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Time Won't Give Me Time - The Culture Club of Savvy Internet Marketers

Guest post by: Traci Hayner Vanover

Article Overview: Efficient time management is essential in business. We know we can't cram more hours into each day; our only option is to make the best use of the time we have each day.

Time Won't Give Me Time - The Culture Club of Savvy Internet Marketers

It's not exactly a secret that I am a huge 80s music junkie. That said, it should really come as no surprise that when I began working on today's post, I drew inspiration from Boy George and Culture Club. I realize that George O'Dowd is not exactly someone you'd typically think of for offering sage business advice. After all, he's known for his technicolor tresses and eyeshadow - not for his business savvy.

Even so, Boy George was right on the money when he crooned, "...time won't give me time..."

Efficient time management is essential in business. We know we can't cram more hours into each day; our only option is to make the best use of the time we have each day. Those "big name" marketers make it look effortless - but what they aren't telling you is that many of them outsource entire facets of their business to others. They may be employing virtual assistants, copywriters, and webmasters to handle functions that you are trying to juggle all by yourself.

You can still join the Culture Club of savvy internet marketers - all you need to do is establish a plan to work more efficiently each day.

Create a Clean and Chaos-Free Environment

Your work environment is integral to your productivity. Take steps to eliminate clutter and distractions. It doesn't matter how big or how small your working space is - when you keep it clean and organized, you will be able to accomplish much more. Even if you have no home office and are only working on a computer, make sure your files and documents are well organized so you don't lose precious time searching for important documents and files.

There's Power in a Plan

Having a well-conceived plan for your day will eliminate the possibility of becoming sidetracked and distracted. You have many options at your disposal - from day planners and PDAs to simple applications like Outlook's calendar function - these tools can help you view your day at a glance, and mark off tasks as they are completed.

Set Priorities and Deadlines

Arrange daily tasks in order of priority. Begin with tasks that have the greatest impact on your bottom line. For instance, taking care of client calls early in the morning will free you up to tackle marketing tasks such as submitting articles, creating newsletters, and posting to social media sites later in the day. You might want to close your email client while you are working on time-sensitive projects, in order to prevent distractions. Tasks such as automating your article submissions and tweets may require an initial investment, but can pay big dividends in the time saved on these activities.

It takes a fair amount of discipline to create and adhere to deadlines that you create for yourself, but it can be done. Creating a checklist that you can refer to each day will provide you with a visual reminder of what you need to complete - and, it will provide you with a sense of accomplishment after you mark each task off the list. For those who work on client projects, having a written schedule to refer to will enable you to schedule your work, and quote clients a realistic completion timeframe.

We can't add more hours to our day, but we can use the time we have to our advantage. And THAT should be music to your ears.

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Article Tags: business planning, organzing your business, time management



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Books that should be written - [quote:1m0dcpd7]"The Idiots Guide To Sticking With One Thing At A Time and Not Doing Something New All The Time" [/quote:1m0dcpd7] I myself am a 'constructive' procrastinator... I don't know if I'm alone in this. I have about six or seven projects I'm working on at any given time. I get one project almost done... then my interest is piqued by another project and I work on that... I get burnt out and move to another...I know I do this so I have it arranged such that once I get bored or burnt out with one project, I can step right back into project 1 - or 2 or 3, and get that a little bit more done before moving on to something else. As long as you're organized and know where all your reference material/idea sheets are when you're ready to get back to work on each project, it should be fine. I also find that by stepping away from a project - I still work on it in the recesses of my mind so that when I go back to it - it's with some good ideas that I wouldn't have had if I'd continued on with it originally. Maybe I should write a book on how to Procrastinate Constructively... I've actually thought about doing that...because most people procrastinate, don't they...and very few are ever able to stop.
Re: Half of 2011 is gone - It's flying by so quickly! Still have plenty to do that I wanted to have done by now. Time to really step it up!
Re: Alexa Ranking Goals - This is a real juggling act! Time spent promoting my site is time away from developing products and looking after my clients!!


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