How do you keep yourself organized and comfortable while doing your IM work?

What I'm asking is what are your ways of keeping track of everything, of your website, of your competitors, of your rankings, basically everything IM related?

Where do you write all your accounts usernames and passwords? Do you write your plans and goals? If so, in which manner?
Do you make a drawing of them? How do you keep everything you do organized? Do you use any software or just write it down in paper? Do you not organize at all?

About the comfortable part; how do you do your IM work? Do you listen to music in the background? How often do you take breaks? Do you do something relaxing in your breaks? Do you listen to relaxing music in the background? Do you go out for a stretch? And perhaps most importantly, how do you keep yourself motivated?
I feel all this is so important to know as it'll have an impact on your mood and consequentially on your work.

So any tip would be greatly appreciated, and it's always nice to know how other members are doing their business

I keep track of business information on different text files, spreadsheets, documents and images that have been organised into many folders and sub-folders (which I backup regularly).

As for accounts, I have all of the information for hundreds of different accounts (different usernames with long unique passwords) memorized, and for the most important accounts I have the information stored on a USB in the event that I suffer a head injury that causes me to lose my memory.

As far as comfort goes, I take breaks in-between work (I'm usually on BHW while I work; I have the window open on a separate screen). Sometimes I cook, sometimes I play games, sometimes I work on new inventions (nothing related to IM, although if you saw my flame-thrower in another thread then you would know what I'm talking about) and other times I tend to my garden on my breaks.

Keeping myself motivated isn't difficult since my motivation is simply to prove and continue proving everyone who told me all of this wasn't possible wrong.

Spreadsheets help big time!

Thank you for sharing, will definitely try out the spreadsheets as well as the USB backup

You must have a clear plan of achievement. And write it on paper. And put in front of you. You can see your goal every day

Audiobooks are great to get distracted if you do simple tasks. There are a bunch of audiobooks on Youtube. If you find something 4-6 hours long that keeps you interested, you can listen to that and at the end of those hours, you will have worked 4-6 hours while enjoying yourself at the same time.

I use simple .xls file to organize all my data.

I usually email myself important info, so i can just search for it later if necessary.

Usernames and passwords, the regular ones at least, are all in my head.

I listen to music occasionally while I work, it helps me get through the boring repetitive stuff.

I bought myself a nice comfy office chair too a few months ago, which also helps big time, in terms of staying focused for long periods of time without unnecessary discomfort.

I also drink a lot of energy drinks which help put me in a good place for the day.

I keep track of stuff using the sticky notes widget in Windows. Hours worked, tasks remaining, general to-do's, etc.

Lastpass, Evernote, Wunderlist, (Pocket if I find something interesting to read but don't have time right there and then), a business planner to write the key things down and a whiteboard to gather my thoughts on. Oh, and a calendar on the wall to see the whole month at once.

So yeah, I do get a lot of help, but it keeps me on track of everything.

from 2008 to end of 2014 i tirelessly worked 4-11pm but i reached a point
i was tired of missing the evenings with the wife.

2015 all my products where re structured 1-8pm an there it will stay
no more late evenings anymore...

files ect all backed up on 2 usb drives listen to light music radio while working
but after 8pm im done no matter the complaints......

I enjoy working with google docs eventho I have excel installed. I have 3 accounts that I use daily (1 personal email and 2 my virtual personalities lol) so I share every docs/sheets among all 3 of them.

I don't think I need any physical storage devices these days.

I'm horrible at the organization part, but I find energy drinks/coffee+standing desk+good audiobooks help when it comes to putting in long hours at working on the PC. I'll be trying out some of the organization methods listed in here soon.

A list of things I use to keep organized:

- Evernote
- Trello
- Lastpass
- Excel
- Dropbox

Getting through those long hours of work:

- Soundcloud
- Flux
- Eyeleo

I don't think I listed everything but that's most of it.

Just going from what the heading reads, I'm going to say custom developed data management software and masturbation.

The key is to identify a repetitive behavior early in the game.

Like when I started IM, I would store passwords all over the place. I wouldn't think long term like "I need to store these a certain way". I'd just open up a new ms word document and save it. Or notepad. Or excel. Or a new ms word doc. Then I realized "if I'm gonna be in this game long, I should probably identify that I have a mess of passwords all over my computer and put them into 1 folder".

So now I have 1 main folder that has 3 sub folders for passwords.

I made the same mistake with all my marketing designs, graphics, copy, etc. They were all graphics that I'd either made, bought or stole over the years. And I went for roughly 2 years not organizing any of it. That shit took me 4 days straight, working 12-14 hours each day just to organize all my graphics, designs and copy into 1 folder I labeled "Content". Then it has all the appropriate sub folders. Some that are 40+ sub folders deep. Meaning sometimes just to get to a graphic I'll click 40 times fast as hell just to get to the folder. But I'd much rather do that than search around my desktop like an idiot, or type in 100 wrong names and run a search that doesn't find anything.

Then there were articles. That was another unspeakable task since I keep back ups of all the content on my sites and videos.

Then last I did my bookmarks.

It all started 1 day when I was trying to make a simple video that should have taken 30 minutes to make but it wound up taking about 6 hours. It literally felt like I was working with a blindfold on and over the course of 2-3 months organized my entire computer.

As far as organizing workflow however, that's really hard to explain. When I first started doing IM I did not write down shit or plan anything. I just woke up everyday, told myself "this is getting done" and I did it. And there was something very liberating about those first 6 months. I almost feel like I was getting more done when I didn't have schedules, written plans or constraints. But once you start making money, once your websites start to own you... things can get hectic. You may feel like you're trying to sail a ship during a hurricane. And sometimes you need to go where the wind is blowing but you also gotta be smart enough to know where, when and how to steer the boat.

And that's something that really only comes with experience and testing. You just gotta take a shitload of blind, fearless action then 1 day you realize things are taking on a life of their own. So you gotta hop on the boat you've created and try to navigate the waters.

-BB

Spreadsheets, Dropbox, Evernote and LastPass for me (Small amounts of web design / development, far more time building links / pbn are my daily routine)

Organizing your email if a big thing too. Sorting the BS emails for the ones you really need to attend to by end of play is a huge thing - especially when running something like a PBN or a large website.

If something is a real pain in your a$$ IMHO it's life telling you to either outsource it or find a way to automate it. Your time should be mostly spent thinking of the bigger picture and where you're heading strategically - rather than endlessly doing BS repetitive tasks IMHO, leave that stuff for worker bees doing the 9-5.

I also try not to sit at the PC for too long. A large part of doing this full time for me is the idea that you work smarter not harder. I'm quite happy to do my tick list for the day in 1 or 2 hour bursts and like to go down the beach, for a walk or have coffee with old friends from work or my partner in-between. I also own an old classic car I like to tinker with too. (Hobbies you love are an awesome type of meditation IMHO)

I actually find the times doing nothing are when the best ideas and clarity of how to move forward come to me.

BreaknBrix said:

But once you start making money, once your websites start to own you... things can get hectic. You may feel like you're trying to sail a ship during a hurricane. And sometimes you need to go where the wind is blowing but you also gotta be smart enough to know where, when and how to steer the boat.

And that's something that really only comes with experience and testing. You just gotta take a shitload of blind, fearless action then 1 day you realize things are taking on a life of their own. So you gotta hop on the boat you've created and try to navigate the waters.

Click to expand...

Ah wow that really speaks volumes to me! Another issue I've had in the past is getting too getting "loved up" with a business you've spent a while developing. I've learned to understand that nothing lasts forever, always be looking for the next big win and don't get stressed if you need to let go of an old idea / niche / website.

At the end of the day, it's just a website and one little income stream - once it's earning you cash automate the maintenance, scale the idea if possible and move on to the next thing - and document everything you do so you can always understand what you did when you come back to it!