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What The Hell Are You Doing?

Posted January 13, 2008 in Productivity 15 Comments »

It’s two weeks into 2008, and if you’re like many other people, there are a few things that were on your “I’ll do it this year” list for 2007 that didn’t see an inch of progress. Things that could have made a difference in your business that you just never got to because you “didn’t have the time.” Well, it’s time for a stern wake up call – If you don’t start doing something now, it’s likely you never will. Here’s a simple formula for following through on more (profitable!) action in the new year.

Step One: Ask Yourself, “What The Hell Am I Doing?“

Imagine that there was something you could have done that might have doubled your customer base, or tripled your sales, or better yet, cut down on your hellish workload so you could actually relax. You probably know half a dozen activities that could have made these three things happen.

Now imagine that you didn’t do these things last year because you were watching too much television. Or surfing the web oh-so-excessively. Or sitting around, wishing you were more motivated. In other words, escape activities. Was it worth it to sit around and do things that didn’t add lasting value to your life, but instead just “passed the time?” Or, instead of a pile of forgettable experiences, wouldn’t you rather have increased your cashflow, your customer base, or simply your peace of mind?

If so, you need to ask yourself this question relentlessly in 2008: What the hell am I doing? Think about what you really want to accomplish, the goals that are important enough to be written down, and when you catch yourself doing things that you’ll regret come this time next year, ask that question again. Snap yourself out of it and do something that makes your life and business better.

Step Two: Quit Stalling And Schedule A Slice

Stop telling yourself you don’t have the time. Nobody has the time. They make the time. They schedule out some time and start making things happen. But I understand you’re busy. Way too busy. Unbelievably busy. But you have more time than you think.

I’m certain that there’s some way you could carve out 30 minutes in the next seven days to take one solid action step on one of those back burner projects. Maybe it’s half of a lunch hour. Maybe it’s first thing Saturday morning. If you want it bad enough, you’ll find it. Think about it – you’re going to spend 30 minutes this week doing something that ultimately doesn’t matter in the long run. Find that slice of time and schedule in some action that matters.

Then do it every week. Even if you’re only spending 30 minutes a week, you’re making progress and building momentum. You’re making the project “real” in your mind and you’ll become more motivated to find more time to make it happen throughout the year. And then your badass wins, big time.

Step Three: Don’t Blow It! Take Some Frickin’ Action Right Now

If you don’t do something immediately to cement your decision, it’s pretty much a given that you’ll never take action (that’s not a ding on you; it’s just how human nature works). For best results, don’t lather, rinse, repeat – do this instead:

  1. Decide what you’re going to finally take action and decide when you’re going to carve out 30 minutes over the next seven days.
  2. Leave a comment below and share what you’re going to start working on and when you’re going to put those 30 minutes in.
  3. Spread the word. Digg this article, link to it from your blog, whatever you can do to get as many people adding their voice to this thread. If it takes off, in 7 days I’ll post a follow up article for everyone to post their progress in. You know for a fact that when you have other people involved in your goals, you do more and more great stuff happens.

Do these three things, take some business-growing action, and while you’re spreading the word check back next week as you find out from everybody else, “What the hell are you doing?”

I think it’ll be a hell of a lot. :-)

You know what to do,

Dave

******
(Like what you just read? Drop by Dave’s blog for more a$$-kicking productivity tips or sign up for his newsletter and get his free “More Time” report.)


About the author: Dave Navarro is a business productivity coach who loves showing freelancers how to make more money and have more time for themselves. Get more of the good stuff at Rock Your Day or follow Dave on Twitter.


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15 Comments
  • User Gravatar
    iantrepreneur
    January 13th, 2008 at 9:12 pm

    yes I know stop yelling at me! 2008 I took a lot of action so far like cleaned up my little office area at my house – got binders to start to sort all my ebay papers and checks and all that other stuff

    I bought a white board too! but still so many projects – sighs I need another me

  • User Gravatar
    James Chartrand - Men with Pens
    January 13th, 2008 at 9:44 pm

    So damned true, and I’m one ahead of you. I already started scheduling a slice every day.

    See, Harry and I have been co-authoring a novel for the past five years, with bits of it scattered between Vegas and Quebec. We just need to put it together and edit.

    I’ve been putting it off and putting it off… there’s always work to do, something comes up. Finally, Harry said, “This is a job, too. This isn’t negotiable. This has to be scheduled in like any other task in our business.”

    Yeah, yeah. Okay, Harry.

    Then we had a scare. We had an opportunity to submit our manuscript. Were we ready? Nope. Whose fault? James’. (S’okay; it was a bum deal, but you get the point.)

    Now I work at it 1 hour a day – and I have to say, breaking it down into chunks gets the job done. It isn’t so overwhelming, it’s manageable, and the job’s getting done faster than I expected. Coolness.

  • User Gravatar
    WAH(web)Mommy
    January 13th, 2008 at 9:50 pm

    Now there’s a title that caught my attention! The article did, too, LOL.

    Goodness, there is sooooo much to be done! I need to sit down and write down a list of EVERYTHING – and I mean Every Little Thing that I need to get done in order to reach my 2008 resolution (to become a full time freelancer).

    I also have a full whiteboard. My initial intention was to update it weekly. I haven’t touched it since New Year’s Day, though. A lot of good that does me…

    If you do a follow up, I hope to be able to tell you that I wrote down all of my To Do’s (likely over several sheets of paper), and that I’ve updated my whiteboard with the most pressing items for this week.

    Thanks for the nudge!

  • User Gravatar
    Susan
    January 13th, 2008 at 9:56 pm

    Nice, Dave. :) I was thinking this as I was looking at the calendar for the week, so it was eerie to see this pop up in my RSS.

    I know what mine is: I need to add pages to my site. I finally did one for my SEO services, but I offer a lot and I need a page for each thing people can hire me to do.

    My plan is to carve out the 30 minutes when I take an afternoon break. I tend to get buggy around 2:30 or 3. I hit a wall (I usually start working around 7-7:30am) on client stuff, so it’s a good time to focus on my marketing MY stuff for a bit. :)

  • User Gravatar
    Zakman
    January 13th, 2008 at 10:23 pm

    Nice, no-nonsense post, Dave! Lack of time (or excess of it???) is the most commonly heard explanation for failure of most kinds.

    Then again, what about this I read somwehere – “The busiest person has time for EVERYTHING. That’s why he’s busy!”

    Cheers :)

  • User Gravatar
    cat
    January 14th, 2008 at 3:48 am

    Darn it. Don’t I know it.

    But January has always been a procrastination month for me. It comes from settling into the holiday slowdown.

    First week or so of December I’m chomping because everyone is on a slowdown.

    By New Years, going slow has become a habit. A bad habit.

    And I have decent time management skills. I just need to drag them out from under the holiday ho ho ho’s.

  • User Gravatar
    Kristen
    January 14th, 2008 at 7:41 am

    One of my resolutions was to start actively marketing my new website. So, each evening for 30 minutes I will do something that helps get the word out — either comment :) on my favorite blogs, work on my AdWords (which intimidate me), join or respond to a forum, etc… Thanks for getting me moving!

  • User Gravatar
    Dave Navarro
    January 14th, 2008 at 10:18 am

    @Ian –
    If you need another you, make it a priority to find someone to assist you :-)

    @James –
    Congrats on working on the novel! I just started picking up on a (fiction) book I’m writing last month, and it’s nice to see progress again.

    @WAH(web)Mommy –
    Good – you know what you need to do first. Don’t let this week pass you by without getting that list made (or even partially made).

    @Susan –
    When the student is ready, the teacher appears :-) Though it doesn’t sound like you need teaching – you know what to do. Congrats on getting started.

  • User Gravatar
    Tania
    January 14th, 2008 at 5:37 pm

    This post was a nice kick in the butt! Post holiday is my down time because of my business holiday rush. It’s taken me longer this year to motivate again. Cleaned off my desk today, sorted through some papers & updated one of my websites. Tomorrow I’ll make my list to break the tasks down to manageable pieces. Figure I’ll start my mornings off the the 30 minutes. Thanks!

  • User Gravatar
    Randi
    January 15th, 2008 at 1:28 am

    What a great frickin blog! I love it – you rock. I was just telling my client that the first two weeks of the New Year have flown by. And while I’ve accomplished some of what I wanted – there’s no whining allowed – I gotta get it done! No excuses. Thanks for the reminder. PS – the smiley faces complement your a$$ kicking style nicely : )

  • User Gravatar
    Lucas Adamski
    January 15th, 2008 at 5:18 am

    Some very good points in this article, very informative. And this idea with 30 minutes is awesome, really have to try it cause im lack of time :P

  • User Gravatar
    Kim Smith
    January 15th, 2008 at 11:30 am

    I think I need to wallpaper my workspace with this article! Great post! Thanks for the kick!

  • User Gravatar
    Dave Navarro
    January 15th, 2008 at 11:39 am

    @Taina –
    Glad to give a kick when needed :-) Have you finished that list?

    @Randi –
    Thanks for the kind words. Subscribe for some more reminders :-)

    @Lucas –
    Lack of Time is all in your head – you have more time than you think. Tap into slices of time you’re not using productively and you’ll be surprised how much you can get done.

    @Kim –
    If that’s what it takes, do it! :-)

  • User Gravatar
    Carma
    January 16th, 2008 at 3:12 pm

    Great post. It woke me up. I’m going to read it every day this week.

  • User Gravatar
    Eric Davis
    January 17th, 2008 at 8:13 pm

    So true. I’ve been “talking” about getting back into Ruby on Rails for the entire 6 months I stopped. Finally I realized, if I don’t just do it I will be writing PHP for years to come.

    Now I have spent several hours getting a feel for it again and I’m confidant enough to start using it again. I probably spent that much time worrying about getting into it.

    As Nike says, “Just do it!”

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