🗓️ Calendar Is King 👑

Hi ,

When I first started selling on Amazon, I was a mess. I was working around the clock, not taking care of myself, and not paying attention to my wife, my family, or anyone for that matter. You know, kind of like Amazon Support.

Over the years, I’ve come to realize that owning a business comes with sacrifices, but you get to choose what to sacrifice.

When I started my business, my priorities were:

My business > My kids > My wife > Myself

I’ve realized that I’ll lose everything I care about by putting my business first.

The business is the engine, not the fuel.

I knew that I had to switch it around to:

Myself > My wife > My kids > My business

How do you do it?

How do you flip it around?

Well, it all starts with planning and blocking your calendar.

The calendar doesn’t just own your business, it owns your life.

By blocking what’s important to you and the things you decide to work on, the better off you’ll be.

I’ve started with myself: 6 am-7 am - Personal Time. Tennis once a week. My time is one afternoon a week. Once a quarter I’ll take 2 days for myself for deep work and strategize the next 90 days in my business and life.

Continued with my wife: Having a breakfast date once a week. Having 2 evening dates a week (one at home and one going out). Eating lunch together almost every day at home. Planning out vacations with and without the kids.

Continued with my 3 kids (my oldest is 5 years old): Every day of the week from 3:30 pm-8 pm - Family Time. Having 1:1 time with each of my kids at least once every two weeks.

Saturday is a full day of family time, with zero work.

When do I work?

8 am-11 am is blocked for deep work with no interruptions of calls or meetings.

11 am-1 pm is mainly meetings.

1 pm-2 pm break.

2 pm-3:30 pm more meetings and answering emails.

9 pm-11 pm more meetings with the US (3 times a week).

As soon as I did that, my business grew faster than ever before.

Spending time on what you care about most first, drives you to do better in business.

I had to be productive when sitting in front of the screen. Learning how to delegate more effectively and also block time in my calendar for different tasks.

The difficult part is to start saying no. Saying no to opportunities that come by, or going down a new rabbit hole for a new product idea.

Here’s a short example - I was beginning a new relationship with an aggregator, and one of the things they wanted me to do was to jump on a weekly call with their executive team once a week, at 6 pm Israel time. I said I couldn’t do it, and that it was a deal breaker for me.

We ended up signing the contract, without me being involved in those specific calls. If needed, I was briefed on what was being discussed and gave my input when needed.

Could I have lost their business? Possibly. But could I lose a lot more if I agreed to it? Very likely.

I’ve lost dollars by putting myself first, but that’s better than losing myself.

Don’t wait. Do it now. Open your calendar and block time for what’s important to you.

Start with yourself, then your loved ones, and finally your business.

Here’s the truth - Don’t wait until you’re “set” financially. I started this process long before I got there.

One of the most common phrases people remember from my book is from this cartoon when I talk about building a team:

The truth is, it’s also true about yourself.

You don’t need a certain amount to start taking care of yourself and your loved ones, you take care of what you care most about first and the money will follow.

What will get you there is putting the things you care about first. That will be your constant reminder that it’s all worth it and will drive you to work harder when you do work.

I challenge you to open up your calendar and block times for the next 4 weeks.

I promise you that your life and business will change for the better as a result.

The calendar is not only the king of your business, it’s also the queen of your life.

At the end of the day,

I’m a husband,

I’m a father,

and I make some money on the side.

Tomer