In photography, the “golden hour” is the time just after sunrise or just before sunset when the sun is low in the sky and so its light is warmer, softer and casts more interesting shadows.

In other words, it's a great time to get your best photography work done.

When it comes to marketing or business in general, I believe it's important to make your own “golden hour” at least once a week where you can focus on your most important work.

For me, that means planning the week's activities. Something I do first thing on a Monday morning.

(Though admittedly, “first thing” for me tends to mean 10am or 11am.)

It also means setting aside protected time when I can work on creating new content for my website and new training for Momentum Club members.

Those are the things I've identified as the highest value activities for me.  So it's vital I set aside dedicated golden hour time for them rather than try to squeeze them in between more immediate but less important issues.

It's easy to prioritise and schedule client work.

You're getting paid for it. You have deadlines. You have someone who will say something if it doesn't get done.

And most of us have a big sense of duty to our clients.

We tend not to have that same sense of duty or urgency for our own activities that have a longer-term impact on our business.

Especially ones we might not enjoy so much or be that good at initially.

But in the long run, activities like nurturing client relationships outside of projects and creating content to build our credibility will have a huge impact on the success of our business.

And, I'd argue, on our well-being too.

Relationships that last beyond the current transaction are what keep human beings happy. And creating a body of work to be proud of gives us a real sense of worth and achievement.

So make sure you plan in at least a few “golden hours” every week to work on these vital activities.

Don't leave it to chance. Don't try to squeeze it in when you have time.

Prioritise it.