How many times have you sat down with the task of working on your internet business in mind and a few hours later realised you got very little done. Did something shiny get your attention and keep you from your tasks? It happens to everyone! That’s why you need to stop doing so much multitasking!
Here are some internet marketing productivity tips that will keep you on task. Sure, multitasking is good but too much of it results in a lack of focus and a really long to-do list that never seems to get any shorter.
Productivity Tips For Internet Marketers
- Make a schedule for times when you want to focus. Write down what you want to do and set aside time to do it. Instead letting yourself ride the wave and go wherever your fingers take you, decide that you’ll do specific things at specific times. Follow your to-do list each time you sit down focused on work. Don’t expect to focus for eight hours straight without interruptions or multitasking. Try for an hour at first and see how it goes.
- Forget tabbed browsing for a bit. Yes, tabbed browsing is wonderful but it prevents you from focusing. One tab at a time. One task at a time. That’s how you’ll get items checked off your list. At least for your scheduled work time, anyway…
- Close your email and your IM chat windows. Focus on one task at a time. If a task requires you do to something via email, close it after that’s done when you move onto the next task. Emails coming in are like that ‘shiny’ thing that takes you away from work. It’s not going to be the end of the world if someone needs to wait an hour to get a response from you. Don’t bother with ‘busy’ or ‘away’ on MSN or Skype. As you know, people ignore that and write “Are you busy?” anyway. You know you do it too, don’t you? We all do. If someone needs you, they’ll leave an offline message and you’ll get it next time you log in. Don’t be afraid of missing something.
- Set up times where you can surf freely. If work gets done, great. If it doesn’t, you’re not stressed because you’ve already allocated time to do what you need to do. This is like ‘free time’ for you. Don’t do this until AFTER your focused work time has been checked off the list.
Try this for a month and then assess the results. Chances are you’ll have a more profitable business and feel a lot less stressed about your schedule.
See you at the top of Google!
Sean Rasmussen
SEO Australia Pacific
AussieSEO.com © 2007 - 2010
Hi Sean,
Thanks for the tips to improve my productivity. I am guilty of tabbed browsing. I’m always logged in to Facebook, Twitter, Gmail, etc but I’m not really there.
I have a something that I’m working on and I flick back and forth between these pages to keep up with what’s happening. You’re right, it does waste a lot of my time. So, I’m going to try focusing on one task at a time and see how that goes.
.-= Jazz Salinger´s last blog ..Learn and Earn – It’s a Marathon Not a Sprint =-.
Hi Sean
Are you watching me? It’s like you wrote this just for me! Put it this way, I haven’t had what I would call excellent internet marketing productivity skills, that is until this competition.
Suddenly, I am focused and nothing is getting in my way. There is no distraction from the task as I have leverage here. I want this one pointed focus and productivity to seep into my skill set when this competition is over.
Multitasking is something I am a gold medalist in but unfortunately I sometimes end up with piles of unfinished work neatly placed around the house as reminders that I need to multitask again tomorrow ( don’t worry, the piles of work just stay there!)
This article is great and I am going to print off the “Productivity Tips For Internet Marketers’ and put it on my wall right now.
Thankyou Sean for a very enjoyable article.
Blessings
Elly
.-= Elly´s last blog .. =-.
This is exactly where I struggle. I hear the ding of an email coming in and I have to have a look. Worse still if its something from facebook, I then click on the link which leads me to facebook and while I’m there I really need to catch up on the posts and before I know it, a couple of hours have gone by and I have achieved nothing. Productivity is pretty slow on my computor unless I have set tasks to do before I sit down.
.-= Jackie Stenhouse´s last blog ..Anxiety Separation in Children =-.
Could be a good idea to turn the email notification ding off Jackie. Checking your emails once or twice per day only is a great way to become more productive