Hold Yourself Accountable

It is super easy to not actually hold yourself accountable when doing internet marketing? you can easily wile away countless hours reading usless information on the forums or get caught up in analyzing all your competitions? sites as opposed to actually building your business.

Don?t even think to tell me that you don?t waste some time online? I know a guy that is super hard working and he does that himself almost every day.

So, how does one hold oneself accountable in our industry?

I?m sure that there are a myriad of ways to do that and I?ll offer one way that just plain works if you choose to implement it. I call it the notebook method and it is a reverse of what I used to do when I owned offline businesses.

First thing you have to do is to purchase a notebook that is similar to this:



Not like this:



Then you will need to grab your favorite writing implement (a pen or pencil) and open to the first page of the notebook when you begin your day. Start working and when you finish a task and before you start another write down what you did? you don?t have to be mega detailed in your writing but do make it easy to remember when you go back and look at what you wrote.

Do that all day long your first day and at the end of the day just close your notebook? do not read it over.

Day 2 do the EXACT SAME THING and do that for 7 full days.

On Day 8 wake up and start reading from page 1 and see how much work you accomplished the previous week and if it looks a little lite step it up some and get some more work done than you did on Day 1 when banging away on Day 8.

Be sure to write down your work efforts on Day 8.

Days 9 ? 14 be sure to keep up the harder working pace and be sure to continue to write in your notepad all the work you are doing.

Day 15, get up a few minutes earlier and start reading from Day 1 ? Day 14 and see if you are working as you should or if you are in slacker mode? see if you are growing as a business person or are embarrassed at your lack of effort.

Continue on this path of writing every day what you are doing for three months and reviewing your efforts on a weekly basis and follow the progression of going from a no account three toed sloth to a person who is proud of their work effort and is growing as a human being as well.

The flip side of all that writing and all that effort is you will look back after 3 months and see that you are someone special and that you can put in an effort to generate income that is something to be looked up to and it will aid you in your confidence in many areas of your life.

I did the inverse when working for a large company years ago as the entity I was working for was buying a bunch of different companies and merging them into one large company. I ran that one large company and every time they warned me they were buying a new company to merge I would make a list of all the things I had to get done to make the merge seamless and all the different things that cold come up and would write down contingency plans.

I carried that through even after the powers that be stopped the acquisitions as I now had a company about 5 times the size to run than the original one. Before I went home every day I would write a list of things I needed to accomplish that were not part of my normal work day things.

I?d write the list, close the notebook and go home as that was the last thing I did work wise. I made sure to close the notebook so as to not take any work home with me mentally.

The next morning I would stroll into the building, grab a cup of coffee, make my rounds to see how the department heads were doing, chat with some of the warehouse people, some of the plant people and some of the drivers and then make my way into the office where I would be sure to stop at the desks of those inside to see what was happening in their arenas.

Then I would go in and open that notebook knowing that the company was running smoothly and attack my list one by one? invariably I did not complete all my tasks every day and would always have carry over and the carry over was put in top priority for the following day.

After a few years of that I once took the notebooks out of a cardboard box that I kept them in and looked through them? I said to my wife, ?Wow, I really worked hard when I worked for Wayne!?

She laughed and said ?Of Course, you didn?t realize that??

And I didn?t.

And you won?t either.

You will just bank.

Great Method.
I use my Franklin Covey and write down my tasks for the day that needs to be done.
I mark each task with:
A: Must do today
B:Important but can skip if needed
C:Flexible

C is usually the things we want to do first, strange how that works.

Make sure you force yourself to finish all the As before you can start on Bs and finish all the Bs before starting on the Cs.

This will make you very efficient!

When a task is complete, put a check if you completed it, put a dot if it is in progress, and an arrow if you couldn't get to it and had to forward it to the next day.
At the end of the day, write all that got forwarded into tomorrows schedule and check on yesterday's "in progress" tasks.

I do something similar although what I do is write down before I go to bed everything I want to get done the next day then when they are complete I highlight them like a little reward for getting it done lol

Great method. Much more involved version of what I do. I'm going to start using your method though.

reinie said:

I use my Franklin Covey and write down my tasks for the day that needs to be done.

Click to expand...

When my wife had a job she was a huge fan of Franklin Covey.

The notebook reference made me LOL.

I just read the Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg, and from what I can tell, laziness is an addiction. Your method is excellent BTB, but it may be a bit complicated for some. When I tried "quitting laziness" for the first time I tried all sorts of methods. So I just did what came naturally. Got a notecard, wrote 20-30 things that needed to be done that week in a blue pen, and did a few things each day. I still felt lazy because only 1/4 of the list was complete each day, so that fed into the addiction. Yet at the same time, I got a lot more done.

Good article pal - something to always come back to

ALWAYS TAKE ACTION - THAT'S THE BIGGEST ACCOUNTABLE THING YOU CAN DO FOR YOUR INTERNET MARKETING CAREER!

BassTrackerBoats said:

It is super easy to not actually hold yourself accountable when doing internet marketing? you can easily wile away countless hours reading usless information on the forums or get caught up in analyzing all your competitions? sites as opposed to actually building your business.

Don?t even think to tell me that you don?t waste some time online? I know a guy that is super hard working and he does that himself almost every day.

So, how does one hold oneself accountable in our industry?

I?m sure that there are a myriad of ways to do that and I?ll offer one way that just plain works if you choose to implement it. I call it the notebook method and it is a reverse of what I used to do when I owned offline businesses.

First thing you have to do is to purchase a notebook that is similar to this:

Not like this:

Then you will need to grab your favorite writing implement (a pen or pencil) and open to the first page of the notebook when you begin your day. Start working and when you finish a task and before you start another write down what you did? you don?t have to be mega detailed in your writing but do make it easy to remember when you go back and look at what you wrote.

Do that all day long your first day and at the end of the day just close your notebook? do not read it over.

Day 2 do the EXACT SAME THING and do that for 7 full days.

On Day 8 wake up and start reading from page 1 and see how much work you accomplished the previous week and if it looks a little lite step it up some and get some more work done than you did on Day 1 when banging away on Day 8.

Be sure to write down your work efforts on Day 8.

Days 9 ? 14 be sure to keep up the harder working pace and be sure to continue to write in your notepad all the work you are doing.

Day 15, get up a few minutes earlier and start reading from Day 1 ? Day 14 and see if you are working as you should or if you are in slacker mode? see if you are growing as a business person or are embarrassed at your lack of effort.

Continue on this path of writing every day what you are doing for three months and reviewing your efforts on a weekly basis and follow the progression of going from a no account three toed sloth to a person who is proud of their work effort and is growing as a human being as well.

The flip side of all that writing and all that effort is you will look back after 3 months and see that you are someone special and that you can put in an effort to generate income that is something to be looked up to and it will aid you in your confidence in many areas of your life.

I did the inverse when working for a large company years ago as the entity I was working for was buying a bunch of different companies and merging them into one large company. I ran that one large company and every time they warned me they were buying a new company to merge I would make a list of all the things I had to get done to make the merge seamless and all the different things that cold come up and would write down contingency plans.

I carried that through even after the powers that be stopped the acquisitions as I now had a company about 5 times the size to run than the original one. Before I went home every day I would write a list of things I needed to accomplish that were not part of my normal work day things.

I?d write the list, close the notebook and go home as that was the last thing I did work wise. I made sure to close the notebook so as to not take any work home with me mentally.

The next morning I would stroll into the building, grab a cup of coffee, make my rounds to see how the department heads were doing, chat with some of the warehouse people, some of the plant people and some of the drivers and then make my way into the office where I would be sure to stop at the desks of those inside to see what was happening in their arenas.

Then I would go in and open that notebook knowing that the company was running smoothly and attack my list one by one? invariably I did not complete all my tasks every day and would always have carry over and the carry over was put in top priority for the following day.

After a few years of that I once took the notebooks out of a cardboard box that I kept them in and looked through them? I said to my wife, ?Wow, I really worked hard when I worked for Wayne!?

She laughed and said ?Of Course, you didn?t realize that??

And I didn?t.

And you won?t either.

You will just bank.

Click to expand...

To BassTrackerBoats:

You post is worth reprinting and everyone should read it until memorized!

The absolute best description of the plan I have ever read! I have been doing this, more or less for years and it works and I mean it works great! Tok a while to get to the point at which I followed the plan religiously though anda I still backslide sometimes. I carry a paper notebook with me almost everyplace I go. Gets me some funny looks at the bar though, sitting there with a tall one, a notebook and pen right alongside but if I get a thought or remember something I need to do, if I don't write it down immediately, it may be gone forever.

Kudos to the OP!

Tully.

rockong said:

Good article pal - something to always come back to

ALWAYS TAKE ACTION - THAT'S THE BIGGEST ACCOUNTABLE THING YOU CAN DO FOR YOUR INTERNET MARKETING CAREER!

Click to expand...

That is in fact the most accountable thing you can do in any industry - being productive always pays off.

@BTB:

Striving for more is what makes us humans, but appreciating what we have done so far is very hard if a person doesn't have it documented. Most people (including myself) don't realize this until they stumble across an advice like the one you just laid out.

Thank You

accelerator_dd said:

That is in fact the most accountable thing you can do in any industry - being productive always pays off.

@BTB:

Striving for more is what makes us humans, but appreciating what we have done so far is very hard if a person doesn't have it documented. Most people (including myself) don't realize this until they stumble across an advice like the one you just laid out.

Thank You

Click to expand...

Our conversation actually inspired this thread... you are really the man behind it.

A 15 minute convo could end up helping a ton of fellow IMers.

I owe you a beer!

I am definitely going to give this a go today! Thank you!

What I am currently doing is I have a piece of paper on my desk with just a long list of things that I need to get done. The satisfaction of crossing something off is great!

I used this a bit yesterday and really dug in to it today and it made a big difference. There's a lot of room for improvement. A lot! Still, for such a simple practice it make a big change in productivity.

Look, I took action:

Step 1: Get a notebook and pen.... DONE!



Great thread... I already do something similar... I take 10 minutes at the end of each day to write down what I want to get done the next day... and on the next day, I'd start with the most important thing on my to-do list and mark them as 'done' as I do them.

You are to be lauded and applauded for your pen choices.

bk071 said:

Look, I took action:

Step 1: Get a notebook and pen.... DONE!

Great thread... I already do something similar... I take 10 minutes at the end of each day to write down what I want to get done the next day... and on the next day, I'd start with the most important thing on my to-do list and mark them as 'done' as I do them.

Click to expand...

I really simplified your method over last few years.

I kick myself in the arse, or go on "autopilot", and do the most UNPLEASANT things first.
Those are most of time the most important things that will get you somewhere.

Its a big pleasure after that to find out that the day has just begun and youve already accomplished that ****** and can chillout doing tasks you enjoy and be more relaxed, not thinking about the shitty ones you always delay...