I’m certain you’ve heard some of this before, but just bare with me for a few minutes and I will tell you how to get more things done in less time.
The problem with not getting things done
Since most of you are trying to make money online I’m certain you always have some ongoing projects. You have a clue about how it should look like in the end, but you have no idea how to get there.
A goal without a plan is just a wish.
I like to think about it as a GPS. Every year I spend two weeks travelling through western Europe with a car. Even though I know where I want get I do need some directions if I ever want to get there. It’s the same thing with everything else in life. Even though you know where you want to be, you do need some directions if you want to get there within your lifetime.
How to create your directions
When I think about creating directions I always try to walk backwards. I set up a goal and then move backwards writing down everything I need to complete the specific checkpoint.
Goal: Get 10 backlinks
Checkpoint 3: Do 10 link exchanges
Checkpoint 2: Contact 10 bloggers about link exchange
Checkpoint 1: Find 10 bloggers within my niche
While I’m writing this down I realise how easy it sound but the best part is that you can use this method to accomplish anything in life. Simple set up a goal that seems impossible and then create realistic directions/checkpoints.
Along comes another problem
I’m sure most of you thought the last part sounded easy. Just create some simple directions and you will be on your way. Well, it’s not all that easy.
We all love internet simply because it has made your life so much easier. Within a minute you can find the latest news about football, baseball, ongoing wars, tragedies, etc. The problem with internet is that you now can spend hour after hour doing nothing of value.
There was a time when I got several messages as soon as I started my computer. It could be from MSN and IRC or more recent – Twitter and Facebook. Every time I got a message I simple stopped with what I was doing, headed over to the specific software and started to chat with the person. Even though it most often was nothing of interest for me I found myself spending a lot of time writing about nothing.
I’m certain most of you have a similar problem when it comes to statistics. For some reason people who are trying to make money online find themselves checking Google Analytics, Google AdSense and their affiliate sites every hour. Why? I have no idea but for some reason we love to see a few new cents or a new visitor — instead of spending the same amount of time making sure we get a new visitor or making a few cents.
The simple solution
I told you above to create directions for all of your projects. Even though it’s great with directions you still need to find out how long you can travel each day — by creating a simple task list.
An example: You would like to create a new site which loads information from Amazon and simple publish the 50 most popular movies every week — Now we have a goal. You sit down and make notes with all the things you need to do before you can publish the site, design etc. — Now we have directions. It’s finally time for the most important part — To make a simple schedule over which tasks you should complete each day.
We have a goal, directions and a schedule. Are we all set? No, now it’s time for the most difficult part. Shut down everything that isn’t needed for you to complete the specific task. It could be Twitter, Facebook, MSN, IRC, Google Analytics, Google AdSense, Google Mail, Google Reader, etc.
Do you have any handy tips to get more things done?
{ 1 trackback }
{ 18 comments… read them below or add one }
I think the most important one is: Taking action. You can identfy your goals, identfy the steps to reach your goals and identfy the tools that you need to reach your goals. But without taking action, they worth nothing.
You do have a valid point. The term “take action” always make me think about Nike and their slogan “Just do it”. Simple but yet so full of information.
Many people fail, not because they fail to come up with a good plan, they fail to execute the plan the way they prepared.
Great point. I got a post about this in my draft so I would appreciate any additional notes from you on the subject.
The most important thing is to build your character to face on the challenges you need to undertake. Master yourself and your abilities and everything you set will be accomplished.
Your checklist is a good point to start a successful business. I will keep in mind. I always try to find out bloggers of my niche and make them a friend
This is most certainly a good method to work you way up. By befriending other bloggers they will notice you and not only link to you but sometimes it’s a great method to start a long lasting friendship.
Yes, creating the direction or in other mean, take note of what you are going to do, is a great type of action where you can make this as a guide whenever you want to do the same thing on a new business.
Very Well written post buddy. All the point which you have covered are excellent and i have learned a lot from this. Once again thanks for sharing.
Thank you Chris, I’m glad to hear. Hopefully some of you will benefit from it. If not, don’t panic. I will publish more posts on personal development and optimizing time later on.
Hey Stefan, I like your way of setting goals. You are doing a great work!
Oscar
Thank you Oscar, your praises keeps the spirit up.
I really liked this post a lot. I have a few goals and I have come to the conclusion that sometimes you need to do one thing at a time. Like you said about shutting off all your distractions, I do the same.
BTW, I will add this to next weeks Monday roundup, think many can learn from it.
Thank you George. I really like your Monday roundups and it’s an honour to be mentioned there.
Very good advice – it helps me a lot to keep these lists.
I started using a program called Action Outline which makes it even easier. You can have your notes in a “Tree” like in Windows explorer. So, for large projects, each project is a big node and each smaller one can go as a sub-node with each of its targets as sub-nodes – and you just click to expand or contract. WAY better than my old system of thousands of notebpad files with task lists for every project.
Thanks Anna. Action Outline seems to be a great software to keep track of your notes. I will try it and publish a review later on.
Great article Stefan! It’s so difficult to not become distracted when trying to accomplish things online. It’s hard to get things done because a lot of people don’t put their goal and steps to achieve it – in writing (I am guilty of this too). My major issue when working online (in an attempt to get what I need to get done) is distractions.
If you are the type of person to get distracted and involved in a lot of things when you are supposed to be working online – then it needs to stop if you want to be more productive and work faster and smarter. I have started using TOGGL – it’s a software that I use to time what I am doing throughout the day. If I start answering customer service emails, I go to toggl.com and click the start timer on that task or project and do my work – then click the button when I am done. I do not get distracted when using it – because I’m being timed and on a specific task. It may help others if you get distracted easily.
I tried using a similar software about a year ago. Unfortunately I can’t remember the name but it collected information on which websites I was browsing and which software I was using. Then it summarized it and showed you how many percent of work you’ve done each specific day depending on how you tagged your websites. Maybe I should try to find it again.