order in my life | Jackie Parry

Last month I published my second book. Then I started a marketing frenzy and I found that I had no time to do what I want – write!

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All I seemed to do was read about writing. So I took action. First, I read some more! And I found two sayings that struck a cord with me:

“No one has time, we make time.”

And

“Time is a created thing. To say ‘I don’t have time,’ is like saying, ‘I don’t want to.’” Lao Tzu

I want to write – and I want to make time, so I did!

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Here’s my seven highly effective habits:
1. I set my alarm and got up two hours earlier each day. I can write a lot in two hours. (There’s no one around to interrupt either).
2. I write for one hour before going to bed, after dinner, after TV (yes, I like the diversion of TV), when everyone else is in bed and not bothering me.
3. I calmed down my marketing strategy from boiling to simmering.
4. I decided to quit being a part of some FaceBook groups that are currently not helping me in what I want to achieve, they were just using my time. I can rejoin them later.
5. I adjusted my FB settings on most of the other FB groups to ‘no notifications’ so my email account stopped becoming clogged up, and I stopped becoming constantly diverted.
6. I drew up a weekly schedule of visits to FB groups that I wanted to continue being a part of. There are two groups I look at daily and the rest I look at once or twice a week (not on weekends).
7. I stopped reading everything, joining everything, commenting on everything and trying to be every-where.

Image courtesy of jesadaphorn at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

The results:

I feel in control of my time.
I control FB it no longer controls me.
I am doing what I actually want to do – write.
I am no longer a headless, unproductive chicken. (Well, I am still a bit manic – as an aside to all this, I am learning French, renovating a boat and setting up a training business – phew!)

The proof will be in the pudding. My next book is about a journey with five horses, my husband and a tent. An unsuccessful journey that will leave you laughing hard, and crying harder… a percentage of proceeds will be going to a charity that rescues horses.