Sometimes I just don’t feel like doing anything productive.
And that’s OK.
I’m not a motivational guru nor do I play one on TV.
If I don’t have any clients scheduled, I’ve been known to just take off for the rest of the day.
That’s part of the freedom of the Internet Lifestyle.
But of course, you can’t do that every day.
Here are a few quick ways I motivate my lazy butt to consistently get a whole lot of stuff done…
1: Put rules in place.
I get up a little after 5 AM every day. No alarm clocks needed. It’s my natural time.
My rule is to work for around an hour or so every weekday before taking the dogs for a walk, working out, and having breakfast.
I have other little rules in place to schedule uninterrupted work periods focused on specific activities. Work before play. It can’t be something that just happens when you feel like it (I’m sure you wouldn’t last long at a job if you only showed up when you felt like it).
2: Ignore the outcome.
The rough draft of anything sucks. If you require yourself to be inspired before you start writing, you’re probably not going to get a lot of writing done.
Instead, give yourself permission to write badly at first. Fix it in editing.
Deleting is easy. Getting stuff done initially is the harder part.
3: Use deadlines.
Parkinson’s law is the observation that “Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion.”
If you give yourself 2 weeks to get something done, that’s how long it’s going to take.
Break down the task into smaller component parts and give yourself a tighter deadline.
Finish 1,000 words in the next hour. You might not reach the goal, but you’ll be closer than if you didn’t set a deadline at all.
Expect improvement in how quickly you complete tasks.
Brainstorm ways you could grow your business if you only had 3 hours a day to work on it. What if it was only a few hours per week? What would you eliminate, automate, and delegate?
4: Reward myself.
Focus on the activity. Get it done. Get up and do something fun.
Have an incredible morning session? Take a few hours off. Take Friday off.
Buy a new toy. Buy something you enjoy. Take a walk.
5: Batch Activities.
Schedule uninterrupted time to focus. For example, I don’t write emails the same day I send them.
I like to write several weeks of emails in advance. Many times, I’ll write emails for the entire month over a couple of 3 to 4 hour writing periods.
Write one. Immediately move to the next. You get in a flow. More gets done the second hour than the first.
Wait a few hours or an entire day. Edit all your emails in another batch activity.
There are some people who prefer to write an email each day instead of batching a bunch together.
In that case, I’d tell them focus on #1 and #3. Set a specific time they write each day as a rule, and use a deadline to get it done faster. They’ll get in habit of finishing quickly because of the routine.
I focused on email here, because it’s the driver of my profits. But the same principles apply to anything else you create such as videos, courses, etc.
If you’d like my simple system for creating profitable emails…even if you don’t consider yourself a writer…check out Autoresponder Alchemy.
It gives you 80 of my most profitable email templates you can model.
This is the quicker and easier way to create emails that sell more of your products and services.
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