May 27, 2008
If you’re like almost every other person involved in affiliate marketing, you try to get as much done as possible in each day or the time you set aside for working. In my case, it only takes takes a few changes in the schedule to completely throw my daily tasks and goals out the window and bump one or two things to the next day, which leads to overload, anguish and ultimately, burnout!
How to Fight Burnout and Maintain Pace for your Daily Goals!
When was the last time you started the day with a list of tasks you had every intention of completing and actually got all of them done? For myself… its been months! On Thursday, I actually set my first goal of the day to rebuild my daily schedule from scratch so I can focus on a prioritized schedule, assuring myself I get the most important tasks completed before I work on anything else!
1 - Walk Away and Stay Away from your Work every Now and Then!
The very first goal I set was to walk away from my PC for a weekend and I cannot tell you how well it worked! When you get involved in affiliate website marketing, it is just too easy to work day and night, or at least, every free moment in your day! There is ALWAYS something more you could do with your websites and the process never ends… Its almost like gambling at a casino, you have to start with a time limit, or each day just goes on and on!
On Friday afternoon, Kim and I went to her sisters house for the weekend and had one of the most relaxing and fun weekends I can recall for quite some time! On most weekends, we still have our laptops in front of us, or at least within an arms reach. As many who received email from me today already know… I didn’t even see a PC this weekend and it felt great! Today, I started the day with an almost clean slate of to-do’s, aside from answering email. Which brings me to my next tip for fighting burnout…
2 - Don’t Look at Your Email, Unless you Intend to Answer them at the Same Time!
This seemingly small task, is one of the areas I can improve on the most! Currently, I have more than 80 emails “starred” for follow up in my GMail. The way I have gone through email up until this morning… was to quickly read them, then go back and answer them after all new emails were read. The problem comes once you start answering emails. New email, or replies to your reply, continue to come in and further bump the originals down the list. For each new email, a new response…. its a never ending cycle and in most cases, some emails inadvertantly fall through the cracks. Starting this morning, I am testing a new way of sorting and answering my email.
3 - Create a Daily List of all Tasks!
I downloaded this cool little application this morning called RainLendar Desktop Calendar. I am using the free version which puts EVERYTHING I need to do that day, right in front of me on my desktop. I am able to schedule recurring tasks and set reminders just like I would in Outlook or any other calendar application, but this stays on my desktop and right in front of me. As I complete things, I can cross them off or completely remove them from the list, but still have it on record in case I need to revisit in the future.
4 - Prioritize ALL Daily Tasks
This sounds a whole lot easier than it really is! As you grow your affiliate business and have tens or hundreds of websites to keep up with, you will find that there is something to be done on at least one of them every day. I worked in the office of a friend a few years ago coding a customized Air Charter management System for his growing business. With each new module we added to the site, I would provide an estimate of time-to-completion. We found this estimate had to be doubled every time! I would estimate 40 hours of coding to complete, and the subsequent discussions, changes, modifications and overall wasted time would always double and sometimes triple the time it actually took to get it done!
The list of tasks you have each day, grows with each new website you add to your portfolio. For me, I took ALL of the maintenance type tasks like finding an inbound link, adding 1 new page to a BANS site or adding a new post to a blog, (Not this blog) and moved that to the end of my days with the lowest of priority, aside from reading other blogs. If all else fails, these are not do or die tasks and can wait an extra day or two if needed. On the bright side, thay are also fairly quick to get done and should be an easy task to maintain.
New sites, custom template work, and adding to this blog are all high priority items.
5 - The ONLY way to get your Daily Tasks Completed is to Focus on Them!
Again, it sounds too good to be true and just plain common sense! Just like answering emails, when I focus on one of my tasks, I MUST eliminate all other distractions during that time period! If I am writing a blog post… I cannot be reading email. If I am reading email, I cannot be thinking about my next or partially completed blog post!
When I sit down to get something done… closing everything else and avoiding distractions (Including a cell phone) will help me get things done much quicker and more efficiently. (I hope)
So… the bottom line on this post…
I would be truly thrilled for everyone to share how they prioritize their daily activities and share any tips you can to help us all avoid burnout.
Mark
Popularity: 7% [?]
If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!
12 Responses to “A Few Ways to Fight Burnout and Rebuild your Enthusiasm!”
Got something to say?
Don't miss a single post about Developing your Niche Store or Website! Subscribe today and start Making Money!
Posting tweet...
Mark, you are so right about walking away from the computer! I’m at one all day for my job, and spend way too much time in the evenings and on weekends. I’ve started setting aside at least one computer-free day every weekend and have limited evening time. It’s made a big difference!
Kay
I thought it was only me but . .. . Burnout .. . yes .. .and even if you try and fight it it just takes you longer to finish the task at hand so your note on taking a vacation is very true . .as hard as it seems and even though you feel like your going to miss the most important email of your life . .:) . . (which is everyday)! . .cheers.
Definitely an issue I think we all face at one point or another…
Like I wrote above, its amazing what a few days away from work is good! The hardest part is being able to avoid thinking about it the whole time! :-)
I made myself a schedule of working in the morning on my websites from 7 or 8 till 12 or 1 pm. Then in the afternoon I do non computer related things and at night I just check my emails, do some reading or research or visit friends or watch TV. I turn my cell phone off, I do not do instant messaging, I try to stay in control of my time. At least one day of the weekend is computer free (except for emails, but no website building). And one thing I do at set times during the day, I make tea and thoroughly enjoy it.
The only time i break with this routine on weekends is when my husband has weekend shift (once a month) Then I will work on the computer both days as it makes the day go faster.
I have been trying to jam all this info into my head on a daily bases. I work nights, get home at eleven, try to learn more , apply it to my sites, go to bed and do it some more the next day!! I am burnt out! I think i will take your advice Mark, back off and set some reasonable hours and goals.
Zig Ziglar said, “I don’t care how much power, brilliance, or energy you have, if you don’t harness it and focus it on a specific target, and hold it there, you’re never going to accomplish as much as your ability warants.”
Long term goals broken all the way down to daily activites and actions is the only way I can stay focused and moving forward. Weekly and daily planning is a must for me.
The email distractions are a big one. I used to leave Outlook open all day so I could catch email as it came it but recently decided only to have it open at the beginning of the day, midday, and at the close of day to respond to necessary emails. The rest of the day it is closed so I’m not distracted.
Also, I’ve assigned my niche site file folders a day of the week to be worked on so that I’m making sure I pay some attention to each one over the course of a week.
Mark - Glad you had a nice retreat over the weekend. You deserve it and should schedule it in regularly!
I need time to clear my mind and refocus periodically so I like to take a day every now and then to go fishing.
Now that we are getting much nicer weather I can get outside and work in our backyard garden.
Thanks for sharing. I can relate to everything that you’re saying. I downloaded the calendar also. I like the fact that it will show the to-do list directly on your desktop.
I end up working 7 days a week most of the time. I just sit down at my computer for “a little while” and come out of my trance hours later, wondering how my weekend completely disappeared! It’s important to take time off to relax and get some perspective :)
To Jamie:
I haven’t heard that name in years “Zig Ziglar”. This guy lives in Texas, where I’m originally from and is an incredible motivational speaker and author. Wow, I gotta reflect for a moment, this is bringing back some ol’ memories.
My dad gave me a book by him when I was in elementary school to read. Great for keeping your thoughts and goals on track. Only now do I realize everything my pop tried to do and I appreciate it more now.
Step back, take a deep breadth, get focused and keep it going.
I work on my computer from early in the morning until around noon. I didn’t used to close my email then, but I do now, because hearing I have a new email is so distracting from anything else I am doing…and most of the time it’s just junk email anyway. Then, later in the afternoon, I close my laptop and am off the computer for the rest of the day. I do check email and my stats on the weekends, and catch up on any personal emails that I need to answer. (yes, I’m a stats-addict…after well over a year and a half with BANS, I’m still thrilled to be making money!).
As far as getting what I need to get done, I make a written list every day for the next day and carry over any of those non-urgent tasks. It may take a few days, but they eventually get taken care of and not forgotten.
Also, I used to take my computer with me when we went somewhere for the weekend, but I don’t anymore, a little break here and there is good!
Thanks for this post: very timely for me. I have become quite obsessed with IM in the last month or so which was OK until I combined technical issues iwth switching hosts and having a cold just about upped my blood pressure - which is not what this is about!
Thank you
Mark, great post!
Jamie, I really like the idea of placing items in day of the week folders. That is an old goal/planning system idea that really works when things get as complicated as we get them with dozens of websites.
If you do certain tasks every month, you can create folders for those tasks in addition to the day of the week ones.