It’s not enough to dream of success. It’s not even enough to set goals because goals are for suckers. The only way to truly achieve your dreams and build the business you’re meant to build is to sit down and do it. And that’s where many of us…well, fail is a strong word. But it’s the doing that trips us up more times than not. We overbook our calendars until today’s to-dos become next week’s past dues. We procrastinate on the things that are important while attending to items that are merely “nice to do.” And sometimes, we take on too much—even when we know better . I speak from experience. I spent years filling my calendar and never actually getting anything done. The answer? Change the way you work and the way you organize your time. Rituals and Habits for Time Management Simply put, a ritual or habit is a consistent way of doing something. You have a morning ritual (wake up, brush your teeth, work out, shower , and head to your office), evening ritual (check homework, tuck the kids in, watch the evening news, and hit the sack), weekend ritual (sleep late, mow the lawn, catch a movie, visit your mom), and many others. The trouble is, if you’re not careful with your rituals, they can turn into productivity killers. Is checking Facebook or email a part of your morning ritual? Is turning on Skype a part of your at-work ritual? Distractions such as these can turn even your best intentions into hours of wasted time. Take a good look at your rituals. What are you doing that you should not be—or that should be moved to another part of your day? Make your rituals more efficient, and you’ll automatically get more done. Calendar Management for Time Management Want to know how much time you have available for that new project? Try blocking off time in your calendar for all your existing projects. Fill in all your client calls, your business administrative tasks, time for meals and breaks, outside appointments, and everything else you’re committed to. What’s left might shock you. Make it a habit to block time in your calendar for every commitment, and you’ll never again over-promise or over-commit. Learn to Let Go and Manage Your Time Here’s a news flash. You do not have to do everything in your business. You can (and should) hand off those low-level tasks to someone else. Hire a Strategist and Manager to help you identify what to delegate, what to automate, and what to do yourself. Are you interested in making the most of your time? Email me at heather@gowrie.biz and let’s get started today.

And Sticking to My Spiral Notebook & Sharpie It’s official: Planner Season is here. My feeds are filled with gorgeous leather-bound organizers, shiny gold coils, and pristine monthly spreads promising ultimate productivity. And every year, the siren song gets me. I buy the planner. I tell myself, This is it. This is the year I become a wildly organized human who color-codes their life. I open it up, fill out Week One with pure ambition… and by Week Two, it’s sitting on the corner of my desk collecting dust, quietly judging me with its empty grids. If you have ADHD (or just a brain that rebels against rigid structure), you probably know this cycle all too well. So this year, I’m saving my money and forgiving myself. I’m sticking with what actually works: a simple spiral notebook and a bold Sharpie. The Hidden Power of Low-Friction Planning For a long time, I thought abandoning traditional planners was a personal failure—a lack of discipline. But the truth is, traditional planners require massive cognitive overhead. They force you to adapt to their systems (time blocks, monthly goals, habit trackers), which creates visual clutter and decision fatigue before you’ve even started working. My trusty spiral notebook works because it is zero friction. Small Bets, Micro-Steps, and “Bunnies” If you’ve followed my journey for a bit, you know I love building small-bet businesses—testing ideas, launching agile projects, and seeing what takes off. In the digital product and online business world, there’s a fantastic analogy popularized by Elizabeth Goddard about “bunnies.” The idea is that instead of trying to build a massive, overwhelming empire overnight, you continuously build small things, let them multiply, and iterate on what you’ve already created. You make continuous, micro-improvements. A traditional 12-month planner isn’t built for “bunny steps.” It forces big-picture, long-term rigidity. A spiral notebook, on the other hand, is built for rapid, iterative execution. I take one aspect of a project or small bet at a time, write down the immediate next step, hit it with my Sharpie, and nudge the business forward. How to Make the Notebook System Work for You If you want to ditch the planner guilt and lean into a notebook system, here is how I keep mine moving without it turning into a mess: Work With Your Brain, Not Against It If traditional planners bring you joy and keep your life running—amazing! Keep doing what works. But if you’re trapped in the cycle of buying gorgeous planners only to abandon them by mid-January, take this as your permission slip to stop fighting your brain. Buy yourself a fresh, high-quality spiral notebook and a brand-new pack of Sharpies instead. Focus on nudging your small bets forward, one single “bunny step” at a time.

Why “Just Unsubscribe” Doesn’t Work for Me There is a subtle, heavy weight sitting on my digital desktop right now. It’s spread across six different email addresses. Every single one of them has at least 1,000 unread messages in it. Newsletters I was genuinely excited to read. Courses I bought with full intention to complete. Saved links, industry updates, deeply researched articles—a massive, digital mountain of useful, high-quality information. And it is completely crushing my ability to do deep, focused work. When I open my laptop to write, create, or solve a problem, those six inboxes aren’t just software apps—they’re quiet accusations.  Look at all this brilliant stuff you haven’t read yet, they say. How can you write something original when you haven’t even digested what’s already out there? The Trap of “Productive Procrastination” Collecting information feels like work. It feels like self-improvement. And for a long time, it was my favorite hobby. When you subscribe to that newsletter, sign up for that free mini-course, or save an article to read later, your brain registers a tiny hit of accomplishment. You feel like you’ve taken a step forward. I didn’t mean to become a digital hoarder. I just wanted to be informed. I wanted to learn, stay sharp, and not miss out on ideas that could help me grow. But right now, the sheer volume of incoming noise has created a bottleneck between my intentions and my actual work. The Lie of “Slash and Burn” If you search for advice on how to handle this, the internet will give you a very simple, ruthless solution: Slash and burn. “Select all. Delete. Mass unsubscribe. Achieve Inbox Zero in 10 seconds!” I’ve tried it. And it fails for me every single time. Why? Because it completely ignores the psychological root of the problem: FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out). When I hit delete on a massive wave of emails, I don’t feel free. I feel a spike of immediate anxiety. What if there was a crucial insight in that thread? What if I need that link next month? What if I’m deleting the exact idea I need right now? So, what do I do? I hit undo. I pull them back out of the trash. The digital security blanket stays intact, and the cycle continues. Deleting everything feels like discarding potential. And as someone who genuinely loves to learn, closing those doors stings. Shifting from “Just-in-Case” to “Just-in-Time” I haven’t miraculously fixed my six inboxes overnight, and I’m not going to pretend I have a neat 3-step formula to solve digital overload. But I am realizing that my relationship with information needs a fundamental shift. For a long time, I’ve been practicing “Just-in-Case” learning—collecting every piece of wisdom I might possibly need at some hypothetical point in the future. The problem is, information isn’t scarce anymore. My attention is. I’m trying to move toward “Just-in-Time” learning. Trusting that when I hit a specific problem or start a new project, I can go find the exact information I need in that moment, rather than maintaining a massive, anxiety-inducing library “just in case.” The Small Step I’m Taking Today Since “slash and burn” causes too much panic, I’m trying a gentler boundary. I am picking one inbox—just one—to keep completely sacred during my deep work hours. No newsletters, no notifications, no input. The other five can sit there with their thousands of unread emails. They aren’t going anywhere, and I don’t have to delete them to ignore them for a few hours. If you’re currently drowning in open tabs, unread feeds, or a mountain of saved content, know that you aren’t alone—and you aren’t broken just because you can’t “just unsubscribe.” Learning to turn off the firehose isn’t about giving up on curiosity. It’s about protecting the space we need to actually create something of our own. Over to you: How do you handle input overload? Do you thrive on a clean slate, or do you struggle with the anxiety of letting go?

Freelancing allows you to be your own boss.  This means you make your own hours.  But you need to be available for your clients during the times you set. Making your own hours does not mean loafing around all day. It means having the self discipline to set aside a certain amount of hours that you work each day. But, as the boss, you get to decide what those hours are. Being a freelancer means that you get to set your own prices for what your time is worth. No more waiting years for a raise that may never come. Wear what you want. Just wear clothes during video calls.

How many times do you answer email from potential clients? What about responding to customer complaints? Or mailing your affiliates about an upcoming launch? All of these tasks and more become effortless when you use fill-in-the-blank templates that can be repurposed for specific cases/people. Templates can be as simple as a “canned response” in your email client or help desk or simple swipe files that you keep handy for use when working. While templates will undoubtedly save you time, the real beauty is that once they’re created, you can easily outsource things like email and even sales. Simply instruct your assistant on the proper use of your templates, and you’ll be free to do other , more important things. Not sure where to start with templates? Write your “About” and standardize the copy by pasting the same information where ever you are asked to give details about you. Checklists Prevent Mistakes It might seem counterintuitive, but when you perform the same tasks over and over again, it’s easy to miss a critical step. You might think you paid your affiliates this month—you might even remember doing it—only to look back and see it was never completed. This happens to everyone and the best way to make sure that important tasks are not missed is by using templates and checklists. Templates and checklists turn smart business owners into productivity superstars, and it’s easy to get started. The next time you answer an email you’ve answered before, save your response. The next time you set up a new product in your shopping cart or create a new opt-in page, take the time to record the steps. These documents will make future projects easier and faster to complete, and best of all, you can hand them off to your assistant to do instead. I love templates and checklists, people often think of me as a template queen. And I love to share my templates with you, email me at heather@gowrie.biz for direct help with templates and checklists anytime.

If there’s one thing we know about goals, they have to be SMART, right? After all, that’s what we’ve been told for years. The only thing that matters is that your goals are specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and timely. People make a lot of money teaching us about SMART goals and how they will help you reach your business desires. I am here to tell you — SMART goals are for suckers. SMART goals don’t go far enough for those who want to achieve big things. ~heathergowrie Think about it. Do you want to be stuck with “attainable” and “realistic” goals when what you dream about is a 3-day workweek, frequent international travel, and enough money to fund a mission trip (or three)? Seems pretty clear that those safe, smart goals will not get you there. They might even do worse than “not get you there.” They may actively hold you back. Consider what happens when you set an “attainable” goal of earning 10% more than you did last year . You might work 10% more. You might spend 10% more on ads or product creation. You might even reach out to 10% more potential clients. And you’ll likely earn about 10% more. But did that 10% goal inspire you to work harder? Or did it create a subconscious ceiling on your earning potential that you’re unable to breakthrough? Rather than focusing on goals that are attainable and realistic, savvy entrepreneurs know that the key to incredible success lies in creating lofty goals that feel out of reach—maybe even UN-attainable. They don’t strive to earn 10% more than last year . They want 50% or even 100% more. They stretch themselves. They find new—and better—ways to do things, so they don’t have to work twice as hard, but they remain open to the possibility of doing so—at least in the short term—when it’s necessary. Of course, you cannot simply declare crazy goals and expect the universe to hand them to you. And that’s exactly why putting aside those smart goals is so…smart. When you shun the attainable in favor of the “holy cow, how will I ever do THAT?” goal, you push yourself beyond those self-imposed limits and reach for the stars. Sure, you might not double your income, but you’re almost guaranteed to do better than a mere 10% increase. So push your boundaries. Set big, audacious goals. Even if you fail, you’ll be much further ahead than those smart goals would leave you. Want to argue your view? Feel free to leave a comment or email me at heather@gowrie.biz I would love to hear from you. Setting a big goal for yourself helps you think outside the box. If you don’t believe me, try it. Decide on a big income goal for the coming month. Write it down. Keep it in front of you. Then get to work and start to notice what happens next. You start to think of things that didn’t occur to you before.

My dream has always been to work for myself. But I have always found myself choosing to work for others and letting that dream sit in the back. No more, it’s time to do what I want and be the person I want to be.  Now that I am ready to stop choosing the path that others think is good for me, choosing the right business to build is next on the list. Building what I want out of life and out of this business is not as easy as picking a business out of a catalog and running with it. So, I am taking it one step at a time and I want you to do that as well. Know How Much You Need / Want to Earn Let me be honest, the point of building a business is to make money. And it is important to know what I want and need before starting any business. I have pie in the sky goals for my income, and I hope you do as well. I also have a goal on where I need to be to move to building my business full time, and I have a goal on where I need to be for starting out.  Short-Medium-Long Term Goals. Set them and work them.  Money is the hardest idea that any business builder must embrace. No one likes to admit that they are doing something for the money. Everyone wants to believe that passion is enough – but it is not. When determining and setting your income goals, consider everything. Think about how much tax you will need to pay and potential business expenses. Then think about how much money you want in your personal bank account.   Be open with yourself and set those goals.

Before I even dive into the processes and tools I need to build my business, I must determine if I am a person that can truly build a business. Am I someone that wants to build something that will outlast themselves? Am I someone that can accept other’s ideas and work together to build something larger than my original idea? I would like to think that I am that person.  Of course, there will be days you will hate your business and days when whether or not to go on will be the main thought in your head, but to be successful and truly build a business all hinges on your ability to do the work. Knowing myself, I have the qualities needed.  I hope you do as well!

People become entrepreneurs for many reasons. Sometimes it is just because they cannot find a job that pays enough, is interesting enough, or challenges them enough. Other times it comes after a long life of working for others and moving up in a company and then realizing that they can do more with their own business. Yet others start a business because they want time freedom and flexibility.  For me, it was a mixture of a lot of things – including frustration with the people that I worked for and their stress levels. But as I sit here thinking about what type of business to build, I am stuck on the desire to provide freelance services but worry that myself and my skills may not be enough. Which one am I? Which one are you?