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Time Wasters | Be Mindful Of Your Time

Time Wasters | Be Mindful Of Your Time

by | Planning-Organization-Productivity

Michele Duwe from Miss Task | Time Wasters | Be Mindful Of Your Time

Let me just say it—today’s time waster for me? Trying to get Descript to cooperate long enough to record the podcast episode with this blog post. Technology is usually not a huge hurdle for me, but wow… the struggle was real. And ironically, it was the perfect reminder of how easily we can lose time as business owners.

So let’s talk about it. These five time-wasting habits might seem small, but they can quietly derail your progress as a small business owner. I know this because I’ve dealt with every one of them. And if you’re struggling to stay consistent or feel like you’re always behind, chances are one (or more) of these is working against you.

Let’s break them down, one by one—and talk about how to take back control of your time.

Are You Aware of the Time Wasters That Derail Your Success?

Here’s the thing: most small business owners aren’t even aware of how much time they’re losing. And it’s not because you’re lazy. It’s because your brain is wired to stay comfortable. That means you often don’t notice the distractions and habits that are eating up hours of your week.

But those minutes? They add up.

If you want to grow your business, create consistent content, and stop feeling like you’re spinning your wheels, identifying these hidden habits is the first step.

The 5 Time Wasters That Derail Small Business Success

1. Not Tracking How You Spend Your Time

I know, I talk about this all the time—and I’m going to bring it up again next week too. Because the truth is, what you pay attention to improves. If you want to improve your productivity, you need to know where your time is actually going.

Most entrepreneurs think they know. But once they track it? They’re shocked. You realize you’re spending way more time in certain areas than you thought—like bouncing between browser tabs, checking email constantly, or answering pings and messages that honestly could wait.

Here’s the fix:
Just track your time for a week. That’s it. No need to go crazy. Jot down what you’re doing every 30 to 60 minutes. You’ll start to see patterns:

  • Time lost between meetings
  • Admin tasks that overlap
  • “Quick” social scrolls that turn into 20 minutes

Once you’re aware, you can start shifting those habits.

2. Letting Email Run Your Workday

This one hits hard if you’re coming from corporate life. We’re trained to keep our inbox open all day—but as a business owner, that habit will derail your priorities fast.

If your inbox is open all day, you’re constantly reacting instead of leading. It feels productive, but your actual business-building tasks get pushed aside.

One of my favorite quotes is from David Allen:

“Email is other people’s agenda for your time.”

So how do you stop letting your email run the show?

  • Block time on your calendar to check email—just like a meeting.
  • When a request comes in, schedule the task and reply with when you’ll handle it.
  • Stick to your schedule.

This helps you stay responsive, but still protect the things that matter most in your day.

Michele Duwe from Miss Task | Stay Present: Change Your Mindset and Content Creation

3. Mindless Social Media Scrolling

Whew. This is a big one for me too. And I know it’s easy to justify because, “I’m checking DMs,” or “I need to engage with my audience,” or “I’m staying current on trends.” But if we’re honest—most of that scrolling? It’s not actually helping us grow.

Social media is built to keep your attention. That’s literally how the platforms make money. So if you’re not intentional, you can easily spend hours there without even noticing.

Ask yourself:

  • How often am I opening social media during the day?
  • Am I being intentional or just reacting out of habit?
  • Could this time be better spent writing content, serving a client, or even just taking a real break?

Set clear boundaries. Create a process for how and when you engage on social media. Don’t let it become one of the biggest business time wasters to avoid.

Michele Duwe from Miss Task | Time Wasters | Be Mindful Of Your Time

4. Multitasking

Okay, confession time—I catch myself doing this all the time. Even though I know better, I still slip into it. And maybe you do too. You think multitasking helps you get more done, but research shows it actually decreases your productivity.

Each time you jump between tasks—say writing an email and then quickly checking your calendar—your brain has to reset. That mental reset costs you more time and energy than you think.

If you really want to improve your productivity, focus on one task at a time. Batch similar tasks. Eliminate distractions. Give yourself blocks of deep work time when you know you’re at your best.

You’ll get more done—and feel less scattered while doing it.

5. Not Scheduling Based on Priorities

Here’s the sneaky one: your calendar might be full, but that doesn’t mean you’re productive. One of the biggest time wasters that derail business progress is filling your schedule with low-priority tasks.

Instead of reacting to everything that comes up, start getting proactive:

  • At the beginning of each week, identify your top three business priorities.
  • Block out time for those first—before anything else gets scheduled.
  • Protect that time like you would a client meeting.

Remember, your business is a client too. Treat it like one.

When your calendar reflects your real goals—not just your to-do list—you make real progress.

Michele Duwe from Miss Task | Time Wasters | Be Mindful Of Your Time

Take Back Control of Your Time

If any of these habits sound familiar, don’t beat yourself up. They’re common, and they’re sneaky. But the good news is: you can change them.

Let’s do a quick recap:

5 Time Wasters That Derail Your Success:

  1. Not tracking how you spend your time
  2. Letting email control your day
  3. Mindless social media scrolling
  4. Multitasking instead of deep work
  5. Filling your calendar with the wrong priorities

Start small. Pick one time-wasting habit to shift this week. That’s it. You don’t need to overhaul your life—just start noticing, and then take one step forward.

When you take control of your time, you take control of your results.

Thank you so much for reading! I appreciate you and I hope you make it a wonderful week. Enjoy your day, friend.

5 Step Strategic Planning Day: A Must for Entrepreneurs

5 Step Strategic Planning Day: A Must for Entrepreneurs

by | Online Business, Planning-Organization-Productivity

Michele Duwe from Miss Task | 5 Steps for a Successful Strategic Planning Day Process

Hey there, friend! You're in the right place if you're juggling the demands of running a small online business, taking care of your family, and trying to create consistent, organic content. A Strategic Planning Day isn't just a “nice-to-have” as small business owners. It's a non-negotiable if you're serious about scaling your business and reclaiming your time.
It may be me, but I think it's a good idea to go refill that coffee mug, and let's dive into the five steps for a successful strategic planning process.

If your business growth is unimportant to you, you’ll be stuck in your online business. Put on your CEO hat and be the person your future self will be proud of. (:

Why You Need a Strategic Planning Day Process

Your business growth depends on strategic thinking. Your calendar should include a Strategic Planning Day if you're serious about your business success. Done quarterly, this focused time allows you to step into your CEO shoes. I think you'll agree with me when I say that business leaders set time aside for strategic thinking. You will not miss any important steps when you have a set process for your strategic planning meeting.

The Struggle is Real, But So is the Solution
If you're anything like me, you're juggling a million things simultaneously, trying to keep the wheels on the bus. At the end of the day, you fall into bed exhausted from running an online business, taking care of your family, and creating consistent, organic content marketing. It's a lot. But here's the good news: You're not alone; the solution is dedicating time to your strategic direction.

A Planning Workbook

As an Online Business Manager (OBM), I’ve helped business owners set up strategic planning processes that drive real results. I set aside time with the owner every quarter for a business strategy meeting. I understand that your small company may not be ready for a dedicated OBM as one of your team members. With that in mind, I created my most popular free resource, a planning workbook. It's like a one-day strategy meeting in a box.

It is 50 pages chock-full of all the prompts you need for strategy planning in your business. With the workbook and email series accompanying it, you can create your repeatable strategy process.

Please feel free to download the workbook. We are going to walk through all the points, and you can use it for your personal strategy workshop. I hope and pray that this is helpful for you.

Are you ready to get into the five steps for a successful Strategic Planning Day Process that is truly transformative?

Grab your copy of the planning workbook here!

Create a Distraction-Free Zone

Do you want to know what you must do first? You should put time on your calendar for your successful strategic planning session. While you are at it, why not set aside time for the whole year of strategy sessions and, of course, time at the end of the year for your annual plan.

It’s a lot if you cannot get through it all in one day; no worries, friend, break it up into days, or maybe you want to stay at a hotel for a weekend. What is essential is that you focus on your business and where you're going in the next 12 weeks.

Before you start, ensure you're setting yourself up for success. Turn off notifications, close unnecessary browser tabs, and silence your phone. This is your time to focus solely on your business, so make it count.

Here is your strategic planning agenda:

    1. Reflection and Self-Assessment
    2. Your Vision
    3. Goals
    4. Project Planning
    5. Content Planning

1. Start with Reflection: Your Business Check-In

Step one to a successful quarterly planning meeting is reflection. The best way to know if you're headed in the right direction with your business goals is through reflection. It's amazing the insight you can gather by taking a step back so that you can look forward. You're going to spend 15 minutes journaling and reflecting.

Grab your journal and jot down.

    • What has worked well for you
    • Areas that need improvement
    • Lessons learned (the good, the bad, and the ugly)

Remember, you're amazing, and acknowledging your wins is a crucial part of the process.

While you have your journal, let’s also do a self-assessment.

How happy are you, really? Not put on a show fake happy, but like real, real happy.

How happy are you in these areas of your life?

Rank your happiness (1-10) in these areas:

    1. Money
    2. Personal Growth
    3. Self Care (Mind, Body, spirit)
    4. Family and Friends
    5. Love and Relationships
    6. You Time (Fun and Leisure)
    7. Home Environment
    8. Business

A previous client won a two-day strategic planning day with Cameron Herold in a silent auction. One of my key takeaways was the importance of conducting a SWOT Analysis—assessing your Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats. While larger companies use this often, small business owners rarely take the time for this kind of deep analysis. Yet, it’s crucial for identifying what’s working, where you need to improve, and what external factors could impact your business growth. I highly recommend incorporating a SWOT Analysis into your quarterly planning process. We used different color sticky notes for each of these areas. Remember that every idea is a good idea when you're having a brainstorming session until it's not.

2. Revisit and Realign Your Vision

Your vision is the North Star of your Strategic Planning Day. Read it out loud and ask yourself:

    • Does it still align with your current vision?
    • Does it evoke feelings of happiness, pride, and achievement?
    • What needs to be adjusted?

If your vision no longer excites or motivates you, this is your opportunity to refine it. At one point in my business, I was ashamed to pivot. However, now I have embraced this as God's nudging me down his path.

Michele Duwe from Miss Task | 5 Steps for a Successful Strategic Planning Day Process

3. Be SMART: Strategic Goals

What strategic goals did you set on your last strategy day? I'm curious: Were you able to reach the desired outcome you've set for yourself in the past quarter? 

Now, let's get down to the nitty-gritty—your goals. Break them down into three categories:

    • One-year goals (Think big, like financial milestones)
    • 90-day goals (Smaller objectives that contribute to your one-year goals)
    • 30-day focus (Immediate actions to propel your business forward)

Break your vision down into actionable goals. Think about:

    • Your top 3 business, personal, and financial goals
    • What you’re fully committed to achieving
    • How to turn those commitments into results

Have you read the book The 12-Week Year? This approach allows you to accomplish more in less time by focusing on 12-week cycles instead of traditional annual goals. The idea is to treat each 12 weeks as a full year, increasing urgency and execution. If you find that a year plan doesn't work for you and you lose steam, why not give this a try? Instead of setting goals for the entire year, break them down into shorter, more actionable time frames.

Goal Breakdown:

    • One-Year Goals (Big-picture milestones)
    • 90-Day Goals (Quarterly objectives that feed into your one-year goals)
    • 30-Day Focus (Immediate steps to move your business forward)
    • 12-Week Sprint (A focused plan to drive real momentum in a short time frame)

Always step back and ask yourself, what are you committed to achieving? Identify what you are committed to 100%. Without your true commitment, you may struggle to take the next steps and get it done. Do you want to know why I believe in this question of true commitment? It is because I've found myself chasing someone else's dream for my life. I'm sure you can guess how this turned out for me. Maybe, like me, you've doubted your vision for your life and somehow following someone else's dream felt a little less scary. 

Remember, God puts dreams on our hearts for us to follow. I think almost as a way to challenge us to release the outcome into his hands. 

4. Commit and Break Down the Plan

A plan is only as good as its execution. Break down your goals into action plans. Using the best practices of actionable steps, assigning responsibilities and deadlines. 

This is where your commitment comes into play; without it, even the best-laid plans can fall apart.

Have you ever broken down a goal into actionable steps, or are you more of a winger? Trust me, I wing with the best of them, but the things that truly matter are better off with a plan.

In step four of your strategy day, you will map it out. This is where your creative thinking meets strategy execution. It is where you make the strategic decisions, making sure that you achieve those goals. You sit down, and you map out your goal.

Start at the end and work back to the beginning. How will you know that you’ve accomplished your goal? What was the step right before that, then the step before that? Map out all the different steps that must happen. Please keep in mind small, actionable steps that you can do every single day to move forward toward your goal.

Sit down and do a whole mind sweep of every step you think you must do to achieve that goal. Once you have it, you want to map it out with who's responsible.

Suppose it's only you in your business. Well, you’ll be the only one doing the work. You also need to look at your time and the actual time bank to get everything done. 

We tend to underestimate the amount of work and time something will take to get done. Make sure to give yourself grace.

To create your plan, you must also figure out how much time you’ll be working. It's time to pull out that calendar and determine how many days out of the office you want in the next 12 weeks. 

What days will your kiddos be home because they are off on a random day? What are the must-attend kid events? What holidays are upcoming? All of those things. Then, you need to be able to reverse engineer from that end date to ensure that you have enough time to get all the items done. To make that goal a reality.

You will be assigned to all the action items if you're a Solopreneur. If you have an entire team working with you, who are the team members that will be doing the work? 

You need to know all the action items; no more flying by the seat of your pants. You need to have the who, the what, and the when documented, preferably in a project management tool like Asana, Trello, or Notion. All the action steps are assigned a date by knowing the end date and reverse engineering the time frame.

Depending on your goals, you may have a couple of goals in the quarter; however, if you have something big, like a launch. Then, you only want one goal for that entire quarter. One other point: you need to under the real time investment for your personal goals and business goals. Here are the ground rules that I set with my clients. During a set period of time, you get only one major project to focus on. Why? You have a finite amount of time and energy.  A great way to add stress, overwhelm, and anxiety is by thinking it is a good idea to, let's say, be remodeling your house while prepping and executing a new course launch.  

Here is an example of how to set up an Asana Board for Goals and Quarterly Planning:

 An example of a Asana board set up for goals and quarterly planning for an online business owner

Show Up Consistently—Without Doing It All Yourself

Your Podcast, Repurposed into a Full Marketing Strategy

A done-for-you repurposing service where we turn one piece of content into 5 Days of Marketing Content so you can grow your audience and impact in less time.

5 Days of Content from 1 Podcast Episode

  • 2 vertical video clips
  • 1 Carousel post graphic and caption
  • 1 Quote/Static post graphic and caption
  • 1 Graphic and caption to specifically promote the podcast episode
  • 4 Additional Social Media Captions
I Want This Done for Me

Map Out Important Dates

As I mentioned, you must understand your time bank for the quarter. How many hours do you have to work on the goals and projects in your business? Do you have a realistic amount of time to get everything done in the timeframe your brain tells you?

It is essential to take the time to map out the dates and the actual chunks of time that you’ll work on your goals and project. When you do this, you’re not sitting at your desk wondering what you must do today. It is all planned out for you in advance, thoughtfully.

Be sure to start by marking all the out-of-office dates on your calendar.

    • Vacation Days
    • Important Kid Events
    • No School Days
    • Holidays
    • Add all the out-of-office dates to your Google Calendar.

Everything else is mapped around those dates on your calendar. I need to know the commitments and the time bank when working on my promotion calendar or a client's promotion calendar.

5. Your Content Calendar and Beyond

While not directly related to strategic planning, your content calendar is crucial for the long term organic marketing of your business.  Plan out your content for the next three months, week by week. This will help you stay consistent while keeping content-aligned with your revenue goals and strategic objectives.

Don’t Forget To Track Your Numbers

If you do not already have a stat/metric tracker in place, do that. What gets measured gets improved.

Here are a few ideas for your metric tracking:

    • Website Traffic
    • Email Subscribers
    • Social Media Engagement
    • Number of Clients
    • Number of Leads
    • Number of Sales

Here is a link to my other popular free resource, a Google Sheet to keep track of all your business metrics or key performance indicators (KPI).

Time To Wrap This Up:

Strategic planning isn’t just about setting goals—it’s about having a proactive approach to business growth. Whether you dream of leading an executive team, collaborating with board members, or keeping it simple as a solo entrepreneur mapping out your next move, sufficient time spent on planning can be the most important time you invest in your business.

By treating this as a strategy away-day, you’ll align your mission statement, address key issues, and generate new ideas that fuel new investments. With a clear vision and a collaborative effort, your strategic planning sessions will become a roadmap for continued success.

Now, take a moment to reflect on the main benefits of this approach.

    • Are you still in alignment with your vision?
    • What are you actually committed to doing?
    • Have you scheduled your strategy discussions?
    • Are you tracking your progress?

The right people and different teams thrive when there’s clarity and a plan in place. So go ahead, set your strategy, and make it happen!

[Book a 1-Hour Virtual Strategy Session Here!]

Thank you so much for your time, I appreciate you and I hope you make it a wonderful week.

From Stuck to Success: Overcome Procrastination to Planning

From Stuck to Success: Overcome Procrastination to Planning

by | Goals, Planning-Organization-Productivity

Michele Duwe from Miss Task | Life Stuck On Repeat: From Procrastination To Planning

You’ve been thinking about launching that podcast, creating that course, or finally setting up that email funnel. You know it’s important, yet every time you sit down to start, you find yourself doing something else—tweaking your website, answering emails, scrolling social media. Before you know it, another day (or month) has passed, and that big project is still sitting on your to-do list. Sound familiar? You’re not alone. The truth is, moving from procrastination to planning isn’t just about motivation—it’s about breaking free from the overwhelm and creating a system that makes taking action easier. Let’s talk about how you can finally stop spinning your wheels and start making real progress.

Procrastination Feels Safe, But It’s Holding You Back

Let’s be honest—procrastination isn’t just about being lazy or unmotivated. In fact, you’re probably very motivated when it comes to serving your clients, checking off daily tasks, or even brainstorming new ideas. But when it comes to starting something big—something unfamiliar—your brain starts throwing up roadblocks.

Why? Because procrastination feels safe.

I know this struggle firsthand. When I transitioned from doing weekly YouTube videos to launching my podcast, it took me over four months to actually get it off the ground. Normally, I'm not the kind of person who requires outside accountability, but I found that working with a business coach was essential in this situation. It wasn’t because I didn’t have the skills or the know-how—I had already been creating video content! But fear crept in. What if the podcast didn’t work? What if no one listened? What if I was making the wrong move?

And if I’m being really honest, there was something else keeping me stuck: I have a hard time letting things go, even when they’re no longer serving me. I had invested so much time into YouTube that it felt wrong to walk away, even though I knew my podcast would be a better fit for my business. The feelings of guilt and shame over the sunk costs of time, money, and energy.

Each of us has different reasons our minds keep us stuck, but at the core, it’s always some form of fear. Fear of failure. Fear of making the wrong choice. Fear of letting go. Even when I recorded my first-ever YouTube video, it didn’t come from a place of confidence or clarity—it came from sheer frustration. And let’s be real, frustration is not the energy content needs to be created with.

Maybe you can relate. You want to take action, but something keeps holding you back. The big projects—the ones that could actually move your business forward—sit untouched while you stay busy with smaller, more familiar tasks.

But here’s the truth: God didn’t call you to a life of hesitation. He called you to step out in faith.

That podcast? That course? That business idea? You weren’t given that vision by accident. But your calling requires action, not just thinking about it. The good news? You don’t have to figure it all out today. You just need to take one small next step forward.

Identifying Your Procrastination Triggers

If you’ve ever found yourself avoiding a big task even when you have plenty of time to complete it, you’re not alone. Procrastination isn’t just a bad habit—it’s often driven by subconscious patterns in the brain.

Your limbic system, which controls emotions and immediate responses, craves immediate gratification and pushes you toward default actions that feel comfortable. On the other hand, your prefrontal cortex, the part of your brain responsible for decision-making and long-term planning, knows that taking action now will benefit your own life in the long run. The battle between these two areas of your brain is what keeps you stuck in a procrastination habit.

So, what’s really happening when you avoid taking action? Instead of moving forward, you:

  • Stay in the planning stage because research feels like a positive thing (even though it’s just another form of procrastination).
  • Fill your day with smaller tasks that give you the illusion of productivity but don’t move the needle.
  • Wait for the right time, thinking you’ll feel more prepared next time (spoiler: you won’t).
  • Convince yourself that you need enough time to do things perfectly, which leads to poor time management and scrambling at the last minute.

What Are Your Triggers?

The first step to breaking this cycle is to understand what kind of person you are when it comes to procrastination. Ask yourself:

•    Do I avoid big projects because they feel overwhelming?

•    Do I tell myself I need to be in the right mood before I start?

•    Do I push things off to the following day just because I don’t feel like doing them now?

•    Do I struggle with effective planning and taking action in manageable chunks?

For me, my failure mode used to be over-researching and staying in the planning process for too long. I convinced myself I was “getting ready,” but in reality, I was stuck in a comfort zone of endless learning instead of doing. It boiled down to the fact that I lacked confidence in my abilities.

Identifying your trigger is powerful because once you know what’s keeping you stuck, you can break free from it. And the best plan of attack? Stop thinking about the whole project and start with the next small step.

Get It All Out of Your Head – Creating a Wish List

One of the biggest reasons big projects feel overwhelming is because they are a jumble of thoughts in your mind. The thought of the task alone can trigger stress, keeping you stuck in a cycle of avoidance. But a powerful tool can break this pattern: a simple brain dump or creating a mind map.

The best way to move from procrastination to planning is to get everything out of your head and onto paper (or into a digital doc). This isn’t about creating a polished plan of attack—it’s about clearing mental clutter so you can see the specific times and tasks needed to move forward.

How to Brain Dump Effectively

  1. Set a timer (try the Pomodoro technique—work for a set amount of time, like 25 minutes, then take a short break).
  2. Write down every single task, idea, and concern related to your project—no filtering.
  3. If a blank page feels intimidating, start with categories like content creation, tech setup, outreach, or launch details.
  4. Don’t worry about order or time management techniques yet—just get it all out.

Why This Works

This simple exercise turns the big task in your head into manageable chunks on paper. It also helps eliminate feelings of guilt and frustration because you now have a clear starting point instead of an overwhelming mental load.

Remember, a good idea is worth pursuing, but without action, it stays just that—an idea. 

This step moves you from just thinking about it to actually doing something about it.

Michele Duwe from Miss Task | Life Stuck On Repeat: From Procrastination To Planning

Work Backward to Map Out a Plan

Now that you’ve done a brain dump, you might be staring at a long, unorganized list. That’s okay!

The next step is to take all those scattered ideas and create a planning process that works for you.

The easiest way to do this? Work backward.

Instead of getting stuck in the planning stage and overthinking where to begin, start with the big moment—the finished project. Then, break it down step by step, moving in reverse. This method helps you avoid poor time management, keeps you from getting lost in the details, and makes sure you’re focusing on what truly matters.

Just in case you’re like so many of my clients, what holds you back is not knowing how to put it all together. They do better if they have a head start to motivate them into future actions. You may find it easier if the process is started for you. Then, you only need to tweak the small steps for yourself. If this sounds you, here are a couple of sample workflows to get you working backward from completion to idea:

Creating an Email Funnel

Are you a little bit stuck on creating that next sales funnel to grow your email list?

  • Completion: Finalize and promote the lead magnet

– Promote the lead magnet on social media, website, and email list

– Schedule a launch debrief meeting to discuss what worked well and what didn’t work well

– Collect and analyze metrics to measure the lead magnet's success

– Make adjustments as needed to improve future lead magnets

  • Launch: Publish and distribute the lead magnet

– Test the lead magnet for usability and functionality

– Publish the lead magnet on your website or landing page

– Develop a plan to distribute the lead magnet to your target audience

  • Design: Create an attractive and effective design for the lead magnet

– Determine the design elements needed to make the lead magnet visually appealing

– Work with a designer or use a design tool to create a polished final product

– Ensure that the design aligns with your branding and messaging

  • Content: Write and develop the content for the lead magnet

– Develop an outline for the content and determine what needs to be covered

– Write, edit and proofread promotional material, such as social media posts

– Write, edit, and proofread the content for accuracy and clarity

  • Idea: Brainstorm and plan the lead magnet concept

– Determine the problem your ideal client is attempting to solve

– Brainstorm potential ideas for the lead magnet

– Decide which one idea is aligned with your paid offer and the problem your ideal client is attempting to solve

By working backward from completion to idea, you can ensure your lead magnet is well-designed, effective, and aligned with your brand and messaging.

Example: Launching a Podcast

Let’s say your goal is to launch a podcast. Instead of asking, “Where do I start?” ask, “What does the end result look like?” Then, break it down step by step.

1.    Final Step: Your first episode is live, and you’re promoting it everywhere.

2.    You’ve submitted your podcast to directories like Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

3.    You’ve recorded and edited your first 3-5 episodes.

4.    You’ve outlined episode topics and planned content for your first season.

5.    You’ve chosen your podcast hosting platform.

6.    You’ve selected and set up your microphone and recording software.

7.    First Step: You’ve committed to your podcast idea and created a timeline for launch.

By doing this, you’ve taken a big task and turned it into a clear plan of attack with specific times for each step. Instead of sitting in front of a blank page, wondering where to begin, you now have a roadmap that makes it easy to take the next step.

 

Why This Works

  • It removes uncertainty. Instead of staring at an overwhelming list, you now have clear action steps.
  • It prevents the “last-minute” scramble. By breaking it down, you give yourself plenty of time to work through each phase.
  • It keeps you from skipping important steps. Working backward forces you to think through everything, so nothing gets missed.
  • It turns procrastination into action. A clear plan eliminates the need for “the right time” because you know exactly what needs to happen next.
  • At this point, you’ve moved from procrastination habit to an effective planning strategy. Now, it’s time to set a realistic timeline and make sure you follow through.

Show Up Consistently—Without Doing It All Yourself

Your Podcast, Repurposed into a Full Marketing Strategy

A done-for-you repurposing service where we turn one piece of content into 5 Days of Marketing Content so you can grow your audience and impact in less time.

5 Days of Content from 1 Podcast Episode

  • 2 vertical video clips
  • 1 Carousel post graphic and caption
  • 1 Quote/Static post graphic and caption
  • 1 Graphic and caption to specifically promote the podcast episode
  • 4 Additional Social Media Captions
I Want This Done for Me

Set a Realistic Timeline

Now that you have a clear plan of attack, the next important thing is setting a timeline that works. Most entrepreneurs fall into one of two traps:

  1. They think they have plenty of time, so they keep putting it off until the last minute.
  2. They believe they need the perfect conditions before starting, so they never actually begin.

Both of these are just different forms of procrastination, and both are rooted in subconscious habits rather than logic. To break free, we’re going to use a simple NLP reprogramming exercise.

Rewire Your Procrastination Habit with This Exercise

If you’ve been stuck in failure mode, struggling to take action on a big task, try this quick visualization technique:

  1. Dissociate from the struggle – Close your eyes and imagine watching yourself on a movie screen. See yourself staring at the blank page, hesitating, feeling overwhelmed.
  2. Fast-forward the scene – Picture your future self taking action with confidence. You’re at your desk, working on your project with ease.
  3. Step into the future version of yourself – Now, mentally step into that scene. How does it feel to be in full action mode? What’s different about your mindset?
  4. Future pace your success – Imagine a few months from now when your project is complete. How does it feel? What opportunities have opened up? What doors has God placed in your path because you took action?
  5. Anchor this feeling – Take a deep breath and commit to embodying this version of yourself, the person who plans effectively, follows through, and stays out of procrastination mode.

By shifting your default action from avoidance to small, intentional steps, you train your brain to respond differently the next time you feel overwhelmed.

At the end of the day, the only person who can take control and move forward is you. You're the one in charge, so it's up to you to make things happen. Believe in yourself and your abilities, and take that first step towards creating a simple system that works for you. You've got this!

Double Your Timeline for Success

One of the best time management techniques you can implement is doubling your estimated timeline. Why? Because most of us underestimate how long things will take. Or maybe that is just me? 🤷‍♀️

If you think you need:

    •    Two weeks to outline your podcast, give yourself four weeks.

    •    Three days to set up your course platform, give yourself six days.

    •    One hour to write an email sequence, schedule two hours.

This doesn’t mean you’re working slowly—it means you’re working realistically. When you plan for extra time, you avoid the pressure of rushing at the last minute, and you allow space for adjustments. This also removes feelings of guilt when things take longer than expected.

The goal isn’t to create short-term bursts of productivity—it’s to build a powerful tool for long-term success.

Time to Wrap This Up

God doesn’t call us to wait for the perfect time—He calls us to take the next step. You don’t need to see the whole path right now. You just need to trust that every step forward is leading you to something worth pursuing.