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October 6, 2008
If you are paying even one small piece of attention to the economy over the past few weeks, there’s no doubt, we are going through a very shaky time in history! This is not something that’s USA only, we are walking on the edges of a worldwide recession! I am not going to spout my own views on this subject, that is something for another forum all together… but what I will divulge, is that we need to look at our own efforts and make sure we watch our own Personal Economy - Now!
I am not going to claim to be an expert on the economy, but between Kim and myself… we are pretty good at managing our finances. (Thank you Kim) That was not always the case and we have both hit the lowest of lows over many years of learning, and personal trials. The one thing I can relay to anyone worried about their finances… only YOU can turn it around! Regardless of which candidate ends up as the next POTUS, the economy as we see it developing now… will take longer than 4 years to turn around! YOU must make some changes in the way you live through every single day, to make sure all your efforts support small gains toward your goals!
On Sunday, I sat down with a pen and paper and summarized the previous weeks activities as I watched Tony Stewart win the NASCAR race and the Carolina Panthers stomp the Chiefs! In that list, I pretty much just jotted notes of what I do every day… you know, 1 hour for this, 30 minutes on that, etc. Along with this, I wrote down my monthly expenses that support my online endeavors, hosting costs, advertising costs, and miscellaneous things I pay for like articles, etc.
After the list was completed, I used a simple +, -, and x, (plus, minus or x for neutral) next to each entry on the list… the plus signs were for actions that drive household earnings, the minus signs were for actions that take away from those earnings and the x’s were put to represent items that were income neutral, meaning without them, there would be less plus signs. What I found… is that I spend alot more time on the minus side of the chart, than I do on the plus side! A few examples…
How many times have you been excited about developing a site, only to spend the next 3-4 hours just LOOKING for a specific template for it? That is one of the biggest time wasters out there… imagine how many unique content posts you could have added during that time, and looked for a new template when you were just bored later that afternoon!
I don’t know about the rest of you, but my MOST productive hours in a day are the first 4-6 hours. Meaning, from the time I am ready to work in the morning… I do my MOST productive and highest quality work, in the first 4-6 hours. After that initial time passes… my work quality and ability to actually complete what I started, quickly diminishes! I wish I could write down how many unfinished tasks I have on my list… it is literally endless and I know many of you are the same way!
I am not talking about any old kind of list either… on your daily task list, write down 3-5 things you need to do in order to support your household economy! In other words, focus on the little green + signs first! You may never get to all of them, but having them in front of you definitely increases the chance you might! The list may include things like:
These are very general things you should be doing every day, and usually get pushed to the side as you spend time doing the non-productive things! If you don’t get to all of them, make sure you review your list at the end of every day, and add those which did not get completed to the top of tomorrows list!
ANYTHING that is proven to be an Income Generating Task, needs to be done first, every day! ONLY after you have done the right things to drive your own income, should you do other things like browse news sites, search for templates, review stats, etc.
I suggest everyone STOP what they are doing today and hold a complete internal audit of your current portfolio and actions.
Once you have that list in front of you… reorganize your efforts to help you avoid a personal recession! Developing these highly effective habits today will only make you stronger as the worldwide economy gets weaker!
Here is the Poll of the Week - How Many Abandoned Projects do you Have Right now, because you Lost Focus?
10 Responses to “Avoiding a Personal Recession before its Too Late!”
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Mark, This is a great post and is so true of the ‘internet marketing’ syndrome we all fall into, we will always have new ideas but need to stay focused on one at a time.
The hardest thing for us to do are the things we know we are supposed to do!
I don’t want to call it work but it is, hard work and dedication always pays off first.
Excellent advice. I am going to start making my lift for the following day this evening. The hardest thing being self employed and living the internet lifestyle is that everything blends in.
Killing the timewasters is hard but so worth it!
Thanks again
Tom
Mark, you didn’t have to go and mention the Chiefs. Grrrr, (disgruntled fan) I don’t get their games much here in Michigan, but I kept seeing that score go across the ticker, just waiting for them to score, but they never did - laid a big goose egg. I am a big fan, used to live outside of KC growing up for a few years. They’ve been a big disappointment lately.
Mark, a timely post - as usual!
Yes, effective time management is a task all self-employed people have to manage. It’s so easy to let things slide for a day and then discover you’re weeks behind. That’s why ‘to-dos’ and prioritized lists are such a necessary evil.
With regard to the r*c*ss**on, it will be interesting to see which niches are affected. From past experience, luxury items still do well (the rich getting richer?) while, at the other end of the scale, people still need to buy the necessities.
Which niche are you - Rolls Royces or walking shoes?
Mark,
Excellent post!
Being overloaded is very common in our business. Especially when you have some knucklehead like me wearing you out about Google Webmaster Tools-LOL!
My approach is simple.
1. I write down five things I want to do at night or first thing in the morning and make sure at least two of them are “must dos.”
2. Make notes throughout the day of things I would like to see happen soon. This gives them time to bake before deciding to put them on my list.
3. Make it a habit of asking myself at least three times per day “Is this moving me any closer to my goals”. If it’s not, I stop it and move onto something else that will.
Not earth shattering. I’m reminded of the story of the preacher who preached the same sermon every Sunday until one of the congregation asked why. His answer was that he was going to keep giving the same lesson until somebody acted on it.
Jeff
I’ve lost focus and abandoned at least half of the domain names I have purchased over the last year.
Like you, I LOVE finding new templates.
I’ve learned to do an 80/20 analysis on most of my internet work and focus on the 20% that gives me 80% of the profit.
Using your three points.
- Determine which of your websites are doing the best, and Focus on them!
80% of your profits will be coming from only 20% of your sites
-Detemine which actions are producing the highest positive effects on your income, and Repeat Them!
Like Mark’s first list only 20% of your actions are producing 80% of your income. Figure out which actions they are and focus on them.
-Determine which activities are wasting most of your time, and Eliminate them!
To turn this upside down 20% of your activities are wasting 80% of your time. Find those activites and eliminate them. You may have been doing some of these activites for so long that they have become habits you don’t even realize you are doing.
Recession can be a real scary thing. I hear it in the breeze at every turn and it’s not going to get better any time soon. Very timely post Mark.
I tend to be pretty slack with my daily activities and even work on projects that aren’t going anywhere. I guess it’s time to get organized and the first thing I need to do is see where I am at this exact time.
Thanks for the guidance as usual Mark.
Hey Mark, what’s the status of the “Big Idea?”
Thanks for all the comments everyone… staying on track witht he lists is a task in itself for sure!! LOL
@ John -
My “Big Idea” is actually still quite on track! I have applied for the trademarks on it, own the domains, and just await for the final answers fromt he Govt on the trademark issue.
While I jumped into it and actually started developing already… I spoke to a close friend who is a business advisor and CPA, who advised me to wait out the trademark thing until I go any further. While it does not infringe on any rights as far as he could tell, it does come close… and if someone wanted to push the issue on me, they could own all my hard work.
This is very good advice and it comes at just the right time.
It is going to take a long time to get out of this mess and will only happen of our leaders take their hands out of our pockets and really get into the business they are elected to do.
Speaking for myself, the biggest problem I have is dealing with the volume of info that I receive every day. It seems that there is a new project, good advice or some other direction that takes time to review and try to implement.
What a newbie needs is someone to talk to about silly problems that come up every day or a site that has a good how to section.
I am going to follow your advise and continue to try to build some income to supplement a fixed income. Maybe once I get one site to produce some income it will become easier and less time consuming.
Great comments as well as a timely post
Jerry