just a waste of time.

Think of it: If you are watching 15 minutes of news broadcasts every day, you spending a total of 105 minutes for that activity on a weekly basis. Now, do you think that there is something better you could do with that time?

What about:

• Going to bed earlier so that you can wake up earlier the next morning – without having to rush to work
• Talking to your spouse
• Playing with your kids
• Using that time to build your dream online business
• Educating yourself (self-help, business …)
• Relaxing (meditation, listening to music, reading a good fiction book …)

So you still want news? Here’s the better way…

If you are still feel that you can’t give up on the news habit, then I suggest that you take a more strategic approach for consuming them. Try the following:

1. Take the responsibility. Whenever watching news, take responsibility for your feelings. For instance, if you feel mad, sad or frustrated when watching or listening to news, acknowledge that these feelings are very likely to occur during the news broadcast.

I try to remember this myself as well:  I understand that I might experience emotions I don’t like and I just have to accept that if I decide to watch the news. On the other hand, when I’m aware of my emotions, it’s also a very effective way of cutting the news off from my daily life.

2. Cut if off from your morning routine. I used to watch news before going to work, but I don’t do that anymore. First of all, there is the time aspect that I don’t like related to news (I was just wasting my time) and also because the way the news made me feel (see the bullet point #2).

I decided that I don’t want to start my day by watching or listening to negative stuff right after waking up, so I kept my TV set shut off. It took me couple of days to get rid of the morning news habit and nowadays I don’t do that anymore. If I watch TV during the morning, I try to skip the news part if possible.

3. Cut if off from your dining table. In our home, our kitchen and living room are pretty much one big space. It means that we can see the television from the dining table.

We try to avoid watching TV during the dining times. This means especially the news broadcasts, because we want to eat without distractions.

Make a similar decision to cut the news broadcasts off your dining table when you are eating. That way you enjoy your food and the company better. Besides, you are not polluting your subconscious with negative news and mind sets, which sneak into your mind when you are not paying enough attention.

3. Stop following the yellow press. The same thing applies to yellow press than to regular news broadcasts when it comes to my feelings: The stories irritate me and make me sometimes angry.

Honestly, I can live without knowing who is dating who or who broke up with who – I really can! That’s why I try to stay away from information that is just useless and adds a very little value to my life.

4. Cut the news by making a decision. This point means that whenever there is a news broadcast going on, just shut off the TV or switch to another channel. Make this a habit so that you are not exposing yourself to negativity unnecessarily.

5. Check out the headlines only. If you want to know what’s going on in the world, just take a quick look at the news headlines only – without actually watching a full news broadcast.

I might do this myself through my smart phone or just opening the television and checking the teletext headlines. This way it takes me only couple of seconds to scan the headlines and just pick the items that interest me the most.

6. Don’t let the news make you tired

One thing that I try avoid as much as I can is to watch news broadcasts just before going to bed.

First of all, that time could be spent otherwise (see the bullet points under “You are wasting your time” headline). Secondly, I don’t want to watch some crazy news and go to bed – only to realize that those same things are also in my dreams.

I rather “inject” my sub-conscious with positive stuff, like reading a good book or just talking with my wife – rather than watching the news and hearing about which bomb went off where.

7. Take a certain time to check them

Take a same approach to consuming news as to checking your e-mail – use only dedicated time spots for doing that.

The idea is to regulate the news input as much as possible and make sure that you are not spending too much of your time with the news. Remember – if news is important or big enough, it will reach you somehow!

Conclusion

I used to watch a lot of news in the past, but I have reduced my news intake considerably. I’m quite happy as I don’t have to congest my mind with negative stuff. I have a freedom to choose and I want to take the positive and constructive stuff inside my head instead.

Over to you: Do you watch news or can you live without them?

You are not alone with your thoughts. Many people struggle with this same question yet they find the time to build successful blogs – even by doing it part-time.

If you find the time aspect very challenging, check out these 7 strategies I’m using myself. With these tips, I’m able to build my online business – even if I’m a parent, a marathoner/triathlete and I have a day job.

1. Remember what’s important

In order to make a blog successful (traffic/subscribers), you have to make it your first priority. If your priorities are right, you automatically start changing your habits and start seeing some extra time spots in your daily life that you didn’t realize before.

If your plan is to quit your day job and start running your own online business, you most likely have to give up on something less important during the building phase. For instance, do you really have to watch so much television during the evenings?  Or would it be possible to cut the TV time and go bed earlier, so that in turn you could also wake up earlier (and build your business in the morning – before going to work)?

You have to ponder these questions in your mind and act accordingly. Eventually you realize that there are many things that you can stop doing at least temporarily. Even if it may feel it is hard to give up on something nice, these decisions give you more time to build your online business.

2. Batch it

Whenever I’m doing anything related to my blog, I try to figure out if there is a way to batch-process things. For instance, I apply this strategy when managing blog comments or answering my e-mails.

There is also another big task where I apply batch processing and that’s writing blog posts. The first week of every second month, I try to write content for two months in advance. Once the content is ready and proofread, I schedule it in WordPress.

Before I start writing the posts, I have a plan that I follow every time. That plan describes what posts I’m going to write and what their structure is going to be.

Normally, it takes me four days to write the post and one day to get them proofread. Within five days, I have content ready for the next 60 days and I’m free to do something else rather than writing posts for my blog.

In order to make this strategy successful, you have to slow down first and that’s what I’m about to talk about next.

3. Slow it down

In the beginning of last year I was advised to slow down my blogging pace and it has been one of the best decisions ever related to my blogging. Not only do I have more time to work on other blogging projects, but also, I’m not overwhelmed with writing blog posts all the time – something which happens very frequently to so many bloggers out there.

Currently my pace is to write two posts per month and this is much more doable approach than trying to write, for instance, three posts time per week. I have to admit that even blogging once per week was too intense, but a biweekly schedule is much more doable.

Make sure to give this strategy a try and see what difference it makes to you as a blogger. I’m willing to bet you will find this strategy relieving, since all of a sudden you have time to focus on other aspects of your blog – rather than just writing stuff for your own blog.

With the free time, you can focus on things like writing e-books or creating products for your audience. Yes, these things are doable even if you write posts many times per week. However, for someone who is blogging part-time, things get much more challenging in that situation.

4. Plan it

It’s of utmost important that you are plan your work in advance. That way you have a headstart to your tasks and you are not wasting your time on figuring out what to do, when instead you should be doing the task already.

Remember that I mentioned about planning my posts in advance (in tip #2)? Well, I’m using a proven system which I use on the majority of my posts. Naturally, you can choose your own way to create your content, if this particular one doesn’t resonate with you…

5. Use the Super Wednesday Method

One great way to get work done is with something that I call the Super Wednesday Method. It’s pretty much a well-planned time block, which enables you to do a lot of tasks in a short time.

The pre-requirement is to plan your work well in advance. That way you find the right marching orders and things get done as easily as possible.

For instance, sometime earlier I had to make changes to my landing pages and other opt-in boxes on my site. I planned out all the changes I had to do in advance, in what order I had to do them and in a very tight time block I was able to do everything that I wanted.

6. Eliminate as much as possible

It’s very important to cut out all of the extra activities that you are doing with your blogging. For instance, I’m pretty inactive in social media nowadays and I’m not spending too much time with my blog’s SEO.

I just want to focus on three key areas in my blog (on top of writing posts). This makes things much easier, as I’m not required to be everywhere and do everything.

One bonus tip regarding this topic is that I recommend hiring a knowledgeable person to help you out. I’m talking about coaching and this way I have been able to focus on just the right things in my blog. Setting the high-level strategies to focus on cuts off majority of distraction and all this gives me the laser-sharp focus on the essential stuff.

7. Work before going to the office

If you are really tight on your available time, then I’ll suggest that you change your daily rhythm a bit. For instance, my preferred strategy is to wake up early so that I can do blogging related stuff before going to work (for instance, this post was written before going to the office).

Becoming an early riser shouldn’t be difficult, if you take it in small steps. You just define your target wake-up time and wake up a bit earlier every week. Then on one morning you realize that you have reached your target time.

It’s also important to go to bed earlier. If you are having difficulties of doing that, remember the point #1: What is important? If you are willing to give up watching the TV in the evening, you can go to bed earlier and wake up earlier as well.

Conclusion

It’s quite understandable that you don’t have all the time for your blog as what you’d like to have. This is especially true if you are working full time; you have a family or have other commitments.

Still, you can build a blog even if you otherwise have a busy schedule. It takes just a little of planning and prioritizing to make it happen.

Anyway, give these strategies a try and let me know how they work. Also, share your strategies in the comment area!

Over to you: How do you find time for your blog if you have a busy schedule?

This kind of person is responsible of turning the visual website layouts created by the graphic designer to fully functional web pages. In other words, a site builder is working with technologies like HTML and CSS style sheets to make this happen.

I started learning HTML back in 1995 and ever since I have wanted to become a site builder. Building web pages has been my passion for almost 20 years now.

Before starting this blog, I planned of opening my own web design business. However, things never lead to a concrete level on this dream and I gave up on it. This happened back in 2008 and after that I very actively put all the web design and development stuff on the background.

Now, all of a sudden, I got this new job and my head was full of this design and development ideas. Even though I was excited, I was a bit worried too. Back in 2008 I was a web programmer and I was immersing myself with the topic both at work and at home – by learning everything I could about it. And now that I was about to start with a new job, I was “afraid” that this same thing would happen again. The biggest question was: how I could fit yet another thing to my already full schedule (outside the office hours)?

I blog about what I’m truly passionate about and now that I had rediscovered my lost passion again, I was afraid that I had to make decisions between them – was I forced to have only one blog with a new topic (web design/development) and just ignore the current blog and it’s productivity topic?

Lifestyle advice is sometimes little too straightforward

Here is the thing: A very common advice is to pick just one of your passions, focus on it and forget the rest. While that makes sense, I also started to question it: Why can’t you have multiple passions that you could pursue at the same time?

In my case, productivity is not the only interest of mine. In fact, I have others like:

• Marathons and triathlons
• Healthy nutrition
• Organizing my home
• Blogging
• Weather
• Web design and development

Now, any of these topics could be pursued to the stage where I could become a recognized expert and authority in this particular area. But for the most of the time, they were just “hanging along” since the common advice tells you to pick just one passion and become good at it.

While it makes sense to do so in the majority of these topics, there were still couple areas that I was more passionate about than others. Also, in some cases what really annoyed me was that I never discovered how far I could go with the things that I’m passionate about. Especially the web design and development was one of these areas.

Contrary to the common wisdom I said “screw it” and I decided to pursue another passion – and become a very good at it: that already mentioned web design and development.

Listening others rather than to yourself

All this frustration I had about “just picking one” was because I was only listening to the advice of others. In a way I didn’t want to take responsibility of my own life and my decisions and it was easier when I let other people to decide what’s good for me.

I just wasn’t also listening to my own instincts. Instead when listening to others, I bypassed my own inner voice, since it was the easiest way out of the situation.

I have learned that even managing one passion through a blog requires a lot of work, so there was the obvious dilemma which I had to solve: If I was about to pursue this other passion of mine (web design), how was I supposed to manage my time effectively? I was already busy with my day job, family, my sports activities and this blog that you are reading right now.

My mind had a lot of questions, but then I started to Google around.

PuttyLike and combining your multiple passions

I happened to found a site called PuttyLike which is run by Emilie. She is one of the people that can be called “multipotentiale” (or a scanner) – in other words, a person who has multiple passions.

As soon as I entered PuttyLike, I realized that not only was it OK to have multiple passions, but in many ways you could do it by combining them together through a common denominator: a blog.

I took the time to brainstorm and I really wanted to see how to fit this other big topic into my already busy life. As a result, I had already found some ideas that I instantly became excited about.

Anyway, the next step was to figure out a plan on how to execute both of these passions in parallel – without overwhelming myself.

So what if you are a scanner?

If you have multiple passions and you’d like to pursue them all, but you are not quite sure how to manage the situation, consider the following “blueprint”:

1. Know yourself. Take a DISC test to learn more about yourself. In my case, I did a test on Tony Robbins site and even if you have to give your name and e-mail address to get it, it’s worth it.

Go through the results and analyze them carefully. For instance, I learned that a person like me has very strong time management skills so that lead me to start this blog. Also, my aesthetic value was very high (which is defined as “Places great importance in finding a good work-life balance, creating more than destroying and artistic self-expression.”). This made sense, since I have always been into user interface design myself and I just love to see beautiful webpages on the web.

2. Take your time. I’m a very fortunate: I can explore my passion already at work as a site builder. At the same time I have given myself a permission to start another blog  and see how things turn out. And if they turn out well, who knows what is going to happen ;)

3. Give yourself a pat on the back. Understand that you have a lot of possibilities to explore and you can combine things to create something truly unique. Not all the people have this ability, so you should be grateful about it. Having multiple passions is really an awesome thing!

4. Combine the areas if possible. If possible, combine your passions somehow. For instance, idea that came up when I brainstormed of combining productivity and web design/development topics was to design my next Productive Superdad WordPress theme myself and document the whole thing.

That’s one way to do it, but there are other things on my mind as well. If you are in a similar situation than me, just sit down for a minute and write down your ideas without censoring yourself.

5. Run them separately. Remember that I said that I’d like to blog about the topics I’m truly passionate about? Well, I can now publicly declare that if things go as planned, I’m about to start another blog which is related to web design (later this year).

This new blog is going to be a low-maintenance one and it’s going to publish articles maybe once per month. That’s how I make sure I’m not jeopardizing this blog and that I have enough time to focus on Productive Superdad.

6. Figure out the support passions. As mentioned, I have number of passions. And even if all of them could be pursued further, it’s reasonable to keep certain ones as “support passions.”

For instance, my passion for sports and healthy nutrition is going to support my creativity related to productivity and web design. I don’t need to start a blog about them, but rather, when I exercise or eat healthy food, I get all these great ideas for writings about or for web design.

Conclusion

People are advised to pick just one passion and focus on it. However, in many cases we have multiple passions and just dumping the rest doesn’t sound right.

Remember that it’s OK to be “multipotentiale” and you can even combine your multiple passions to form something very unique that doesn’t exist elsewhere.

Just take your time, do some brainstorming and you’ll find out exciting ways to live with fully with all of your passions in your life.

Over to you: How do you combine your multiple passions?

Key Takeaways

• Sharpening the saw: Improve yourself physically, spriritually or mentally on a daily basis
• Understand that whenever you are starting a new habit, there is always a internal resistance
• Use implementation intentions to create new habits (see shownotes for more info)
• “Your direction not your intentions helps you get into a destination”
• You should know your “why” behind your habits
• If you are doing habits long enough, you can feel the rewards
• Get yourself an accountability partner
• Implement an early morning walk habit

Shownotes and Resources

• The Principle of the Path
• The Slight Edge

• Podcast length (26:32)
• Transcript (Not yet available)
• Subscribe to my show on iTunes (and rate it too!)

• @SimpleLifeHabit on Twitter
• Simple Life Habits

At the same time you have to make sure that you are not spending too much of your hours on just your business and that you spend more time with your family as well.

Yes, it seems impossible to build a business in this scenario, but I beg to differ. With some smart planning and observation, you can do all this while having a day job.

Consider these prerequisites first

In this post I’m listing 10 different ways to get work done when you are a dad and working part-time on your business. But before that, you have to make sure you understand the following ideas first, so that you can even increase the time you can have for your business.

• Cut down the commitments

It’s absolutely necessary that you cut down on all of the extra commitments that you currently have. This way you can free-up your time and do something meaningful instead (like building your business).

Sit down and take a critical look at what you are doing, what magazines you are subscribing to, what newsletters fill your inbox or what other activities you have. Ask yourself if any of these things bring value to your life. If the answer is no, then it’s time to let go of them.

• Identify the recurring patterns

This tip is especially for those dads, who have small children in the household and the purpose is to be aware of recurring patterns that your children have.

Here is what I did and what you can do too: Last summer I tried to gain a better understanding on what kinds of sleeping habits my baby had. The way I implemented this was by doing some time tracking.

The results helped me to find the right spots of the day to work on. Of course, sleeping habits change as your child grows up, but knowing about my son’s approximate schedules was very valuable for timing my work (he was around 8 months when I did the tracking).

• Be ready for anything

When there are kids in the family, anything can happen. Therefore, you have to understand that sometimes your schedules can change – no matter how well you planned them.

For instance, a couple of times my plans changed completely when my son woke-up in the middle of the night. I went to calm him down and waking up and staying up naturally disturbed my own sleep.

During these times I realized it was impossible to wake up with the original plan (around 5.30am). When I wasn’t able to wake up early, the rest of the schedules changed as well.

As soon as you realize the dynamic nature of children, you have to learn to be more flexible. The sooner you have this trait (and I guess most dads have this trait already :), the smoother things will go. Also, you will be less frustrated if things are not going as planned.

• Feel grateful of gradual steps

It goes without saying that family life can be hectic at times. Also, you may feel that building a business may be just impossible, since you have so much else to do.

I acknowledge this myself, but I make things easier by understanding that no matter how little I can get done on certain days, it’s still better than nothing. Being able to work on your business like 15-30 minutes on some days is better than not working at all.

Remember that all of the work you do is taking you closer to your goals and the time on your business   - no matter how little is spent – there is never a time that it is wasted.

Identifying those valuable time pockets

It’s now time to get into those ten time pockets that this post is about. I have used these strategies myself so I know they work. So without any further ado, let’s dive in!

1. Work during the morning

I tend to wake up earlier than my family (around 5.30 – 06.00 am), so that I can start working on my blog or work on other blog-related projects.

Mornings are the most valuable time for me as they help me to get most of the online business stuff done for the day. I identify the tasks for the day the night before and I make sure I work on the most valuable ones first when I wake up.

How much time I have each morning depends on two factors: If I happen to get to bed late, I’ll wake up later, thus I have less time to work on my business. Also, as soon as my almost 1.5 year old son wakes up, I know that it becomes almost impossible to work, as he wants my attention (by doing some crazy stunts or by just making enough noise :).

• The average time gain: Anything between 1-3 hours.

2. Work during the nap times

This is my other “favorite” time pocket. Working during this time is possible on weekends or on vacations when I’m not at the office.

I tend to take a 20 minute power naps with the rest of the family, but as soon as I have woken up, I start working on my blog. Taking power naps increases my productivity, since I can fully focus on what I’m doing.

• The average time gain: Anything between 1-3 hours.

3. Work when your spouse is watching television

Usually I work before going to work, but I’m doing some work during the evenings as well. Right now, my son goes to bed around 8pm, so that leaves approximately three hours to spend with my wife before we go to bed.

However, if my wife happens to watch her favorite TV shows in the evening, that’s a perfect time for me to work on my blog.

• The average time gain: Approximately one hour.

4. Take advantage of an unexpected time block

Sometimes something unexpected happens and you have some extra time on your hands. However, if you prepare well enough, you can maximize the available time.

When I have this kind of time block on my hands, I make sure I know what my next action is. This way I can get started with my tasks right away, without pondering what to do next. Being well-prepared is the key and it helps a great deal with your productivity.

• The average time gain: Depends of the situation; It could be anything from couple of minutes to even hours.

5. Give your spouse some free time

When you were a single guy, you had all the time to do your stuff. However, when you have a family, you have to think of others as well.

Especially if you have children, you have to make sure you give enough personal free time for your spouse so that she can do whatever she likes (while you take care of the kids). When you give this chance for your spouse, he/she feels more energized as he/she is not tied to children all the time.

When giving your spouse some time of him/her own, it’s easier for you to ask some time for yourself as well.

• The average time gain:  Anything from 30 minutes to 2 hours (this really depends of the situation).

6. Go mobile

I like to educate myself as much as possible, but sometimes it seems it’s impossible as my days are busy and my family wants my attention.

That’s why I like to do mobilize my learning. If I know that might have to wait on a line somewhere, I take my Kindle with me. Or if I’m driving to somewhere with my bike, I’m listening to podcasts with my MP3 player.

This way I can take advantage of the transfer times or when I’m waiting something on the line.

• The average time gain: Anything from couple of minutes to half an hour.

7. Have a babysitter

Sooner or later there is going to be a situation where you and your spouse would like to do something and you can’t look after your kids. That’s when you have two options:

a) You can hire a babysitter. Naturally you want to hire someone who is reliable and that you can count on.

b) Ask your grandparents to help. For instance, we have used this option many times and it has worked perfectly for us (my son’s grandparents lives only couple of miles away from our home).

When you have a babysitter, you can get a lot of work done by using a Super Wednesday Method.

• The average time gain: Hours.

8. Just ask

Sometimes you just have to ask your spouse if it’s OK to do some work. Sure, in those cases the time is taken off the mutual family time, but at times this is necessary. For instance, I might have a podcast recording which usually takes place during the evening hours.

The only way that I can have this time for myself is to ask my wife if it’s OK to do this. I also make sure I mark the date/time down to our family calendar.

Doing those small things help you to keep your family up-to-date on what you are doing (thus giving you the chance to focus on your work).

• The average time gain:  30 minutes to 2 hours (this depends of the situation).

9. Business trips

Business trips give me a lot of time to work on my blog. For instance, the train rides alone give me couple of hours of time to spend building my online business. If I happen to stay on a hotel, which gives me even more time to work on my blog and do other projects.

When I know that a business trip is coming, I make sure I’m well prepared: I have all the material ready on my laptop, I have a backup Internet connection with me if needed and I have the necessary reference material (books) with me.

• The average time gain:  Anything from couple of hours up to 10-15 hours (it depends of the length of the trip).

10. Vacations and weekends

Naturally the vacations and weekends give more time to spend on your business.

I’ll then most likely work during the early morning hours, during the nap times in the afternoons and in the evenings when my wife is watching television. This way I can get my work done but I also have a chance to spend time with my family.

• The average time gain: From 30 minutes up to five hours.

Conclusion

As you can now see, my daily life (and yours too) is full of time pockets that can be taken advantage of. Once you see those pockets, it’s easy to stay productive and build your business on the side.

But hey, this is just me … why don’t you share your tips on this topic: How are you able to find time for building your business? I know that a lot of people would be interested in this, so leave your comment and share your experiences with the rest of us.

This is a guest post by Francis Wade.

One of the key distinctions that gets played out in my book, “Bill’s Im-Perfect Time Management Adventure,” is that there’s a big difference between owning your own productivity system and following one that’s defined by someone else.

The original problem

A short background on the book: Bill, a project manager and engineer who is working overtime to play three separate roles in his company, receives news that he just might be laid off. His productivity isn’t up to par, and he needs to improve his time management skills in order to save his job.

He tries everything – including taking advice from Vernon, a colleague who follows a detailed set of behaviors laid out in a popular time management book. Vernon turns out to be something of a Productivity Nazi who insists that the book must be followed to the letter; his total commitment turns Bill’s life into a living hell.

The problem has many dimensions, as does real-life. A part of it has to do with Vernon’s irascible personality, and his view that Bill is a threat to his own ambitions.

But a huge part comes from the assumption that one person who discovers a new level of personal productivity can successfully tell others exactly what they need to do as well. The book questions this premise, and Bill eventually discovers that most of the readers of this popular time management book don’t follow everything in it.

In fact, they do their own thing, using bits and pieces of the book. Vernon hates this fact, and actively bullies those who try to take a piecemeal approach. Bill, however, champions it and says that it’s just a reality: as adults, changing our habits, practices and rituals is hard work and people fail when they try to change too much all at once. Instead, to preserve their sanity, they try to get by doing just enough to see an improvement.

Why the conventional wisdom fails

This makes sense: time management systems are put together over several years, and by the time we become adults they are already hard-wired. A book that only focuses on prescribing a “perfect” set of behaviors is just too hard for most people to follow given that they aren’t starting from scratch. Quantum leaps in ingrained behaviors just don’t happen in reality very often – even Mozart wasn’t born playing the piano!

In the book, Bill reasons that because we put together our own systems to begin with, the best improvements need to be focused on the individual’s needs. Hence, we need to deepen the ownership of our systems rather than focus on following any external set of behaviors.

While Vernon has no room for this particular outcome, Bill spends a great deal of his adventure encouraging others to shift their attention to ownership, helping them to direct their motivation for change internally versus externally.

Fortunately for Bill he learns from Graham Riley, an academic, that this approach happens to match the latest research showing the value of taking small, customized steps to accomplish individual, specific goals. When we make the shift to ownership and it gathers steam, the following steps naturally take place, and they provide the outline for Bill’s adventure in the book.

How to shift from followership to ownership in 5 questions

1.  “What Have I Been Doing All These Years?”

We start becoming curious about our current system, and the ways that it works and doesn’t work so well. The fact that there are both strong and weak points helps us focus on preserving the strong ones while trying to build up the weak, saving time and effort. A good diagnosis can highlight these areas.

2. “What Can I Begin to Fix?”

We start to make plans to correct the faults that have almost inevitably crept in because our systems were self-created. However, without a knowledge of the design rules, it’s tough to build complex systems such as helicopters, televisions or tablets. Time management systems are just as complex and a good plan will start by correcting the obvious faults.

3. “How Can I Meet Higher Goals?”

After the faults have been fixed, we start to be interested in getting even better, and making longer term improvement plans. The need may come from our inability to manage all the current demands on our time, or perhaps from an anticipated need for greater capacity. In any case, we set goals and then translate them into small steps, following the latest research into changing habits and practices.

4. “Should I Create a Plan?”

The small steps identified in #3 are converted into a realistic plan lasting months or years. Many of us don’t have the patience for this process to take place, but there are no shortcuts. World-class piano playing doesn’t take place without a multi-year effort, and neither does world-class time management. The plans we create should look do-able, achievable and focus on laying out small steps over time. When they are this inviting, they are more likely to be successful.

5. “What Supports Do I Need?”

Once we have a plan, we put in place supports to help us make the transition. Habit change is hard, and we each need our own supports to supplement the inevitable drop in willpower that takes place.

In the book, Bill learns that there are simply no shortcuts to great performance, and given the facts that we know about time management with the habits, practices and rituals that we have taught ourselves over the years, it’s better to take a conservative approach and try to increase the odds of success at every turn.

The truth is – a LOT of people fail when they try to make productivity gains. Most who attend a program or purchase a book don’t succeed. A great deal of this takes place because we make Vernon’s mistake of followership, and don’t realize that it’s better to take ownership. It might be a less obvious and more challenging road to follow, but it’s the only one that leads to the long term improvement that we all want so much.

Bill’s Im-Perfect Time Management Adventure is available on Amazon.com.

Traditionally, work has dictated our boundaries between work time and free time: For instance if you work at the office, usually you go to work at 9 am and leave your workplace at 5 pm.

On the other hand, things get more complicated when you are working on your personal projects or starting/ running your own business on the side. If you are in this situation, you know you have a limited time budget available for those things. And because of this limiting factor, it’s quite natural to maximize your personal time in order to move forward with your side projects.

However, there is a risk involved when you maximize too much and this can threaten to shake the balance and well-being in your family. If you are facing this situation, you have to make a decision: Do you value the time with your family more or the time with your passion and your projects?

The problem is that if you focus too much on yourself and your needs, you’ll neglect the family and this could have very serious consequences in the long run. In other words, it’s not enough to have a perfect work-life balance (between your day job and your free time), you also need to have a “work-wife” balance inside your free time where you balance the time between your projects and your family (NOTE: replace the word wife in “work-wife” balance with husband, kids, family or anything that describes your situation the best).

I know that for many of us finding that balance is very difficult. Especially if you are building your business on the side, you need the extra time to get it off the ground. And unfortunately, that time is taken off your family time. However, you can minimize this with a couple of steps I’m about to show you.

Free time: See the different blocks

Consider the areas your free time consists of:

a) Your time
b) Your spouse’s time
c) Time with your family
d) Time with your spouse

In the best case scenario you have an equal amount of time for all these four areas on a daily basis. However, if you happen to work late in your day job, that balance is going to be disturbed very easily and in the worst case, you have time only for yourself.

Still, let’s assume that this is not an issue and you have roughly six hours of free time after you get back home from work (in this scenario you get home by 5.30 pm and go to bed around 11.30 pm). So how do you split your time between those four areas?

Quite soon you’ll realize that it becomes pretty much impossible to have equal time blocks during the weekdays for each one of those areas.  However, in order to keep a healthy balance with yourself and your family, you’ll have to think about what your priorities are and make the necessary adjustments to your daily rhythm, so that the balance is as good as possible.

It’s time to give up!

So how do you make sure that you can keep working with your projects and have a healthy balance with yourself and your family – in addition to working from 9 to 5? Consider these three suggestions:

First, it’s all about flexibility. If you know that your spouse wants to do something, be ready to shift the starting time of your own things if possible. For instance, it’s not mandatory for me to go to exercise right after getting back home from work. That worked when we didn’t have kids, but it’s a different story now.

When you are willing to add some flexibility to the mix, you can give your spouse a needed break from taking care of the kids or the household all day long. On the other hand, if one family member is not satisfied with his/her situation – in other words things are not in balance – it’ll reflect to the whole family’s well-being.

Then, give up on some of your habits. For instance, if you are used of staying up late, then maybe you should try to go to bed earlier. Assuming that you are getting at least 7 hours of sleep every night, this small change would make you to wake up earlier. All of a sudden you have some extra time for doing some of your personal stuff when your family is sleeping.

Finally, just give up temporarily on something personal for your spouse or for your family. In my case, I gave up racing in triathlons and marathons for the next two to three years, because I wanted to spend more time with my family and devote more time to building my online business.

It’s time to make that shift … are you ready?

OK, so now you know what to do in order to have a better balance inside your free time. Here are the steps I do to make sure I have time for both my family and building my online business while working in a day job:

1. Realize the true nature of the balance. Understand that your free time is not just one big chunk of time – it consists of four different areas.

You rarely can have a perfect balance on a daily basis, but the more you put your family as priority number one, things stay on a healthy level.

2. Wake up early. Some of you might say: “I can’t do that; I’m not a morning person.” You know what? – I wasn’t either and here I am writing this story around 6 o’clock! I think that it’s just a matter of choosing to become one rather than saying that I can’t do it.

You can either make a sudden or a smooth transition to early wake-ups. I did the former myself, but in your case you could decide first to define a target wake-up time. Then, make a transition by waking up 10-15 minutes earlier each week and eventually you will have reached the target time.

There is no use of trying to define impossible wake-up times, like 4.30 every morning -just pick the one that you are comfortable with. Whatever your time is, you’ll realize that you get more work done when you wake up earlier.

3. Let go of your hobbies – temporarily. Sometimes you’ll just have to give up on something that you are passionate about. In my case it was the decision of stop running marathons or racing in triathlons for the next couple of years.

You’ll have to understand what matters the most in your life and prioritize things accordingly. In my case it was my family and building my online business. Also, when you realize that the decision is just temporary, it’ll make it easier.

4. Ask your spouse what she likes to do. When I get back home from work, I ask my wife what she would like to do. Most likely she wants to have her personal time and I take care of our son during that time. This is nice and it’s a win-win situation: I have a chance to spend time one-on-one time with my son while my wife can take a breather and have her personal time.

With this small question, you can really improve and strengthen the balance inside your family.

5. See his/her point of view. The last time I blogged about when my wife was gone for two days on a seminar and I spent time alone with my son. It was really an eye opener for me as I could really understand what it was like to take care of a 1 year and 3 months year old toddler for the majority of the day.

Put yourself into the same situation. When you do that, it’s so much easier to give your spouse his/her own time when he/she asks. Also, you can truly appreciate what he/she is doing when you are at work.

This also works the other way around: It’s much easier for your spouse to give you some time to work on your projects when you are flexible and give him/her time he/she wants.

6. Maximize the free time. Make sure that you plan your work well in advance and that you have the readiness to start working as soon as possible when your personal time blocks starts. For instance, when you work in the mornings or during the times when your family is taking a nap, you can get started right away and you don’t have to ponder what to do next.

Also, if you ever encounter unexpected time blocks, know your next action. This way you can maximize your time and get more done.

My Sample Weekday

• 05:30 am: Waking up
• 05:50 am: Work on my projects
• 07:30 am: A breakfast with my family
• 08:15 am: Going to gym
• 09:00 am: Going to work
• 5:00 pm: Getting back to home from work
• 5:15 pm: My wife has her free time as I take care of our son
• 6:45 pm: Exercising
• 08:00  pm: Dinner
• 09:00 pm: TV time / checking e-mails
• 10:30 pm: Getting ready to go to bed

On weekends the structure is different: I have more time to spend with my family and also do my personal stuff as I can work when my wife/son are taking a nap.

Conclusion

As you can see, you need to have a balance inside your free time as well – not just between work time and your free time. However, at times you may find it difficult to find a good balance between each of those four main areas I talked about.

However, if you are flexible enough, this will make things easier. Just make sure that you don’t dedicate the time outside the day job too much for your own stuff. If you prioritize time for your family as well, it’ll increase the well-being and everyone will be happier.

Over to you: How do you balance your free time?

I interviewed Ann Max of Productive To The Max about this topic and she shared great advice on how to manage your priorities effectively.

Check the podcast and leave your comment regarding priorities and goal setting. Ann will answer your comments and questions as soon as they show up.

Key Takeaways

• Technology has changed our lives – we have more information to process than earlier
• We end up taking on too much
• We have to be aware of what is important to us both personally and professionally
• The most important priorities affect our bottom line, our relationships or our health
• Put your passion as your number one priority
• Don’t let others to define your priorities
• Create a process after you know your goal
• You can’t measure a total goal
• Learn the organization habit, manage your the time you got and communicate well
• Write down your priorities and create action plans for each one of them

Shownotes and Resources

• Click here to read the transcript (PDF)
• Podcast length (26:13)
• Not yet available (PDF)
• Subscribe to my show on iTunes (and rate it too!)

• @Prodtomax on Twitter
• Productive To The Max

• Attack Your Day

This is a guest post by Haim Pekel.

If you aspire to walk the Hometrepreneur path, you must wear the entrepreneurial boots, and boots, my friend, were made for walking!

Everyone knows that working from home requires sitting on your butt for a few months (at least), in the same room, grinding it out, day-in and day-out to achieve deadlines and goals you’ve set for yourself.  You do that with hopes of creating something out of nothing.  Let me tell you, nothing in your life will compare to this period. No challenge can ever prepare you for this type of endeavor.  If you don’t learn how to commit and focus in a relatively isolated environment, you’ll surely fail.

To improve your odds of success, make sure you have extracurricular (non-work) activities; make sure you have fun! You probably thought I was going to tell you to take it on the chin and keep working hard (well that too).

Why should you? Because it is a make or break period full of challenges.  It can send even the most productive “ex-employee/would-be entrepreneur” running back to the safety and stability of the more social employment circle.  Yes, if you fail to socialize while you’re working from home, you’ll probably fail also as a Hometrepreneur.

We’re social beings with social needs and we’re required to polish our cognitive skills with other people on a daily basis. That’s why you have to become a master in managing and controlling all matters social.  You need to maintain a framework with boundaries that will combine your work and social activities, here’s how…

Maintain Solid Boundaries: time, space and relationships

Other people don’t take working from home seriously.  They don’t treat your home office hours as they would treat hours spent in an office away from home. They tend to imagine that you’re having fun on the internet or playing games all day. You know that’s not the case. You’re working long hours to produce what sometimes seem like meager results.  Often, you are in conflict with your environment.

You see and feel the pressure to be like everyone else everywhere.  Back in the old days, it was more extreme of course; if you didn’t convert to the majority’s religion or looked slightly different, people would regard you as a heretic and persecute you.

Today, thankfully, it calmed down a bit, but you can still feel society’s assimilation pull on you.  If you’re not in the circle, you get questions that might make you feel unpleasant about what you do; even if those questions are asked with the best of intentions.

There’s a good reason why it feels that way. It’s imprinted in us.  We must follow the group’s behavior; it doesn’t matter if you belong to a group of rebels or a group of billionaires.  Everyone who diverts is regarded as an outsider; outsiders, in our primitive past, were regarded as danger. That’s why they’ll try to assimilate you or get rid of you.

The best way to deal with those intrusions is to set unbreakable ground rules. Your time at work is not an opportunity to socialize in a coffee shop, you can do that after; set strict hours of operation. The room you work in is not a nursery or a public room; it’s your stronghold for work objectives only.  The most sensitive one issue: your relationships with your family (who share the same space as you) should be limited during work hours to professional activities only.

Nay Sayers will say nay, no matter what you’ll do. You’ll have to live with it without trying to prove them wrong because it’s a waste of energy.

We tend to become self-righteous hermits and isolate ourselves when the going gets though

For some reason, when there’s a lot of work to be done and we can’t see the end, we’re the first to condemn ourselves to solitude; slaving day and night without seeing anyone. The reason you ask? It’s FEAR, fear of leaving the eggshell we created at home, fear of the accumulated tasks we’ve been putting off, fear of what the outside world will have to say about our new relatively income-less occupation, and the list goes on.

Like most fears that derive from pride, the dialog behind this fear is internal. No one can offer you help when you reach the “hermit stage” because you’ll defend what you do tooth and nail.  It’s like a gambler on a losing streak who’s waiting for the one hand of blackjack that will save him.

Socializing and exposing yourself to likeminded people can help you break that hold.  It’ll fuel creative juices, reconnect you to what’s important, and ensure you don’t divert from your targeted goals. You must fight the hermit mind frame and maintain social activities because it’s one of your only anchors to reality at this stage.

Social activities and environments during and after work hours can include:

• Exercising with other people (and socializing on the way).  You’ll get two birds because exercising will make sure your mind remains sharp for longer hours at work, pumping oxygen better to your brain, improving your health and increasing productivity.

• Entrepreneurial gatherings such as conventions, meet-ups, and conferences hold great appeal both in the networking department and in the socializing arena. They can help you gain a foothold in an exclusive club and widen your network of connections.  This opens new opportunities for you and your project, helping you return back to your home office with renewed vigor to tackle anything.

• Work hubs/lounges provide both a place to work and likeminded people to socialize with. You’ll get out of your home office environment to a workspace that functions as an office for all purposes.  Plus the added benefit of having other professionals who are bent on making it on their own just like you.

In the previous company I built, I worked for almost two years from home: making phone calls, running errands, filing reports, selling, writing, creating, designing, learning, the works! Only after those two years, after working almost day and night from home, I was able to move into an office environment. I learned the following social lessons while at home, the hard way.

I’m Haim Pekel, IQTELL’s Marketing Director. I’d like to invite you to join us on our GTD app IQTELL. On our Getting Things Done App you’ll be a part of a highly communicative community supported by a team of GTD experts who love what they do!…Contact us on our Google+ account if you’d like an app grand tour!

During the weekdays, my wife spends the most of the day with our son and especially right now things are more demanding than ever before. Our son is 1 year and 4 months old – in other words he is a toddler.

Now, anyone who has kids understands that this is a very hectic part of your children’s life: They walk around, carry stuff from your kitchen to your bedroom, empty the drawers, jump on the sofa and my favorite – climb onto every possible object out there.

Because of all this, I can truly value my wife and what she is going through on a daily basis. Still, I have had only a small “window” to this world as I’m working full time. This was about to change as my wife announced a while ago that she was going to participate to a two-day seminar and that I had to take care of our son during that time.

I had never been alone with my son that much before. That’s why I asked myself: “How was I going to be able to manage those two days with a toddler who is doing these crazy stunts all day and who needs to be watched every second?”

I didn’t know the answer to this and quite frankly, I was a little bit nervous about what was coming.

Am I gonna make it?

It seemed that there were so many things to remember when spending the weekend with him: What to eat, how to dress him when going outside (it’s winter here), changing diapers, feeding him … So many tasks and although I had done each of those tasks separately before, it was now my responsibility to handle this stuff for almost two days – all by myself.

The other thing that I kept asking myself was: “How was I going to make it physically?” I know, I’m an athlete and I’m in a good shape, but I also knew that taking care of a toddler is a different kind of physical exercise. It’s more spontaneous and nothing like a race where there is a clear start and an end.

Finally, I was thinking of my days from productivity’s perspective as well: As I’m pretty busy with this blog and other projects, I was afraid that those two days were going to be the most unproductive ever. I was mentally prepared, that I wasn’t going to get that much done during the weekend.

I had quite a few questions and expectations towards the weekend. Still, even I if was a bit nervous about what was coming, I was also fascinated to see how things would turn out.

Experiencing something new

So, what was really causing this confusion about the coming weekend? Well, I figured that there was only one reason: Facing the unknown.

I hadn’t been in a situation like this before, so it was natural to set unrealistic expectations in my head about it. I was facing the unknown territory which put me outside my comfort zone.

It’s quite easy to start making things up in your head when you don’t have your first-hand experience about the topic. And although I knew that I was capable of handling the situation, I fell to the trap of doubting myself about my capabilities of being able to manage  the weekend well.

So silly – I know. Yet, this is exactly what I was doing and many dads must be nervous too when they are in a similar situation.

I’m an adult, I can handle it!

Eventually I decided that enough is enough – no more of these silly and unrealistic thoughts: I’m going to make it through the weekend! There were actually a couple of things that gave me the self-confidence to think so.

First, I knew that others had faced the similar situation and they had made it perfectly. I knew that I could do it too and this gave me the positive mental boost when I remembered this fact.

Second, all I needed to do was to ask some instructions on how to make through the days. I asked my wife about the things I should remember and once I had a “cheat sheet” written down, things were already easier.

Finally, I had the help of my own parents available if I needed it. Luckily, they were just a phone call away (and leave nearby anyway) I could call them if I needed. Just knowing that I could get help calmed me down.

Put the fear away with these five steps

Eventually the weekend came and … I made it :). If you are spending time alone together with your child for the first time, remember these things:

1. Learn the essential information in advance. Ask as much information from your spouse in advance and write it down, for example about the clothing, about the foods or just about the daily rhythm. When you have the necessary information ready, it makes things easier.

2. Play out full. Focus on your child when you are with him/her. Decide not to open the computer and spend time online when he/she is awake – you have time to do it some other time. Be present because that’s what your child appreciates as well.

3. Maximize your time pockets. Most likely your child has a rhythm he/she lives by, so it’s important to learn about it advance. For instance, my son went to his afternoon nap around 12.30 PM, so I was ready to work during that time.

I made sure (as always) that I had all the material ready before my time block started and that I was well-prepared. That way I could start working on my projects as soon as possible.

4. Enjoy and have fun! Play with your child, read with him/her, go outside … do all the fun stuff and the time will fly. Truly enjoy and appreciate the time you spend with your kid – it’s a great way to get your mind away from your work stuff!

5. Give space to your spouse. Appreciate what your spouse is doing. Remember that when you are working, he/she is probably doing a lot of work with your children already. That’s why you should happily give him/her time with his/her own activities. Your spouse’s happiness reflects to the whole family’s well-being, so that’s why this is very important.

Conclusion

I really enjoyed the time I spent with my son and I’m more than happy to have these weekenders again. It also gave me a great perspective to what my wife experiences during the weekdays when I’m working.

If you are about to spend time together with your child, just relax and remember that everything is going to be alright. Mostly, it’s just these silly thoughts that we have in our heads that make the whole thing too complicated. Once you get past these thoughts, everything is going to just fine.

Over to you: Can you remember the first time you spent time alone with your children? What was it like? How did you prepare for it?