What if you took just ONE tiny step closer to your goals every single day?

Just one.

It sounds harder than it is.

Honestly.

Let’s say your goal is to write a book.

Many people have this on their “things to do before I die” lists so I know this resonates with a lot of you.

It’s on my list too

What is the absolute first step?

Decide what to write about. This step looks simple but you need to see if people would read it, if publishing houses would buy it, if there’s a market so it will actually sell.

So maybe the first two weeks is spent checking all that out.

The rest of the month might be outlining the whole book – what do you need to cover, how many chapters? Etc, etc.

And then comes the writing. If I were coaching you, I’d make you write at least 5 minutes a day because writers WRITE.

To some, that seems like nothing much but 5 mins a day is 35 mins a week which is over 2 hours a month, at the very least.

And of course, some days just getting those 5 minutes done will be a miracle but other days, you’d spend 30 minutes or more easily writing.

That’s exactly what I mean when I say you can make big leaps with just a step a day.

People ask me how I get so many things done and it’s because I do exactly this.

Now I will confess I don’t always feel like writing or recording audio or _______ (fill in whatever you don’t like doing) but I do know that it will move me towards my goals.

So I have a rule.

EVERY WEEK, come hell or high water, I need to do AT LEAST one thing to move me towards my goals.

This helps me focus on outcomes even when I’m really busy. Busy with “stuff” means goals not achieved.

Think about one of your goals. Let’s say you want to go on a holiday to Ireland

Let’s break it down.

1. Decide exactly where in Ireland you want to visit.
2. Investigate prices of airfare, hotels, B&B’s, tourism, food, etc.
3. Check your savings account to see what you have available.
4. Based on the shortfall, decide on the amount of money you need to save every month.
5. Decide length of holiday and itinerary while there.
6. Book flights and check if you need a visa.
7. Book accommodation.
8. Book car rental/ decide on method of transport.
9. Pack your bags
10. Go!

Grab a piece of paper and write your own steps for your goal.

Your challenge this week is to take at least ONE step towards your goal this week.

Marcia Francois is a time management and business organising coach who helps small business owners break out of overwhelm, make the most of their time and get important projects done. Visit http://organiseyourbusiness.com/ for your free 7-part audio series, 7 tips for time-strapped business owners.

You may think, as a time management expert, that I have a perfect life as far as time goes.

Wrong!

I’m human and in addition to being late sometimes, I’ve also had some major bloopers, like the time I missed my flight from Dublin.

We were travelling from Dublin back to Johannesburg via London. At Dublin airport, we missed check-in by 5 minutes even though we were in the queue on time.

I must confess that I broke down and SOBBED!

As a result, we had to take a later flight from Dublin to London… that landed at a different airport, Gatwick. Our taxi broke many speed limits getting us to Heathrow on time for check-in but again there was a mad rush to get us on the flight leaving for Johannesburg. It was like The Amazing Race as we ran through the airport terminal for 20 minutes, only worse, as we were also out of shape.

If memory serves me correctly, we were in the last batch of 4 people who managed to squeeze through the aircraft’s doors on time. What should have been a stopover of 7 hours turned into a second, nearly missed flight!

How on earth does this happen, you ask?

Well, let me share the 3 critical mistakes I made:

Not leaving enough buffer time for the number of people involved

The more people you have to accommodate, the more time you need. We had been staying with a friend who was also going away that weekend and we (mistakenly) assumed that he’d take the same amount of time to get ready as we did.

We usually leave enough time to get to the airport and then add on another 30 minutes’ buffer time. In this case, we should have added on an hour.

Assuming that things are the same on weekends

At the time there were major roadworks in Dublin. Our friend was used to the detours during the week but not over the weekend. On this particular weekend, the highway was worse than it was during the week. Maybe it was the best time to work on the roads, but not for all of us travellers.

Not planning for different cultures and/ or countries

In South Africa, I’d had many, many customer service interactions where I could talk and reason with the people and get my way. South Africa is known for hospitality, friendliness and helpfulness.

The ground staff at the Dublin airport were not having my logic (that we WERE in the queue on time) and didn’t care that we might miss our flight to South Africa and that it was the last one for a whole day. I even started crying from sheer frustration and those cold-hearted ladies didn’t budge an inch.

This whole experience cost a LOT of money (had to get new tickets and pay a taxi to take us 50 miles to the correct airport) and time with friends (with our Dublin friend as we had a very unsatisfactory, quick good-bye and we totally missed meeting up with another friend at Heathrow), and was really not worth the extra 30 minutes it would have taken to let things work out perfectly.

Hopefully you can learn from my mistakes because I can assure you, you NEVER want to go through an experience like that.

I flew internationally twice after that incident and both times left an extra TWO hours’ buffer time as I never, ever, ever want to go through that again!

Have you ever missed a flight? Share in the comments.

Want to use this article in your ezine or on your blog? You may, as long as you include this complete blurb.

Marcia Francois is a time management and organising coach who empowers small business owners and other busy professionals who want to make the most of their time. You’ll get simple, practical organising and time management secrets to help you work less and enjoy life more! Visit http://takechargesolutions.org for your free Organising Success Pack.

White Horse Inn – Kinsale, County Cork, Ireland

This was one of those genuine Irish pubs. We walked in and that guy wearing white in the top right corner was sitting with a guitar, singing a drinking song (I don’t drink, so I can’t tell you which one).

This section is very “pub” but when you walk through to the restaurant area, it was beautifully furnished and quite “glam”. We took pictures but the lighting wasn’t right so the pics are VERY dark.

Now here’s the thing – you know I’m obsessed with the price of food – we had a supper of two chicken stirfries and lamb sausage, a cheesecake, tea and a cappucino, and the bill came to 55 Euro (R680/US$92). And that was in Kinsale which is a tiny, tiny place (cheap compared to Dublin)

So why should you menu plan? I wrote an article on it called How to Menu Plan and save you time and money – go have a read

Well, this week’s menu looks like this:

Monday
Stirfried chicken, veggies and noodles (mine comes to probably R20 a portion/ $2.60 )

Tuesday
Spaghetti bolognaise

Wednesday
Tomato and vienna casserole, carrots and rice

Thursday
Eating out

Friday
Burgers and chips

Just for fun – what’s your favourite, QUICK meal to cook?

I’ll go first – mine is stirfried chicken and noodles, otherwise anything with pasta (if I say so myself, I make good pasta )

Your turn