Posts Tagged ‘business motivation’

The Hardest Part

Thursday, July 16th, 2009

stud_bigger The other day Vincent, a Twitter friend (who I just met last weekend offline) sent me a direct message.

He wanted to know more about blogging.

“I just came across your website(s). (Oh, Google.) Love to talk about blogging/passive income someday. I’ve had an idea for a blog since forever but have yet to do anything. Would love to talk to you about how you maintain a schedule, etc. Just process sort of stuff.”

- @Volfro of BigSweaterDesign

My first thought was, umm… what can I teach a young single guy about time management? Haha!

My idea of time management is figuring out how to get work done with 4 kids underfoot.

But then I realized.

Maybe I AM the best person to teach someone about productivity. After all, if I can manage profitable blogs in 15 minute increments, anyone can. :-)

Speaking of 15 minute increments…. that was actually a tip I picked up from Nicole Dean. Nicole is a well respected information and affiliate marketer. She is also the affiliate manager for Jimmy D. Brown.

productivitymomedition-med

I read an article of Nicole’s in which she suggested you set a timer for 15 minutes when you sit down to the computer.

If you have children, you probably know how efffective a timer is for setting boundaries with your kids.

“When the timer dings, XYZ will happen.” Often, it means someone gets a turn, or they get mom’s attention.

But even if you’re not a work at home mom, working fast and hard in short increments is a wonderfully effective way to stay uber focused.

Nicole just finished up a free report with more of her tips on staying productive when you work from home.

Honestly, the hardest part of owning an online business or blogging is this: staying focused and productive when you don’t have deadlines, work hours or a boss to be accountable to.

Launching a successful blog requires a commitment to creating high quality content on a regular basis, and it can be overwhelming. Some good time management strategies are definitely helpful.

You can download the .pdf report here.

It’s full of practical advice from a busy mom of two and full time online business owner. Let me know what you gleaned from the report in the comments!

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Meant to post on the 6th, but I procrastinated

Thursday, September 20th, 2007

Did you know that September 6th is Fight Procrastination Day? Yes ma’am. You see, I meant to post this on the 6th but I put it off.

Just kidding. Actually I just found out about this. But I thought it was worth talking about, and better late than never. ;)

What do you procrastinate about?

I’m not a big procrastinator in my business, but in my non-business life I find that I have too much tolerance for a lot of things, and then when they get way past the point of reasonable tolerance, I overreact. I’m trying to get a handle on that by solving problems while they’re mere “gnat bites” instead of waiting until they’re intolerable.

According to a study by the University of Calgary, more than 25% of Americans are chronic procrastinators. What is this costing us?

For starters, many things get far worse when they’re put off, and it’s a good idea to analyze that to give yourself permission to put off some things, and motivate you to do others asap. For example, dishes. If you put off doing the dishes, they’re harder to clean. If you put off vacuuming, it doesn’t really take you any longer to do the job once you do it, at least not that I’ve noticed.

What about in a business context? If you put off tweaking the design of your website or your blog template, you probably won’t suffer much in terms of income. But if you procrastinate about sending out your newsletter, it will probably cost you money!

What has helped me to overcome procrastination is two things:
1) Knowing my hourly wage
2) Outsourcing

Firstly, I sat down and figured out how many hours I work each month. I divided my monthly income by that number and got my hourly “wage”. I find it highly motivated to sit down to the computer when I KNOW that I’m going to make XX dollars in that hour! Try that and see if it doesn’t help you.

Secondly, outsourcing helps keep me on my toes for a couple of reasons. One, if I’ve paid someone to do something for me, for example add a bunch of articles to a site, then I feel motivated to make that money I’ve spent “earn” itself by getting into action doing my part, which is to edit the content to make it my own and monetize it.

Secondly, if I’m putting off starting a new project (like I’ve been guilty of here), then I hand it over to a VA to start working on. When she’s done her magic, I’m over the motivation hump and get excited about seeing the project unfold (and the income that it will bring once completed!) and get to work. It’s like looking at the blueprints of your new home. Once you see the foundation poured and the walls go up, you’re all excited.

Alice Seba recently released a free report on outsourcing that you can pick up from her blog. One of the things she talked about inside was how to outsource when you’re on a small budget. I know how to do that. I don’t have Alice’s outsourcing budget by any means, but I do outsource a good percentage of my business tasks. It takes some creativity.

So – what do you procrastinate on and what are your tips for overcoming it?

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Mila’s Pep Talk

Thursday, September 20th, 2007

I really enjoyed listening to Mila Sidman’s audio pep talk and thought I would share it with you in case you haven’t heard it already.

I really admire Mila and what she has accomplished in her business and think she’s a great role model for work at home Moms. It’s obvious that her personal philosophy goes way beyond just positive thinking.

Positive thinking is a great start, but it’s like a bubble that’s easily burst. What Mila is talking about is first listening and gaining awareness into your self defeating thoughts (often referred to as “stinkin’ thinkin’) and then re-training your mind and your thoughts to go in a different direction.

This isn’t just psychobabble mumbo jumbo. It really works. Confident people act differently and attract more success. While it’s not easy to do and takes quite a lot of self discipline to change, it’s very much worth it.

Listen to Mila’s audio, and for more learning on this subject I recommend The Success Principles.

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A Change of State

Friday, July 27th, 2007

No, this isn’t going to be a post about politics. When I say “state”, I’m referring to your emotional and mental state. If you’ve ever read anything by Tony Robbins you know what I’m talking about.

The longer I am in business for myself, the more I realize that it’s not about the money. It’s about the personal growth. It’s about the person you become. And the biggest, most important thing you need in order to succeed as an entrepreneur is the ability to stay the course.

It’s much more important than any technical know how.
It’s much more important than any marketing or business acumen.
It’s much more important than how much energy and time you spend.
It’s much more important than the money you have to invest.

In my opinion, the ability to control your will and your mood and emotions is THE most important thing that will ensure your success!

So, when challenges come your way and threaten to upset your State, how do you deal with that? None of us are completely hardened. We all have negative emotions that come up from time to time. Life is not going to “behave” the way we would like much of the time! The question is, how do we handle things we have to deal with, like challenges or difficult people?

I thought it would be fun and enlightening to talk about some of the things you can do to change your State. Truly, it’s not hard once you commit yourself to being positive and confident. It just takes some practice.

What do you do to change your State?

Here are a couple of things I do.

Gratitude
Gratitude is one of the quickest, most effective ways of getting your emotions back in the place where they need to be. Every day, I think on the things I’m grateful for. Before they go to bed, I discuss with my kids 3 things they’re grateful for that happened that day.

Even though I have these daily habits, I can also call on gratitude at any time, anywhere to change my State instantly. Sometimes I have to take a deep breath and ask: “What’s perfect about this problem?”. As hard as it might be at first to come up with what’s positive about a negative situation (or difficult person!), every bad thing has some benefit.

If you have a hard time coming up with much, the fact that you have clean running water and food in your fridge puts you ahead of much of the world. Start there. :)

80’s Music
What can I say? I was an 80’s kid. Goonies was my favorite movie, I wore Jellies the first time they came around, and Cyndi Lauper was cooler than Madonna. I simply *cannot* be unhappy while listening to Girls Just Wanna Have Fun.

Music is an excellent State changer. If you need a pick me up, come back here to watch this!

Now you share: What puts you back into right thinking quickly and easily?

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