I create a new label for each year as a way to motivate myself to accomplish some goals. For instance, 2024 was The Year of the Book Part 2, whereas the ultimate goal was to publish more books. I’m labeling 2025 as The Year of Time.

I know, I am a bit of a dork. But it’s things like this that help keep me focused and motivated to be a success.

It’s true that my goals for The Year of the Book Part 2 involved publishing at least three books and I didn’t get a single one on Amazon. However, I did manage to put more time into writing books, attended Read Between the Stars, and am literally weeks away from publishing my next book.

So, it wasn’t necessarily a failure considering how much time and effort that was put into publishing as opposed to 2023.

Why The Year of Time?

One of the things that often holds me back from achieving more goals is time management. It’s been something I’ve struggled with for the past several years. In essence, my life is too chaotic to stick to a rigid and structured schedule. But I still need to figure out a way to manage the time throughout the week if I want certain things completed.

The more time I can get into the array of projects I’m working on, the greater the chances of those things becoming successful.

The Year of Time is going to center around becoming more flexible throughout the week while still addressing various projects. Instead of a strict 8:00 am to 5:30 pm schedule, it’ll center more on a 40-hour work week spread across seven days at a time.

So, if I don’t get something done on a Monday because I have to drive someone to school, I need to make it up at some other point during the week.

Sounds simple enough, right? The problem is that I often talk myself out of not playing “catch-up” and then putting those projects on the back burner indefinitely. It’s not a very good mindset if you’re trying to be successful.

In other words, I have a lot of bad habits when it comes to time management that I need to break if I want all of these projects to be successful in 2025.

What The Year of Time Entails

The ultimate goal for 2025 is to focus on the time spent working on my various projects. That includes everything from the client work I get to the time spent writing books. In order to do that, though, I have to modify a lot of my habits and mental hangups.

Not to mention doing it in a way that doesn’t cause me to burn out, give up everything, and go to work flipping burgers at a McDonald’s.

I doubt very much that would happen, but everyone has a breaking point. Luckily, I haven’t really found mine yet. I’ve come close a few times, but not quite.

So, what am I going to do to make The Year of Time a success?

Commit to Flexibility

First, I need to commit to my fluidic schedule. If I take time out of a Monday for something like shopping at Costco, I need to make sure that time is made up elsewhere throughout the week, even if it’s just a block of time on a Saturday.

That’s been the most difficult for me thus far. I tend to talk myself out of working on those projects, probably because most of them don’t really pay a lot. The ironic thing is that if I put in the time to do them, they would probably pay enough to retire from freelancing after about a year or two.

A lot of the side projects I have going on rely on playing the long game. Without putting the effort into them now, they won’t pay what I need down the road.

Out of the many things on this list, committing to being more flexible with my time is probably the most prominent.

Fewer Nickel-and-Dime Breaks

Lately, I’ve been nickel and diming my breaks throughout the day. That means I’ve been taking a lot of shorter, five-minute breaks for a variety of reasons. And I’m not just talking about the bathroom and coffee breaks I take throughout the day.

I will often hear someone in the kitchen and suddenly feel the need to be part of the conversation after working on a project for 20 minutes.

It’s been an issue ever since I bought this house. I don’t think it’s cursed or anything, but I do have far more people living here than I did when in Westminster. And I feel like I need to be part of the group. It’s akin to the fear-of-missing-out issue that plagues three-year-olds.

To overcome this issue, I need to pay closer attention to when I start the clock before I can logically take a break. Perhaps I should refresh myself with my ultradian rhythm.

Weekly Time Goals

Although I still keep track of word count goals, my ultimate goal will center around the time I actually work throughout the week. Because of how I have my spreadsheet set up, I can keep track of the estimated time I spend on projects.

Usually, I aim for a 40-hour work week. I doubt I could commit to anything more simply because of how much chaos finds its way into my home. With an average of seven people in my house at any given time, things are bound to happen.

Anyway, I’m putting more emphasis on my weekly time goals. This means I should get a lot more done during The Year of Time. In fact, it should contribute to hitting the one-million-word mark for the year.

Keeping Projects a Week Ahead

One of the things that stress me out throughout the week is maintaining a publishing schedule. But if I focus on publishing next week’s content, then I can work on them at my leisure.

For example, I am committed to making sure WriterSanctuary.com has a new post every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. That means I have all week to write those blog posts and schedule them for the week after.

Doing this alleviates a lot of stress as I’m not pushing to have them published at a specific time on that particular day. In truth, this adjustment alone has lifted a lot of stress off my shoulders every week.

Sticking with My Ultradian Rhythm

Essentially, an ultradian rhythm is kind of like a biorhythm of when you’re the most productive. In the past, I’ve found that 90 to 100 minutes is the ideal length for me to work before needing to take at least a five-minute break.

I haven’t been adhering to my ultradian rhythm for quite some time. Between the stress of keeping people alive, sidetracking my own efforts, and the slew of family emergencies over the years, it’s been difficult to keep on task for long stretches of time.

One of my goals for The Year of Time is to get back into a good flow of productivity using my ultradian rhythm as a guide.

Can I Get the Most Out of 2025?

The Year of Time is perhaps my greatest challenge to date. I’d say it’s even more difficult than trying to write one million words in a year. I suppose that’s because it’s heavy on the mental health side of things. I have a lot of bad habits and a lot of stressful elements to address in order to make this year work.

Regardless, time is the one thing that will contribute the most to being successful at all of the projects I’m working on in 2025.

Let’s keep this year simple and see what we can accomplish by improving time management.