Productivity

278: Make More Money PLUS Get Your Life Back… Using WordPress & WP Import?

March 30, 2017

Everyone is guilty of this at one time or another, even me sometimes...

Getting too carried away and biting off more than you can chew...
Filling up the "to-do list" (yuck) with way too much "stuff"
Then, it's a huge distraction and that big long list becomes a thing you're scared to look at, or maybe even you feel bad when you do...

I can also relate to my mindset ten years ago when even five minutes of money-making activities per day seemed like "too much work" for me...

Send a quick email in the morning? I can't do that every day...

People tell me to blog or post a daily video? How will I have time for anything else?

"Forget about a daily podcast..."
I expected myself to post once a day for maybe 4-5 days and then quit!

Sound familiar? Of course it does... don't pretend it doesn't!

So what changed? This...

Insight #1: Exterminate "Not-Invented-Here" Syndrome and Used the Right Tools

Don't invent from scratch if you can help it.

In this day and age, you don't need to know HTML, CSS, how to edit graphics and upload files. Just use WordPress, grab whatever beautiful theme you want to use for your design (most look like you paid thousands of dollars), and you can grab whatever plugins you want to add pop-ups, social share links, and so on.

Just grab what gets it done now instead of delaying yourself months or even years for no reason...

Insight #2: Stop Switching Gears and "Chunk" Instead

Speaking of WordPress, use its scheduling feature. Scheduling is one of the few hidden "Easter eggs" hidden in WordPress and I'm constantly amazed at how few people know that this is a thing...

Here's how it works: let's say you create a WordPress blog and you decide that once per day, you want to post a new video reviewing the latest iPhone or Android app...

That's a huge time commitment. Literally every day, you're going to have to login and research that latest app. There's no guarantee that you'll find something good. Maybe you won't be motivated that day. Maybe you'll have something better to do or a huge emergency will come up and stop you...

And then... you might miss a day, two days, a week, and then think to yourself... it's been three months since I posted a video about the latest app. It wasn't a priority then, so why should it be a priority now?

Posting one or two videos didn't seem to get me much traction, and maybe if I'd posted 50 to 100 videos I'd see real results, but who has that sort of patience?

Solution: Schedule several posts every time. With WordPress, you can add a new "post" (journal entry) and Publish it, or set it to go live instantly. Or, you can change the date to go live tomorrow, in a week, or two weeks.

WordPress has built-in drip content (just set the date and time of your posts into the future) without any special plugins.

Just imagine, on a Monday, grabbing five YouTube videos from various sources reviewing the latest apps (with your link at the bottom) and you'll set those posts to go live on Tuesday morning, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday.

Or, how about this: on April 1st, schedule two weekly posts in advance. That means that on April 1st, you just scheduled posts on your blog for April 1st and April 8th...

Then, on April 8th, you already had that day scheduled. You schedule your two videos to go live on April 15th and April 22nd...

Keep this up for 10 weeks (three to five minutes per day) and by June 3rd, you're already scheduled ahead to mid-August. And by August, you're scheduled ahead until the following year.

Just by posting more than what you need, the website (WordPress) will work on autopilot for you, even after you've put it out of your mind. Constantly switching gears and putting out fires is a MASSIVE time waster. Avoid it by chunking up your tasks and scheduling things out on autopilot for many weeks to come.

Insight #3: Imagine a Clear CONCRETE Vision of What the Future LOOKS Like

It sounds super hokey, but most self-help (Napoleon Hill type of stuff) revolves around you using your imagination to imagine a clear picture of your goals...

That way, not only will you know you're headed in the right direction, but you'll also get that perspective to deal with life's small setbacks, and you'll have the motivation (and enthusiasm) you need to complete consistent daily actions every single day.

As they say:

"Whether you believe you can or believe you can't, you're right!" -- Henry Ford

"Don't wait. The time will never be just right." -- Napoleon Hill

"Successful people look for problems to resolve, whereas unsuccessful people make every attempt to avoid them." -- Grant Cardone

"A pessimist is one who makes difficulties of his opportunities, and an optimist is one who makes opportunities of his difficulties." -- Harry Truman

Again, as cheesy as it sounds, it's important that you let in a consistent flow of self-help information. That means that even if all you can manage is a 10 minute morning walk every day...

Search YouTube, iTunes and Audible for anything relating to: self-help, self-improvement, productivity, motivation, Napoleon Hill, Tony Robbins, Chet Holmes, Wayne Dyer, Les Brown and listen to just a few minutes every day
Speaking of Audible (Amazon's audio book marketplace), install the app on your phone so that you can listen while driving or taking walks, even just a few minutes a day (just 5 minutes a day is 30 hours per year)
If you're really stuck, search YouTube for things like "guided meditation focus" or "NLP anxiety" or even "negative self talk" or "procrastination" to solve whatever mental problem you're working through (and we're all working through things... if you're not, then you should be)
Take a few minutes to write down (or speak out) your thoughts and feelings to reduce your raw uncontrollable emotions into words that you can work through (we offer the Four Daily Tasks bullet journal for this)

Just imagine if you scheduled 20, 100, or even 200 daily or weekly blog posts into the future. That not only frees up time for you to focus on more important things, but it'll also encourage you with the progress you've made AND it'll toughen you up and build that "productivity muscle" so that the effort that it used to take you to schedule a quick blog post (find a YouTube video online and schedule it)... could now be applied to:

you hiring a writer on Fiverr to crank out a pack of ten articles... schedule them
you could write up your own articles, dictate your own podcast episodes or record your own YouTube videos to post to your blog
scheduling ahead of time as far as you want

I used to think that posting to a site even THREE times a week (Monday, Wednesday, Friday) was work. But think about it. There are "roughly" four weeks in every month. Three times per week is only 12 pieces of content -- grab a couple interesting YouTube videos, news items or blog posts to report about...

Insight #4: Consistent Daily Action & Small Wins

Let me sneak in one more of those dreadful "motivational" quotes: "People often say that motivation doesn't last. Neither does bathing. That's why we recommend it daily." -- Zig Ziglar

Here's an analogy for you: let's say you've been exercising and dieting diligently, and one day, you decide to eat two extra-large pepperoni pizzas in the space of 10 minutes. Will you instantly gain weight and become a huge fat slob? Of course not.
Let's say you've been eating fast food five times a day and ballooned up to 300 pounds or more. If you suddenly ate a salad for one single meal and went back to fast food, it wouldn't make much difference, would it?
Moving back to entrepreneurship and making money: what if you spent every day caught in that typical pattern of "work-TV-sleep?" And maybe once a month, you "dabbled" in internet marketing, just a little bit? No progress...
What if you woke up just one hour earlier and dedicated that one hour to: creating a product, writing sales copy, building a list, running ads, and sending emails? HUGE results added up over time...

Unfortunately, way too many internet marketers and work-at-home entrepreneurs have the wrong mindset. They think that if they just "put in the time" or "wait out their problem" then eventually... someone will see it their way... not gonna happen.

Imagine if Apple had stopped innovating with the Macintosh and there was no iPhone, iPad, iTunes, Apple Watch, MacBook, or iMac. Just Macintosh version 10.0 with a "faster" processor and floppy disk drive... BORING!
What if Amazon only sold books? What if you couldn't buy almost any item online from them? What if they didn't sell groceries? What if they never created services like S3 which power Netflix and Dropbox?
What if Google never experimented with AdWords (their main money maker) and stayed with organic search only? They would have gone the way of Yahoo!, Excite, Altavista, Dogpile, DMOZ, and the rest
Do you remember when MySpace was "the" top website people logged into? Maybe Facebook would have followed suit if they hadn't bought Instagram, adopted "sharing" and absorbed the live streaming stuff from Periscope and SnapChat?

Now look -- I think we both know that looking at Apple, Amazon, Google, and Facebook give you EXTREME examples of what to do and what not to do:

Banish "not-invented-here" syndrome and use what already exists. If you want to reinvent a website from scratch, you're basically starting over at the beginning of the internet (the 1990's, and you remember how those websites looked) -- why not start at 2017 with tools like WordPress?
Chunk your tasks to avoid switching gears: instead of psyching yourself up to write a single blog post (or record a podcast, film a vlog, post to Facebook, email your list), why not use that same time to crank or two or three, or even ten? So that you have a machine that continues to produce money for you weeks from now on automatic pilot, even when you're not thinking about it?
Use your imagination for good instead of for evil. The average person gravitates to what "could" go wrong if you took a risk and moved outside of your comfort zone. It's easy, and it only takes a moment, to think -- What if I'd created that product? Contacted some affiliates? Finished that sales letter and added a buy button? It's hard to do in real life, but EASY to imagine "if" you'd tried it and failed... then you could say, it's a good thing I didn't play with that internet marketing thing. It's a good thing I didn't listen to any self-help stuff. What a waste "that" would have been. Be better. Instead of worrying about what COULD go wrong, ask yourself, what COULD go right?
Keep up the process daily!

That doesn't mean you should just phone in it, wait your turn, put in the hours, or "hold out" until your idea makes money. Self-awareness and course-correction are HUGE in our line of work (being in business for yourself).

Even if you're pressed for time with a day job, being old and dealing with health issues, dealing with family, divorce, kids... you're not the first human being in history to deal with such things. I honestly believe that no matter what your situation, you can carve out an hour (maybe two) per day to grow your internet business.

"If you really want to do something you'll find a way. If not, you'll find an excuse." -- Jim Rohn

Start with our WP Import plugin. With it, you'll be able to schedule out a bunch of blog posts in advance: buy private label rights articles, hire a freelance writer on Fiverr, or write them yourself.

Grab any of the 28,000 articles we include as a bonus to our plugin. Or find 10-20 YouTube videos and use our bulk post feature to schedule all that content on one page:

Claim the "WP Import" Plugin: Just $7

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276: Embrace Change, Break out of Your Shell (and Comfort Zone), and Find Freedom from Self-Doubt with Resilience Champion Zaheen Nanji

March 28, 2017

Are you ever afraid of the unknown? Do you sometimes doubt your capabilitity, are you worried about sounding stupid, and are you struggling to break out of your shell?

Zaheen Nanji from ZaheenNanji.com wants to help you face your fear, be okay with falling down, course correct, have self-awareness, get help from a coach, make progress with baby steps, get your mindset right, and so much more.

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Internet Marketing: Solve One Problem At a Time

February 25, 2017

It really bothers me when I see people stressed out about the wrong things online (although, if you've been worried, it hasn't been you fault up until this point)...

Worried about what people will think about me or if there's a single typo on a web page... but in five years, or even one year, will anyone even remember?

Obsessed with having a beautiful web page or "just the right branding"... but what if I told you that those uglier websites make way more money than the pretty ones? And making more money is the point...

Worried about refunds... make some sales first!

Worried about running out of space or bandwidth with your web host... probably won't happen and worry about that problem IF (a big "if") that ever becomes an issue...

One step (or one problem) at a time.

Do you have a website yet? If not, let's fix that...
Do you have an opt-in page I can use to subscribe to you?
Do you have a sales letter with a FUNCTIONING buy button?
Do you have an email followup sequence? (most people are missing this one)
Do you consistent get people signing up and buying from you? (Traffic)

I want to make it clear, easy, and repeatable for you in our course here: Income Machine

P.S. "Surround yourself with only people who are going to lift you higher. Life is already filled with those who want to bring you down." -- Oprah Winfrey

229: Temporarily Embarrassed Millionaires, the Self-Fulfilling Prophecy and Social Policing

January 20, 2017

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Today's Sponsor: Website Remote (manage all your WordPress sites)

Important Quotes from Famous People

"Whether you think you can or you think you can't, you're right." -- Henry Ford
"The problem with the world is that the intelligent people are full of doubts, while the stupid ones are full of confidence." -- Charles Bukowski
"Don't be afraid to give up the good to go for the great." -- John D. Rockefeller
"Don't compare your behind-the-scenes to someone else's highlight reel." -- Pastor Steven Furtick
"Are you losing belief or do you just wish it was happening faster? Balance ambition with patience." -- Gary Vaynerchuk
"Every successful person has a rule to never spend more than 10% of time on a problem, but at least 90% on a solution" -- Anthony Robbins

Reminders from Robert Plank

People have less of what you have and are happy. Others have exactly what you want (if not more) and are unhappy.
Being upset or stressed about your business is a good thing if you channel it into something positive (growth)
You're exactly where you're supposed to be right now in your journey. The present probably came very close to not happening as it was supposed to, and the future is probably very close to not happening as it should
If things are tough, is it possible you're being setup for something better?
Haven't there been times when you enjoyed taking some action?
If things are difficult, it's because you're being tested. It's an opportunity for personal growth (feast and famine)
Your life isn't a straight line or a curve of up's and down's... it's a series of 3-5 year containers
Have an abundance mindset instead of a scarcity mindset (don't let the little stuff like grudges use up 100% of your CPU)

Talking Points

Be careful of social policing: it's not up to you to save the world, all you can do is look out for yourself first (but that includes feeling good about helping others)
Many people aren't calibrated to where they need to be -- Four Daily Tasks, thinking too far (or not enough) in the future or past
Have the right metric: make money, reduce hours... not just to "show off for them"
Excuses: "I'm tired" or "I don't have time" or "People aren't buying now" or "I need to wait until..."

Dont's

Don't be a downer, a victim, a person who puts themselves down
Don't be a predictable, one-note, cardboard character
Don't give up, don't use any old excuse to stop unless you seriously believe it
Don't stop doing something unless you replace it with something else

Do's

Make it work even if it "seems" the universe is conspiring against you (even though it's not)
Decide to: let go, have boundaries, get the right priorities, and find the time
Switch gears, recharge your batteries and take time to calm down instead of just going through the motions
Wish you were better -- your best is enough but make sure it's your best
Use failure and frustration as fuel to do better in the future

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228: Are You Afraid?

January 19, 2017

"If you're not prepared to be wrong, you'll never come up with anything original."
-- Ken Robinson

Here's why I ask if you're afraid...

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A bunch of years ago, it was around the holidays and I was hanging out with some friends... we were playing Monopoly and you might know that it's the sort of game that leaves a lot of players super angry by the end...

Well, I didn't mind it too much that one of the guys in our group kept making us start over... as in... if HE was the one who was down on his money, even if the rest of us were doing well, he would suddenly act super sad and push and prod us until we gave in and restarted the game...

If he was raking in the money in Monopoly, he had no problem continuing the game... even if others were having trouble.

It's just a game, we were having fun, and I don't think we actually saw a complete gamethrough to completion that night... BUT... it got me thinking...

Imagine if that friend of mine (I didn't know him that well, he was just someone's brother who happened to be there) had saw one of our games through? Maybe he'd still lose or maybe he would have come out of those "tough times" on the other end, and really enjoyed that rollercoaster ride?

As opposed to starting it over and playing it safe...

What does all this have to do with internet marketing, being an entrepreneur, and growing your online business?

Many People Are Afraid To Actually See Their Business Become A Business...

It might get tough and scary
They might have to change course
They might get confused and not know what to do next
They might have to admit they were wrong or that something isn't working

Is this "fear" problem something that you can solve in the next 10 seconds? Is it something that won't rear its ugly head sometime later? Heck no... BUT...

If you've felt that you've "restarted the game" too many times and you haven't finished that sales letter, product, or have neglected that blog or podcast... it's possible that you needed to ride the wave of failure down only to ride an even bigger wave of success back up...

But YOU are the only one who can say that statement is true...

I honestly believe that you should focus on whatever you think your best chance of making money is for the next 30 days... commit yourself to that singular goal and take four actions per day in service of that goal...

I also think that a long term goal of yours is to have 300 pieces of content (whatever that means to you -- quick YouTube videos, short podcasts) that lead back to you and your websites, your opt-in forms, your sales letters.

Not 300 pieces of content overnight, but that should be your long-term goal in order to bring in enough traffic to sustain you and your business.

WP Import and Podcast Crusher

I think that our WP Import plugin is a great tool to fill up a blog with content (whether you did or didn't write it yourself) and our Podcast Crusher podcasting course is a wonderful complement to that tool, because podcasting allows you to quickly speak out whatever's on your mind...

AND even have other experts create the content for you, which they will gladly do. I've interviewed 125 people for my podcast in the past 143 days -- it's only been an extra time commitment of about 4 hours per week on my part (it would be a lot less if I chose not to publish 5 days a week which I can always change) ---

It's increased the blog traffic big-ly, opened up a ton of doors (joint ventures) I didn't have previously, and I'm already on the schedule with a few other marketers to appear on THEIR shows, provide value to THEM and introduce ME to THEIR audience.

I hope that in the coming year you aren't afraid to set yourself on the path that has the best chance of success for you, repeat for 30 days with 4 daily tasks with the ultimate goal of 300 pieces of content, repeat / follow-through, and then look back at those 30 days of successes and failures with self-awareness so you can course correct.

People are often unreasonable, irrational, and self-centered. Forgive them anyway.
If you're kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives. Be kind anyway.
If you're successful, you'll win unfaithful friends and genuine enemies. Succeed anyway.
If you're honest and sincere, people may deceive you. Be honest and sincere anyway.
What you spend years creating, others could destroy it overnight. Create anyway.
If you find serenity and happiness, some may be jealous. Be happy anyway.
The good you do today, will often be forgotten. Do good anyway.
Give the best you have, and it will never be enough. Give your best anyway.
In the final analysis, it is between you and God. It was never between you and them anyway.

-- Mother Teresa

Claim the $7 WP Import Plugin

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Online Business Success: Why Some People “Make It” With Internet Marketing (And Others Don’t)

December 24, 2016

This scares the heck out of me and maybe you can relate...

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I'm not sure how long you've been building your online business, buying courses and plugins, how long you've been on different marketers list and seen the affiliate contests and big launches...

I ask myself these sorts of super scary questions all the time:

"If such and such had a million dollar launch back in 2014, why haven't I heard anything from them since?"

"If this other marketer made 2 million dollars in a day back in 2012, why are all their websites dead and gone just 5 years later?"

The short answer is that they didn't systematize and checklist-ify their business using a something like this:

Time Management on Crack

Tons of internet marketing names have completely disappeared from the face of the planet and I don't think they were abducted by aliens... so why do some people seem to:

Have made money back in the day but seem to be struggling now (not really mailing or promoting)...

OR: Been super successful back then but now I can't find any websites or even what I bought from them...

What's the difference? Here's what I think it is...

1. they actually have a way to make consistent money over time (as opposed to the huge launch where 30% goes to refunds and 60% to affiliates)...

... A launch of any kind with affiliates is a great way to build a list, but if you don't monetize that list into some recurring passive income within a few months, you'll find that the list goes cold/stale and you'll have to rebuild it every year...

2. they have fun with this internet marketing thing (hint: seeing money come in every day from your efforts is a huge way to have fun with your business)

There are going to be up's and down's in your business and what's frustrating sometimes is that you DON'T get paid while you're building something (sales letter, product, membership site) but then you DO get paid after it's done -- so you have to "have faith" and enjoy the adventure, be an entrepreneur and rise to the challenge to overcome whatever obstacle is in front of you

3. they reinvent themselves every few years: I see some people trying to teach article marketing and "how to make an e-book" using the same stuff they taught 10 years ago...

It's perfectly ok to sell your best and classic stuff, and if it's still selling, keep promoting it! It would be a waste to just throw away old products and websites if they still deliver great value... BUT...

I believe that you and your business are screwed if you aren't looking to reinvent yourself every 3-5 years or so.

I used to be known as just a PHP programmer
Then a WordPress person
I sold low priced plugins for a while
Then transitioned into high ticket courses
Then built software into our courses
And now we're building some software-as-a-service tools such as Website Remote

4. and finally, successful people use systems, templates, and checklists so they can get those daily repetitive tasks (writing content, creating videos, running webinars) completed (those add up to a lot over time) AND have fun doing what pays the bills and get to the creative and weird stuff...

I take tons of time off in my business and you don't even know it because everything still runs... emails still go out, membership sites take orders and the help desk tickets are still answered. All those recurring payments come in every morning, and I want that for you too.

If you feel like in 2016 you could have done more, you were burned out every once in a while and didn't know why or how to avoid it (or shorten the burnout length of time) next time, if you weren't having fun, if you felt like you started more things than you finished... and you want to CHANGE THAT in 2017, then I believe this is the guide for you:

Time Management on Crack

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088: Create More Free Time, Become Super Productive, and Enjoy the Money Making Process Again

May 15, 2016

"Be big enough to admit your mistakes, smart enough to profit from them, and strong enough to correct them." -- John C Maxwell

Traps you fall into: perfectionist, self doubt, self defeatist, the stars have to align. I need to "force" myself into getting motivated. Yeah, right.
"Usual" advice I'll skip over: Four Daily Tasks + Camtasia babysitter + accountability partner + computer hotseat + one take content
Usually, the "thing" you have to do is just 5 minutes, or just 1 hour: speak out book, run webinar, send email
Stop multitasking with the phone, email, Facebook, TV. Leave it out of the room.

Stop watching TV: biggest time waster (or at least put it off for a couple weeks)
Schedule time on the calendar to get it done
Throw away the old notes and papers, you don't need that clogging up your mind
Don't walk into the office after a specific hour: this forces you to get more done
Anchoring: associate your office, sitting at the computer with fun, creativity, productivity, flow state (leave windows open so you can sit down and go)
Take short breaks without the phone: it'll be easier to multitask when you get back (take up walking during your breaks if you can)
Spend just 5 minutes doing something you love like playing the piano
Read a lot more: just one page per night
Leisure goals: running a certain distance, scoring high at a certain sport (create something).
Enjoy the "fun" of building your business. The meaning is what you make it. Get to the making-money phase and get to stoppable/resumable milestones.

Bonus: Wake up one hour early for an "easy" boost to the day.

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071: Procrastination Solver: How to Achieve Absolute Razor-Sharp Focus and Improve Concentration On Demand

January 16, 2016

Are your goals S.M.A.R.T. goals? Specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and time-bound. Tune into today's program to uncover the tried and true techniques (16 total) to keep yourself motivated, focused, out of the procrastination zoned and focused on getting it all done and achieving that goal:

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Our marketer of the week is Jim Edwards from TheNetReporter. My biggest takeaway from him: just point and shoot PowerPoint for your video. It doesn't need to have quick cuts, fancy edits or be professionally done -- at all.

General Motivation

Four Daily Tasks: Business-Building, Deliverable (no degrees of doneness, no chipping away, no to-do lists)
Seinfeld calendar (do something small every day so the cycle isn't broken) + 5 day sprint
Formula and checklist: for example, 3 part podcasts and "research heavy" blog posts: 100 solutions, group into 4-5 categories and whittle down so it's all meat and no grissle, which leads us to...
Reduce and rearrange the raw materials -- SIMPLE mindmapping with FreeMind helps with this.

Absolute Focus

Dual monitors: left for viewing, right for creating
Remove: distractions, phone, social media, email, TV, news
Clear the clutter: delete temporary EverNote notes and delete after you've made the blog post or product. Clear off desktop items at the end of the month. Quick calendar reminders later in the week to "check on" things and then delete.
Micro-projects: start on Monday, end on Friday or Saturday. You can restart on Monday, but don't leave things open-ended. (Optimistically pessimistic.)

Procrastination

What quick 10 minute activity have you been putting off? Do it now.
Accountability partner. Call every hour if you have a really bad "problem."
Shut down distractions. Close tabs, uninstall Facebook.
Change the pattern. Commit. Don't ask yourself how you "feel" about it. It's a must.

Concentration

What are the top 3 things to focus on? Avoid going an inch deep and a mile wide.
Meditation (meaning silence and reflectiveness).
A state change is as good as rest.
Appointment based business: webinars, meetings, Google calendar, TimeTrade coaching calls.

Wise Words to Live By

Three simple rules in life: 1. If you don't go after what you want, you'll never have it. 2. If you don't ask, the answer will always be no. 3. If you don't step forward, you'll always be in the same place.

What seems to us as bitter trials are often blessings in disguise. -- Oscar Wilde

You may think the grass is greener on the other side, but if you take the time to water your own grass, it would be just as green.

Philosopher Karl Popper: True ignorance is not the absence of knowledge, but the refusal to acquire it.

Resources

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New Month’s Accomplishment: This is A Way Better Alternative (and Solution) to New Year’s Resolutions

January 9, 2016

New Year's Resolutions don't "work" and a "New Month's Accomplishment" is what you need instead. Let me explain...

New Year's "resolutions" are silly for a few reasons...

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They usually aren't S.M.A.R.T. goals (specific, measurable, achievable, results-oriented, and time-bound). SMART goals are pretty self explanatory but let me lay it out so there's no confusion: when you set out to do something, make sure that it's:

simple and clearly defined (specific)
something tangible so it's 100% clear whether or not you accomplished that goal (measurable)
enough of a stretch to move you out of your comfort zone, but not a shot at the moon (achievable)
all about an outcome instead of an activity (results-oriented)
in such a timeframe that it creates a sense of urgency for you (time-bound)

I think when most people set a goal that they're serious about, they intuitively and automatically make it specific, measurable, and achievable. The two biggies here are "results-oriented" and "time-bound."

Issue #1: You're Not Results-Oriented & Time-Bound

People don't know WHY they're doing something, for example, someone tells me their big goal is to write a book for their business. Why? Just because. Someone told them to do it. There's no real plan beyond that, and their heart isn't in it (no emotional reason-why) so it's just not going to get done. (It probably won't get started.)

The average person makes a silly goal like, "I'm going to run 2 miles every morning all this year." That's bad. It's open-ended, and it's not time-bound. A better goal would be that you're going to walk 10 minutes every evening for one week, and that's it! Nothing recurring.

Issue #2: Your Goals Are Too Big

Second problem, the goals are the wrong size. Usually too big. They're so big that you've subconsciously set yourself up for failure before you even started. You could have made your goal "write a 1/2 page blog post" but instead you said you'd write a 200-page book, including editing.

Can you please be honest with yourself? If you don't want to do anything different this year to grow your business and change your life, I honestly think that's okay, but ONLY if you're honest with yourself about it. That leads us to...

Issue #3: Belief & Honesty

Third, there's no real belief behind these S.M.A.R.T. goals. Maybe you're going through the motions and setting these goals because you think you "should", and you feel "bad" for not having one. Maybe you feel excited when you plan it out. But that excitement wears out in a few days, doesn't it?

The problem with a New "Year" resolution is that you probably start thinking of a goal around December 1st (Thanksgiving is over and it's holiday time), decide on that goal around December 5th, and then give up on the goal completely by December 15th. A small portion of people make it until January 10th, and even less until February 1st.

Gym-Collage

The solution to your "belief" crisis is to gain a small victory so you can not only see what's possible, but you've also broken that vicious cycle of:

feel bad -> over-engineer a pie-in-the-sky solution -> give up on it -> feel bad again

The Answer: New Month's Accomplishment

I have a better path for you and it's actually pretty simple:

Don't wait until January 1st to do something different
Don't have a huge year-long or recurring goal (just hit the next milestone)
Do something SMALL and ONE-TIME, like writing one blog post or going on one walk (anything is better than nothing)
Don't tell others you're going to do it (just do it and brag about it later)
Use the new month as an excuse to run a new "experiment", but keep doing more what's making money and less of what's not making money

Let's just call this a "New Month Accomplishment." This way, it's something small and S.M.A.R.T. that you can knock out. The reason why the end-result is so small is because the journey is more important than the destination, you're trying new things (and re-visiting old things that worked but you forgot), and if you get some small successes, you're more likely to be happier and more confident about those small achievements of yours. You're more likely to repeat those things and make them good habits.

What's Your New Month's Accomplishment?

My "New Month's Accomplishment" for January was recording an audiobook. That's something I've wanted to do for a few years, and I have eight books on Amazon at the moment, but no audiobooks. A few days ago, I sat at the computer, and did nothing that day but dictate (read aloud) the first half of my first book (100 Time Savers).

That took almost exactly two hours. The next day, I didn't check my email or Facebook until I recorded the second half (two hours), then adjusted the audio according to ACX's (Amazon and Audible's) specifications, and sent it off. It takes a few weeks for them to approve the audio book, so I'm just waiting on that.

My business partner Lance Tamashiro's New Month's Accomplishment (just from my observation) was sending a handful of thank you cards to some of our customers. This is something we used to do every day, but we stopped and forgot about it. Now we're doing it again. Simple!

Let's say you're sick of that messy garage. Instead of making a "commitment" (yuck) to "try" to "clean up better" this year, take one of item out of that garage, take a picture of it, and list in on Craigslist within the next few minutes. Done! New Months' Accomplishment finished.

If you have trouble writing: Ernest Hemingway only wrote 500 words a day, but he did it every day. Stephen King writes exactly 2,000 words (7 pages) daily. If he hits 2,000 words and he's in mid-sentence, it doesn't matter, he stops!

If he writes 1,500 words and gets to the end of the book he's writing, he types THE END and writes the next 500 words for the next book. Your New Month's Accomplishment could be to only write 500 words tomorrow. Don't worry about the next day or month or the rest of your life, just get 500 words out of the way.

I'm curious to know what your New Month's Accomplishment is, but don't tell me!

In fact, don't tell anyone what you're doing. Finish something simple that you can complete in a day (or two at the most), or preferably just 10 minutes today, and now you've finished more than those schlubs who "planned" their "resolution" for the "New Year" and never even started.

Also see: Time Management on Crack to beef up your productivity, Income Machine to get that passive income system of yours up and running, and Make a Product to publish that book on Amazon.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 7:53 — 7.2MB) | Embed

17 Ways to Instantly Increase Your Productivity Starting in the Next Few Minutes

December 15, 2015

Complete four daily tasks (of one hour each) every single day
Run Cool Timer to time-box each task and make sure you complete them on time
Clear your desk of all papers, clocks, cell phones, and TVs right now!
Ditch Outlook and use Gmail for your email (don't forget to Archive or Delete emails whenever possible)
Leave your computer on overnight, plan your four tasks the night before and leave whatever programs (like Camtasia or Word) open for the next day
Start and stop your day at the same time every day
Only commit yourself to one "project" at a time
Use Google Alerts to minimize forum browsing and web surfing as much as possible
Identify and remove "problem words" such as work which kill your productivity
Start every day with a walk or run around your neighborhood
Finish any tasks (especially freelancing) way before it's due
Stay off your computer, laptop, and email as much as possible throughout the day, and don't check email until the afternoon
Make decisions quickly
Schedule as many blog posts, autoresponder emails, and membership sites ahead of time
Only strive to be 80% perfect
Stop using your whiteboard and spend 24 hours of continuous downtime from the computer this week
Install and use the Roboform browser plugin to manage your passwords