5 Steps To Ending Procrastination

I was at a party recently and ran into a woman I’ve known for years.  She is a friend and a former client.  As we stood talking over a tasty treat she told me that, despite the work we’ve done together, she still procrastinates.  I replied…”Yeah, me too.”  She looked at me, shocked and said, “I can’t believe it.  You do so much!  There’s NO WAY, you procrastinate.”

So here’s the cold hard truth.  Yes, I procrastinate.  In fact I’m a master procrastinator and I’m not alone.  According to studies done on procrastination (I wonder how long those took to complete!) 95% of all people procrastinate.  My personal belief is that the other 5% of the population are lying.  Oh and according to those same studies, 25% of us are chronic procrastinators.  Yes, you can put me in that 25%.

Just because everyone procrastinates does not mean it is okay.  Procrastination is bad for business, bad for profits and bad for you.

It’s kind of obvious that procrastination costs us time, energy and money and I can give you a lot of examples about how, but there are two things that are even worse that we tend to forget.

1.    You’re being selfish.  The people who we are “supposed” to be helping don’t get the help that they need.  You know the book that you’ve been meaning to write?  Well, the person who needs to read it can’t.  You know that person who you met at a networking event that you’ve been meaning to follow up with about your program?  Well, that person isn’t getting the support they need to move forward. Read more

Why it doesn’t get done

I bet plenty of the things you do are “no brainers”.  You are psyched to them and have no problem doing. Then, there are the “other things”.  It could be picking up the phone and calling a prospective client, writing an article for your ezine, creating a program that you’ve been meaning to do forever or something “easy” like answering a single email.

These are the things you know you’re “supposed” to do but somehow never get around to doing.  The things that you put on your to-do list time and time again but never cross off.  Or you plan to do just as soon as you get a 3-hour block of time.

The problem is that when you don’t get around to doing these tasks you, and your business run, the real risk of stagnating or maybe not even starting.  You don’t create programs, you don’t bring in new clients, you don’t market your business, and you don’t bring in income.

Here’s the cold hard truth…no amount of wishing will get these things done, you need a plan, but not any plan because we both know that you’ve made plans before.  You need a plan that takes you into consideration.  Who you are, what needs to be done and what is the best way for YOU to do it.

Here are 7 strategies that my clients and I use regularly to help us get ourselves motivated and moving.  I encourage you to try a couple of them so that you can carry through and finally cross those “shoulds” off of your to-do list.
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So Much To Do…So Little Time

I’ve got good news and bad news for you. The good news is that we live in a world with endless possibilities and opportunities. The bad news is that all of these possibilities and opportunities can get overwhelming and you may find yourself not accomplishing anything.

Often as I speak with my clients or (to be completely transparent here) even as I look at my own desk, I get the sensation of drowning in a pool of options and to-do’s.

Different people have different reactions to all of the options. Some people end up freezing and doing nothing, while other people may jump from one thing to another in an effort to get everything done. The end result is the same…at the end of the day you wonder where the day has gone and marvel at how little you’ve accomplished and how much more there is to do.

Since there are so many things that my clients and I either want to do or feel that we “should” do, we sometimes create one of those “brain dump” lists to get everything out of our brains and into one spot. I wish I could simply wave a wand and accomplish everything on my “brain dump” list but I can’t because the reality is that we only have 24 hours a day.

Maybe it would be different if the list was stagnant but it isn’t. Somehow the universal law of to-do lists seems to be to always add more than you can possibly cross off. If you try to do everything all you’ll manage to do is engage in a race against the clock that you will never win and you find yourself feeling overwhelmed, frustrated and in the end, unproductive.

When I see this happening either for myself or my clients it means it’s time to Read more

Start Living Your Dreams

Have you ever said:

• I don’t have time to do it right now.
• I’m already overwhelmed; I can’t add anything else to my plate.
• There aren’t enough hours in a day.
• One of these days…
• Maybe tomorrow…

These are the words of your dreams wasting away. Not pretty, huh?

What happens is that despite your intention to follow your dreams and create the life and business you want, you get sucked into the day-to-day and end up putting your dreams on hold “until tomorrow”.

I’m sure you have a perfectly “legitimate” reason for putting your dream on the back burner but let’s face it…none of us have forever, and if you don’t start acting on your dream it will simply die with you.

So what can you do about it?

I’ve spoken to a lot of people about their dreams.  Turns out there are a lot of reasons why dreams are put on hold but it boils down to four themes.  Here they are along with what you can do to turn your dreams into reality.

Theme 1:  You don’t have a clear vision of what you want.
Here’s the deal.  Many of us have vague dreams.  The more specific you can be about what you want, the easier it will be for you to do it.  People have told me told me that they want to start a business but don’t know what type. Or that they want to attract clients but don’t know what programs or services they’d provide.   It doesn’t matter how big or small your dream is…the more specific and clear you are the better.

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Are you still waiting?

I speak with entrepreneurs like you about their businesses every day. What I’m hearing is that you’re not satisfied. You know you need to spend more time marketing, you want to attract more clients and create new programs. In short, you want to grow you business. BUT…

…You procrastinate, you get side-tracked by other “important” things and you don’t get around to doing the things that will make a real difference in your business and improve your profitability.

So I ask you…why spend more time, energy and money to learn how to market and grow your business if you’re not getting around to doing the work?

I have created a quick and easy program called From Procrastination to Payday. It is designed to enable you to DO everything you’ve already learned and DO what you know you already should be doing.

Click here to learn more.

Here’s the bottom line. No amount of training, coaching or education is going to help you grow your business UNTIL you stop procrastinating and start doing.

It’s time to stop putting off for tomorrow what you can get paid for today!

From Procrastination to Payday…Join me!

Create A to-do List That Works!

You know those crazy busy days…the days that you have tons to do and you spend the day running around like crazy?  Those days when you don’t stop for a minute but yet, at the end of the day you can’t think of a single thing that you actually accomplished.  It’s incredibly frustrating isn’t it?

As a business owner, no matter how much you delegate there’s still lots to do and unless you stay productive your business won’t go where you want it to.

There are many secrets to getting things done but one of the main things you need is a to-do list that works.  You may be thinking…a to-do list…UGH!

Many business owners have a love/hate relationship with to-do lists.  They want a to-do list because they think it will provide a kind of map to guide them through their day and remind them of what they want to do.

BUT, many people find their to-do lists don’t help. Instead of helping to stay on track, their to-do lists remind them of all the things they are “supposed” to be doing but aren’t actually doing or the things that they should have done yesterday but didn’t finish or never even started.

A to-do list can be incredibly helpful but ONLY if you have the right things on it. Read more

Are Diamonds a Girl’s Best Friend

I bet you’ve heard the saying “a diamond’s a girl’s best friend,” well I’m not so sure it’s true. Read these two examples and tell me what you think…

About five years ago I received a wonderful present from my mother-in-law. She gave me a pair of 18 karat gold earrings that she had inherited. What’s more is that the earrings were covered with 44 smallish but nearly perfect diamonds. It told you it was a wonderful present!

But there was a problem… Read more

5-Keys to Successful Goal Setting

Wouldn’t it be great if we could do it all? Imagine never having to think about having the time or resources necessary to do a project because you had all the time and resources in the world. Wishful thinking huh?

The truth is that you don’t have infinite access to time or resources. There are things that you might like to do that will be left undone. In order to make sure that what you value the most gets done it’s important not only to set clear goals but to strategically pick the goals that you want to accomplish and create a plan to accomplish them.

To do this, when I work with my private clients one of the exercises we often do is a brain dump. First we create a list with every goal my client can think of, and then we apply the following 5-CarrieThru Keys to Creating Goals to them in order to make sure that we pick the most important goals and make them happen.

Give it a try.

Key 1: As you create your list of goals include the reason you want to accomplish each one. The clearer you are on why you want to do it the better you’ll be able to specify exactly what your goal is.
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Good News/Bad news…it’ll never be perfect but it can be done!

I decided to write an article about getting things done and not worrying about perfection and found myself in need of my own advice…

I like to think that I subscribe to the idea that “good enough” is good enough. Sure it’s important to do a good job and make sure there are no major mistakes or omissions but for the most part get it done and get it out.

The topic of “done is better than perfect” came up during one of my 3C’s boot camp group calls. It really hit a nerve for a lot of the participants so I decided to write an article about it. I wrote two paragraphs and said to myself, “Never mind, I’m not feeling inspired and am not happy with this.” I proceeded to close the document I was working in without saving my work.

Almost immediately I realized how hypocritical I was being…

The message I suddenly heard was…Stop waiting for the perfect mix of inspiration, time and energy. Because when you wait for perfection whatever you are working on will never get done. DUH!

So, if done is better than perfect why not send out an imperfect article? Here it goes…

The quest for perfection will freeze you. Read more

Making Your To-Do List Work For You

Often to-do lists end up becoming “one of these days I hope to get around to this” lists.  When this happens, the list become useless and worse, it makes you feel guilty and it can hold you back from taking action.  You know there’s no way you’ll ever get through your list so why even bother.  It’s ok to have a “one of these days” list but the list you look at regularly needs to include things that you are really going to act on.

Here are 10 questions to ask yourself BEFORE you put something new on your to-do list and if you’ve already got a to-do list that’s a mile long you can use these questions to help you lighten your load. Read more

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