Every single one of us can waste time either intentionally or not, but when it comes to building a successful business, often it’s far more of a subtle beast that we need to conquer: it’s our own fears.
When you’re dealing with self-doubt, everything feels a lot more difficult than it is. We find a million reasons not to get something done because internally we’re constantly sabotaging ourselves believe it’ll likely fail, so why bother?
Procrastination is a business killer. It’s also a dream killer because if you’re allowing negative thoughts and self-doubt to lead the way, you’ll never have enough faith in your abilities to see things through. You’ll not only take longer to get ahead, but chances are you’ll never reach your desired destination.
Procrastination has been called the closest ally to underachievement, and for good reason.
Many of us are afflicted by negative, self-doubt so if that’s you, know that you’re not alone. Feeling like we’re not good enough, or that any success we’ve experienced was somehow unworthy is a common struggle with entrepreneurs all over the world.
The “I’m not good enough” monster is only amplified when you see others in your industry succeed. You might wonder whether you know enough, are informed, skilled or equipped enough to be in a position of authority.
If you’re a coach or course instructor, it’s easy to feel as though you’re simply not knowledgeable or experienced enough to be charging people for your information.
Deep down, you know it’s not true. You’ve likely worked hard to get to where you are and deserve every bit of success you achieve. Overcoming those feels will take personal will and determination, but if you make the commitment to yourself and your business, and you persevere, nothing will stop you from reaching those goals.
Don’t be your own worst enemy in business. Be careful not to sabotage your own efforts. Identify your weaknesses and move on to focus on your strengths.
No, it won’t always be easy and it’ll take a determined effort on your part, but if you work towards reprogramming your way of thinking, you’ll vanquish those success-constricting messages and reinvigorate that desire that made you take the leap from employee to self-employed in the first place.
You got this!
You now understand the effectiveness of chunking (read the article here) and that by implementing this into your workweek you’ll get more done in less time, but we need to dig a little deeper.
Your work environment is just as important as your workflow. You should do everything possible to separate your personal life from your work life, which means talking with friends and family who may feel that just because you now work from home, you’re free for conversations throughout the day.
Create a routine for yourself and try to stick with it. If you can create a realistic work schedule that everyone in your life understands, you’ll be able to minimize distractions while making each hour count.
Doing this will also help you avoid burn out. You can only go full-speed ahead for so long before you’ll suffer the consequences including a dried up creative well.
Pushing forward without breaks or any sort of normal schedule will also leave you scrambling to fix errors, revise projects and will cause you to overlook important tasks.
As for your office environment itself, it all depends on what helps you to stay focused. For some, they find that music helps them focus while others need it to be completely silent.
Do your best to figure out what kind of routine will get you into a working mindset.
Does working out in the morning help?
Do you have to shut off your phone, close your email, or fire up a playlist in order to spring into action?
Find your groove and stick with it.
Your family, your mental health, and your career will thank you for it.
Hopefully you already have ideas as to how to create an organized system that will boost productivity and help you place a value on your time. If not, make that your top priority.
And your second?
Hold yourself accountable when you mess up.
If you’re struggling to get things done, it’s easy to switch up your routine believing that will help you get back on track.
However, if you take the time to analyze why you really fell behind in the first place, chances are you’ll be able to identify where things went wrong and it’s not always deserving of a new routine.
Take a step back and think about where and when your efforts were derailed.
Were you spending too much time in email or on social media?
Did you fail at prioritizing your goals and ended up spending too much time on things that don’t matter as much?
Self-correcting and holding yourself accountable are two very important lessons when it comes to being successful in your business.
It’s way too easy to say, “just one more hour”, or to push through and get that “one more thing done”, but it does you no good if you end up having to revise that work because you were so burned out that you didn’t give your very best. Your business deserves the best of you and so do your clients or customers.
Holding yourself accountable isn’t always easy, but it’s the enemy of procrastination. If you take the time to identify where you went wrong, you’ll stay clear of self-doubt by immediately correcting the issue and moving on.
And remember, one way to stay productive is to be focused and many people struggle with this. If you want to learn more about staying focused, check out the featured resource below for a free detailed report; download, read it and take action 😊
So, you’re anxious to reach those goals you’ve set for yourself and your online business, but you quickly realize that there’s only so much time in the day. No matter how hard you try, you feel as though you’re always one step behind.
One thing becomes very clear: You need a plan.
Without a system designed to place a value on each hour you spend working on your business, you’ll find yourself frantically scrambling to meet deadlines, follow through on launches and prioritize what is most important to your business.
This article has been written to help you get more done in less time by levelling up your productivity score quickly and easily.
The strategies contained in this article are designed to help you learn to value your time, make informed decisions about the kind of work you’re focused on and ultimately, beat the clock.
Let’s begin. There’s no time to waste. 😊
One of the reasons so many people seem to struggle to gain traction in their business is entirely due to the way they manage their daily activities.
This typically points to one major problem: People are stuck in an employee mindset!
They’re so used to that 9-5 grind that they aren’t equipped to adopt an entrepreneurial mindset, which will help them make the transition so they can train themselves to focus on the most important tasks: prioritizing their time and assigning value to the time they spend building their business.
As an entrepreneur, you’re solely responsible for your business, so your ability to value your time and make every minute count will have a major impact on how successful you’ll be.
Fail to make this important shift in the way you spend your time, and you’ll always struggle to get to where you want to be.
Thankfully, it’s not all that difficult to break that cycle and transition your way of thinking from that of an employee to a boss. It starts with preparing yourself for the realities of being an entrepreneur.
This means you need to:
Set Realistic Goals. You must be honest about what you’re capable of getting done on any given day. Then you need to determine how many hours you’re willing to invest in your business and then assign those hours to specific projects.
Break tasks down into smaller, focused projects. Tim Ferris, author of “The 4-Hour Work Week”, refers to this as “chunking”. We’ll talk more about the importance of this in a bit because it’s a great way to boost your productivity and get more done in less time.
Cut out Distractions. Your work environment will change drastically from what you may be used to as an employee, and you need to optimize your workspace so that it’s supporting a focused, productive workflow.
Identify the Truth Behind Procrastination. This is one of the hardest things to acknowledge at times, especially if you’ve gotten into the habit of procrastinating for reasons you aren’t aware of.
We’ll talk more about this in an upcoming chapter because it deserves a section of its own. It’s that important.
Be Ruthless in Prioritizing. Does your email really need to stay open while you work so that all those notifications cause you to continuously check your inbox?
Now let’s take a closer look at how you can learn the chunking technique, which will immediately boost your daily output and keep you focused on meeting your goals.
For years, I would fire up the laptop and start my day doing several different things at once. I’d check email, then maybe do some writing, then head over to social media, and then back to email yet again.
Chunking is where you decide to focus on just one major task at a time (or even per day). Depending on the type of business you’re involved in, this might include one day exclusively focused on graphic design, then one day dedicated to marketing.
Consider creating a detailed task list of all the important aspects of your business; the things that keep it all afloat and absolutely require your time.
This can be tricky because we tend to things all things are important, but the reality is, they’re not.
When it comes to any business, there are a handful of critical tasks that need to be taken care of daily, and the rest just adds a little more gas to the tank. They can be done later once the main tasks are out of the way.
You need to learn to place a value on every ounce of “fuel” you have left. That’s where chunking comes into play.
Don’t be tempted to multi-task because this is a productivity killer! So many people make a big deal of being able to multi-task, but all you end up with are a number of tasks that are partly done and an increasing amount of frustration because you never seem to be able to clear things off your to-do-list; sticking to one task at a time is much more productive, believe me!
And remember, one way to stay productive is to be focused and many people struggle with this. If you want to learn more about staying focused, check out the featured resource below for a free report; download, read it and take action 😊
Now that you know all the components of procrastination, you’ve had a chance to determine which ones might apply to you, and you’ve learned the skills you need to get rid of or diminish them in your life.
Let’s put it all together so that you have a coherent assessment of yourself to bring to your tasks, your projects, and your life going forward.
You will finally be able to get stuff done and start achieving your goals, and these may be business, career or personal development goals.
Whatever the goals you are aiming for, getting laser focused and having a plan is really going to help you to beat procrastination and get you to your end result.
Follow the 8-step plan below to help you beat procrastination once and for all.
Using your computer or a paper and pen, answer the following questions in as much detail as possible:
1 – Identify the areas in your life where you procrastinate. It could be with tasks or projects or relationships. It could be in your home, on your job, in public situations, or with friends and relatives. Where do you want to make changes? What are you dissatisfied with?
How do you see it changing? What is your vision for the future? Write this in as much detail as possible.
2 – Remember, you achieve change through a combination of dissatisfaction with the present plus a vision for the future plus a plan plus taking the first steps.
Now, give yourself a challenge. Write down each change you want to make in phrases starting with,” I will…….…”
Look at each thing you want to change and ask yourself:
3 – Next, turn your challenges into goals. Decide when you want to achieve the goal, and write this down for each goal,” It is(the date) and I have achieved this goal. Make these goals real in whatever way you want: for instance, a vision board, a journal, or by telling your friends about them.
4 – You need a way to measure your success. How will you know if you’ve reached your target goal? What will success means you? Write it down.” My success criteria are…….” Do that for each goal.
5 – Write down each goal, leaving some space beneath each one. Think through all of the negative things associated with that goal. What will the obstacles be? What can you do in advance to diminish the obstacles? For each goal, finish this statement,” I am removing the barriers to success with this goal by………”
6 – Now it’s time to break your project into steps. We know by now that this will make it much more manageable and give us reason not to be overwhelmed or afraid. Develop two or three first steps for achieving your goal and write them down.
7 – Now take a look at your first steps. What are the positives? What are the negatives? Choose the first steps for each goal that you determine to be the best ones.
8 – Next, plan the rest of your project step by step, going back and assessing each step as you did in number seven. Remember to build in flexibility in time constraints to allow for unforeseen events and obstacles. Remember also that it’s completely acceptable to amend these steps as you go along.
A few more pointers to remember when you’re actually working in your project:
Well done! Celebrate you!
I hope that you have enjoyed this 4 part series discussing the problem of procrastination and that you have some useful actionable tips that you can use to blast through any areas in your life that are being affected by procrastination.
And remember, one way to beat procrastination is to stay focused and many people struggle with this. If you want to learn more about staying focused, check out the featured resource below for a free detailed report; download, read it and take action 😊
Now is the time to build on your strengths, improve on your weaknesses, and develop your skills.
Procrastination always has two elements: the task you’re putting off and the internal forces that are causing you to do so. The more you deal with your inner “demons,” the easier it will be to take action.
When you start to get things done, you experience these feelings less and less.
In our projects as in life, we come up against obstacles. We need to handle those obstacles in order to see the task through to the end. Self-esteem helps us to do that because it helps us develop resilience and the belief that we can succeed despite barriers. Self-esteem can grow or it can diminish, and we can control that.
So, what is self-esteem? The most important component of self-esteem is internal. It’s the ability to like and accept yourself with all your strengths and weaknesses, and in spite of the mistakes you make.
It’s understanding that you are equal to anyone else and you, like anyone else, are unique and one-of-a-kind. It’s not ego driven. It’s not a belief that you’re superior to anyone. It’s the understanding that each one of us is unique, special, and important.
Another component of self-esteem comes from the reflection of ourselves that we get from other people. We get either positive or negative feedback from people in obvious or subtle ways all the time.
We get from the media, from work, and from our relationships. Unfortunately, we can’t always depend on outside sources to have our best interests at heart or even to be honest.
So, although it’s inevitable that some of our self-concept comes from outside sources, a much better, more fulfilling approach to our lives is to develop our internal self-esteem and diminish the effects of external self-esteem.
Here are the questions to ask yourself:
The answers to these questions should give you an awareness of yourself that will strengthen your internal self-esteem and lessen your need for approval of others.
Next, here are some powerful actions that you can take to strengthen your self-esteem and diminish your tendency to procrastinate:
Here’s one non-negotiable law for living the life you dream of: self-esteem is essential to our well-being. It’s not selfishness; it’s just the opposite.
It’s possible that you are not even aware of the negative inner voices that keep harping at you. Science has shown, though, that the vast majority of our thoughts are negative, and a lot of those thoughts are about ourselves.
It’s natural that this is true because these thoughts are an accumulation of judgments we received in childhood, then from our peers, and eventually from ourselves. These thoughts are even more frequent when we’re feeling vulnerable or facing obstacles.
How many times have you said things like if yourself:
The next step is easy and even fun. Start talking back to those thoughts.
Say things like:
” It’s okay to make mistakes.”
” I’m not stupid, this is just something new for me.”
” This is not too hard – I just have to take it one step at a time.”
” Everything does not depend on this. If this doesn’t work out, I’ll find another way.”
See, wasn’t it fun? Won’t you feel a lot better doing that than giving in to negative thinking?
The next step is to reinforce your self-esteem with some positive thoughts about yourself. Remember the list you made of the things you’re good at and your positive qualities?
Repeat a few of those things to yourself after you’ve had some negative self-talk. Then give yourself a small reward (talking to a friend, reading a book for a little while, taking a time out for yourself, etc.). These positive thoughts and actions reinforce your positive feeling about yourself.
Our negative self-talk tries to protect us from taking risks and things we fear, but it also puts up barriers to opportunities and challenges and changes that would enhance our lives.
And think about this: research has shown that four out of five of our fears never materialize. The fears that do materialize, we can handle, especially after we build our strengths.
Here are some strategies for managing your fears:
Handling fear is not easy for any of us. But facing it leads to a more fulfilling, productive life.
Of course, it’s obvious that we have to have some degree of motivation in order to overcome procrastination. And it’s also obvious that we need some willpower in order to want things to change so that we do follow through on our projects.
A better idea would be to choose projects and tasks for now that can help you build your motivation and willpower in general.
Try these exercises to increase your willpower:
These are all small steps, as you can see. You can and should substitute as many small steps as you can think of. The point is that you’re building your willpower. This in turn builds your self-confidence: you begin to realize that you can depend on yourself to follow through.
What is assertiveness? And why are some people so much better at being assertive than others? How can we be appropriately assertive without being aggressive and overbearing?
Acting assertively can be complicated because how we behave stems from a combination of our beliefs and values, our attitudes, our thoughts and feelings, and our self-esteem. It comes down to choosing the way we will behave in order to get what we want.
Many of us use more than one of these techniques, and while we probably know that the first choice is the best choice, many more of us don’t know how to go about being assertive.
Being assertive means acknowledging our needs and asking in an open and direct manner for those needs to be fulfilled. It implies respect for the people we’re asking, respect for ourselves, and respect for the task at hand. If our needs in this particular situation are not met, it is not a blow to our self-esteem because our self-esteem is not based on the approval of others.
Assertiveness is not always the easiest behavior choice, but it is the one most likely to get what we want. It is the win-win approach.
Being aggressive is often a compulsive overreaction; it’s competitive and leads to win-lose situation.
Being passive is negative behavior with negative results. It creates victims who allow other people to decide their fate. But the truth is that those people are victims of their own passivity.
The indirectly aggressive or manipulative approach also rises from low self-esteem. For these people it’s safer to control and manipulate rather than face confrontation and the possibility of being rejected.
There are some techniques you can use to maintain an assertive attitude without becoming aggressive or passive. Try some of these to keep you on track. You don’t need to use all of them; use the ones that work for you in a given situation.
Remember that being assertive is often about negotiation and compromise. It’s about not being aggressive or passive or manipulative. It’s about the win-win for everyone involved.
Few things encourage procrastination better than anger and frustration, yet anger and frustration are inevitable in life and in projects.
The first thing you must do is recognize when you’re frustrated or angry. Many of us are so proficient at hiding these feelings from other people that we’ve become great at hiding them from ourselves. That is usually a problem because the anger and frustration show themselves in other ways.
One of these ways is to discontinue whatever we’ve started. Another outcome is that we show our anger toward other things or people that are unrelated to the real cause. All of this is unproductive.
You could channel that frustration into finding other solutions for the problem. Or you could find other projects to work on temporarily. Next, find a productive way to release your anger and frustration. It might be through exercise or even household chores.
Pay attention to what causes you anger and frustration. Try to make sure that you’re separating your current anger from past situations that cause anger. One thing that many of us do is bring old anger that has been dealt with to new situations.
Find means to deal with anger and frustration as they appear. A good idea is to come up with solutions in advance. Since we know for certain that the feelings will come up again, channeling them in a positive way will produce the best outcome.
Another enemy of productivity, closely related to frustration and anger, is stress. Stress is our body’s way of letting us know that we are confronting something beyond our coping ability.
On a physical level, much less an emotional level, our instinct is to flee. This is the point where many of us give up on our projects. Again, a lot of us have a tendency to ignore stress until it causes major problems physically, emotionally, and even in all areas of our lives.
The symptoms of stress can vary from person to person, but we all need to know what they are so that we can deal with them if and when they arise.
Physical symptoms – heart palpitations, nausea, muscle cramps, colds, infections, fatigue, body aches, and indigestion.
Emotional symptoms – mood swings, irritability, tension, anxiety, and powerlessness
Behavioral symptoms – accidents, inferior job performance, overeating or not eating, lack of concentration, general exhaustion.
Mental symptoms – indecision, memory failure, worrying, loss of perspective, lack of empathy
Get to know your particular signs of stress and recognize when you’re experiencing …the sooner you do, the better for your health.
Knowing the factors that cause stress will help you anticipate when you might be experiencing them. We have different levels of stress tolerance, and many times different types of stressors can combine to cause serious stress.
The four types of stressors are:
Situational stressors – these include unexpected situations, change, bad news, heavy workloads, and negative environmental factors
Life events stressors – these include marriage, divorce, death, birth of a child, moving, ill health, and financial concerns
Stressors caused by others – these include unreasonable demands by others, unreasonable expectations from others, and a negative atmosphere at work or at home
Internal stressors – these include perfectionism, unreasonable expectations from ourselves, feelings of inadequacy, unmet needs for acceptance and love, and the need to control.
Stress can be debilitating and lead to many physical problems if you don’t deal with it. The way to handle stress is to recognize it, interrupt the pattern, and use the tools available to reduce it.
In order to recognize stress in your life, ask yourself these questions:
Once you recognize that you’re feeling stress, come to terms with those feelings. Don’t run away from your feelings but accept them as signs that are showing you the need to take action.
Develop a support network. Let your friends know when you need them, and make sure they know that you’re grateful for their help.
Take a good look at your lifestyle. What changes do you need to make? Make the time for some exercise and some relaxation. Eat a healthy diet, don’t smoke, and drink moderately. Think positively and handle your negative inner thoughts.
All of these things that you build into your lifestyle will strengthen you again stress.
The serenity prayer is an awesome piece of wisdom and wonderful for dealing with stress. It says,“God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and wisdom to know the difference.” – Old Irish Saying
The feeling of overwhelm is a major cause of procrastination. It is so uncomfortable it can cause us to put off doing projects or flee from them faster than just about anything else will. The good news is that prioritizing, organizing, and planning – tools that can easily diminish this feeling – are not that difficult to learn.
I know that you know that old expression:” How do you eat an elephant?” “One bite at a time.” We all know that breaking things down into parts make sense. It makes difficult things easy by putting them in logical order so that we can address each step and go on to the next one. For some of us, it’s difficult to do.
Here are the steps:
Once you begin your project, you may discover efficiencies that will help with your time management. For instance, are the right people performing the right tasks? Could you improve performance by switching people’s functions?
These are just examples of efficiencies that you may find what you’re going through the project. The point is to monitor your progress to reduce unexpected, unwanted surprises, and to keep you on track.
Prioritize your tasks on a daily basis because the priority can change quickly.
Priority one – important and urgent, tasks to do immediately.
Priority two – important but not urgent, tasks that can’t be planned for a future time.
Priority three – urgent but not important, tasks that can be delegated.
Priority four – routine, tasks that need to be done but can be deferred or delegated.
So, in the final article in this series, we’ll look at how to put this all together.
One way to beat procrastination is to stay focused and many people struggle with this. If you want to learn more about staying focused, check out the featured resource below for a free report; download, read it and take action 😊
In today’s article, I’ll share a few resources and tools that will make it easy to manage a team of freelancers.
By the way, this is a continuation of another article about the Power Of Outsourcing which can be found here.
Cloud-Based Systems
You may decide that it makes sense to use a cloud-based content management system to manage your freelancers.
Asana is an awesome tool for project management as well as managing your team based on tasks and deadlines.
You can find that here: https://www.Asana.com
The benefit of cloud-based systems is that you and your freelancing team can access them from anywhere.
One of the reasons I like Asana is that they offer a free app for users, too.
You can use cloud-based systems to:
In addition to Asana, I like Joomla and Monday.
Of course, you can also use something like Google Docs or OneDrive to share files, but they’re not complete content management systems.
OK, now let’s talk about accountability and why it’s so important when managing a team of freelancers. In a healthy working relationship, everyone must be accountable for their work.
Let’s talk about how that can work.
If you’ve got a short-term project, you may simply decide to give the freelancer a delivery date.
In writing, that might mean that you’d say:
I’ve added two new blog posts to the CMS. Those are due on April 21st by 5:00 Eastern Time.
Of course, you can include the due dates in your CMS as well.
For long-term projects, you should break down deliverables into milestones.
For example, if you hire a freelancer to redesign your website, you might have the following deliverables:
Each milestone should include a due date and a payment.
This method allows you maximum control over deliverables while making it clear what the freelancer’s duties are.
Your expectations should be spelled out in the contract and reinforced in every interaction you have with your team.
That doesn’t mean you’ll need to mention accountability and consequences every time you speak. It simply means that your actions should always be clear and consistent.
If you communicate well, provide freelancers with the tools they need to excel, and hold yourself and your team accountable, you’ll be able to get the best possible work from the freelancers you hire.
OK, now let’s recap what you need to pay close attention to in order to build a successful team that will take your business to the next level.
OK, to recap, the things you need to do to build a successful team of freelancers include all of the following:
Regardless of how hard we may try to convince ourselves not to outsource, the bottom line is that delegating important tasks to qualified professionals is simply the fastest way to grow your business and skyrocket your income.
There’s another reason why outsourcing is important: when you try to do it all, you’re taking 2 big risks.
The second risk, and it’s a big one, is that you’ll simply burn out and not be able to stay on top of your market.
No matter how many skills are in your arsenal, or how many years of experience you have, there are always tasks that can (and should) be done by seasoned professionals. As the old saying goes, just because you can do it yourself doesn’t mean you should.
Well, there is a lot more to be learnt about outsourcing for efficiency; far more than can be covered in this short post, but if you’d like to know more about this, then click on the featured resource below where you can pick up a free report that covers this topic in more detail. Download it, read it and take action 😊
