In my internet marketing business efforts often catch myself doing something inefficiently or ineffectively or altogether doing something I should not be doing. It’s easy to come off tracks when you work and get distracted. I have an excuse that still I’m doing ‘something’ and of course that something is way better than procrastinating, but am I really making any progress?
The essence of this post is THE TIME.
Time is our most valuable resource since there’s no way that we can get it back or get any more of it. Every minute I spend wasting our time will never come back to me. The more I think about it the more valuable the time becomes to me and I try to use it wisely without any waste.
It’s a matter of your priorities as well because you share your time with others like your kids or family and friends, you don’t want to save the time there. But what about the time you’ve got for yourself, or the time you should spend on supporting your business?
It may not seem like a big waste to spent 1 hr a day watching TV but if you add them up within a year you would be loosing 45 working days!!! (356/8).
Of course striking a balance is very important, you don’t want to become an workaholic or on te other end of the scale – a procrastinator or self indulgent lazy person.
Many people don’t realize the value of time and they will remain on the latter en of the scale.
So what if you are so busy that you don’t have much time of your own?
Well, you have to get creative and make some from the time you already have which means SAVING IT.
HOW?
Take effective actions, the ones that will take you STRAIGHT to where you’re going. Basically Keep It Simple! Find areas where you could improve, ditch the actions that bring no results, improve the ones that do bring results.
Find a system to get more done, be an action taker. PLANNING is crucial because you have to see where you’re going so you can get there in a fastest way.
GOAL SETTING is the way to go. Find your Big Goal and break it down (backward planning) to smallest steps. Taking small steps one at a time is the way to conquer big mountains.
BE SELECTIVE, if you relatively new to internet marketing you will get attacked from every angle and possibly overwhelmed by the amount of information out there. you don’t need to know everything, taking action and gaining experience is more valuable than reading. Even if you fail that has a value of it’s own, often people who fail will go much further then those who don’t. JUST STICK TO IT!
GET RID OF DISTRACTIONS: turn off email alerts and check them only at specified time, make rules on phone calls during your working time.
You have to stay FOCUSED entirely at what you’re doing now so you can be most efficient. Do ONE PROJECT AT A TIME, but take notes of your ideas for later.
Manage time by setting scheduled TIMEFRAME, specify how much time you’re going to spend on something and stick to it.
SET THE DEADLINE, this causes your mind to focus automatically on the task, tight deadlines give you little space to fill it with inefficient activities.
Speed Up Your Computer by getting rid of files and programs you don’t need or don’t use. Structure your files in a clear and readable way. Spend some time to name your files properly so in the future you know right away what’s where.
If you do repetitive things CREATE SYSTEMS of your own, write down the most effective way to do that thing and stick to it every time you use it.
VISUAL MANAGEMENT, or ‘stick it to the wall’ system, you can use whiteboards or simple pages of paper on the wall to update things and clearly see what you work on and where you are. Put there things like Work In Progress, To Do List, To Be Learned List, Goals and Planning, Systems. Check off what’s been done to monitor your progress.
PRAISE YOURSELF EVERY TIME YOU GET SOMETHING DONE!!!!! It’s hard to stress how important this is in building your confidence. Literally smile and pat your self on the back and say GOOD JOB MAN!. Works like a charm!
ANALYZE your HISTORICAL DATA to see where you can improve, see what’s been a success or maybe there’s something you can ditch altogether or replace. you can put a value score to your achievements and in future focus on actions that bring the best results.
SHARPEN THE SAW, often investing time to learn new skill can save you tons of time in the future, but weigh the potential of your new skill before you invest the time. In internet marketing skills like copywriting or blogging, even simple touch typing can result in tremendous time gains.
USE SOMEBODY ELSE’S TIME, you can invest the money to hire someone in order to save your time, again you must consider the time profit potential, is it worth it?
OK, there’s tons of other tips I could give you, but those above can start you off i the right direction.
To sum up I will quote Mark Joiner from Simpleology, this is the essence of all I have written above:
“The 2 Most Important Decisions of Your Life Are:
1. Will you choose to take action that brings you closer to or further away from your desired Target?
2. Will you make decisions that Strengthen your Power or Weaken your Power?”
DON’T WASTE YOUR TIME – YOU WILL NEVER GET IT BACK!
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