Read Time: 4 Minutes

First things first: Happy New Year.

I know, I know. We're already into the second week of January, but...

...if you're anything like me, the first week of the year was a blur of leftover turkey, kids bouncing off the walls, new toys scattered all around the house, Christmas decorations having to be taken down and put back into the attic, and good intentions that haven't quite found their footing yet.

So here we are. A belated welcome to 2026.

Now, let me tell you about something interesting I discovered recently.

Last year, I surveyed hundreds of authors about their biggest struggles. The usual suspects showed up: not making enough money, scaling challenges, advertising overwhelm.

But one answer appeared more than any other.

"Life gets in the way."

Not tactics. Not strategy. Not a lack of information.

Life.

The kids. The day job. The house that needs cleaning. The parent who needs care. The energy that just isn't there at the end of the day.

And here's what struck me...

Most author business advice completely ignores this reality.

It assumes you have endless hours. That you can wake up at 5am and hustle before the world wakes. That you can simply "find the time" if you want it badly enough.

I call nonsense on that, because it's not reality for most people.

The Guilt Trap

Here's what really happens when "life gets in the way."

You feel guilty.

Guilty for not writing. Guilty for not marketing. Guilty for not being further ahead than you are.

But it gets worse.

When you finally sit down to work, you feel guilty for not being with your family. And when you're with your family, you're not really there. Your mind is on business. On the next chapter. The next scene. The ads you need to launch. Why your last newsletter tanked.

I've been trapped in this cycle before.

Guilty when working because I wasn't with my family. Guilty when with my family because I wasn't present and wasn't working. A never-ending loop of guilt in both directions.

Here's what changed everything for me: learning to be fully present with my family when I'm with them.

When I'm present with them, I feel lighter. Happier. I notice expressions on our boys' faces that I would have missed if my mind was elsewhere. And I enjoy my work time so much more. Guilt-free. The two feed each other instead of competing.

But most people never escape the trap. The guilt becomes a weight. And that weight makes everything harder.

You sit down to work on your author business and the first thing you think about isn't the task in front of you. It's everything you haven't done. Every email you haven't sent. Every ad you haven't launched.

Guilt doesn't create progress. It creates paralysis.

The Uncomfortable Truth

I work 3-4 hours a day on my business.

I've had emails over the years from people who don't believe me. I get it. It sounds too good to be true. But I keep a timesheet that tracks every minute. The numbers don't lie.

And here's the thing: it's not because I'm lazy. 

It's because I've learned that more hours rarely equals better results.

I've pulled the 10, 12, 14-hour days. Trust me. Nothing good ever came from them. Just exhaustion, resentment, and work I'd have to redo anyway because my brain was fried.

The authors I see struggling aren't struggling because they don't work hard enough. They're struggling because they're trying to do everything at once, whenever they can squeeze in a spare moment.

They check their ads while waiting for the kettle to boil. They draft newsletter copy at 11pm with one eye on the TV. They research keywords in the school car park.

That's not work. That's chaos dressed up as productivity.

And it all stems from guilt. 

A Different Approach

What if, instead of feeling guilty about the time you don't have, you got ruthlessly protective of the time you do have?

What if an hour of focused work once or twice a week beat five hours of scattered fragments?

Here's the mindset shift that made all the difference for me:

Stop treating your author business like a second job that needs constant attention. Start treating it like a system that needs occasional, intentional input.

The difference is massive.

A system doesn't need you to show up every day. It needs you to show up when you can, with clarity about what actually matters – and get it done.

Your Two-Do List

If life is getting in the way right now, I want you to try something.

Forget the endless to-do list. This week, you're working from a Two-Do List (a concept I heard about a while ago that I've adopted into my own business).

Two things. That's it.

But not any two things. Two things that will actually move the needle.

Here's how to know if something qualifies: if you complete it, will it directly impact your ability to reach more readers or sell more books?

Examples that DO move the needle:

→ Write and schedule one ad to test this week
→ Send an email to your list about your latest book
→ Fix that broken link on your landing page
→ Write the first email for your welcome sequence

Examples that DON'T move the needle:

→ Reorganise your Kindle categories spreadsheet
→ Research seventeen different email platforms
→ Read another book about marketing
→ Tweak your website font for the fourth time

Pick your two. Write them down. Decide exactly when you'll do them.

One thing that helps me: I plan out my tasks for the following week on a Friday. That way, when I sit down to work on Monday, I know exactly what I've got to do. No decision fatigue. No wasted time figuring out where to start. Just action.

Then protect that time like it's sacred. Because it is.

Those two completed tasks will move you further than ten hours of guilt-ridden scrambling ever could.

The Stoic Truth

Life will always get in the way. That's not going to change.

The Stoics understood this thousands of years ago. Things will happen to us, good and bad, that we simply cannot control. The economy shifts. Algorithms change. Kids get sick. Life throws curveballs.

What we can control, though, is how we respond.

And that response, not the circumstances themselves, is what determines the direction of our lives and our businesses.

You can't control how much time you have. But you can control what you do with the time you've got.

Here's to a 2026 where we stop chasing more hours and start making better use of the ones we have.

To Your Success
– Matt