Have you ever read Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland?

If not, I’m sure you’ve seen one of the many adaptations!

The story goes like this…

A young girl named Alice drinks a liquid, shrinks in size, and falls through a rabbit hole into a dreamlike world full of eccentric characters.

One of them is the ‘White Rabbit’.

Throughout the story, this stressed-out animal rushes around in a mad panic, crying, “Oh dear! Oh dear! I shall be too late!”

He works as a herald for the Queen of Hearts, so he’s constantly anxious about getting to the next deadline — always running, but never quite catching up.

Does this ring any bells?

I am willing to bet it does because almost everyone I speak to feels this way – I know I do!

You may find that you’re constantly busy in your life and there’s always so much to do before you can get properly stuck into your course creation project.

Work commitments… shopping… household chores… admin… doctor and dentist appointments… pet care… childcare… paying bills… meeting up with friends…

There are any number of things to do on any given day that suck up your time and attention.

You race to get them ticked off your list, but as soon as you get a bunch of tasks out of the way, a bunch more suddenly crop up.

The admin tasks that you just have to do…

The client or boss that has just added a ‘could you just do this – it shouldn’t take long’ task that will actually take hours…

There’s the dripping tap that you need to get fixed…

That old friend you promised to call back…

Oh, and you really need to think about where you could go on holiday this summer before things get booked up.

Plus – you’ve just realised that you’ve run out of milk! Argh!

Suddenly, you’re squeezing that important course creation work session into a small amount of time, or you’ve delayed it until the next day… or even next week.

“I’ll get round to it again when things clear a bit,” you tell yourself.

But when does that ever happen?

I don’t know about you, but in my life, there is rarely what I would call a ‘clear week’ or a ‘free month’.

There’s always something to do, and somewhere to be.

So the brutal truth of the matter is… the ‘to-do’ list never ends!

Weeks and months can pass by while your course creation plans remain barely touched.

You’re just too busy trying to get your life in order!

Like the White Rabbit, you’ve become trapped in a nightmare where you can’t ever get to where you really need to be.

But this can change!

How to Change Your Priorities

As a mum of two children, with 2 cats, a dog, a husband, a business to run and a household to take care of… I’m no stranger to White Rabbit syndrome.

So believe me, I’ve been there….

A child off school sick… the boiler suddenly cutting out… the dog treading mud all over the floor after a messy walk… incessantly ringing phone… urgent emails piling up in my inbox because of some technical glitch at work.

Sometimes all in the same morning!

It ends up with me running around, toast in my mouth, coffee in one hand, trying to get everything sorted so that I can eventually get onto what I REALLY need to do.

Which is why I’ve learned to put measures in place to minimise this problem.

Because if you want to do something radically different in your life – like creating a course – then something needs to change in the way you organise your days.

Otherwise, you’ll be stuck in a White Rabbit loop, racing against the clock to do all the socialising, chores, and family favours that are demanded of you.

Yes, they’re important and of course you have responsibilities – but you also have a right to break out of your situation and change your life.

If you want that freedom to work flexibly from home, earning an income from your own digital product, then SOMETHING has to give.

Which means you must take a fresh look at your priorities.

You see, in our daily lives there are unimportant tasks, important tasks and urgent tasks.

Urgent tasks include:

• Your house is on fire
• You have been called to a work emergency by your boss
• Your pet has taken ill and needs to go to a vet
• You’ve broken your wrist and you need to go to A&E
• There’s a burst pipe in your ceiling.

Those are things you cannot put off and MUST do immediately, no matter what you had planned that day, including working on your course.

But in normal life they’re very few and far between (hopefully!).

Unimportant tasks include:

• Tidying up the garage
• Zoom chatting with an old friend
• Watching a TV show
• Going out for dinner
• Weeding the garden
• Hanging out on Facebook

These are things that should NOT take priority over your home business plans.

I’m not saying you should never do them, only that you should do them AFTER you’ve carried out some work on your most important project.

Then there are important tasks, which include:

• Going to the supermarket to get food
• Taking the dog for a walk
• Returning the call from a relative
• Organising your holiday travel plans

Believe it or not, while necessary, these also should NOT take priority either.

Yes, you will need to do them at some point in the day, but schedule them around your course creation.

For example, let’s say you decide that you’re going to devote 1 hour per day to planning out your course.

You should schedule that time into your calendar and ring fence it from all but emergencies.

Next, you should schedule the “important” tasks so that they don’t clash with, or spill into your course creation time.

When you get everything done that you planned, THAT’S when you can think about the unimportant tasks, which should always be the lowest priority.

Yes, I’m afraid that does include Netflix and DIY.

What’s more…

The time you spend on your course must be prioritised too

When you sit down for an hour’s session on your course business, make sure you avoid doing all the less important, less urgent tasks.

For instance, spending the time thinking about what nice colours could go on your website… or scrolling through social media… or coming up with branding ideas.

You will drift through an hour, dabbling with bits and pieces quite cheerfully…

But it won’t really get you anywhere.

Instead, use that crucial hour to take the difficult steps – for example, formulate a plan, do your market research, outline the course, structure or write that first module.

Do the ONE most difficult, challenging task for an hour, then you’ll genuinely progress – and at a surprising speed.

So give my recommendations a go and see if you can get more done this week!