How to Make Time for What Matters

on Aug 21, 2026

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Ever look up at 4 pm and you have no idea what you actually did all day?

Same. I’ve been running this site for more than 20 years, and I still have days where I feel busy from sunup to sundown yet somehow never get to the thing I actually wanted to do.

For me, that’s usually cooking something real for my family instead of another rushed dinner, or actually sitting down to plan the trip we want to take. You’d think “food and travel writer” means my own kitchen and my own vacations are effortless. They’re not. They take the same planning and the same fight for time as anything else. Yes, I write about the destination, but the getting-there is still a challenge.

A laptop and coffee mug on the kitchen table with a child in the background. — **Flashback to 2013: working from the kitchen table with my boys**

The truth is, procrastination doesn’t usually look like laziness. It looks like being so busy that the important stuff gets pushed to “later,” over and over, until later never comes, pressure builds, and if you’re like me, it becomes harder and harder to take action on anything.

So now what?

I’ve been self-motivating since the 3rd grade, when my parents switched me from public school to homeschool. After a brief stint in Corporate America after college, I decided to stay at home to raise my boys while also finding a way to fit in work wherever I could. During that time, I became a freelance writer and content creator and started my own business. It’s been such a fun journey, but it took a lot of goal-setting, failing, and figuring out what works.

I love being my own boss. But even I struggle with the temptation to procrastinate. Over the years, I’ve built a handful of simple ways to re-center myself when I’m feeling scattered, and I keep coming back to the same system every time life gets loud.

I turned that system into a short workbook called How to Make Time for What Matters.

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What’s in it

This isn’t a 100-page course you’ll start and never finish. It’s short on purpose because if it takes you longer to read the workbook than to actually make the change, you’re not going to do it. Ask me how I know.

Here’s what it walks you through:

A time audit — a real look at where your hours are actually going
Finding your alert time — the part of the day you’re naturally sharpest, so you’re working with your energy instead of against it
Setting realistic expectations — so you stop scheduling your day like everything takes zero minutes
Letting some things go, for now — because you can do all the things you want to do, just not all at once
Making a plan you’ll actually stick to
Celebrating the wins, so busy days feel motivating instead of guilt-inducing

It’s the same system I still use today, whenever I feel like I’ve lost the thread.

Who this is for

This workbook is for you if:

You want to cook at home more, but by the time you’d start, it’s easier to just order in again
You keep saying “we’ll plan that trip soon” but soon never comes
You want to make time for something specific — a hobby, exercise, reading, your own business — but can’t figure out where it fits
You’ve tried planners and productivity systems that were way more complicated than your actual life needs
You just want something simple that respects the 20 minutes you actually have free today

Whatever your version of “cook more” or “travel more” looks like, this isn’t about doing it my way. It’s about actually finding the time to do it your way.