Archive for the ‘Jan Ferrante’ Category

When you sit down at your computer, all bright eyed and bushy tailed, what comes first?

What is most natural for you?

Is your first click to open your word processor or project folder?

Or is it to open your email, twitter or favourite forum?

The reason I ask is that your answer could indicate to you what your innate business focus is – input or output.

Or it could just mean that you need 20 minutes in the morning for the coffee to kick in.

HOW OFTEN DO YOU TAKE THE EASY OUT?

The main thing is that you become aware of how often you take the easy out throughout the day – how often you choose to be the audience rather than the performer – to be the guest rather than the host.

To be lead rather than to lead – to observe rather than to be observed.

You get the picture.

CLICKING IN THE WRONG DIRECTION

If you think you are spending too much time on intangibles with not enough time spent on building solid business assets – web content, products, list content, articles and all that good stuff to show for it, maybe you are clicking in the wrong direction too often during your average work day.

It can be as easy as setting reminders throughout the day, posting a sticky on your computer or giving yourself a small reward for every project worked on in a focused and productive manner.

READY AND WAITING

My personal favourite method to staying focused on output is having my projects in queu right were I can see them, as soon as I start the day. For some reason, this makes me far more likely to want to fly through them than if they are out of sight and out of mind.

The best way to do this is make it a habit to set up and prepare for the next day as you finish up your project time pockets (assuming you are using them) and then make sure that everything is ready and waiting for you when you pack up for the day.

And of course planning your work day strategy, both short and long term is the essential first step to be sure that you are actually working on the right projects in the first place and to give you the big picture in a structured and focused way.

A GOOD QUESTION

Ask yourself, if you were your boss (and you are) would you pay you for the task you are doing?

And while you’re on the topic, ask your boss if the business would be getting paid for the task you are doing.

If not, go ahead and ask – who is getting paid?

If not you, not your business, and probably not the guy behind you – who?

That is the question that you need to ask yourself the next time you find yourself twittering away your time while stumbling through the day – and deciding on your next click.

What will it be?

Or do you?

It took me about 8 years of working online to consider that I could be doing something else.

Not working at something else, or for someone else, but that I could be doing something else besides planning my days around working at home.

It occurred to me that I could be spending my days watching movies and TV shows… lounging in bed until 7:30 when the kids get up rather than prying my eyelids open between 5 and 6 am whether I want to or not… visiting friends because I have nothing better to do… or reading just to fill my time.

But I don’t want to.

Some days it would be nice.

Once in awhile I’ve said ‘the heck with it’ and taken what I call a sanity day, a fancy name for playing hookey… a day to do what ever I want when I normally would be working.

BTW, don’t tell my kids, too many sanity days around here would make me insane :0)

But most days I feel what can only be described as ‘a fire in my belly’, that spark that keeps me going without wanting to stop.

IT HASN’T ALL BEEN ROSES

I’ve had disappointments, hurdles, blood, sweat and tears like everyone else, but the biggest heart ache came on the days that I doubted myself and suspected that my brain may have ‘slipped out for a moment’ for working so hard in my attempt to achieve my souls calling.

And the best days have been the days when I knew without a doubt that I never could have made a different decision and been so happy at what I do – that I AM filling the space that I was put on this earth to fill. And how lucky I am to have the opportunity.

And I realized that it’s been this strength of will, this wanting that has driven me all these years to every success that I’ve had – in any area of my life.

And that’s when I realized … if you’re going to get it, you have to want it.

BURNING DESIRE IS NOT JUST FOR SAPPY ROMANCE NOVELS

It’s the foundation of creating clarity and focus and can be a baseline to go back to when setting your priorities and goals.

In fact, Napoleon Hill dedicated a complete chapter to Desire in his book “Think and Grow Rich”.

He talks about how burning desire can be the driving force in achieving our definite chief aim – which is rule number one of his fifteen laws of success.

IF YOU WANT IT…

If you REALLY want it… you’re on the right track.

Here are a few things that you need to do, the sooner the better.

• get out of your comfort zone – the funny thing is that many of the things we aren’t comfortable doing at first, turn out to be the most fun.

• do an inventory – get rid of everything that you don’t need or want that is holding you back to make room for the life that you want.

• take yourself seriously – or no one else will.

• and last but not least – BELIEVE IN YOURSELF – that’s the foundation from which everything will spring.

So what do you really want?

What is your burning desire?

Ask yourself that today.

And if you’d like to share, inquiring minds like to know :0)

We’ve all heard about balance and how important it is.

Balance between almost anything earning and spending… work and family… even sleeping and waking.

Consequences can be dire at worst and stressful at best if we don’t lead a somewhat balanced life.

We will always find at times that things may shift one way or the other, but at some point the sooner the better we return to a balanced state sometimes we’re forced back by ill health, unhappiness or guilt.

These are all warning signals that never should be ignored.

When you hear those alarms going off step back… listen… figure out what is out of whack… and get it back into whack.

BALANCE IN BUSINESS TOO

So, if this is true of every area of our lives, it includes our business too, right?

Right you are.

In fact, it will be glaringly obvious if you’re out of balance within your business because you’ll be dropping balls, losing sleep and struggling to catch up instead of feeling the satisfaction of a good work day and steady progress.

SO HOW DO WE ‘GET BALANCE’?

It’s not always easy.

For some it comes naturally, while others struggle with it every day – that would not be me of course, but the guy behind me :0)

But there is good news.

Building habits into your routine that cover your tasks in a balanced manner is the key to ending the struggle.

TO BUILD A HABIT

- Decide what the problem or task is that you want to cover with each new habit. A few examples could be keeping your email box cleaned out, making steady progress on important projects, staying current with correspondence or with your VA.

- Cull the load and focus. Remove anything that is not contributing to your big picture. When you think about it, you may find that a lot of things are actively subtracting from it.

- Create a plan. What actions will you take consistently to solve the problem and even better and more fun to keep it from reoccurring.

- Put aside a time block, reserved just for that activity on a reoccurring basis daily, every other day, weekly, monthly what ever suits. The only rule is that you need to create a schedule that you can realistically stick to and then you need to make a deal with yourself that you will stick to it. And stick to it.

- Put it where you can see it. If it’s paper based, be sure to put it where you will be reminded to look at it anytime you need to. Hang it on the wall white boards are fantastic not only are they in your face but you can have some fun use colour, doodle, erase, edit and brainstorm anytime.

If it’s electronic be sure to have it available and open (and don’t drop it in the dog’s water bowl).

HOW DO WE BALANCE TASKS?

Something that I commonly struggle with is to find myself focused on one or 2 major tasks and letting the smaller ones go until they become big and mean, or flitting between too many projects at one time.

Too much of this and it’s easy to get a lot of nothing finished and to add a lot of miles in worry and frustration.

To fix the problem, I identified my major task groupings, and gave them each a number then when planning my project time blocks, I made sure to have a decent smattering of them all spread out through the week. If you want to focus on a few, you can, just be sure to have some time planned for the others as well. You can even get fancy and create a ratio that you would like to see the numbers appear through out your week.

If you try it, you will find that this method makes it glaringly obvious if you are spread too thin as well, there are only so many time slots in any given week.

Spreading yourself too thin is another symptom of being off balance. The fix is to either get help or to go another round of cutting off the excess both result in better planning and focus all around.

Balance is a golden key to a good life and a successful business.

Just remember…

• Identify
• Cull
• Plan
• Do
• Consistantly
• Rinse and Repeat

One of the best ways that I’ve found to get the important things done is to make it a project.

The act of labeling a task and creating a plan on how, what and when I will get it finished makes all the difference.

This doesn’t mean that every task becomes it’s own separate project.

I can see my head turning in circles and smoke coming out my ears at the mere thought of it, but every task can be categorized, and each category can become a project.

YOU JUST NEED TO NAME IT

An example could be a group of tasks that are routine but need to be done – dealing with email, filing, planning and clearing your desk.

Of course you wouldn’t want to block an entire project for these tasks individually unless they are large.

If your email has 8,000 emails in it or you haven’t filed your paperwork for 6 months – you might want to make it a project.

But to avoid that situation, rolling these tasks into one project time block worked on daily, using a checklist and a timer – will see them finished instead of waiting until you have time here and there – or not – throughout the day.

The willy nilly approach can break flow, throw off your schedule and may mean that some of these tasks don’t get finished at all.

Resulting in 8,000 emails and an overflowing ‘to file’ folder.

Not that I know about that. I just pulled 8,000 out of a hat ;0)

HOW TO MAKE IT A PROJECT

• create a list of all the things you need to do in your business.
• put them into project categories.
• decide which of them you will focus on first and which will be ongoing. You may find yourself putting a few to the side. A positive effect of using this method is that it becomes obvious right away when you are over extending yourself.
• create a mind map, or a checklist – either in your project notebook – if you don’t have one and like pen and paper you should get one or three – or digitally, planning what you need to do and breaking down the steps it will take to do it.
• create a time line for each step.
• decide who is going to do each task.
• set up your schedule to include the time you will be working directly on your schedule and when you will be working with your assistants.
• organize your project materials – files and/or project baskets, notebooks – what ever you will be using throughout – keep it in one place for easy access and portability.

It may seem like a lot of hooey and too much trouble, but if you try it, you will find yourself making progress right away on projects that you have been meaning to get to and having much greater success at maintaining tasks that are easily forgotten but can rear their ugly heads when left undone.

And you will find yourself spending less time on items that really don’t need to be done at all – like mindlessly surfing the internet and chatting to China at 2am.

You can try it with one project first to see how it goes, then add more as it becomes a habit.

The keys to remember are prioritizing, being consistent and creating momentum.

So, what’s your first project going to be?

One of the worst productivity killers and time wasters is, as you know, our friend procrastination.

Procrastination can take many forms, but the end result is the same – a feeling of being scattered and that nagging tickle that we are doing something that we aren’t supposed to be doing – because we aren’t doing what we ARE supposed to be doing.

In the end – guilt and stress because our responsibilities and our dreams are still floating around ‘out there’ somewhere, instead of being firmly accomplished and put away.

All of this results in disappointment and a feeling of failure. Feeling this way does nothing to help us to be productive, on the contrary, it will slow us down until we actually do find ourselves failing.

There are a few things that we can do to ensure that we will never have to wish that we had been more proactive or focused in our work day, because we will be too busy hitting our goals and enjoying the rewards of accomplishment.

BLOCK YOUR TIME to create focused time pockets when you can concentrate on one project or a group of like tasks. Use these themed time pockets consistently – that’s the trick.

DECIDE HOW MANY you can do and how much time you will spend in each pocket for every working day of the week.

DON’T OVER SCHEDULE. Over scheduling is the flip side of the procrastination coin and can have the same effect – frustration and a feeling of failure. This can quickly lead to burn out and right back to procrastination. Pace yourself, allow plenty of white space and stay fresh.

PLAN AHEAD. After you’ve decided on 1-3 major goals that you’d like to focus on, break them down into the basic steps that it will take to complete them – then break those down into smaller, doable steps that will be plugged into your daily time pocket schedule.

RECORD YOUR PROGRESS. Keep track of what you’ve completed. This will provide a record for you to look back on and will motivate you to keep moving forward.

IN A NUTSHELL

• Use Project Time Pockets Consistently
• Don’t Over Schedule
• Plan Ahead
• Record Your Progress

Using these tools will help you to increase your focus on what you know should be doing and as you’ve probably heard before, what you focus on expands.

Use your focus to get more of the right things from your day.

Planning to wait until tomorrow to try them out?

Don’t even think about it!

After creating your business mission statement, goal setting becomes a lot easier.

You can create big picture goals to help you to decide how many hours you want to work.

For example, if you are a mom of 3 small children working from home and wanting to earn enough to pitch in for groceries and spending money, your major goal will be to grow happy healthy kids, working part time.

This will immediately give you an idea how many work hours to plan into your schedule.

If your kids are grown or you have none and your goal is to replace your corporate salary – obviously it will be clear that you will be scheduling a full work day.

That is pretty much cut and dry.

TARGET YOUR GOALS

But you can use goal setting with a different spin to help you to decide what tasks to plan during your focused working hours.

• How about subscriber goals?
• Web traffic goals?
• Product specific sales goals?

Setting goals for specifics like this give instant focus and motivation to your efforts.

You already know that you want as many targeted subscribers as you can get.

You know that you want as much traffic too.

And you know that you want maximum sales for every product.

So you don’t need no steenking goal, right?

Wrong.

Guess what that knowing gives you?

Mush.

There is nothing specific to motivate you, to keep your eye on, to pick you up and carry you forward.

CREATE SOMETHING TO SHOOT FOR

But put a reasonable number to it and suddenly you will find yourself pushing to achieve it.

For example if you are selling 5 reports per month on how to wash your dog, try aiming for 7 next month, and then 10.

You will find yourself asking, ‘What can I do to create these extra sales?’ emphasis on the phrase what can I do.

You’ll decide for instance that you can write an article for your blog or for distribution, or be sure that your newsletter goes out on time.

You will look at that number – it’s a good idea to place it where you can see it – and you will get to work, rather than surf another site or read someone else’s newsletter.

Do you think moving from 5 to 7 sales is small potatoes? It is but it’s doable and thinking in percentages, it’s not so small.

Keep at it and over time you will be playing with larger number’s, especially as your confidence grows.

If you already have larger numbers you can use the same concept.

Or you can set a goal to repeat the process and have 2 products creating an income for you.

Setting specific goals, incrementally, allows you to continually raise the bar until you arrive where you want to be.

A FEW RULES…

The only rules are to tie your goals to your mission statement, never take your eyes from the goal and don’t spread yourself too thin.

Create a working plan for every goal, create a realistic space in your schedule to work on doing what it takes to reach that goal.

Don’t forget to delegate, automate or delete what ever you can in the process.

Work on your goals consistantly, believe in your ability to hit them, even if it means doing new things – it probably will.

Remember that goals are just goals, the power is in your ability to find out what it takes to achieve them and then, to put motion in the notion.

How many years have you been in business?

Just starting out?

How focused are you? Really.

You may plan your days.

Even have a feeling of accomplishment as you hit your targets.

But maybe something is missing.

Someday. Soon. When.

Words you seem to use too often.

Why?

Why not now?

Ask yourself.

Think about it.

What are you waiting for?

What are you trying to achieve?

And there it is…

WHAT ARE YOU TRYING TO ACHIEVE?

Do you know?

Sigh. Of course I know I can hear you thinking.

It’s inside of me. Driving me to get up at dawn, sneak time when I should be doing other things, working when any sane person would be sleeping. Getting up and doing the same thing again tomorrow. And the next day.

So what is it?

Spit it out right now in 3 sentences or less.

This minute.

If you can do that because you have already thought it out… pinpointed it exactly… because you know the words by heart or because you have written it out so many times, or posted it beside your desk and maybe in a few other places where you can view it often, you are probably already well on your way to success.

If not, you need to stop what you’re doing and get clear.

Create you mission statement – one for personal and one for business.

Keep it short and simple. Easy to remember. Easy to reference.

Refer to it daily.

Refer to it morning, noon and night, it’s that important.

YOUR MISSION STATEMENT IS YOUR BUSINESS

If you don’t know what that is, no one else will.

Before you do any task, line it up.

Is it in keeping with your prime objective, your mission statement?

Decision making becomes instant…focus sharp.

Paths open and the fog clears. A weight is lifted.

Just like that.

So, what was it again?

What is your mission statement?

Where will you focus your efforts today?

Working at home during summer holidays… especially if you’ve become accustomed to strange working conditions… like say… sitting down at your computer for 2 – 4 hours at a stretch… can be compared to running a jackhammer.

Some days all the jumping up and down from your desk, running here and there and being interrupted for the umpteenth dozen time can rattle your brain and take it’s toll.

If you’re not careful, the summer will get away on you and you won’t feel like you’ve accomplished much or had any fun with your family… you may even… gasp… look forward to September.

Here are a few rules that we use at our house to make the summer more productive and enjoyable for everyone.

1 Plan ahead.

Any ride requests, wake up calls and visits or outings must be planned a minimum of 24 hours in advance and I need to be let in on the process to boot – a small detail that somehow among batting eyelashes and puppy dog eyes sometimes gets forgotten. If this is the case, I reserve the right to a guilt free NO.

OK, the puppy dog eyes get to me sometimes, it’s better to look away… just look away… no peeking!

2 – Write it down don’t whisper it in my ear while I’m on the phone or yell it at me from 2 rooms away.

I admit, sometimes a wind blows between my ears so we use a whiteboard communications center with an area for everyone to put notes and we have a calender for specific dates and plans. If it’s not written down, chances are that I won’t remember. It’s a small thing to ask and if I screw up, there is always written evidence. On second thought, maybe yelling 2 rooms down isn’t such a bad idea.

3 If my brain is on my desk do not disturb.

You can use anything you want to represent your brain. I have a squooshie toy that bears a remarkable resemblance. If it’s on my desk, unless it’s extremely important, the kids know to wait, otherwise they may interrupt an important train of thought… or see me talking about them on twitter.

I also like this because I can work with my door open if I want to, which I almost always do. If it’s age appropriate, you may prefer to use a closed door as your sign.

What is age appropriate?

It’s up to you. If you generally can be left alone in a room, it’s ok to close the door when you’re working.

4 Micromanage household chores.

Your house needs to be somewhat in order to enjoy it and to stay productive when you’re working. I make a rules list breaking things down so that they are simple and easy to remember.

A few that we have are…

• Garbage in Garbage

• Dishes in Dishwasher

• You Mess It Up You Clean It Up

• No Dishes in Bedroom or Living Room

• Put Your Shoes Away When You Come In

• Laundry Needs to be Put Away Every Day

• Cans Need to be Rinsed and Put in Recycling

As simple as they are, these seem to cover the major problem areas. The kids each have their own chores as well, with these basics covered their chores aren’t overwhelming. I am sure to do my own circuit as well daily, preferably in the morning if I can.

Try to make it fun. At the bottom of our rules sheet, I have written…

violators of this agreement will be towed away the their own expense.

So far we’re all still here.

5. – Self Discipline.

You’ll need to be self disciplined in enforcing your summer rules, especially at first and also with yourself in enforcing your own boundaries.

Create targeted work time by getting up earlier or staying up later if you’re a night owl… or don’t have teenagers.

Arrange activities, computer time, trades or help during your work time and leave your work behind during play time.

Map your day and don’t blur the boundaries by working into play time or playing into work time.

And one more family rule.

6. – Do Not Knock on the Door While Walking Through It and Hand Me the Phone With the Repair Man on the Other End While I Am In The Bathtub.

I don’t take calls from repair men while I am in the bathtub (anymore).

I advise you to make this clear or who knows who you will find yourself talking to when you have soap in your ears and a bubble hat on. It seems awfully hard to get anything repaired this way as well. They keep calling back!

Don’t forget the most important rule of all is to have fun with your kids this summer, make some great memories and use the good times to rejuvenate your self and breathe new life into your business.