Do you own a junk drawer?  Do you have a junk room?  Is your garage a “garage” or a mini storage unit?

Apparently nature abhors a vacuum and therefore seeks to fill it.  However, nature does not fill your empty area with what you need; it just simply fills it up.  (Hence the “junk” drawer.)

Guess what else you have…

You have a mind and a calendar that is going to fill up one way or another.  Remember that if you don’t fill it up then something else will.

Everyone of us needs to be strategic with what fills our mind and our calendar.  Stop wasting some of your most valuable resources.  Fill up your calendar with things that will impact you, your family, your personal growth, and the future success of your business.  If you do not fill it up, someone or something else will fill it up for you.

The same goes for your mind and you will harvest the fruits or poisons that you plant in it.  Remember this the next time you decide to sit down in front of a book or a movie.  Also, remember this when you plan out your eight hour work day.

Seriously, imagine that you are a farmer standing in the middle of your field.  Would you really sweat and toil for eight hours under the hot sun to walk away without planting at least one seed?  If you say “No!”, then why would you do the same as an entrepreneur?  You are most likely not a farmer, but you are standing right in the middle of a field ripe for the harvest as a business owner.

If you are going to take time away from your family and your friends, then make it worth your time.  Do not let one hour or even one minute escape you because you did not maximize it.  The way to maximize your seconds, minutes, and hours, is to constantly and consistently invest in yourself and manage your calendar.  Strategically plan out what you are going to do to grow yourself into the businessman or business woman that you want to be, invest your talents into opportunities that will result in a significant return on its value, and make your calendar start working for you.

– Catalyst John, small business expert and coach

PS – If you have multiple calendars, just stop it.  You will be much more effective if everything is in one place on just one calendar.