Sometimes an online entrepreneur gets confused.

There are so many things to do that you get overwhelmed. You can’t finish anything because you’re frantically jumping between tasks. Until you just can’t take it any more…

And the people who are supposed to help you don’t make it any easier either. One “guru” says you need to post more often. Another “guru” tells you to do a podcast… or a webinar.

And elsewhere you read that you need to create video so your visitors can see you and make a stronger connection.

Thing is, these suggestions don’t help you when you’re confused and lost in a sea of urgent to-do list items.

And you’re getting more worried by the day. This online venture is costing you all your time, effort, energy and innovation, and you’re yet to make $100. Never mind $1,000!

Let’s talk about finding, and doing, your money task.

Your money task is the one task that you absolutely need to do.

If all goes south and this online venture of yours fails, it’s that task you’ll look back on and regret not doing more often.

Doing your money task often and early leads to more money in your bank account, and (coupled with a bit of patience) almost guarantees the success of your venture.

You’re not alone…

Most online entrepreneurs suffer feelings of overwhelm.

Recently, one of my top online business coaching clients complained about this. I was surprised, since this lady is a machine. She really gets things done!

In the short couple of months that we’ve worked together, she’s built up a blog that’s already the envy of her business connections.

She’s landing guest posts after guest post, and her subscriber list is growing strongly.

Yet, here she was complaining about feeling overwhelmed…

As I pondered this afterward, I had some insights. I know how to overcome overwhelm! I’ve been doing it for years.

The only way to overcome it is to know what your money task is, and to return to that, time after time. And when you feel overwhelmed, it’s probably because you’re neglecting your money task.

How to find your money task

There’s a certain task that you absolutely have to do. Chances are excellent that it involves some form of creativity.

It’s not that boring day-job task you’re neglecting and worry about getting fired over. Most often such little anxieties are just you being silly.

I’m referring to a task that promotes or builds the thing you’re here to do. I mean that thing that’s really important to you… You know, the one that you consider as your “higher purpose.”

For online entrepreneurs, this “thing” is usually their online business.

You have to find that task (you’re only allowed one… maybe two) that helps you grow your business fast. And you only grow your business when you grow the assets of your business.

And you don’t want to blindly grow any old asset. You want to grow your ultimate asset.

What’s your ultimate asset?

The ultimate asset for an online business is a list of people, happily subscribed via email, impatiently waiting to hear from you. Not just any list will do. You want a list…

	Large enough to make you decent money,
	Filled with subscribers who know, like and trust you, and
	Who are looking forward to hearing about your next quality product, ready to buy.

There are other assets as well. The products you sell are assets. Your time is an asset, especially if you sell that through a service offering. Content pages that rank well with search engines are assets. An email autoresponder that wows new subscribers is an asset.

But let’s focus on your ultimate asset for now. We’re trying to cut through the clutter here to determine what task builds your ultimate asset and grows your business.

And that ultimate asset is a large, warm subscriber list, ready to spend money. Are you starting to see why I call it your “money task”?

The minimalist guide to growing an online business

So what tasks help you grow your ultimate asset? Here are a few examples.

	Writing an excellent blog post. A remarkable, valuable blog post gets visitors to subscribe, and subscribers to spread the word on social networks. It also serves as a source of continual traffic if it ranks well with the search engines.
	Sending a helpful email to your subscribers. Such emails get people who are on your list to know, like and trust you more. You’re building a relationship with every person on your list and this is worth gold when you have something to promote.
	Creating a helpful ebook that you give away as a subscription bonus. If you give visitors a reason to subscribe, more of them will do so. A helpful ebook or report as a free download will do wonders for your subscription uptake rate.
	Writing and submitting a well-crafted guest post. The bio link(s) to your site will get you traffic. If it’s a large blog that your posting on — and if the landing page that you send visitors to is any good — you’ll get many new subscribers.

Guest posts also give you more search engine “moola” by getting you handy in-pointing links from other influential blogs, probably in a niche similar to yours.

And… It gets your brand out there and in front of fresh faces.

As I said earlier, an ebook, interactive learning experience or other information product is also an asset, since it makes you money. No, it doesn’t necessarily build your list, but it could be impressive enough to turn buyers into repeat customers.

So… What’s the common denominator there?

The shocking truth about content

Everything I mention above deals with content. Go back. Check it out.

Building up your email subscriber list is all about creating content. And that’s why content marketing is all the rage.

Content marketing is defined as creating and giving away content that manages to attract new subscribers, turn those subscribers into fans, and ultimately turn fans into customers and repeat buyers.

Every productive task mentioned above, except the product creation bit, can be considered content marketing. And the product creation bit is actually what’s necessary to make money… so I guess it’s part of the process, right?

I have stated elsewhere that content marketing is the online entrepreneur’s most productive task. And I state it again. It’s worth repeating… in bold!

Content marketing is the online entrepreneur’s most productive task.

Got that? Congratulations. You’ve found your money task.

Whenever you wonder what you should actually be doing when you’re screwing around, know this… You should be busy with some form of content marketing or creating paid content (not strictly content marketing because you’re not giving it away for free).

Content is what builds an online business!

Watch out for Resistance!

I bet that by now you’re familiar with Steven Pressfield’s term for self-sabotage: the Resistance. If not, you should urgently read The War of Art and Do the Work.

And if you have read them, read them again. They’ll get you really productive.

For now, it’s worth noting that the Resistance is particularly opposed to you doing really important tasks. Tasks like… your money task!

So… Doing your money task might not be as simple as just pitching up every day. You might be in for a bit of opposition here.

There’s a primitive version of you who wants to eat, watch movies, lose yourself in sexual fantasies and do absolutely nothing constructive. It likes getting drunk too.

You have to realize this and operate from a higher consciousness if you’re going to make solid progress.

What to do next…

This is the “and DO it Like a Ninja!” bit that I promise in the title of the post.

And I think you know what I’m going to say…

I bet while you were reading the above you were thinking of something. Something important. Something that you’ve been neglecting.

Here’s your challenge.

Do it right now.

Yes, you read that correctly. Right now. Just like a ninja.

Need to do something else that’s urgent? Screw that. It can wait.

Want to wait ‘til after lunch? No way. Do whatever’s been bothering you right now.

You only ever have now. Tomorrow is an illusion. Thinking “I’ll do it tomorrow” will only cause procrastination and eventual project abandonment.

Forget about everything else. Take your time. Make this your best attempt at [fill in whatever you need to do here] ever. Let time stand still while you pour your heart and soul into this one task. And then come back and do it again tomorrow!

By the way, as a little aside… If you follow these challenges that I give at the end of blog posts and emails, you’ll grow into a more productive entrepreneur. No doubt! And you know what that means, right?

More money in your pocket.

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So, how did I end up writing about productivity and online business success? Why am I spending my days helping online entrepreneurs?

These are good and important questions. Allow me to share my story, and I’m sure you’ll get great insight into my motivations.

It all started with a photography hobby

It all started with a serious wildlife photography hobby back in 2003.

As a born and bred South African, I had ample opportunities to visit some of the most amazing wildlife sanctuaries in and around Southern Africa.

I took photographs in the Kruger National Park of South Africa, the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park between South Africa and Botswana, and in some of the famous Botswana reserves, such as the Moremi and the Chobe.

Not long after starting I wanted to showcase my work, and I realized the Internet is the perfect medium. I could self-publish my work, and write about my passion.

I launched a wildlife photography site and started working hard. In about 18 months, I had that site up to 1,000 unique visitors per day. (A mean feat for me back then. I got Productive Entrepreneur there in less than 4 months.)

Bye bye day job

My progress convinced me that I could make a full-time living from my online efforts.

In February 2006 I quit my day job as an Actuarial Consultant and focused all my time and effort on online business.

Over time my passion evolved a little, and I built blogs on different topics. These ranged from book reviews to Christianity to a spirituality of silence. I seemed to lack strong focus. I would only discover why later on.

Progress

I was making progress, and making a healthy income from my online efforts and work with consulting clients.

Yet, I realized that the unique circumstances facing an online entrepreneur posed unique challenges to personal productivity.

I was working from home, reporting to no one in particular, and I got easily distracted by less productive tasks like browsing, checking email, or interacting on social networks.

I also experienced procrastination and the paralyzing fear of uncertainty. Whenever I tried something and it didn’t work out, I would lose heart and feel like a failure.

I was bombarded from all sides with business and marketing advice, and just reading it all proved to be too overwhelming. Who was right? Who could really help me make progress? What is honestly the best business model to use?

At this stage I became highly interested in maximizing my personal productivity. I wanted to spend as little time possible working, doing only those things that were really beneficial to my business, and making a decent income from these efforts.

My Dark Night

In 2008, an old, unhealthy habit returned. I started smoking again, and I was back to about a pack a day in no time.

Any ex-smoker would agree that a smoking a pack of twenties per day is a habit (addiction!) that will squeeze all entrepreneurial energy out of you.

I became depressed and lost much of my ambition.

I refer to this period as my Dark Night of the Soul.

Thankfully, I had a couple of wise mentors to guide me, and I was reading the work of Eckhart Tolle. Eckhart’s specialty is to help people end illusion and suffering.

I started implementing the advice I received, and I added a couple of healthy habits to my life.

Soon the light broke through.

Presence

Presence came into my life. No, I was not all of a sudden enlightened, or awakened or someone mystical. I just understood what caused me to feel unhappy, stole my energy, and kept me stuck.

And I knew how to fix it.

I’m not someone who one day woke up enlightened. Nope. I had to grow my awareness the hard way.

I started reading up about meaningful productivity and prolific creativity. I experimented… and practiced… and learned.

I learned how to maximize my physical energy and what types of activities depleted it. I learned all about the tricky art of maximizing and maintaining healthy levels of creative energy.

I learned about time management and what it truly means to focus on something.

I learned about the pitfalls of anxiety and overwhelm. I learned how to deal with the fear of uncertainty.

And, in a sense the most important discovery of them all, I learned about Resistance — that inner tendency to self-sabotage. This was a breakthrough and a half! This is what was stealing my focus and preventing me from pushing on when it mattered most.

Fast forward a little…

Now I’m blogging about my experiences.

Why Productive Entrepreneur?

Being able to do what you love, and having the freedom and presence to make solid progress in this is truly amazing (even if the progress is slow but steady). And if you’re earning a solid living doing it, that’s where the real fun starts!

I want to help entrepreneurs do exactly that. My struggles have shown me how to achieve this, and now I want to share this knowledge with others.

I’ve been helping entrepreneurs make more money through hard and smart work since 2009. In 2011 I decided to start blogging about it and to offer my advice, products and services to a wider market.

Where’s all this headed?

Again, it’s about helping you create a more remarkable life. Entrepreneurship makes the world a better place. It creates jobs and keeps the economy ticking over. It’s a deeply creative act, and I firmly believe that true creativity is a sacred act.

Being an entrepreneur is awesome.

As someone with experience in online business and productivity, I’m passionate about helping others work really hard and smart and make the most of their opportunities as entrepreneurs.

The world is changing

We all know the days of having a steady job in a large corporation are over. No one will happily pay your medical aid and give you a full salary after retirement. You’re future is your own responsibility these days.

Now, business is all about self-expression, creating meaningful art and making the world a better place. It’s about finding people who are as different as you are, interacting with these folks, and serving them.

In serving fellow entrepreneurs, I believe I’m fulfilling my destiny.

What to do next…

Okay. Pause briefly and read that heading again. You’re going to see it often.

As this blog is about productivity, and meaningful progress in your business and life, I’ll have an action step after every piece of writing I do. At the end of every blog post and every email, you will see the words “Here’s what you should do next…”

If you diligently do these things, you’ll make swift progress towards the realization of your dreams.

Today, your task is simple.

Just send me a quick email at dries [at] productiveentrepreneur.com and give me some feedback about your journey. Tell me where you are and where you would like to go with it all…

If you do this during the next week, I’ll try my best to reply… in person

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Being a struggling artist sucks.

It might seem romantic, but next time you see Joe sitting on a tube station with his open guitar box, playing a tired song and hoping for donations, imagine yourself in his shoes. It can’t be easy.

How often do you throw money into a guitar box?

Many online entrepreneurs do the same thing as Joe. Their boring, quiet blogs remind of open guitar boxes in many ways. And they don’t do much more than showing up at the tube station every day to sing yet another false, unexciting, over-played song.

That’s not romantic. It’s bull. If you’re such an online entrepreneur, you don’t have to imagine yourself being in Joe’s shoes… You are!

Now…

Imagine Bono was able to work with that struggling guitarist. Do you think some of Bono’s presence and skill would rub off? Imagine what Bono could teach him. Would Joe still be stuck on a tube station in six months time?

I doubt it.

In the same way, online entrepreneurs need support. They need people who have achieved what they’re trying to achieve to give them advice and feedback, and to keep them heading in the right direction.

And that’s why I use a coach (or two) to keep me accountable.

Can’t afford a coach? Don’t worry. At the end of this post we’ll get creative with some alternative solutions. Let’s first see why you need one!

An accountability coach will help you achieve many worthwhile results. Here’s a list of 12 of the most important ones:

1. An exciting yet realistic online business vision

I say this often, and I’ll say it again. Without a clear vision of what you want to achieve, you have a much slimmer chance of actually achieving it.

You need to know what you want from your business. How much free time do you need? How much would you like to earn?

The only problem is, you can’t just pull figures from the air.

Before you climb a dangerous mountain, you need to consult with someone who has been to the summit at least once, but preferably more than once.

An accountability coach has been there before. He sits down with you and helps you create an exciting yet realistic online business vision — something that’s possible given your chosen service or product offering, target market and set of skills.

2. A viable action plan to get you there

Just like showing up at the station every day to sing his same-old cover song won’t get Joe a record deal, merely writing articles isn’t a strategic online business plan.

You need an action plan that will get you from where you are to where you need to be. It needs to be sound, but at the same time executable inside your constraints.

An accountability coach will help you develop a strategic action plan, tailor-made for your specific situation. Thanks to the years of online business experience this plan draws on, it’s likely to be sound and get you the results you need.

3. A measure of and deadline for success

You’ll never be satisfied with where you end up unless you purposefully decide beforehand what measure you will use for success. When will you decide that your efforts were worthwhile or successful?

You also need a deadline by when you’ll apply your measure, or you’ll be left in the dark.

A good accountability coach is someone who helps you quantify what success looks like, and helps you set measurable intermediary goals and a final deadline for success for your online business.

4. A solid focus

A strategic online business action plan involves many things happening and unfolding simultaneously. You are:

• Developing your writing skills,
• Writing excellent articles,
• Setting up and sending out autoresponders,
• Developing products and service offerings,
• Growing your subscriber list,
• Building relationships of trust with subscribers,
• Marketing and selling your products and services,
• Refining your communication,
• Promoting your blog,
• Networking with other influential bloggers, etc.

It’s easy to get lost somewhere in this process and to end up feeling helpless and overwhelmed by everything that needs to be done. All this intensifies as you near the completion of a large project.

And sadly, without a solid focus on exactly where you are and what comes next, you might just bail at a crucial stage.

Project abandonment = Failure.

An accountability coach offers you focus. At any given time you’ll know what is the most important next step. And you’ll be free to do it. If you feel lost, you can simply ask for help.

5. Solid progress

An accountability coach will require feedback on your progress on a regular basis. This might seem like an annoyance, but it’s a very important part of the process.

He’s actually monitoring your progress over time. When he sees that you’re spending too much time on a guest post, for instance, he’ll intervene.

He’ll get right in there, enquire about your reasons for struggling, help you work out a solution, and get you going again.

You’ll no longer be allowed to procrastinate!

6. Encouragement, inspiration and motivation

So, when is the last time you lay awake late at night, worried about the results of your efforts? Or about your dire financial situation?

Have you ever wished you could lean on someone in such times? Ever wish you had someone to seek encouragement from?

An accountability coach is available for times just like these. When you’re running low on motivation, inspiration or enthusiasm, your accountability coach is right there to give you the boost you need.

7. Awareness of your true responsibility

Some people might be fooled into thinking that an accountability coach takes the responsibility for performance and results out of their hands.

Nice try.

When you work with someone who pushes you to achieve your goals fast, an awareness starts growing in you that you, and you alone, are responsible for the results of your business.

Someone wise and knowledgeable with experience you don’t yet have can help you, advise you and assist you to some extent. But the onus to reach your goals and make your dreams a reality is yours and yours alone.

Realizing this is very helpful for your progress. You sort of tend to shut up and get on with the important work.

8. A constant fresh perspective

Life and all the opportunities it offers you can become very one-dimensional if you have a limited point of view.

Having someone else look at and comment on your ideas and work is very helpful.

This has two important consequences.

You get validation when you need it. “Great Idea.” “Good work.”

But you also receive the necessary course correction when needed. “I don’t think this is such a great idea.” “Have you considered rather trying … ?”

Such feedback gives your overall, long-term progress an immense momentum boost.

9. An increase in creativity

Some people find that daily exercise and meditation or some other form of attentional training is all they need to maximize their creativity.

I found that talking to a knowledgeable person on a regular basis (even if the communication is written) is very helpful. You “hear” yourself think.

And when your thoughts come from that mysterious still, deep place inside you that’s so distinctly different from your chattering monkey-mind, your thoughts tend to be amazingly creative.

By offering you an opportunity to “hear” yourself think, an accountability coach not only makes you more productive, but also more creative.

10. Fewer limiting beliefs

When you work alone, negative thoughts can easily bully you into procrastination. If the inner critic’s voice is the only voice you hear, you’re more likely to start believing it.

However, when someone with authority — like a business coach — speaks to you and validates your ideas and efforts, the inner critic’s attempts to discourage you become futile.

You’ll have confidence and won’t allow limiting beliefs to steal your results.

11. You are constantly challenged to go beyond where you’ve gone before

Is there something that leading online entrepreneurs offer their customers that you haven’t gotten around to yet?

Do you have a helpful incentive in place to increase your subscriber numbers? Do you offer an email autoresponder course to bond with your newly subscribed readers? Are you interviewing the experts in your field? Have you written a solid sales page for your products and services?

If not, these things might be eluding you for a reason. The thought of doing these, especially if it will be the first time, might just be so frightening and overwhelming that you procrastinate.

An accountability coach will help you work through this, and force you to get it done! He will push you beyond where you can push yourself.

And going beyond where you’ve gone before is excellent for your business and your bank balance.

12. Rapid business growth

The result of all the above points and the added pressure to perform is rapid business growth.

And who doesn’t want that?

Every entrepreneur wants to have more than enough clients and customers. And a coach who is worth his salt would be willing to make this a measure for coaching success.

Who should use an accountability coach?

An accountability coach is especially beneficial to someone whose work elicits inner self-sabotage.

Experts like Steven Pressfield and Seth Godin tell us we get the full negative attention of the Resistance — the force of self-sabotage — when we try to achieve something truly worthwhile… something from our “higher nature.”

You will experience ample benefit from using an accountability coach if:

• You’re an entrepreneur trying to help people, innovate and solve problems, or create a better future.
• You’re some kind of an artist. Writers, bloggers, cartoonists, designers, programmers and other creative types get special attention from the Resistance.
• You’re trying to make the world a better place for yourself and others in some way.

The main job of a coach charged with keeping you accountable is to help you get through the rough patches.

You know that place where you’ve sabotaged yourself in the past and given up your project? That tough spot right before the breakthrough that you really didn’t enjoy? That’s where you need an accountability coach to step in and help you power through the dip.

That’s where Resistance lies in wait, to try and sabotage you once again.

How to be held accountable (even if you can’t afford a coach)

Your first and safest option is to hire a full-time online business coach. This person will be there for you every step of the way. Daily contact will get you the results you need, fast.

But, that’s not always possible. Having that kind of access to a professional comes at a premium.

Time equals money.

So, if you can’t afford a full-time coach to keep you accountable and work with you every step of the way, here are a couple of creative alternatives.

You can:

1. Ask a friend to keep you accountable

Surely you have a friend who does what you do, or at least understands what you do? If not, explain it to someone, give her this post to read, and ask her to try and offer you some of the benefits explained here.

2. Create your own little accountability group

If you know a couple of other people who are in a similar boat to yours, create a little support group, or hive, and meet regularly to discuss challenges and progress. This type of gathering will offer you many of the benefits explained above.

3. Join the Accountability Tribe

Yes, I started the Accountability Tribe, so I’m recommending that you support one of my products. Like my good friend and mentor Jon Morrow would say, “Let the sneakiness begin…!”

The thing is, the Accountability Tribe offers you all the benefits stated above, and monthly membership comes at a fraction of the price of a full-time online business coach.

It really is worthwhile for those who can’t afford a personal coach.

Monthly membership to the Accountability Tribe is $97 per month.

Click on the image below to join the Accountability Tribe.

Okay. Thanks for reading this far. Class dismissed… Now go tell your buddies that you’ve discovered the most-uncomfortably-long-blog-post-title for 2011…

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Okay, so this is not my first post.

It’s my fourth post.

And I have a confession… I wrote the first three posts on this blog with double intentions.

I wanted to raise some eyebrows and create content that was linkable, remarkable and sharable. And if you go back, scroll down, and check the social proof (comments, retweets, likes and +1’s) on those posts, you will see that I had huge success with at least some of them.

In fact, maybe you subscribed because of one of those posts? And we wouldn’t have wanted you to miss this important post.

Today I don’t have double intentions. This post is not primarily about going viral on Twitter, or getting mentioned on other large blogs.

What I want to do today is simply to introduce you to the Productive Entrepreneur blog and to me, Dries Cronje, the founder and author of this blog.

I won’t talk too much about myself today. But I promise to share my story sometime soon.

What’s this blog all about?

The topic of this blog is productivity. And my target audience is online entrepreneurs.

And, thus, the headline of this post is productivity advice for online entrepreneurs.

Thing is, I’m passionate about online business. I believe we live in a world where the playing field has been leveled. True freedom and independence is on offer to brave souls.

An entrepreneur with enough savvy, time, and opportunity can do something amazing online. This will help her become financially self-sufficient while creating a better world for her clients and those around her.

However, I also believe that as you set out to achieve such an amazing entrepreneurial endeavor, you meet some serious obstacles. Both obstacles from within yourself and from outside sources will try and spoil the day.

You need to manage four key areas of your life to overcome inner and outer obstacles, and to work productively to achieve success.

1. Stay Aware of the Present Moment

As soon as you get caught up in the future, you run the risk of reducing the present moment to a means to an end. This will reduce the quality of your work, and also cause you discomfort and anxiety. You’ll be negative, and wish you could just get to a certain point in the future, where (you believe) you will feel happy and at peace.

The key is actually to stay in the present moment: stay cool, calm and collected. Do what you need to do… here and now.

2. Manage your Energy Wisely

Life is energy. The entrepreneur that successfully manages her energy has a much higher chance of achieving greatness.

We are concerned with two types of energy here:

• Physical energy — the energy that you use to operate muscles…
• Life energy — the more subtle sense of vitality that gives life to your body, keeps your heart beating, and helps you come up with creative solutions to problems.

These two types of energy need to be maintained and kept going. How to do that is the topic of at least ten further posts. They’re coming…

3. Manage your Time

Without time you can achieve nothing.

Here we are concerned mainly with freeing up schedule time. We need to remain careful not to spend too much time planning and dreaming about the future… We need to manage the time we have available every day.

This is done through organizing and prioritizing everything in your life. And the idea is not to have some cold, hard, inflexible system.

The idea is to find something that works for you. Everyone’s system will look different, but discovering yours is extremely important.

4. Focus

If you are present, have ample energy and all the time in the world, yet you do not focus on what is important, it will all be in vain.

You need to figure out what you want to achieve. Then you need to figure out what you need to do to achieve your goal… Finally, you need to focus enough to ensure that you use the resources at your disposal to do what needs to get done.

Day after day.

That focus needs to be maintained until you achieve your goal. Sometimes in the face of great adversity.

If you quit, give up or lose focus… You’ve failed. And here, on this blog, failure is not an option. Productive Entrepreneur is all about achieving what you set out to do achieve, even when the going gets tough!

By carefully managing your projects and focusing on the important next actions to take, you can ensure that you make swift progress.

To summarize…

I would like to help online solo-entrepreneurs — people like myself — to be productive enough to achieve stunning success.

I’ll attempt to do this through writing helpful and inspiring blog posts, offering readers access to helpful communities, offering them helpful information products and one-on-one coaching services.

I’ll leave you with a couple of things that I’m really passionate about. This is the stuff that gets my blood flowing:

1. I believe in the viability of online business success for the solo-entrepreneur.
2. I believe that an entrepreneur needs to be productive and focused to achieve success.
3. I believe that if an entrepreneur manages their presence, energy, time and focus, she will get the important things done.
4. I believe that if an entrepreneur works cleverly and productively, financial success will come. It’s inevitable — no lucky breaks required.
5. I believe that many entrepreneurs are plagued by issues such as performance anxiety, stress, procrastination, creative block, and overwhelm. I aim to help them overcome these issues and get back to their productive best.

Please share any comments, ideas or objections below.

Take care, and I’ll talk to you soon.

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Few people talk about this great productivity tip…

You will reach your goals faster and easier if you’re willing to learn from others. Using brilliant, well-crafted resources created specifically for online entrepreneurs improves your online productivity.

Below I have a long list of resources, most of which I’ve used myself. The rest come highly recommended from my mentors and online business friends.

Enjoy the list. Pick a resource that will help you be more productive. And get something awesome done!

I’ve arranged the resources from those helpful to beginners to those suited to more advanced entrepreneurs. Feel free to ignore the order if you want to.

The links to these resources are not affiliate links. I don’t make a penny if you buy one of these. In fact many of these resources are 100% free. I recommend them simply because they’re useful and will help you be productive and successful.

Helpful from the word go…

If you’re new to online business, you’ll find value in the following resources.

1. Bluehost.com

Before you can blog, collect email addresses or sell anything, you need a little piece of real estate on a reliable web server. I’m a big fan of Bluehost.com. I host Productive Entrepreneur with them.

2. WordPress.org

I’m hoping that no one laughs at this resource recommendation. It is super-obvious that a self-hosted WordPress install is the way to go for successful blogging these days. Enough said?

3. The Genesis Framework and Themes

Today web design is easy. Even for people with zero coding and design skills. Grab the Genesis framework and a sharp looking child theme. Your blog will look like 4,000 bucks and attract more traffic due to the built in Search Engine Optimization features of Genesis.

Productive Entrepreneur is running the Genesis framework and the Prose child theme.

4. AWeber

Shortly after you have a blog, you want to set up an email database and blog broadcast with a reliable service provider. And there’s no one who quite compares with AWeber. Due to their strict sign-up requirements, they get more email delivered than any of their peers. Open your AWeber account today… you won’t regret it.

5. Copyblogger.com

Copyblogger.com is where you learn about content marketing. Subscribe. Make yourself at home. Get settled in. You’ll be reading this blog for many years to come. And if you’re smart, you’ll eventually be using most (if not all!) of their helpful products.

6. Problogger.net

This blog is all about professional blogging — the art of making money from your blog. And Darren Rowse offers some helpful resources. More about some of those below. Be sure to subscribe to Problogger.net!

7. JohnnyBTruant.com

Johnny will help you set up a blog, make you laugh, and possibly make you frown at some of his word choices. But he will blow you away with helpful, inspirational posts and products.

8. Ittybiz.com

Naomi Dunford is another blogger not shy to express herself in powerful language. I don’t mind. Do you?

If so, get over it and subscribe to her helpful blog. You’ll soon fall in love with her likable tone and expert advice.

9. Ittybiz free marketing courses

The best thing about Ittybiz is the free marketing courses written with specific online vocations in mind. Ittybiz offers courses for service providers, bloggers, coaches, designers, and writers. Take your pick and start receiving some helpful advice.

10. Internet Marketing for Smart People

IMFSP is a podcast by Copyblogger Media. Subscribe to it through iTunes and listen to it while you drive. You’ll want to drive further, slower and longer! And you’ll become a smarter Internet marketer and online entrepreneur in the process.

11. Zen to Done

There’s never a better time to get productive than right when you start. ZTD is a simple productivity system created by Leo Babauta of Zenhabits.net. Read the book. Learn great new habits. Get productive!

12. Make More Progress

Chris Garrett is my favorite online teacher. And MMP is his productivity course. Allow him to help you finish what you need to finish. Everything done by Chris comes with a “Highly recommended!” stamp.

13. The Tao of Awesome

The Tao of Awesome is an over-delivering email course created by Johnny B. Truant. It’ll help you make sense of your to-do list and optimize the use of your time. Even better, it’ll help you work on important tasks and neglect merely urgent ones.

14. HeadlineHacks.com

Writing good blog posts begins with writing good headlines. And who better to help you learn the art of headline writing than blogging legend Jon Morrow?

Jon uses his expert knowledge of English language and the art of copywriting to show you which headline formulas work best and why. Grab the free report now.

15. On Writing

This popular book by Stephen King will sharpen your writing skills. It will make you feel all warm and fuzzy about being a writer. And that’s never a bad idea if you plan on making a living with your laptop. Read it!

Up and running…

Okay. So now you’re up and running… making some progress. Yet, you don’t have thousands of unique monthly visitors just yet, and you’re still struggling to get your email subscriber numbers up to three figures.

Here are some resources that will help you get more traffic and increase your blog’s exposure.

16. 31 Days to Build a Better Blog

Darren Rowse’s helpful blogging book will deliver on what it promises — a better blog in just one month.

17. GuestBlogging.com

I regret not discovering Jon Morrow’s guest blogging course earlier in my online business quest. This course is like a bachelor’s degree in blog writing and insanely clever and effective online marketing. Thing is, it’s much easier to get through than a degree course. And it will mean way more to your online business than any degree ever could.

If there’s one resource you try after reading this post, let it be this one! It could be the difference between 100 blog subscribers and 20,000 blog subscribers.

18. BoostBlogTraffic.com

This is Jon’s latest venture. It hasn’t launched at the time of this post (October 2011). But if Jon’s writings and other projects are anything to go by, it will be huge. Be sure to subscribe.

19. Cloud Blueprint

Glen Allsopp’s free video course will get you off the ground running. Glen is all about making a living online, and his writings and products are excellent. Also, be sure to subscribe to his ViperChill blog.

20. Authority Blogger

Did I mention that Chris Garrett is my favorite online teacher? Oh, I did! Sorry.

Chris’ Authority Blogger course will show you how to become an authority in a worthwhile niche. He’s one of the best-known and best-loved online entrepreneurs. He’s a real authority when it comes to social media and blogging.

His course will help you get more visitors, convert more visitors to raving fans, and make more money from your online ventures.

21. Blog Topics by Chris Brogan

If you are in constant need of topics for your blog, why don’t you try suggested topics by one of the most popular bloggers on the planet? Chris Brogan’s blog topics will keep you writing one excellent post after the other. And one of your posts could just be featured on one of Chris’ blogs.

22. SocialTriggers.com

It is important to learn what makes people “tick” online. Derek Halpern teaches you how to use psychology to turn random traffic into loyal subscribers, persuade people to buy your products, and encourage people to share your content and website. Be sure to read and subscribe.

23. Scribe SEO

Does the phrase Search Engine Optimization (SEO) make you want to run? Don’t fear! It’s no longer necessary to spend hundreds of dollars and dozens of hours learning this obscure and difficult art.

Scribe SEO is a WordPress plug-in developed by the clever people over at Copyblogger Media. It helps you optimize every page and post of your WordPress (or Joomla, Drupal, or pure HTML) site for Google et al.

The result? More targeted and free traffic, subscribers and fans courtesy of the search engines.

Ain’t life grand?

24. Video Blog Basics

Ben Eadie and Chris Garrett bring you the basics of Video Blogging — at no cost to you. If you want to utilize the power of video to bond with your audience, this resource is a must.

Gaining Momentum

Your site is coming along nicely. Daily unique visitors and subscriber numbers are approaching four figures. You feel like you have good momentum.

Now it’s time to sharpen your skills, and start giving your loyal fans some life-changing products to invest in.

25. 10 Easy Steps to ‘Mission Accomplished!’

This is a free report by yours truly. The report provides you with simple, practical advice to complete your next big online project. It doesn’t matter if it’s an ebook, an autoresponder or a 100 lesson online learning experience… If you have trouble finishing what you start, then this little productivity booster is exactly what you need.

26. ChrisG.com

It’s time to subscribe to Chris’ blog, read his helpful advice and take your understanding of the online business realm to the next level. Actually, this should be higher up the page. You should start reading Chris’ advice immediately.

As I said, everything Chris does comes highly recommended.

27. MenwithPens.com

Men with Pens is an insightful blog for entrepreneurs. Subscribe to it. Read it.

They also design great sites and do super-converting sales copy. Hopefully one day I’ll have enough money!

28. Damn Fine Words

This writing course by James Chartrand, founder of Men with Pens and writer extraordinaire, will help you master the fine art of writing for your online business.

It launched recently, and if you missed it, you missed out. Be sure to get on her waiting list though. It’s worth every penny.

29. Shane Arthur’s Editing Service

Some bloggers don’t publish anything before a professional copy-editor edits it. And the editor of choice for most of the people I look up to is Shane Arthur. Use him before you hit publish. Your work will shine. You’ll sleep easier.

30. How to Launch the **** Out of Your Ebook

Writing and launching an ebook is a good idea at this stage of the race. And Dave Navarro and Naomi Dunford’s course will show you exactly how to research, create and sell your ebook. It starts with the idea and ends with the cash. And in between you’ll learn many blogging and Internet marketing tricks.

31. The Accidental Creative by Todd Henry

This book will help you be brilliant more regularly. Not many online entrepreneurs think of themselves as the creative type, but writing one good post after another, and creating one helpful product after another takes a lot of original creativity.

Allow Todd Henry to help you be brilliant, prolific and healthy. Read his book!

32. The Third Tribe

Getting exposure to other smart online entrepreneurs is a good idea. And there’s no better place for smart online entrepreneurs to learn and interact than the Third Tribe. You can ask tough questions, learn from the pros, and mingle with like-minded folks.

I’m not sure if it’s open for new members at this stage, but try and get onto a waiting list, or just keep your ears on the ground. If an opportunity to join comes around, grab it with both hands.

33. The Adweek Copywriting Handbook

The first thing Jon Morrow advises his students to do is to study copywriting. It’s number 32 on my list, but that does not make it any less important.

There comes a time in the every entrepreneur’s life when he has to learn to write with business results in mind. This book will help you get into that mindset fast.

34. The Ultimate Sales Letter by Dan Kennedy

As soon as you have a free product to give, or a paid product to sell, you need to learn how to convince people to take you up on your offer. In The Ultimate Sales Letter master copywriter and entrepreneur coach Dan Kennedy shows you how to write a sales page that will convert.

35. No B.S. Time Management for Entrepreneurs

Here’s another book by Dan Kennedy. This one will help you adopt a no B.S. attitude when it comes to protecting your time. Time is money. Protect it, use it wisely and grow your business.

36. How to Get Your Sales Page Done

If you don’t have $2,000 to $7,000 to fork out for a professionally written sales page, this self-help guide by Amy Harrison will guide you to produce a sales page that works. Follow her advice and you’ll be selling in no time.

I recently followed her cookbook approach, and our page is converting nicely. This ebook is worth every penny!

37. Premise

With your sales page all written and ready, it’s time to publish. Copyblogger Media’s landing page tool will help you do just that… with style! Like they always do, with Premise they over-deliver by giving you access to some awesome, bonus copywriting lessons and videos.

38. Authority Rules

Authority Rules is where Chris Garrett and Copyblogger Media meet. What an intersection!

This course contains interviews with experts from all corners of the web. It helps you Attract new visitors and subscribers, Engage your subscribers to turn them into fans, and then Convert these fans into paying customers. Makes sense right?

Sadly you’ll most probably only be able to grab some free stuff now. They’ll only reopen their doors in 2012.

For the Kick-Ass Online Entrepreneur

One day you will start feeling like you are over the hump. You have thousands of fans and you are looking to maximize the value you offer them, and your financial return.

It’s time to really shine.

Here are some resources to help you at this level.

39. Teaching Sells

Not another Copyblogger Media product?!

Yes. Another one.

In fact I now have all Copyblogger’s products listed here (I think). And I’ll have to update this post as soon as they release something new (!). I warned you their products are remarkable!

Teaching Sells is a comprehensive, one-stop course that teaches you how to make money through online learning. They’re calling this the online business for the 21^st century. It is not cheap, but the possible return on investment is huge.

I recovered my lifetime membership fee shortly after joining the program simply through implementing their helpful and thorough advice. And my monthly income is recurring!

40. GoToWebinar

It’s time to engage your audience through some helpful webinars. Do an interview with a well-known blogger. Teach something live. The opportunities are endless.

GoToWebinar might be a tad expensive, but at this stage that shouldn’t bother you. It’s the right tool for the job.

41. Webinar Bridge

Webinar Bridge is a neat WordPress plug-in that adds the emails of registrants for a webinar to your AWeber or Mailchimp database. This allows you to offer a webinar, build some serious buzz about it, and grow you email subscriber list — all at the same time.

42. TheLaunchCoach.com

Dave Navarro recently stopped selling his products online for personal reasons. Yet, he was kind enough to make them available free of charge in return for a donation, should you feel like making one. And there are some real gems here!

Go check it out, and make a donation if you find it useful.

43. Kitchen Table Companies

Kitchen Table Companies is a group collaboration initiative by Chris Brogan. For a monthly or quarterly fee you can find quick answers to your small business questions from other successful people and a panel of experts.

Online Business Coaching

Finally, let’s look at a couple of coaches who will take your online business efforts to the next level.

Yes. Coaching is not really a resource… But hey, what the heck? If it’s helpful, I feel inclined to mention it here. Cool?

44. Coaching with Chris Garrett

Chris Garrett’s coaching has been invaluable to me. Much of my progress and understanding has to be attributed to his wisdom. If you need someone to teach you the ropes, take your business further, and keep you accountable, Chris is your guy.

45. Coaching with Jon Morrow

I think Jon Morrow’s coaching is only available to students of his Guest Blogging course. And you don’t get to talk to Jon too often. But it’s still well worth it! Jon is a generous genius, and his advice is sure to take your blog and online business in the right direction.

Bonus resources

What would a long list like this be without at least 8 bonus resources? Although I have no personal experience with the bonus resources listed here, they come highly recommended from my peers.

Take a look. It might just be worth your while.

The Brain Audit

Sean D’Souza’s The Brain Audit is useful for helping you understand how you customer’s mind works. If you are struggling to close the deal, read this and learn how you can succeed in landing the sale without being pushy.

11 Strategies to Revitalize Your Solo Business

Ed Gandia of the International Freelancers Academy provides this free teleseminar. It’s pretty comprehensive, and it showcases 22 freelancers and self-employed service providers who turned their businesses around in a tough economy. It also shows you how they did it.

It includes a full transcript and a PDF workbook, plus MP3 audio for those who prefer that format. It used to sell for $79, but it is free now.

Emergency Pay-per-Click Mini Course

If you want to learn Pay-per-Click marketing in just five days, then this is where you need to go. Sometimes we need to speed up the process of getting clients and getting sales, and if the math makes sense we can buy some advertising. Here’s a good place to learn how to do exactly that.

The Art of YouTube Marketing

If you want to utilize video in your Internet marketing efforts, it helps to learn from a pro. Sign up for this free 20-part course to get a great head start and avoid costly mistakes.

The SMARTSTART Guide to Pricing

If you are wondering what to charge your customers without feeling like a cheat, but you also realize that you shouldn’t sell yourself short, this might be the guide for you. Linda Lopeke’s 74-page guide will get you to your perfect price.

Rapportive

Rapportive is a plug-in for Gmail (which is another highly recommended resource!) that shows you rich contact profiles. It basically shows you everything about your contacts right in your inbox.

Apparently it also plays nicely with AWeber.

Empire Building Kit

This kit by Chris Guillebeau helps you build a meaningful lifestyle business in one year by doing one thing every day. It is not a get rich quick scheme, and seems to be built on solid, sensible foundations. In fact, it sounds so awesome that I’m thinking about giving it a try myself! Why not join me?

Email Courses that Matter

I have already purchased this, but it’s only launching on 16 October 2011 (Hurry!). I will hopefully be able to give it a more solid recommendation after that. But from what I’ve seen, Ainslie’s stuff is awesome. I’m sure this will be an amazing and helpful little course. And it’s affordable too!

Use it wisely

At least some of the resources mentioned above have the potential to make you more productive and more successful.

Don’t ignore this list. Try them out. Experiment. Go nuts…

I hope you find something here that contributes to your personal productivity and your online success!

If you’re aware of an awesome resource for online entrepreneurs, even if it’s something you created yourself, please add a comment with a description and a link below. Let’s build the list. Maybe we can make it something more official and formal in the future…?

Please also spread the love by telling your friends and your followers about this list. Blog about it, tweet about it, or add it to Facebook and Google+. Please!

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Chances are excellent your online business will fail.

Research shows that nine out of ten new blogs fail. It also shows that 90% of all online entrepreneurs aren’t making decent money.

You’re at risk.

In fact, unless you’re diligent, you’ll be the next statistic.

Procrastination is the problem.

You know the feeling. You’ve decided to write a helpful article today. But somehow, you’ve been really busy with all kinds of urgent tasks and you haven’t written a word.

And it’s 4 p.m. already!

So you’ll try again tomorrow.

Only to realize that once again, for some truly unfathomable reason, you leave the most important work ‘til last, and you don’t finish it before the end of your day.

It all seems so mysterious, as if you’re working against your own best intentions.

Warning: You have an identity crisis

You have Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde parts to your identity. One wants to work cleverly, be successful and achieve his dreams. The other wants to waste time and remain where he is.

If you understand what’s going on, and know what to do in the midst of this identity crisis, you will eradicate procrastination before it gets to the jugular of your business.

Let’s first thoroughly define what we mean by procrastination.

What is procrastination?

Procrastination is an ongoing postponement of important tasks.

You have identified what you need to do (like writing excellent blog posts), but you just can’t stick to the plan.

You think sheer guts and determination is all you need. But what you need is more complex than that.

Your focus is the key. If you don’t focus, procrastination will get you.

It’s subtle. It creeps up on you. And before you know it, inactivity sinks your business and your motivation.

Three surprising causes of procrastination

In order to eliminate procrastination, you need to understand its causes.

These thoughts, emotions and attitudes get you to postpone important work instead of sticking to the plan and kicking butt.

1. Is anxiety ruining your day?

Anxiety comes right before failure.

When you are anxious, your work will show it.

Anxiety is the fear that what you’re planning won’t happen. And, sadly, indulging anxiety only strengthens your doubts in your ability to achieve success.

Anxiety doesn’t feel nice.

Eventually you give up. “This venture won’t succeed. I’d much rather experience freedom from the torment, and take on something fresh.”

2. Feeling overwhelmed yet?

Too much good advice is bad for your business.

Many supposedly helpful voices are out there. They all have different advice.

And some of these voices skillfully get you believing what they say.

As a result, all the online business advice overwhelms you. Worse, your to-do list is full with all the “critically essential” tasks that these gurus gave you.

Soon you tell yourself: “I just have too much to do. I can’t meet my earnings target in the time frame that I set myself.”

Overwhelm is a dangerous threat to your business.

3. Why discontent will stop you in your tracks

We all have goals. They are necessary and helpful as we chart our progress to running successful businesses.

Yet goals have a dark side. If we daydream all day about achieving them, we start disliking where we are now. We feel unhappy all day. We want success so bad we become discontent with our current situation.

This discontent turns into a strong rebellion that spoils every day. Work becomes effort. You’re no longer enjoying yourself.

You start procrastinating. Soon you’ll find something more enjoyable to do.

Thankfully, an alternative ending exists to your online business tale.

How to eradicate procrastination

Focus is the key to overcoming procrastination.

And the focus coin has two sides. The obvious one is external focus.

• Work on your project every day.
• Make solid progress to avoid unnecessary stress.
• Keep tasks doable by breaking them into smaller ones.
• Cut external distractions while you’re working.

This is the type of advice we’ve been receiving from productivity experts for decades. And it’s important.

Yet, if you look at the causes of procrastination above, you’ll see they originate from your inner realm.

Without inner focus, every measure you take to improve your external focus is worthless.

Inner focus: The key to slaying the procrastination dragon

Inner focus is the dragon slayer that will save you and your business from procrastination.

All the causes of procrastination above come from your mind. Your thoughts compulsively run loose without supervision, and that’s the root of the problem.

These compulsive, critical and negative thoughts cause emotions and feelings that destroy your productivity.

So you need to learn to manage your thoughts. You need to learn the art of inner focus, or presence.

Presence is the ability to be alone with something and to avoid other thoughts or emotions from entering the fray. Presence is the ability to focus all of your attention on a single item.

With productivity, being present means giving your full focus to whatever you need to get done. For the time it takes to complete that particular task, you exclude everything else from your awareness.

This prevents negative emotions like stress, anxiety, doubt, overwhelm or discontent from distracting you.

Why presence changes everything

Presence adds an unmistakable quality to everything you do. Anything you do with complete inner focus shines with a mysterious quality.

A meal cooked with complete focus will easily beat a meal quickly slapped together with a lack of focus. If you wish you were somewhere else while performing a task, it shows in the result of that work.

Remember the last time you rushed something? It always shows.

In the online marketplace, where quality is becoming a business necessity, presence will be an invaluable aide to anyone trying to grow her fan base or her income.

How to practice presence

In a way, practicing presence is similar to physical exercise. You’ll see some results immediately, but the big pay-off of living with more permanent presence takes hard work.

Make living with presence one of your life goals.

Remember, your compulsive thoughts are the problem. The idea is to create regular gaps in your stream of thought. Over time, these gaps turn into longer and longer periods of pure awareness, or presence.

In the absence of thought, you work from the still awareness that is your core identity. This makes you much sharper and more creative.

You’re also able to recognize and intercept negative thoughts.

As soon as you feel negative, take a couple of deep breaths. Give your complete attention to the air flowing in and out through your nostrils. You’ll immediately feel a sense of peace and joy returning.

Now get back to what you were doing and give that task your full attention. As you work, be completely present with it. Also stay aware of your breath and the feeling of aliveness inside you.

Watch out! Losing yourself in your work is also not good

It’s possible to get so engrossed with your work that you’re becoming edgy and irritable in your quest to finish the current task. This sometimes happens so subtly, the only sign is a bad mood shortly after you finish working.

Working in short, powerful bursts is a good idea. Focus completely on your current task for about 30 minutes. Then take a five-minute break.

Before you start working again, take a couple of conscious breaths. Become present. And commit to focus completely on that one task for 30 minutes as you start again.

This will help you maintain a strong inner focus.

Can you stay cool, calm and collected?

It’s an illusion to think that work can’t be enjoyable.

If you’re not enjoying your work, you’re surely not present as you work.

And this is tragic! You’re unhappy and your work lacks power.

It’s no longer okay to achieve things simply by shutting up and working hard. We need to bring a strong inner focus to whatever we do, especially as entrepreneurs who are taking risks in an attempt to create a better future.

Work that’s done with negative emotions will lack quality. Work done with presence shines.

Presence changes the perception of your work in the eyes of others.

Staying cool, calm and collected as you work should be your foremost pursuit.

The rest will follow.

Only you can take control of your inner realm. No one can help you with this. Are you going to allow compulsive thoughts and emotions to run riot with your future success?

I thought not.

The next time you sit down to do what only you can do, be sure to do so with a strong inner focus. Remain present with whatever you are busy with for as long as it takes to finish. That will make all the difference.

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As an entrepreneur, you have a too-long list of urgent tasks ready before you start your day.

But by 10:30, you realize you haven’t even started one of these urgent tasks.

You swear you’ll get going right away. But you just need to finish typing this email or reading that article.

Before you know it, it’s lunchtime.

After lunch, you finally get going, and around 5 p.m. you realize you are almost done.

With the first task. Not your whole list.

The rest of your list? That’ll have to wait ‘til tomorrow… or the next day.

You start to think you’ll enroll in an expensive time-management course, or get a personal assistant.

But that likely won’t help you much.

Try this instead: Learn about the 10 secret productivity killers. Watch out for them, avoid them, and you’ll dramatically increase your personal productivity to reach your goals.

1. The Saboteur Inside You

Whenever you set out to do something remarkable, a sinister force tries to sabotage your efforts.

Steven Pressfield calls this saboteur the “Resistance.” Every creative person struggles with this.

To overcome self-sabotage, you need to be aware of this force. You need to remember it when you don’t feel like working.

Don’t allow the little saboteur to steal your success. See through its efforts to divert your attention or nick your motivation.

Simple awareness is the key. If you realize that the reason behind your excuses, procrastination and laziness is the little saboteur, then chances are good you’ll get back to your best work.

2. The Advice of Others

If you read the advice of successful people all day long, you can forget about ever being successful yourself.

This is so simple. We spend too much time reading, learning and planning for success.

It’s time to get going! Start doing the things you have been reading and hearing about.

Put down that book, close your browser, and take off your earphones.

It’s time to work.

3. A Strong Focus on Future Goals

Yes. You read that correctly.

If you are constantly wishing to be somewhere in the future, you are missing the present moment.

The present moment is all you will ever have. This moment is what you need to use and enjoy.

Future goals are important, but secondary. And it surely doesn’t help if you wish you had already attained these goals rather than being thankful for the time you have now and working hard.

Be present. In the moment – here, now.

Don’t make whatever needs to be done now a means to an end. You will reduce the power of your work, and put your goals at risk.

4. Your Family

Your family could be stealing your productivity.

Their constant curiosity over your progress and their efforts to cheer you on are adding unnecessary pressure — especially true if they are secretly hoping you’ll fail.

Why on earth would they want you to fail?

Because they hope you’ll stop taking risks and return to something “sensible” for a career.

All entrepreneurs experience pushback when they start. We need to make sacrifices and take risks to get to our ultimate payoff.

The world needs more people like us. People who refuse to complain, and who grab their opportunities to create a better tomorrow — for everyone.

But some of the people in your life aren’t that smart. They think taking risks is stupid. They think it’s better to have a steady, low-paying job, without much freedom than it is to chase a big dream.

If you don’t stop entertaining these folks, you won’t work at your awesome, productive best.

Ignore them. Forget about pleasing them. Soon, they’ll be looking at you with big eyes of wonder and an uncomfortable smile.

5. Too Many Connections

Having too many social connections costs you time and productivity. Every person you know will eventually steal some of your time.

Next week someone is in town and wants to do something for lunch. The week after that it’s someone else’s birthday and you need to fit in a mid-week party.

Know who your best friends are, and give them all the love they need… over weekends! But you can’t be a socialite and a productive entrepreneur at the same time.

6. Self-Doubt

One sure way to stay unproductive and unsuccessful is to harbor the belief that you cannot be successful.

Stop it. Let that ship sail.

People with serious handicaps and disadvantages accomplish the most amazing feats. A normal person like you don’t have any excuse.

Self-doubt doesn’t serve any purpose.

Either believe in your abilities or work hard to improve them. Those are your only two options.

7. A Sense of Urgency

Your aim is not to urgently rush through your day, and get everything on your to-do list done.

Your aim is to be insightful and creative, and to remain cool, calm and collected throughout. One hour spent doing good work is better than ten doing mediocre work.

If you want to honor your work, and give it the power it needs to make a difference in the world, don’t approach it with a sense of urgency.

Bring energy, presence and awareness when you report for duty.

8. Chaos

Einstein famously said, “If a cluttered desk is a sign of a cluttered mind, of what, then, is an empty desk a sign?”

Despite that tongue-in-cheek rationalization, getting organized is important. An unmanaged email inbox can cause more stress, anxiety and procrastination than an oncoming tsunami.

Process your inbox. Schedule your routine tasks. Get them out of the way.

This will create space for the more important work that awaits you — the kind that pays the rent.

9. Absent-mindedness

Without focus, you’ll lose speed, and the quality of your work will suffer.

Stay focused. If you catch your mind wandering or compulsively running from one random, useless thought to the next, bring it back to the task at hand.

Focus makes your work shine, and ensures that you get it done.

10. A Lack of Clear Priorities

Smart entrepreneurs are skilled in getting important tasks done. But they are even more skilled in neglecting unimportant work and avoiding unnecessary distractions.

You need to prioritize. You need to know what’s important to you. And then you need to get that done before anything else… even the urgent stuff.

A strategy that works for me is carrying a notebook. I use a small Moleskine.

Create a list for every source of present and (possible) future income. Let’s call these your “money lists.” Make sure you have everything covered.

Also add lists for anything not directly related to income, but very important to you. Spirituality, family and personal development come to mind.

Right at the top, define your main goal for that particular list. Write it down once, and stop daydreaming about it. Remember your focus is here and now, not on some future date.

Now write down the tasks that will get you closer to your goal. Let’s call these your “money tasks.”

Make sure every task necessary for you to reach your goal is on the list.

Now, every week, look over your lists and decide which are the most important next tasks. Schedule these first, and give them prime work time.

This prevents you from wasting important time on unimportant tasks.

The World’s Best Little Productivity Tip

Every serious entrepreneur needs to work six to eight hours per day on meaningful work, right? And to be successful you just need to keep your head down, stay disciplined, and work hard indefinitely?

No! Not even close.

If you manage to do as little as three hours of serious, focused work every day, you could reach your next major goal in as little as six months!

So, here’s my advice. Decide what’s the main action needed to grow your business. If you’re a blogger and online entrepreneur like me, it’s probably writing, followed closely by marketing.

Identify your top two. Let’s call these your top “money activities.”

Spend three to four hours per day, every workday of the week, on nothing but your “money activities.” Do this early in the day, and be absolutely shameless in neglecting other tasks, even urgent ones.

In a short couple of months, you should have made significant progress.

Even if you don’t reach your goal, and realize that your “money activities” should be different activities, keep your chin up and soldier on. That very realization is the type of progress that will get you to where you need to be in record time.

Are You Just Going to Roll Over?

If you want to create a better tomorrow, you will certainly face some or all of these 10 personal productivity killers!

Through killing your attempts at being productive, they kill your dreams. And if they’re going to take those from you, they might just as well kill you too, right?

Don’t allow these subtle destroyers to chop off the heads of your successes.

Don’t roll over and die!

It’s time to get up and fight. Your future can be amazingly bright, but you have to use the time you have now to create something beautiful.

And if you don’t defend your time like a warrior, opportunities will vanish into thin air.

Get up. Look adversity in the face. Acknowledge it. Get a mean grin on your face, and get to work.

It’s that simple.

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