For someone who gets ideas easily, a task list can become a record of every possible business I’ve briefly considered running.

I recently did a clear-out. Some tasks had been sitting in Todoist for ages, quietly mocking me whenever I opened it.

A few took surprisingly little time to finish. Others got deferred, and several got deleted because I no longer had a good reason to do them.

I’d been keeping work alive long after the enthusiasm that created it had wandered off.

Consistency has always been challenging for me. I made it my "word for 2026", and that's been pretty helpful as a point of focus. I’m interested in plenty of things, so starting comes easily. Seeing something through gets harder when another idea arrives with an excellent argument for why I should drop everything.

As a speaker and coach, I have considerable freedom to indulge this. Nobody needs to approve my latest workshop idea. I can give myself a week’s work over breakfast.

Eventually, I have to choose which business I’m building.

What deserves my Tuesday afternoon?

Reading Dan Martell’s Buy Back Your Time got me thinking more carefully about how I spend my time as a speaker business owner.

The business needs to make money. I want to support my clients well, develop my speaking career and have enough time to enjoy the life this is supposed to support.

Those ambitions depend on decisions about what an ordinary Tuesday afternoon looks like.

A resource might be useful, but how much time does it deserve? If I spend another hour improving the website, when will I follow up with someone who could book me?

Each activity can sound reasonable in isolation. The problem becomes clearer when I look at the week and see how little room I’ve left to bring in work.

My interests can generate far more work than I have time to do. Choosing what gets my attention is part of running the business, and I need to take that responsibility seriously.

I’ve made GPT my PA

One practical change has been using GPT as a kind of personal assistant. I was delighted to discover my friend Jenny is doing something similar, for similar reasons, when we met for our Growth Group on Monday.

My daily briefing brings calendar commitments and emails that need my attention into view. It also flags speaking opportunities. Planning and tracking help me keep my priorities visible and review how the day went.

That support matters because I can become absorbed in whatever I’m doing. A prompt to check in helps me notice where the time has gone while I can still decide what to do with the rest.

I’m also working out which tasks I can automate or get off my plate. Before setting anything up, though, I need to consider whether the task still deserves doing.

Otherwise, I could spend an afternoon creating a beautifully efficient way to maintain an obligation I’d happily abandon.

That was part of what I discovered when clearing Todoist. Keeping a task on the list let me postpone deciding about it. Deleting some of those entries meant choosing where my attention would go now.

Getting used to coming back

I want consistency to become easier through habit. A rigid schedule would soon become something else I resent.

What helps is having a clear intention for the day and a manageable place to start. When my attention wanders, I have something to return to.

I’ve noticed this with exercise. Even when I don’t feel like going, I usually start my workout. Giving myself permission to take it easy makes it easier to start, and I usually end up doing the full workout once it's started.

I’m trying to bring that approach into work. Thirty minutes of prospecting gives me a commitment I can act on, even on days when I’d happily do something else. It's why I started a weekly group work session for speakers on Mondays. Let me know if you'd like to join in. It's free to attend.

An interesting idea can go into a note for later consideration. It doesn’t automatically get the afternoon.

Giving myself room to see

Journaling and going for a walk help me take an overview.

Writing gives me somewhere to examine what’s occupying my attention. On a walk, I can stay with a question without immediately opening a tab and turning it into another project. I leave my mobile at home. Shocking, I know.

With some distance, it becomes easier to see the next move. I can consider whether a project deserves the time it’s taking, or whether an important conversation has been waiting while I’ve occupied myself elsewhere.

I need that thinking time to choose what I’ll commit to. Otherwise, my diary can fill up with decisions I barely remember making.

For a speaking business, one question worth taking on a walk is: how will the people who could book me get to hear me?

Podcast guesting is one activity I’m giving deliberate attention to. Choosing relevant shows creates opportunities for potential clients to hear how I think and what I could bring to their audience. It takes preparation and follow-through, so it needs a place in the week.

If you’d like help getting that work underway, join me for Podcast Guesting for Speakers on Wednesday 28 October at 3 pm Spain / 2 pm UK.

It’s a practical working session to help you start building your guesting pipeline, with a workbook and bonus tools included. Tickets are €75.

Book your place using the link below.

​https://present-influence.kit.com/products/get-heard-get-known-podcast-guesting​