Time Is Money. How Much Are You Wasting?

I decided that whilst I was working, no one was coming around, no TV
or music was on, no food was to be cooked, and sticking to this almost
nine to five with an hour and a half break throughout the day,
concentrating as hard as I could to try and get things done as best as I
can in the shortest period of time. I know it sounds like punishment, and
I'm not suggesting you work this like a nine to five job, but I wanted to
see just how much time I'd been wasting, even though it felt like I'd been
working non stop. The results were a big shock.

Looking solely and content written, we'd got 25% of it done, plus the
completion of a script in about a year and a few months. Granted the
script was a lot of work, but I won't use that as an excuse. It took longer
than it should have done, and I knew it. So the results came back, about
thirty days after taking this test, and you know what happened? It turns
out that two hundred or so pages over that long period of time, even
though it felt like I'd been working my socks off non stop, in a mere thirty
days I'd got six times the amount of writing done, and just fifteen days
after that, manuals were written, the graphics had been designed, the
sales system was up and running, and all the resource gathering was in
place ready to start promoting.

Adapt To Survive.

So what happened? Well, two things happened that you should be able
to draw from. The first was simply eliminating distractions. Everything
that could have stopped me in some way from writing or working was
removed from my work area. The TV’s were off, the music had gone,
the cooking had a set time when I was finished working, the breaks
were timetabled and strictly kept. Bear in mind six years before this I
was still working a nine to five job, and when I made the switch, turns
out I hadn't adapted as well as I thought.

Now I'm not calling anyone lazy or anything like that, if you're in this
position now, you'll know it. You'll find that it feels like you've been
working really hard, but not actually going anywhere. You'll wonder how
you spend so much time at the computer, wake up, and keep having to
do it all over again, but still, you're not moving forward. If this is the
case, the first thing I suggest you do is eliminate your distractions, stop
waiting for things to happen, sit down at your computer and be proactive instead of reactive.
Even if you decide before you start that you're
going to keep it going for seven days, then that's fine. Keep it going for
seven days, and look at how much more you get done in a shorter
period of time. In my example, it would have taken me almost ten years
to do what I'm now doing in ten months. Imagine boosting your
efficiency that much, by over 1000% just by carrying out a simple test to
see what it's about.

Why Deadlines Are Bad.

The second thing, and probably the less obvious one of the two that
was obviously holding me back, and could well be holding you back too,
is setting deadlines. I used to think these were a good thing, it gave me
a reason to work harder and more efficiently. I was told however
through an article that me setting my own deadlines was killing my
ability to work efficiently. So if you've set any deadlines for yourself, say
for example, have a new house in six months time, make a million
dollars in five years, be able to afford a luxury vacation before the end
of the year, stop. Relax and stop setting yourself stressful deadlines and
giving yourself ultimatums, eliminate your distractions, be proactive
instead of reactive and you'll find that you get where you want to go far
faster than previously. Take it from me, it's amazing what these three
steps do, and if I'd been told this sooner, especially about the deadline
setting, you may have been reading this a year earlier. Try it, test it for a
week, two weeks, or even a month and compare it to what you were
getting done before. I assure you, you'll be pleasantly surprised.

thanks....