Time management and staying focused is so important for internet marketers and web entrepreneurs simply because we have so many potential distractions that can take us away from the one thing we need to be doing most — and that’s building our businesses.
Every day we are bombarded with new tools, products and strategies that promise to make our lives easier. Unfortunately, most of them are nothing but a distraction that keep us from the core activities that online business builders need to be focusing on — and that’s creating content, generating traffic, developing leads and figuring out how to monetize those leads.
In this post I am going to list some things that I do to stay on point and focused on my various web business projects.
I am a big advocate of both yoga and meditation. They keep me centered and they remove a lot of inner friction. Whenever I am feeling overwhelmed with my business and I have too much information to process, meditation is a huge help. I simply go to a quite place, close my eyes and then let my mind drift. I try not to think and just let my subconscious take me where it wants to go.
Like most people I find that I am much more productive after working out. A good sweat with an endorphin release really clears my mind and puts me into a zone where barriers rarely exist and breakthroughs happen much more frequently.
For me, daily exercise is the key. When I get daily exercise my day just flows and I run the day. When I go 3 to 4 days without exercise little things tend throw me off and I find that the day runs me.
To keep things organized I post critical items on my white board. If you don’t have a white board in you work area I cannot recommend it enough. I honestly do not know how I lived without it in the past. Perhaps that is a huge reason why I made very little progress in my business for literally years.
In the past I would list anywhere from 10 to 15 different tasks in my daily planner that I wanted to accomplish on a given day. I now try to keep my list to just 3 to 5 critical items. Never more than 5!
The key is work in blocks of interrupted time on “one thing.” I’m terrible at multitasking . . . and so are most internet marketers. When I multitask nothing gets done. But when I focus on one thing for a 60 to 90 minute chuck of interrupted time, its amazing what I can accomplish.
Attach deadlines to EVERYTHING!! If you don’t Parkinson’s Law will take over and then you will be completely screwed. Parkinson’s Law states that . . . “work will expand to fill the time that is availaible.” In other words, if you don’t put a deadline on your work tasks that you can get done in hours will end up taking your days if not weeks.
Seriously, if you learn nothing else from me please learn this: “You have got to attach deadlines to everything you want to accomplish.” You literally have to be ruthless with your time. If not, well-meaning people will waste it and simple tasks that can be done in a day or two will end up consuming weeks or months of your precious time.
I also like to do a “Brain Dump” in my business journal once or twice a week. I’ll just sit for 20 to 30 minutes and write down everything business related that is on my mind. Critical stuff that I put in the journal goes to the white board. It is amazing how that little writing exercise can clear your mind and get me re-focused in a hurry.
I like to write in my business journal before going to bed. It is quite therapeutic. I sleep very well after journaling and the next day I wake up refreshed and fully charged. It is remarkable how the simple act of writing in a journal can reduce my stress level and give me both direction and clarity of thought as it relates to my business.
I firmly believe that all of your thoughts, ideas and tasks that we want to accomplish occupy space in our minds. And we have to release this stuff. Journaling allows you to put your thoughts and ideas on paper so you can remove them from your mind. This will enhance your creativity by making room for new ideas to hatch and grow.
If I am going to take my time management and productivity to another level, the next item on my agenda is to start “Outsourcing.” I am a member of James Schramko’s Super Fast Results coaching club and James is a big believer in asking this question whenever he is about to do a task: “Is this something I can eliminate, automate or delegate?”
James is a huge advocate of “Less is More.” And so am I.
The last thing I’ll say is that you have to get away. I try not to touch my web business on Sundays. I used to work on my web business 7 days a week. Then I realized that if I can’t get my work done in 5 or 6 days a week, I need to find a new business.
If you have any time management and productivity tips you’d like to add, please let me know. I am always looking for ways to get more from the day.
To Your Success,
Jon Poland
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