I’ve been on the road a reasonable amount lately with my Boston, CA, and FL trips. Since CA was last Thursday/Friday, and then Florida was Mon/Tues/Wed this week, it had been a bit since I was last at my desk for a full day.
Yesterday I finally got a “desk day” and wow, it is a reminder how much stuff you can crank through when you’re not going anywhere! I had two scheduled things (I interviewed someone and someone interviewed me) but other than that was just at my desk more or less from 8:30-5.
During this time I managed to plan the weekend plus the week, schedule and follow up on various publicity related things, record ads plus a week of Before Breakfast episodes (I’d written the scripts on the plane), load a week’s worth of Vanderhacks into Substack (I had also written these on the plane), apply for and get a visa for a country I’m speaking in later this year (I was impressed it was that fast!), deal with various forms, etc. I then practiced my music for my church choir, which I was feeling a bit behind on. So now I am feeling a lot more caught up. Phew.
This week’s content…over at Before Breakfast my longer show was an episode highlighting some of my favorite tips from the first year of Before Breakfast! The show is now 7 years old (launched in March 2019) so it was fun to revisit some old episodes.
In the short episodes I talked about “Is it a hobby or a necessity?” People spend wildly varying amounts of time on things that do have to be done, but perhaps not to the degree they are sometimes done. Feeding your family is a necessity. Spending an hour trying a new recipe every night is a hobby. Hobbies are great! But it’s important to recognize them as such. I also suggest it’s wise to “Don’t leave it all on the field.” For most things in life, sustainability over the long haul will do more than short term all-out effort.
Over at Vanderhacks, my Substack newsletter, I wrote about the phrase “You made it happen.” Just because you didn’t do something all yourself doesn’t mean you weren’t ultimately responsible for the outcome. Using all the tools at our disposal can expand our influence while saving time. I suggested that one “Let limits help you make choices.” I also wrote that it is wise to “Keep a suitcase partially packed.” This definitely makes packing easier and keeps me from forgetting things! Behind the paywall I wrote about “13 tweaks that make your to-do list more doable” and then an update on my Winter Fun List.
Next week I am recording the audio book for Big Time! If you enjoy reading my work, please consider pre-ordering a copy of the book, which will be out May 5. Pre-orders help show retailers that demand will be strong. You can find links to all major retailers through Norton’s page for the book. Thank you for supporting me and my work!
Preordered, can’t wait to read!
@Elisa – thank you! I really appreciate it.