Stop Procrastination: 5 Steps on how to get things done today!

Have you ever looked at your list of things to do and just wanted to run away? Procrastination sometimes does get the best of us self-employed people. Everything seems to be a priority therefore we tend to put some things on the back burner. The point is, if the items on your to-do list have to do with marketing your business to attract clients then you don’t want to ignore them otherwise your pipeline of prospects will be empty in 6 months or less.

Every now and then Procrastination rears its ugly head into my business. Sometimes I think that the to-do list is so overwhelming that I tend to go into an avoidance mode rather than a mode of just dealing with it. Does this happen to you? Realistically, you can’t ignore marketing yourself. You’ll have to just bite the bullet and do what it takes.

Let me share with you my personal action checklist that takes me from procrastination to action:

1. Prioritise: The best way to get moving is first sort out what your return on investment either financially, time-wise or resource-wise is for each item. Secondly, sort them in order of what will reap you the most benefits i.e. clients and revenue from the littlest output on your part and thirdly, start with that one and work down your list.
2. What’s getting in your way? Sometimes, procrastination is about something getting in the way. It could be you don’t have every piece of the puzzle enabling you to move forward and accomplish something. It could be that you don’t know how to do one aspect but is it absolutely necessary to your success? Whatever’s holding you back, just get clear of it.
3. How long will it really take? I sometimes find that I delay on a marketing task because I anticipate it taking longer than it really will. To get past this, look at the task and ask yourself realistically how long will it really take. Then, take out the to-do list and write down the time it will take you to complete it next to each item i.e. 30 minutes, 1 hour etc.
4. Schedule it! Open your calendar and find time slots that correspond to the time allotted for each task on your list. Schedule them as if they were client appointments you are unable to cancel.
5. Just do it! Once you’ve got the task appointments schedule in your diary, just do them. You’ll power through them like you’ve never done before. It’s actually pretty cool.

When marketing yourself, take notice of when you start slipping into procrastination mode – it happens to everyone, believe me. Prioritise the tasks on your to-do list and focus on the ones that'll get you the highest return on investment. Make note of what’s getting in the way or what piece is missing and solve the issue accordingly. Establish how long it will take to get each task done and then schedule tasks into your diary. At this point you’ll have no excuses for not doing it.

Remember with marketing there is never a point at which you can say, “I’m successful now so I don’t have to market any longer.” You’ll notice that every successful entrepreneur never stops marketing. In fact, they are always adding new things to their existing marketing plans. Do the same. Always be marketing and you’ll always have clients.

For help to facilitate your strategic planning, please contact me.

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"By Deborah Jackson of Jaxon Marketing. Learn more about how to identify and communicate your uniqueness here: http://www.jaxon.com.au"

Posted by Deborah Jackson on February 15, 2010