If you have been following along in my previous post “How To Get Motivated and Stay Motivated”, you will find this is a continuation where I discuss how to keep your momentum when you are the sole person responsible for your success.
If you haven’t read it already, go now and read up because you will find this post a better “fit” after you have read it.
Now having said that, lets push on…
So here we are… just starting out in a our ”work from home” business where it usually starts in some dingy den, or cramped study where the relationship is just between you and your PC or laptop.
Now if there is one thing I have found about working from home, it is that you have to be disciplined. Even more so if you are “it” (that is, no one else to delegate tasks to).When you work from home distractions come thick and fast, and before long you can find that your day is whittled down to a couple of productive hours interspersed with paying your bills, sending emails to friends, eating, making coffee, shopping, general surfing the Net, and oftentimes playing Solitaire or Spider! Does this sound familiar to you?
Even if you are working a full time or part time job to supplement your income, the time you DO have generally reads like the above paragraph (you just don’t waste quite as many hours doing it).
So what’s the answer?
Well, having been there and done that I could seriously see where my days efforts were all but naught when I kept giving priority to “other things”.If you are like me and are easily distracted, then consider this one of those things that makes you FAIL. In essence, you are not moving forward (well not at any speed anyway), and some days (as far as progressing your business), you are merely standing still.
Remember what I said in the previous post? “If you are not moving forward, you are either going backward or standing still”.
So let’s get to a technique which is sure to keep you on track.
1. Decide how much time you CAN devote to your business EACH day. Be practical. If you have to pick up kids, maker dinner, shop, pay bills, do laundry, watch your favourite show on TV, and the million and one other things that our daily life requires, factor these in when you decide how much time you can afford to spend on your business. If you don’t, these tasks will encroach upon your “business times’ and you will be less effective in growing your business.
Now that you have decided how much time each day you can spend on building your business, it’s time to create a timetable. What?!
2. Create a timetable.If you think about it our bodies are on a timetable. We eat at certain times, get up and go to bed atr certain times, we might even have certain times of the week we do specific things (like catch up with family). All of these things happen because we are in the habit of doing them at certain times.
If you want to eliminate the time wasters that stop you from getting to where you need to go you need to become an efficient time manager. If you are someone that is already baulking at doing this exercise, then it is definitely for you.
When creating your timetable, brainstorm what time you are going to work on your business.Look.. I know this may be anal to some people, but there is a very good reason you are deciding what time you allocate to your business. It’s all very well saying you can devote a couple of hours a day to growing your business, but if you don’t commit yourself to a time to grow your business by setting aside specific time periods you will have difficulty keeping your commitment, and fail (or at the least take a lot longer to grow your business).
Think about when the best time is to knuckle down and get focused on your business – for YOU.
3. Set your tasks (aka priorties). That is, do what your business MUST have done first. So now write down on your whiteboard ALL the tasks your business requires to GROW. You don’t need to get into specifics at this stage.
Now look at the tasks and put next to each task a Priority Rating. Use whatever you like. High, Medium, Low, I-10. Whatever you feel is appropriate which when you look at it quickly you can see where your focus needs to be.
So.. here is what you might end up with on your whiteboard…
Time spent each day = 2 hours. When = Monday/Wed/Friday 8-10pm
Tasks:
Create Unique Selling Proposition (USP) = 1
Create Website = 2
Monetise site = 3
Drive traffic to site = 5
Create auto responder = 4
Search out JV’s = 6
Advertise (PPC, Print Media, CPA) = 7
Now you could look at the task list and say “but they are ALL priorities!” and that would be true. Without all of the tasks completed you will have more difficulty growing your business, however you have to start somewhere, and if you have the resources to hire a freelancer, you can move your business along quicker and delegate some of the tasks.
For instance, if you have the money to advertise on Adwords or similar, you can potentially drive traffic to your site without having to tweak your website using Search Engine Optimisation tactics, or having a really top notch website. However…. if you don’t give serious thought to how your website retainsthe site visitor that you have PAID for to get there, and they simply leave the site without doing what you want them to do (ie, buy, sign up, give details, etc), then you have wasted your money.
4. Commit to working on your highest priority task, at the time you have set, on the day/s you have set and do it religiously. No excuses. Only do this task. Stay focused. Don’t wander, sidestep, or get drawn into doing other things if it is not related to your task at hand.
Doing this will keep you on track, utilise your time better, and move you towards completing your task quicker.
So there you have it. 4 Steps to growing your business and keeping yourself motivated.
To summarise…
- Determine how much time you can realistically devote to growing your business
- Create a timetable of when you will work on your business.
- Set your tasks and prioritise
- Stay focused until completed on each task
When you have finished your task,move onto your next priority. If you find you need to do other things add them to your list and re-prioritise.
TIP: Re-focus on your priorities. If you have to write yourself a sticky note with the words “Re-Focus” and stick it in front of you then do it!
If you have any of your own tips or questions about this post, please leave your comments.
I’m the silent avatar… and I have spoken
Tags: Business and Management, Business Tips, General, Tools For Your Business by the silent avatar
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