We've got a lot going on chez Brodie at the moment, so when I dragged myself reluctantly out of bed this morning and slurped down my extra strong coffee, I jumped straight to work.

A couple of hours later after recording and uploading a Course that Sells bonus video I realised I'd forgotten to write and send today's email.

Doh.

Back when I was running consulting teams pretty much the only “leadership” thing I was good at was getting buy-in from clients and involving them early so that everyone was on the same page and we didn't have to persuade them about recommendations later – they'd been intimately involved in working on them themselves.

It meant my teams got off to slower starts than my peers who rushed off to get the job done. But we finished faster and got much better results.

A decade or so ago when I started writing more, I discovered that a few minutes spent outlining what I was going to write saved me a ton of wasted time and effort later – and resulted in much better articles and emails.

And today I've been reminded that a few minutes “wasted” first thing in the morning to review your priorities makes sure you're doing the right things in the right order.

Aside: it was about two years into my first job when I realised I could no longer carry my to-do list around in my head and it made sense to write it down. Nowadays I struggle to remember where I've put it :)

So the desperately dull but much-overlooked secret to consistent and effective marketing is to think first and think consistently.

Make a quarterly plan for big projects. Plan your week. Review your priorities first thing in the morning.

It's easy to push out marketing in favour of client work (or frankly, anything you find easier).

It's rarely a good idea.

Keep putting off your marketing and you eventually won't have any client work to get in the way.

Just a few minutes spent each quarter, each week and each morning will keep you on track.

And unlike me, you won't have to apologise for failing to send out your email :)