We are all creatures of habit.  I have so many little rituals I do every single day. 

Brush my teeth.  Drink a cup of coffee (or 3 🙊 ).  Go to the park.  Juggle my kids.  Get said kids to bed.  Take a shower.  Watch reality TV and stay up way too late (truth… I'm a shameless Bravo junky).

Now that you know way too much about my daily habits, let's get back to you & your business.

It's been said that it takes 21 days to make or break a habit.

I have one big habit that'll help you in your business that I want to see you have mastered by the start of 2019.

DAY 3: USE A DAILY PLANNER (OR LOG)

This sounds so silly.  Like it's almost too easy to actually have an entire day for.  But it's that important.

Very few people actually do this, but once you start, I promise you will thank me.

Here's what I want you to keep track of: what you did for work and where you went. 

This can be used to calculate your business miles at the end of the year.  Business miles are deductible at 54.5 cents per mile.  So every 2 miles you drive, you get to write off more than $1.  This really adds up, but you need to have a log to back up your miles.

Tracking what you did daily is the best way to do it as it's still fresh in your mind and will save you time from having to figure it all out afterwards using the process I'll explain in your homework below.

Here's how you can do it: 

• Get a pretty daily planner if you like these. For a person with a paper aversion I actually love a good planner.  Keep it in your car or on your nightstand, whichever works best.  Set a daily reminder to jot down what you did and where you went that day (for work).
• ***Use a simple app if you have a paper aversion. This doesn’t have to be complicated.  You can create a mileage log in Google Sheets and access it through Google Drive on your phone, or you can use the Numbers app on an iPhone.
  • *** There is a downloadable mileage log in the Small Biz Starter Kit that is still on promo for just $17.  Again, this tool alone would be worth your money because I designed it to be something you can use on your phone, made it super user friendly, and it has all the formulas you'll need to calculate your deduction for tax time.

YOUR DAY 3 HOMEWORK:

Part 1: How to start good habits immediately to stop the chaos in its tracks:

👉If you prefer pen and paper - go to a local paper store #shoplocal and buy yourself a pretty 2018-2019 daily planner, or do it the easy way and order one from Amazon now. I love this one.

👉If you prefer something electronic that you can use on your phone, consider the $17 Small Biz Starter Kit, make your own spreadsheet in Google Drive or Numbers, or choose an app.

Part 2: What to do to clean up the mess you're sitting on:

Even if you haven't been keeping track of your business miles and daily activities throughout the year, you can still back in to this to claim *some* miles.

One way is to go through your business income and expenses. 

For example: if you have a USPS charge, you can assume you went to the post office that day, etc.

If your job requires you to drive from customer to customer, tracking income from those customers might help you remember whose house you visited, and then you can look up their address and figure out the miles.

📒 If you haven’t already gotten your challenge workbook, get it by clicking here and use the three sheets marked "Day 3" to help you with this exercise.

YOUR ACTION STEPS TODAY:

1. Complete the relevant pages in the workbook
   
   
2. Hop on over to THE FACEBOOK GROUP and comment on today's post to let us know if you're already tracking miles, if you prefer to use paper or an app, and what time of day you prefer to set your reminder to fill in the log. Use the hashtag #O2ODay3
   
   
3. Catch the Facebook live replay below where I put money in your pocket by sharing ways you can back in to your miles for 2018 even if you haven't been keeping a log.