1) List out what you need to get done. The actions need to be clear and specific, like email Shawn, video chat with Alexander. When you nail down the actions, they tend to stay manageable. But if you leave it all in your head, the actions all melt away like clocks in a Dali painting until it's all messed together in one big lump of brown Play Dough that you don't even know what to do with anymore. So get it on paper and make it stay put.
2) Plan out a time where you know you can do the things on the list: This'll nail them down even tighter. You want to have a time where you're at work, and a time where you're free to do whatever, just like if you had a regular job. In my thinking, if you don't ever want to do the things on the list, then it would probably be better to try a different approach. Maybe that means joining a new company that produces something you can be proud of. Maybe it means a complete career change.
3) Take effective action steps. I used to blame teachers and bosses for giving me busywork, but now I know I'm the worst at giving myself pointless tasks to do. It's easy to waste a bunch of time preparing for calls or presentations, for example, when it would be a lot better to just make the call. Probably the worst thing I do here is spending too much time doing research and training, but never implementing what I learned. Knowing what steps are effective and which are a waste of time will come with experience, and you'll only get experience from taking action steps. Having a good mentor to work with in your business industry can greatly lessen the number of mistakes you make on the way though.
4) Maintain extreme skepticism about anything you want to do for work that you didn't put on the list. I can usually convince myself that I'm "looking for leads" when I'm really just trolling people on Facebook, or I'll tell myself I'm "doing research" when I'm really just watching conspiracy videos about the hollow earth or the Berenstein Bears on YouTube. It would be a lot harder to justify those things if I wrote them out in advance.
5) Be accountable: Creating an atmosphere of accountability is pretty much the whole point of planning it out in advance because it feels icky to just not do something you put on your calendar. Being your own boss means you have to be accountable to yourself. Think like this: you wouldn't screw around at your dayjob when it's time to be working, especially not while the boss is watching. When you're your own boss, it means the boss is always watching. What would you think if you owned a company and your employee was playing hackeysack with a fidgetspinner when you had a shipment that needed to go out that day? Are you going to be easier on yourself than you would be on that employee? It's important to treat yourself like an employee and expect yourself to show up on time and do exactly what you need yourself to do. I'm sure in my case I'd have either fired myself or quit because I thought I was an incompetent employer a long time ago if I could, but for the time being I'm stuck with myself so I might as well hit the reset button and try again to be as good as I can be for myself. But it also helps to be accountable to a team of like-minded, independent business owners with similar goals. And that's part of the beauty of network marketing. Being on the right team and with the right company gives you a built-in mastermind of entrepreneurs that can draw from in meeting your own goals.
I hope these thoughts were helpful for you in your own business. You're invited to comment, follow, or send me an email if you have any specific questions that I could help with.
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