Tag: automate

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These Bad Habits Are Killing Your Self-Discipline

Self-discipline is about finding the inner strength and confidence to put one foot forward each and every day to achieve your goals. It’s about taking personal responsibility and doing what needs to be done.

 

The following are common bad habits killing your self-discipline and preventing you from being successful:

 

Having High Expectations of Others

Realistically, even as a boss (or a parent), you can only control yourself. Therefore, you should never have higher expectations of others than you would for yourself. You and only you must take action to get there.

 

Only Working or Starting When It Feels Right

Every day is different, and as a responsible adult, you have to learn to move forward even with life or things get uncomfortable. Of course, if you are really sick or haven’t taken any days off, then you should. However, if you are waiting for the stars to align perfectly to act, you might be waiting forever.

 

Allowing Your Emotions to Control You

In other words, you are more reactive than proactive. When you have a plan, you can’t allow your emotions to change from one day to the next. You need to be firm and learn to control them to get what you want from life.

 

When you are more proactive with your life and go after what you want, it’s unlikely you would have to deal with this too much anyways. As you control what you wish to and plan for obstacles ensuring you are not doing work you simply hate doing, you’ll succeed.

 

Too Much Focus on the “What Ifs” of the Future

You can’t control every outcome, but you can manage your efforts to get closer to the results you want. Worrying too much about if you will fail or if this will happen or that will happen will only cause anxiety and confusion that leads to inaction. Stalling any results that you hope to see.

 

While reflecting on your future to ensure you are going in the right direction, what if’s should never be your primary focus. What if’s need to be used as a measure or guideline to create the right goals and action steps. Your main focus should specifically be on your actions and what you can do to achieve your dreams.

 

Making Excuses

Lack of accountability and ownership for your actions, inactions, or mistakes equals stalled growth. You might as well settle for the life you have now if you can’t take responsibility for what you want.

 

It’s not your spouse’s fault that you can’t get on the right schedule, it’s not your competitions fault that they got your idea out first, it’s not your friend’s fault they didn’t encourage you, and it’s not the weathers’ fault that you can’t exercise, for a few examples. Your inability to understand your actual wants in life and the discipline required to get moving and take charge of your own life hold you back.

 The Importance Of “Why”

If you have a dream, then stop the excuses and start looking within yourself to act and get moving every day.

 

 

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Better Goal Setting Tips for Maximum Productivity

Research shows that setting the right goals increases your success by as much as twenty-five percent. However, you can’t just set any goal. You need to align and refine them to specifically suit your needs and the direction you want your life to go.

 

Here are the five goal setting tips you need to improve and be more successful in life and business:

 

First Imagine Your Ideal Life

Block out all distractions, everyone else’s opinions, what you currently have, what career path you’re on, and where your life is presently going, and imagine for a moment your perfect and ideal life. Where would you like to live? What activities would you be enjoying outside of business? How much work would you be doing to get there?

 

These are all important questions and things you need to evaluate to be sure you are creating the right goals to achieve happiness. Just because something is popular, or you already went to school for something, doesn’t mean you need to keep doing it or can’t change up your plan. Reflect and understand who you really are and what you want.

 

For example, if you would like free time with your family or enjoy the “four-hour workweek,” then you must do hard work now and set your life up with the right goals and action plan to get there. You can’t expect that kind of life working as a brain surgeon to give you a different perspective.

 Building a Freedom Lifestyle

Think Quarterly, Weekly and Daily

All goals require more goals or action steps to get them done. Think about the big picture or objective you need to achieve. Then break it down into weekly and daily goals that you can get done within 90 days. Research shows that 90 minutes is the perfect amount of time to get big things done while using your time more while avoiding rushing.

 

Keep Them “SMART” And Prioritize

As stated earlier, picking just any goal isn’t the right strategy. While it still increases your success more than going with the flow, you can get even more out of it by giving it more focus. In other words, a vague goal will produce lackluster results when you could get even more value by working on them a little harder.

 

A common and successful way to do this is to follow the mnemonic acronym, S.M.A.R.T:

 

  • Keep them specific and to the point.
  • Make them measurable.
  • They need to be attainable.
  • Keep them relevant and realistic.
  • They must be time-sensitive.

 

Establish Strict Deadlines

All goals must come with strict deadlines; otherwise, you will continue to permit yourself to use more time than needed for the tasks. Providing a sense of urgency can give you the motivation and inspiration you need to finally get them done and achieve more goals in the long run.

 

Setting goals are a powerful tool for your business as long as you have the right strategies in mind. Keep them S.M.A.R.T and always remember what you want for your business and life to be more successful.

 

 

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Give Your Business A HIIT

HIIT stands for high-intensity interval training, a popular exercise routine that combines bursts of intense exercise with short rest periods. It is designed to maximize your workouts within the shortest amount of time. Believe it or not, this strategy doesn’t need to stay in the gym. You can use it on your business to reach maximum productivity too.

 

Here is how to use the HIIT method to achieve more and increase your productivity:

 

Work in Intervals but Be Realistic

Set intervals and break times that work with your schedule and the task you need to finish. Keep in mind that not every task is design to be performed in intervals or too short of periods. Be realistic regarding the activities you can do and be sure the time intervals you pick are optimal for quality, quantity, and other metrics you use to measure your business success.

 

A Pomodoro timer can be used to help you get started. With this timer, you work in a 25-minute burst with five-minute breaks. You can also adjust the times and intervals that make sense for you if you need more time to work. However, the faster you can push yourself, the better this strategy will work.

 

For example, content writers and authors will use “writing sprints” to encourage their creativity, find inspiration and reach a higher word count. They use the breaks to recharge and better manage their energy. They also use it to challenge their fellow writers in a fun writing game or challenge.

 

Check out Kiingo Writing Sprints on Twitter to give it a try and join the next challenge.

 

Don’t Skip the Break

All HIIT training sessions include quick little breaks in their routine to give you a short time to recenter and recover so you can better attack the next challenge. Therefore, you should be including five-to-twenty-minute breaks in your schedule before you start a new task.

 

If you skip the break, you are not using this method correctly or effectively. To reap the benefits, you must work as hard as possible during the first burst, meaning you’ll want the rest and need it to get back to the next interval.

Scheduling to Avoid Burnout: Learn to Take More Breaks

Keep Track and Measure Progress

Don’t rely on yourself or your memory to keep track of time and progress. Invest in a timer, stopwatch, and project management tools to record the intervals, cycles, and times required for each task.

 

Experiment and Adjust

Just because one set interval didn’t work doesn’t mean another won’t. Change up the interval number and times depending on the project. Then analyze the results to see which interval times allowed you to get the most done.

 

Overall, the main idea of HIIT is to work in short periods as hard as possible with a break right around the corner to encourage you to get to work and get it done faster.

 

 

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Stop Doing Everything and Hire Help

Being a business owner or entrepreneur doesn’t mean you must do all the work to see results or need to stay busy all the time. Having these kinds of high expectations keeps you and your business back from seeing the success it deserves. Low self-esteem and energy are not healthy for business or your overall health and mental clarity.

 

Here are five tips designed to help you let go of control and hire more help so you can better manage your time to lead a more productive business:

 

Highlight Your Weak Points and Other Stress Areas

The best place to start is the business areas that you are not too comfortable doing or lack enough education to do well. Accounting and customer service are by far the most common areas people outsource. Accounting takes years to understand, and customer service can often be tedious and stressful.

 

Develop A Clear and Direct Job Description

To gain actual value from having employees or contractors, you need to find the right person for the job. Create a clear and direct job description listing all your expectations and requirements for the job. Don’t skip on the little things or hold back on anything. In fact, always share the points of the job that you find the most challenging right away. The point is to be sure that those who try to apply for the job are the best for the position.

 

Utilize A Virtual Assistant

Let your virtual assistant take over the tedious and time-consuming tasks, including customer service or scheduling and setting up important meetings and other similar and repeatable tasks.

 

Hire Expert Freelancers

Hire freelancers that specialize in specific areas such as social media marketing or content creation. Expert freelancers can better set up your social media pages, add campaigns, and more to increase your engagement to maximize results and profits better. This is because they have the dedicated time and resources to become an expert in their field. When you can focus on one subject, you can master the processes and techniques to get it done faster.

 

Use Smart Phone Applications to Find Hires

There are so many different applications and companies designed for hiring help for many other business areas in a matter of seconds. Some popular choices include:

 

  • TaskRabbit – Find any repair person from your fingertips the same day. From moving trucks to cleaning services, contact deliveries, and more. TaskRabbit allows you to create tasks, send messages and pictures to a certified tasker easily and professionally.
  • Fancy Hands – The most popular US-based service to find your next virtual assistant all on the same day.
  • Fiverr – On this platform, you can find just about any freelancer or service required for business and more, starting at just five dollars a project.

8 Things You Should Outsource in Your Business

You don’t need to do everything to be successful. Use these tips and tools and get more help today.

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It’s Not the Deadlines; It’s Your Lack of Discipline

Deadlines are not the problem, nor are other people and the long list of excuses you have made for yourself. It’s your lack of discipline and willpower. Discipline is about regulating or training your brain to do what is right even if you don’t feel like it or want to.

 

It’s about taking responsibility to overcome your weaknesses and to fight off temptations. It’s about acting and going forward to achieve your goals and aspirations. Without it, you’ll let your procrastination ruin and run your life forever.

 

To better your self-discipline, try these five ideas:

 

Change Your Perspective and Mindset

Instead of saying “I should do this,” say “I must do this” and then provide a solid and apparent reason. We do things for pleasure, and we avoid pain. Don’t allow for excuses, and it won’t always feel right, nor will the stars be aligned perfectly every day.

 

Fight Off Distractions and Temptations

Set up your environment to avoid temptations, don’t have junk food in the house, and avoid the junk food aisles at stores.

 

Reward Yourself and Take A Break

Forgive yourself, take days off and build a healthy reward system for your goals and to-do lists. Good results don’t happen consistently if you are constantly running on empty or jumping from deadline to deadline with no opportunity to reward yourself and be proud of your accomplishments.

 

Define Your Consequences

If you don’t make your deadline or never realize your dreams and aspirations, what are the consequences? Record them and put them somewhere you are reminded of to give you the push you need to keep going.

 

If you don’t have any consequences, make them, and find an accountability partner to provide the punishment. Most deadlines are purposeful but hardly motiving due to the lack of consequences. Especially if you are sitting around waiting for the world to make you successful.

 

Commit to Self-Awareness and Reflect

Perform a self-evaluation routinely to dissect your weaknesses and strengths inside and out. List any resources or things you believe have contributed to your growth or current problems. Then voice them aloud to yourself and recognized your truths. The more you do this, the better you can understand where to practice and better develop your skills.

 

Remember, the path to improving your self-discipline won’t happen overnight. It’s a gradual process combined with the proper steps consistently each day to do better. Practice will make it easier, and one day you won’t even have to try anymore.

Perseverance Requires Persistence

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Organization Is A Daily Requirement

Did you know that around 91% of employees have reported that they believe they could be more productive if only their work and jobs organized better? It’s obvious, without organization, you may as well throw your business plan and daily to-do lists out the window. Even outside of business, your personal life thrives more on organization. It helps you achieve consistency and focus and provides the flexibility you need to be successful and in control of your life and business.

Be More Proactive and Less Reactive to Achieve Higher Success

From organizing your to-do lists, your office, or other workspaces, setting up the right business structure for your company, maximizing the best routes from your house to the grocery store, and other tasks and back. The organization makes it easier to handle many tasks throughout your day to be more productive and waste less time fumbling between functions or other objects in your way. In other words, if you want to achieve more goals easily and as stress-free as possible, you need to adopt the right organizational habits.

 

The following are a few tips to help you be more organized in life and business:

 

Create the Right Habits and Repeatable Routines

Being organized is about finding the routines and habits that keep the momentum going. Keep the process simple, and don’t overthink it. Stick to your schedule and commitments, don’t hit snooze, and find systems that make sense for the activities you are doing that are easy to accomplish.

 

Understand Your Priorities and Efforts

Organization takes effort and consistent action to be successful. Be mindful of your priorities and what is expected of you daily to ensure you adopt the right habits for you and your business.

 

Establish A Healthy Work-Life Balance

Set boundaries, expectations, and limits for work and your personal life to ensure they don’t overlap and run smoothly together. If you know your expectations for your personal life may interfere, you can better plan for challenges that lay ahead. However, if you commit to finding the right work-life balance for your personality and business, you will have fewer challenges to overcome and will more easily stay on your path.

 

Declutter and Categorize

Keep distractions out of the workplace, and don’t allow other items to come into that space. Develop dedicated areas for physical and digital things and always put them back before leaving for the day. For example, if you always forget your passwords, then make a dedicated password folder.

 

As you can see, all it takes is one repeatable movement with consistent action and the commitment to stay on track each day to be organized. The hardest part is getting started, but you will gain the momentum and drive to thrive once you get going.

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Kick Distractions or Else

If you enjoy personal and professional growth and genuinely want to live the life you imagine for yourself, then you must take responsibility and kick those distractions keeping you down. Distractions come in many different forms and come with their own set of consequences too.

 

Sensory or External Distractions

These include environmental and digital distractions such as your cell phone, browsing the web or social media websites, and your workspace, including those around you. While you may enjoy working at the coffee shop, constant interactions and noises are likely hurting your quality and time management.

 

Emotional or Internal Distractions

These are the distractions that your brain is telling you as you are working. These thoughts are self-sabotaging and can easily guide you in the wrong direction if you listen to them. Controlling your emotions is possible and will help you in life in many ways. Try studying stoicism to help you if you need extra assistance with this.

 

Personal Distractions

This is the category that you need to be the most mindful and honest about. No one but you truly know what is keeping you away from working at your best. It would be best to take accountability and ownership of your actions and things around you to be successful. If you wait around for others to solve the problem for you, you might as well throw your goal list in the trash.

 

The following are six tips designed to kick distractions so you can stay focused and on path: 

 

Set Clear Boundaries and Limitations

Fully understand what you are capable of and your limitations for each work requirement or personal goal.

 

Be Mindful and Realistic About Your Surroundings

In other words, create a workspace optimal for the tasks you plan to do and be realistic about your personality and what you can handle. For example, if you know, you will get too chatty with your clients, keep your meetings short, follow a list of bullet points to keep you on track, and only do them over Zoom or the internet.

 

Simplify and Automate Your Processes

Use technology and other resources to automate processes that don’t need your complete focus and attention or ones you know will only distract you in the long run. Utilize tools, cell phone applications, or Google Chrome extensions such as StayFocused that allow you to set time limits or block websites for a certain period of time — giving you the control and confidence you need to stay focused.

 

Be Honest and Stop Self-Sabotage

Stop negative thoughts before they control your actions. Most internal distractions are false and a result of low self-confidence, lack of knowledge, and experience. Experiment more, try more things, and gain as much knowledge as possible so you can learn yourself inside and out and gain back control of your life.

Multitasking Is A Lie

In the end, to kick distractions successfully, you must practice self-control and discipline. If you don’t, your business and personal goals will suffer.

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“Power Office” Your Workspace

As you already know by now, organization is one key ingredient to increased productivity. Every step of business planning and implementing requires it. Good organization skills lead to better time management, consistency, and focus on getting work done on time, and more.

 

One of the most important areas to organize and get right first is your work environment or office. You need to power office your space or set it up to work for you to lead you to success.

 

What Is A Power Office and Why Is It So Valuable?

A power office is the work environment you create to do your work but explicitly optimized for success. A power office is organized to match work processes and the tasks required to achieve your goals. It inspires confidence and gives you a distraction-free area to highly concentrate and focus on your work.

 

Here’s what you need to set up your own power office successfully to achieve productivity:

 

Analyze What’s Not Working First

When you get to work, what causes the most frustration and anxiety? Do you have paper and knickknacks all over the place? Is there furniture or extra things causing more distraction than good? Before you change your space, go to work first and be more mindful of your emotions and surroundings to get a better sense of the space you need to work optimally.

 

Always Keep in Mind Your Work Objectives

When creating your workspace, keep in mind your main objectives or tasks. If you are on the phone a lot, for example, be sure the phone is right where you need it, or your cell phone charger is there to keep you on track.

 

Adjust the Layout, Setup, and Location

Find the right location and layout that work for your professional and personal needs. If you know you like freedom while you work, don’t use the smallest or most affordable location you can find in your home or elsewhere. It will only do the opposite and stall your work.

 

Declutter and Designate

Let go of all the stuff that you don’t need. In other words, trim the fat and put it somewhere else. If it doesn’t pertain to work or provide any kind of motivation and inspiration to get you to work, it doesn’t belong there.

 

Make It Personal but Simplified

Add things of value you know will inspire you or make you happy but don’t add too many things. You already decluttered the workspace. You don’t want to add it all back. Be mindful of each item you add.

 

Test and Adjust

Test the space and keep in mind when working on the things that are causing frustration and work to adjust those areas. Over time, your needs and business will change, which means your work environment should too.

 

Don’t let your work environment be the reason you can’t get your work done. It will only require a few minor adjustments to make your surroundings work hard for you.

 

Home Office Automation Tips

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Five Tips for Better Task Prioritization

The secret to a successful to-do list or plan is understanding how to prioritize your goals and requirements for life and business. Prioritization orders tasks in the importance of urgency or in the most organized fashion to promote a consistent and smooth workflow. If you think planning is getting in your way of success, it’s likely your priorities that are in disorder.

 

Here are five tips and methods that allow you to prioritize more effectively to be sure you start each day more productively and better manage your time:

 

Consolidate and Analyze All Tasks First

Categorize and break it down into similar properties, deadlines, or time it takes to complete.

 

Keep in Mind All Requirements for Tasks

Consider the effort and the time it will take to accomplish each task as well. Who may you have to work with, or what environments may you need to change?

 

Remember the activities that you have a little resistance to or cause extra stress and anxiety. These tasks should likely be higher on your to-do list as they may take longer to accomplish.

 

Assign A Priority Number

Each day list your tasks in the order they should get done for optimal productivity. Keep in mind due dates or how urgent and vital it is to get done compared to the other tasks. If something is easy, it doesn’t always mean it is the best idea to get it done first when you know you have a deadline for a completely different project coming up tomorrow, for example.

 

Create A Priority Matrix

From the list you created earlier, take each of the tasks and organize it into two categories: important or unimportant. Then list whether the task is urgent, not urgent or if you should delegate and eliminate it instead—the following chart is an example of a priority matrix you can use to order your tasks better.

Chart

 

Use The “ABCDE” Method
Invented by Stephen Covey, the ABCDE method uses a grading system to apply a straightforward approach and visual representation to each task. Allowing you to quickly see what you should get done first without having to analyze too much.

Learn to Create Realistic Schedules

The rules to this method are as follows:

 

  • A – High priority tasks
  • B – Medium priority tasks
  • C – Low priority tasks
  • D – Delegate the tasks to others
  • E – Eliminate the tasks completely

 

This information will help you create your daily to-do lists or 90-day action plan to ensure you use your time efficiently. The last thing you want to do is have the right plan for success, just in the wrong order.

 

 

 

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The 2-Minute Rule You Need

This is the 2-minute rule you need to finally end your procrastination or other bad habits and achieve more out of life. Procrastination and other lousy time management habits lead to many missed opportunities and chances for personal growth to build up your business. It encourages laziness and lacks accountability, in turn stalling your momentum, focus, and consistency needed for success.

 

What Exactly Is The 2-Minute Rule?

It’s a stress-free approach to starting new habits and kicking bad ones. It’s a rule designed to help you achieve more goals without feeling overwhelmed and keeps you from delaying action any longer than you should.

 

The two main concepts for the rule include:

 

  • If it only takes two minutes, then get it out of the way right now.
  • Establishing new habits or routines should only take two minutes to begin with.

 

As with most methods, if they are misused, they provide the opposite results than you intend.

 

Here’s how to use the 2-minute rule effectively to kick your bad habits and achieve max productivity:

 

Keep It Relevant and Realistic

Only use the rule if it is relevant to whatever you are doing at that time. In other words, don’t just do whatever task comes to mind if it doesn’t relate to what you are actively doing.

 

For example, if you are trying to finish your next content package for your client, it’s not a good idea to go ahead and get that email notification about your next business meeting out of the way. It is unrelated and will ultimately get you off track and prevent you from finishing your course. Instead, think, “what can I do in two minutes to finish this course?”

 

Don’t Make It Hard

You don’t need to gain success or be the best overnight. Don’t make adopting new habits challenging and overwhelming by speeding up the process. Small gradual changes make it easier to accomplish and stick around long term. For example, science proves that those who lose weight over a more extended period of time maintain the weight longer than those who lose it very quickly.

 

Meaning you shouldn’t focus on what you can’t do; rather, what you can do instead. For just two minutes, what can you do towards changing one bad habit? Then the next day, add two more minutes and keep repeating the process.

 

It’s All About Perspective

The main goal of the 2-minute rule is to change your perspective on how you see a challenge or annoying tasks. You can trick your brain into believing a task is simple and easy, even though it can be hard. Anyone can deal with something for just two minutes, and sometimes the most challenging part is just starting.

 

Give this 2-minute rule a try the next time you feel that you need to push off your work to Monday. You won’t regret giving it a try.

The Secrets to Time Management and Why You Need It