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In this snippet from a speaking engagement, listen as I share a strategy for keeping track of what you need to accomplish.

I’m a member of the 5 am Club. And have been since February 4, 2020.

But it took me nearly 55 years to join!

I heard quotes such as these over and over again:

• “Early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise.” ~ Benjamin Franklin
• “Lose an hour in the morning, and you will be all day hunting for it.” ~ Richard Whately
• “It is well to be up before daybreak, for such habits contribute to health, wealth, and wisdom.” ~ Aristotle
• ...

Social media is not your friend.

Unfortunately, I know many people who disagree with that statement.

Not only is social media not your friend, but it’s a jealous lover. In other words, they want you to stay on their platform…forever. And, even after that.

Dead people can have memorial pages on FaceBook.

“Show me the money!” is a classic line from the 1996 film Jerry Maguire.

And while Friendster wasn’t created until 2002, MySpace in 2003, Facebook in 2004, and...

Every midnight, you get a gift of another 24 hours.

How you spend those hours is completely up to you.

Will you waste them or spend them working on needle-moving activities?

This matters because no matter how you spend your time, one fact remains: you can’t ever get the time you wasted back.

So, as I navigate 2021, I have decided on 5 places where I will spend my time. I’m not going to be everywhere, just where my people are (or, as Seth Godin puts it, my tribe).

Plus, I want to...

I realize you don’t have the time or desire to weed through all the productivity apps to find which ones are worth using and which ones you should steer clear of.

Note: none of the apps mentioned in this article are paying me to write about them. In fact, until this article was posted, they didn’t even know about it. I take your trust very seriously and don’t want to be swayed by developers.

Now, here are my favorite productivity tools as of today.

Fantastical from...

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Like everyone else on the planet, you get 24 hours every day. But where does your time go?

January 23, 2021, 8:21 am.

That’s when I announced to the world, “I’m a writer.”

What I mean is that I created a video that I posted on LinkedIn, Snapchat*, and TikTok*. (* - I'm no longer on these platforms.)

And then I told the Mark Struczewski Insiders via my email newsletter.

As a matter of fact, I told anyone and everyone who will listen!

Why?

I’m serious about this, and I know…

Keeping this a secret would only set me up to fail.

What most...

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This time on Walk O'Clock: Are you happy? Consistency matters. A tough decision I had to make. Show me the money. And the 5 am club.

As I strive to grow my business, I am also documenting my journey, hoping that you will learn from my mistakes and successes. This article is one such piece of documentation. I sincerely hope that this helps you. Your feedback is always welcome!

Pivot.

That’s a word most entrepreneurs are very familiar with. Or should be.

When you try something new, and it doesn’t work, or if you’ve been doing something that is no longer giving you the results you want or expect…

You...

Let me start by saying I love being a productivity coach.

I truly love it when people come to me overwhelmed, frustrated, and feeling hopeless, and leave feeling peaceful, happy, and in control.

While most clients are awesome and get a lot of value from our time together (their words, not mine), three things break my heart about being a productivity coach.

In no particular order…

1. Clients giving up

I’ve been both a coach and a client. So, I understand both sides of the...

Got books?

Like most entrepreneurs, I love to read.

I think it’s one of the best investments you can make.

Think about it:

For about twenty bucks, you can learn a wealth of information that would probably cost you hundreds if not thousands of dollars if the author coached you directly.

In 2018, I read 43 books. 2019, 34. And in 2020, 43.

I was never much of a reader growing up.

In fact, I loathed reading anything other than the sports section and the comics.

Even in college...

After I was fired in July 2005 from my corporate job, I decided to become an entrepreneur.

Being completely transparent with you, I thought that the money would come rolling in once I became an entrepreneur.

It did not.

My first endeavor was to become a wedding and portrait photographer. I think I just wanted the excuse to buy all that cool gear. The truth is I had no idea what in the world I was doing: either being a photographer or running a business.

While that business failed, the one...