Chapter 2: Keeping track: Where Does The Time Go?
If you are anything like me, then you’ve probably tried before to create a ‘to-do’ list, scheduling some jobs that need to be done and projects that need to be worked on.
You started the day on the right foot, determined to get on top of things right from the go.
Everything goes along great and the morning flies by. All is well, until you make the dreadful mistake of looking at the clock and seeing what time it is!
How can that be?
Everything has gone pretty much according to plan and yet you are already hours behind where you should be.
Okay, there were a few phone calls that needed answering, and some bits and pieces that needed tidying up with the websites, but nothing crucial.
Oh, and the e-mails that you needed to answer this morning. And, of course, your favorite team were playing yesterday, so you had to check the scores, of course!
See a pattern emerging here?
But you actually have more time than you think….
Before you blame your scheduling, you need see what other factors affect your day.
You can do this by logging everything you actually do for one week.
Now, this might seem a little counter-productive at first – wasting time writing everything down is just another way of guaranteeing that you fall behind schedule – but do it, because in the long run, it will pay you back a million times over!
It is difficult to appreciate the time you spend on activities that do not contribute to your productivity until you’ve logged them over a few days.
Creating a log
Create an Excel spreadsheet on your computer and then for the next week, write down exactly what you have done in the last hour, every hour.
Leave nothing out – you will only be cheating yourself if you don’t do it correctly!
Also, quickly assess and write down how you feel – energetic, tired, hungry or any other emotion related to productivity that you can identify.
This record does not have to be fantastically detailed but should include every activity, and (particularly) every change of activity, over the course of the week
Listening to your body rhythms
At the end of the week, just a quick glance at your record will enable to recognize certain patterns.
For example, maybe you often feel tired in the middle of the afternoon? Now that you recognize this fact, you can think about doing something to deal with it.
Almost certainly, you will be amazed at the length of time you spent on menial and pointless tasks than you never really thought about before.
How much time did you waste on things that were not really business related at all?
Also, look at how many other people used up your time (phone calls and emails, for example)?
Finding these patterns can help you plan your activities so they fit better with your natural rhythms.
Perhaps you find getting through the afternoon (or getting started in the morning) to be the most draining.
Is it possible to schedule your most challenging projects or meetings when you are most alert and energetic? Block off this time in your schedule – no calls, no meetings – so that you can accomplish the most work.
Should you stop wasting time?
That might sound like a bit of a silly question, but what I am referring to here is something that many internet marketers seem to be extremely wary of.
That is, the fine art of delegation and outsourcing.
Think about this for a moment.
You’ve heard of John Reese and Mike Filsaime, right?
If not, run a simple Google search on their names and you will see that they are both multi-millionaires purely from their internet marketing activities.
Do you think that these guys do every little job that needs doing in their business themselves? No, of course not!
They delegate and outsource every single task that they can.
How do they or, more importantly, how do you decide what tasks to delegate?
Well, let’s got back to our earlier example of your internet marketing business time being worth $30 per hour.
Say you have a tedious, boring task that will take two hours to complete, which you can delegate or outsource to someone to do for $50.
Assuming that you have work to do that will make $60 in that same two hour period, then it makes good sense financially (and mentally) to get someone else to do the boring, menial job for you.
Of course, you want to want to keep on top of things, but sticking with a totally ‘hands on’ approach in these circumstances is clearly a false economy!
If you identify with this problem (and you are working online, so I know that you will do) then the answer is simple.
Delegate and outsource whenever possible, and strive to make it possible as often as you can.
Using the correct tools for the job!
Outsourcing and delegation is effective, but it is actually less than half the answer for an online entrepreneur.
Sure, you can outsource your web page design, your article writing and even your link building.
Heck, you can even get someone to answer your email for you, as long as you know that there is nothing confidential likely to land in your inbox.
Unfortunately, there are some tasks that you just cannot delegate or outsource, at least, not if you want your business to thrive long term.
For example, would you delegate the job of logging into your PayPal, Clickbank and AdSense accounts for you, to check how much money is in there?
Assuming you are a sane, rational person the answer is obviously a resounding NO!
So, that is a job that only you can do.
But that does not mean that you should waste unnecessary time doing it.
Get the right tools for the job, and you can reduce the time wasted dramatically, as you are just about to discover.
Stop wasting time online – a three step plan
There are three specific ways that anyone who works online can waste their time, and by doing so, lose money as well. There are also specific ways that each of these three time wasters can be addressed:
The things that don’t need doing.
Although you may want to check the sports results, or read the latest news on Yahoo or MSN, you don’t need to do those things during working hours. It’s as if you sit and read the morning paper for half an hour after you arrive at the office – enjoyable, but totally unnecessary. Don’t do it, or at least, cut it down to a minimum (set yourself a target of gradually ‘weaning’ yourself off it, bit by bit, each day)
Things that need doing, but you don’t have to do them.
Exactly what we were talking about above. Delegate and outsource whenever possible. If you want to be the next John Reese or Mike Filsaime then start acting like them right now – that’s the first step!
Things that you alone can do.
Checking the balances in your PayPal, Clickbank and AdSense accounts. You are the only one who can do these things, so look for ways of doing it more quickly and more efficiently. Just logging into and checking these three accounts can take up to two and a half minutes EVERY time that you do it, as you can see here. You should be using an affordable program like Statsdash that can cut this time down to 14 seconds or so, simply because over the course of a week, this will save you hours of your time!
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