If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

This is my first post in response to a request from the Tell Me What You Want Post.

The request was to provide help that would keep people on track.

The answer to that is focus!

Let’s start with your to do list. You don’t have a to do list?

Well that is a problem right there. I recommend you create a daily, a weekly and a monthly to do list.

Create the monthly list first and put everything you can think of on this list. If you create the monthly list like I do it will be daunting. I have never finished a monthly to do list in one month. But it is more to remind me what I need to do.

Next break down the monthly list to a week list, the stuff you plan to do in one week. The week list should be what you actually think you can get done in one week plus one or two other items. This list should be put in order of what you think is the most important. This list should be one that challenges you but doesn’t give you that feeling of despair when you look at the size of it.

Next break down the week list into your daily list. Put the most important items first, you should already have these sorted. Now you do the items on your list. Make sure you do one item at a time and only one item at a time and this should be the first item (the most important one) on your list. DO NOT go to any other items on your list until you finish the first one.

Your daily list should be enough to challenge you but not enough to give you a reason to avoid the list. You might know what I am talking about, sometimes you work so hard to get the things done that need to be done that you get “burnt out” and you start looking for excuses to avoid the work. You know like, “I will do it right after I watch my favorite TV show.” Or “I am not in the mood to do this now.”

If you are having those types of thoughts you are probably working too hard and you are probably working in burst.
I know I have done this is the past, work a 20 hour day building a website and get it 90% done but then when it comes time to go back to it I remember all the aggravation from the 20 hour day and I tended to avoid it. I use to have tons of unfinished projects because of this.

Now I make my daily list smaller instead of having the one item building a website I break it down to things like:

• Get Graphics
• Install script
• Upload Products
• Start Sales Copy

Then I set my time limits by deciding how long I am going to work that day. Some days it is only one hour other days I will actually schedule a 10 hour day (that is because I like what I do and I take pride in the fact that I answer almost all the emails that come to me but I limit my responses to 2 hours per day. You add that 2 hours to 8 hours of work and you will get my 10 hour day)

Start with the first item on your list and don’t do anything else until that is done. Then go on to the next item. When your time is up, stop working, and whatever you didn’t finish will go to the top of the next day’s list.

If you are almost done with one item on your list it is OK to work past your time limit a little. Please note the little part. Don’t put in an extra 2 or 3 hours or you might end up in the “burnt out” category and dread going back to work on it. But an extra 15 or 20 minutes won’t hurt.

Tell people what you are doing and when you expect to be done.

By declaring to other people what you are doing you are making yourself responsible for achieving what you say. No one likes to be taunted with, “You said you were going to do this and all you did was sit on the couch and watch TV”

You would be surprised at how effective this is to keep you on track.

Get an accountability partner!

An accountability partner is just finding someone, preferably someone that is doing a similar project, and getting in touch with them every day or every other day. This can be a short phone call or email all you do is ask what are you doing, what do you plan to achieve and what did you do.

I would go something like this:

(Jerry) Hi Randy, time to be accountable, the last time we spoke you said you were going to get the script set up on your site. How are you doing?

(Randy) Hi Jerry, the script is installed but I haven’t tested it yet.

(Jerry) Ok, so I will assume you will be testing the script before our next call. What is your next step toward reaching your goals?

(Randy) Besides testing the script, I need to start rounding up JV partners.

(Jerry) OK that sounds good. How many people do you plan to contact before the next call?

(Randy) I will contact 5 people.

After this Randy would ask Jerry similar questions. The next call would follow up on the script testing and the contacting people.

As you can see the question asker doesn’t set the goals, you set your own goals, but they are there to remind you that you have these goals and that you need to take the steps to reach your goals. Again when you are accountable to another person it has a tendency to create a greater desire in you to achieve.

Remember: Desire + Action = Success