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One of the biggest problems that most people face in internet marketing is in staying productive. Because there is no schedules to govern you and because there is no laid out activities for you to do, most people find it difficult to stay organized and be productive.
In episode 5 of “The DKSpeaks Podcast” we will be talking on how to stay organized and Productive in your business.
Show Notes and Transcript
One of the biggest problems that I faced when I jumped into Internet Marketing was the difficulty in staying productive.
Internet Marketing is a very simple business and just as everything else, it is the simplest things that we tend to ignore and miss out on. I still remember, one of my early mentors asking me, “Do you know how much a morning walk can benefit you?”
I said, “Yes, absolutely!”
He asked, “What is the most difficult part about walking – the activity”.
I replied, “Nothing. It is so simple. You just need to walk.”
He then smiled and asked me, “So, do you go for a morning walk”.
I reluctantly replied, “No.. but that is because I have…”
And before I could continue, he interrupted me and said,”Everyone knows the benefit of a morning walk and the goodness it can bring to your body. It is probably one of the simplest things to do because there is nothing complex about it. Yet hardly anybody does it. Do you know why?”
I nodded in a “No”.
He continued, “It is because the simplest things tend to take the last position in your to-do list. Because it is simple. And these simplest things are the ones that can be best pushed the next day because they are too simple to be done today.”
It is true.
The problem with internet marketing is the fact that there is no monetary investment and this is one of the biggest reasons why we tend to be lazy. But only if we could picture the reasons why we set out to start an internet marketing business, we would not push another task to tomorrow and instead complete it today.
On that note, let’s start episode 5.
How to Stay Organized and Productive in Internet Marketing?
As a blogger, I am almost always impacted by the problem of procrastination. The tomorrow that I pushed that post to never comes and I end up staying up late in the night writing, editing and publishing my posts. This again leads to a multitude of problems – like lack of quality, poor presentation, inadequate coverage of the topic etc.
A couple of years ago, I read about this nice little technique called “Pomodoro Technique”. This is one of the best and proven methods to improve productivity developed somewhere in the 80s.
It follows a simple methodology. It uses a timer to break down your work into small intervals, traditionally about 25 minutes, followed by a 5 minute break. It is based on the idea that frequent breaks can improve mental agility.
This technique has a lot of benefits. It makes you stick to a schedule. It stimulates your brain cells to think. It brings that sense of urgency and above all it improves productivity like you would have never imagined.
So this is how the technique works:
- You decide on the task that you would want to do – in our case write a blog post.
- Set your timer to 25 minutes.
- Start writing your post. Just write. Don’t bother editing or, correcting or, even checking the sentence structure or, grammar. Work until the timer rings
- Take a short break. I usually take about 10 minutes break.
- Come back on time and start again.
- Repeat this until 4 such productive intervals. After that you can take a long break of about 30 minutes.
There is a slight twist that I added to this. I time myself to finish my post in the first 2 intervals, which is what I achieve almost everytime these days. If stretched, it shouldn’t go beyond the 3rd interval. Then I use the 4th interval for editing and proof-reading and stretch to another interval to finish everything and schedule it for posting.
I do this every 2 days before the actual date of publishing the post.
If you would like to read more about this technique, there are some resources that I have put together in the notes below.
On that point, let me come to the 2nd most important part in being productive. Maintain a calendar. It is important. Unless you plan and calendarize it, you will never be able to keep a track of what you want to do, by when and how you plan to do it.
When it comes to blogging, I use a nice little WordPress plugin called WordPress Editorial Calendar which helps me plan my posts and calendarize it inside of WordPress. And the best part it is free and simple to use.
I use some nice and simple project management tools to ensure that I stay organized and am on goal when it comes to managing my projects.
Let me tell you about these.
Project Management Tools that I Use:
Trello – This is a nice visually enhanced project creation and management tool which helps you create boards, lists, tasks and cards. You can create a board for each of your project, put timelines to it, then add a list of activities to do and put a due-date to it. Then you can add tasks and cards to each of these lists.
Since it is appealing visually, it is easy to manage things. The drag and drop feature adds to the ease of use.
Evernote – You might have already heard about evernote. It is probably the best note-taking and staying organized tool. Since you have an option of a web interface, a desktop interface and a mobile app, it is easy to stay synced. Got an idea, just quickly jot it down in Evernote.
ToDoom – This is a nice little free tool that helps you keep track of your time and goals. Extremely simple to use but very handy. All that you need to do is enter each of your tasks and put the due date. And you will keep getting reminders so that you are on track to accomplish your task on time.
Workflowy – Workflowy is another project management tool. Again with a simple interface that flows in the form of a tree. So you can create a project, add branches to it and further branch it down depending upon the activities in each of the tasks involved.
So, these are the only things I use in order to stay organized and stay productive. But one very important aspect of all this is that this gives me time to spend some with my little daughter.
It is important that you do that and you will only be able to do that if you are organized. And sometimes, when I just don’t feel like doing anything, I simply shut down my computer and spend a few peaceful minutes or, even a day with my family. It rejuvenates and refreshes me for the challenges ahead.
So what do you do in order to stay productive? What is your biggest problem with staying productive?
Do let me know your thoughts by commenting below.
Tools Discussed in this Episode:
These are the tools and resources that we discussed in this episode –
Pomodoro Technique –
- More reading at Wikipedia
- Additional Resources
- A good eBook on Pomodoro Technique (aff)
- Pomodoro Timer (aff) that I use
Trello – Click here to access
Evernote – Download for Free
ToDoom – Join for Free
Workflowy – Try it here
Thanks for Joining in
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Really Great article to manage our time and to get productive.
Thanks for visiting the blog and the feedback..