As we start a new year it is common for many of us to set our goals for the year. When I do this I like to re-evaluate how I spend my time. I like to ask myself which activities do I need to add to achieve my goals and which do I need to drop. This second part is very important as many people spend their time doing activities that are not inline with their goals (or that someone else could do).
In my post Home Business Tips – Design a Life I discussed the idea of including activities in our daily life that make our heart sing. Most of us started our home based business for lifestyle so we need to make sure we are the architects of our life.
Equally as important to having lifestyle activities is having activities that make us money. I assume you are in business to make money.
In a previous post Effective Time Management I discussed keeping activity logs. This is a very worthwhile exercise at any time and perhaps even more relevant at the start of the year. If you have big goals for this year I suggest you get really clear on how you are spending your time. Are you activities supporting the attainment of your goals?
The key here is to know how much of your time is dollar productive behavior. By dollar productive I mean activities that make you money, or lead to making you money. They include such things as communicating with prospective customers and business partners, making calls and sales presentations.
Doing webinars, reading books and other forms of education are not dollar producing. Nor is hanging out all day on Social Media or planning.
For me last year was a huge learning year as I ventured online for the first time. I am very conscious that my learning must move to “doing”. In our ever changing world it would be very easy to be a full time student but that does not make money. Having worked in an organization that ran workshops and seminars I have witnessed too many people use education almost as entertainment.
There is only one way to really know how you are spending your time and that is to log it. I suggest you keep an activity log for at least two weeks and write down everything you do. At the end of each day go back and work out how much of your day was “dollar productive”. You may be surprised at the result. I have a form that I use that I can email to you if you are interested in doing this, just let me know.
Once you have become clear on how you are spending your time you will know what activities you need to add and which you need to drop or outsource. Be really honest with yourself.
Please leave me your comments below and let me know if you are going to log your time. And please share this post with your Twitter and FB friends by clicking on the share buttons. I appreciate you telling others.
Louise Steiner says
Hi Sue
Like you, I have spent recent months learning, but I think the key is in putting into action what we are learning. Sometimes I am so eager to learn the next thing, that I don’t take the time to put into action what I have learnt. Writing down how you have spent your time each day is an excellent idea. The other thing I find that helps focus the mind is writing a list the night before of all the tasks I intend to accomplish the following day and putting a time limit on them.
Louise
Sue says
Louise I love your idea of putting a time limit on the things you wish to accomplish. Great idea and I will take that one on board. I know what you mean about learning the next thing and not putting into action, I am guilty of that one. No let me say that differently, I used to be guilty of that one – not in 2011 🙂
I think your beautiful surrounds could be temptation not to do dollar productive activity.
Take care
Sue
Oliver Tausend says
Hi Sue,
I like the expression “dollar productive”. Education is very important but we have to take action on what we know and what we want. As Napoleon Hill said, only applied knowledge is power. Making money is always depending on how we spend our time.
With that said, we should make sure that we already enjoy the journey and not only the destination. I think that’s what you mean with “activities in our daily life that make our heart sing.”
Thanks for sharing your powerful insights.
Take care
Oliver
Sue says
Oliver I like that distinction – “applied knowledge”. Robert Kiyosaki always says if you are not doing it you do not know it yet (or something like that).
Yes I was referring to enjoying the journey as well as doing things that make us money. I think achieving a balance is key.
Thanks for your comment.
Sue
Linda G. Cox says
Sue,
This is a wonderful message for me!! I have had a wonderful year ‘playing’ on all the social media sites, primarily Facebook! If I truly want to start making money I need to follow your advice and choose “dollar productive” activities!
Keep up the good work!
Linda
Sue says
Linda I think there are many of us feeling the same about being serious about making money this year. I think when we first come online it is so easy to be distracted and there is a learning curve. Let’s all support each other as we move forward in achieving our goals.
Take care
Sue
Don Enck says
Sue,
This is a very timely post. Like you said, this is the time of year people spend some time setting their goals for their business and their income. It’s one thing to set a goal to achieve but it is another to put a plan together to achieve it.
I’m in the habit of creating a DMO (daily method of operation). I set specific times for specific things to do in a given day. Then I look at what the MMA’s are (money making activities) and focus on those in the key times I set for them.
Like any good plan though it should be reevaluated regularly. Adding a tracking system as you suggest is a great idea because even with some of the tactics I mentioned I can still get side tracked and the next thing you know I didn’t do anything to make money.
Sue says
Don I agree totally without a plan to achieve our goals we are unlikely to achieve them.
I love your idea of DMOs. I was doing that for a while but then did not follow the discipline. I am going to take your lead and implement that again.
I vowed this year to treat my day as if I was in an office as working from home I can become distracted too easily.
Thanks for sharing your methods.
Sue
Kevin Schmidt says
Hi Sue,
I love your idea for keeping an activity log of where your time is spent. Have you seen the program called rescuetime? It keeps an actual log of what sites you visit and where your time is being spent… to see where the leaks are. Interesting program but I think I would rather use your free version. Thanks for the tip!
Sue says
Hi Kevin
Rescuetime sounds interesting and I am sure would be another level of knowing what we are doing. My method works pretty well.
Thanks for finding my blog.
Sue
Darlene Davis says
Sue,
It is all about discipline, right? Logging daily activities is a great habit to start at the first of the year. Please count me IN! I’d love to see the log you use. I’m sure that accountability to one’s self, on paper, will make a huge difference in generating profits!
Sue says
Darlene you are spot on it is all about discipline for sure. I will email the log to you. It is very revealing 🙂
Take care
Sue
Ryan Biddulph says
Hi Sue,
I’m so glad I took a break from putting opt-in forms on each of my recent posts to read your insight…..I guess I am engaged in dollar-productive activities 😉
Keeping an activities log is a powerful practice. Almost like drinking Truth Serum. I used to con myself, telling myself that I worked SO hard each day. Yet when I checked my daily task log I didn’t do much at all.
Then I proceeded to work hard, and for long hours but noted little progress. This time it turns out I wasn’t engaged in effective activities.
I recently made a strong turn where now I make sure to engage in a certain number dollar producing acts per day. Updating old blog posts with opt-in forms is an example. Now my list will grow and I will have more opportunities to make valuable connections with my new subscribers.
Thanks for sharing the money tip Sue 😉 and have a powerful day!
RB
Sue says
Hi Ryan
I just found your comment in my spam. I have no idea how you got in there 🙂 I have not checked it lately as I was getting a lot of trash. I am glad I did.
You sound like you have the dollar productive thing handled. It is so important and I think most people con themselves. I know the first time I kept a log I was staggered at how little productive work I was doing. It is so easy to lose your day being “busy”. Hey I love your “drinking truth serum”.
Here is to having a productive year for us all.
Thanks Ryan and have an excellent day.
Sue
Andrew Walker says
Hi Sue.
Thanks for sharing this. It’s a very nice tips to get more productivity. Thanks a lot to you!
Sue says
Thanks Andrew. I just need to follow my own advice more 🙂
Have nice day and weekend.
Sue
Adam Robinson says
Probably, one of the most important things in life is TIME, so it just makes sense to make the most out of it. Our earning capability is, more often than not, determined by our ability to focus on activities that generate income preferably in the shortest time possible.
Sue says
Adam I agree with your comment on our earning capacity and what we focus on. Learning to do what is important is very key. I still find myself wasting time doing things that do not really matter. I am getting better though.
Sue
Adam Robinson says
A lot of people tend to find it very difficult to let go of unimportant things. One of the most difficult is sleeping. We’ve been told that we should sleep at least 8 hours a day. Successful people don’t agree with this. They advocate only need 6 hours a day of sleep. So that’s 2 hours more worth of opportunity to become productive, and make money. Small adjustments like this one make a whole lot of difference.
Sue says
Thanks for the comment Adam. I am not sure I agree that sleep is unimportant 🙂 as we need it to renew our energy and stay healthy. I do think many people sleep too much though. Although I think it is individual. I know many people who survive on very little sleep and others who don’t do well with less than 8.
I totally agree with you when you say many people find it hard to let go of unimportant things. We see it all the time.
Sue
zahid says
Very nice blogs you have here, I will visit when ever I have time!
Sue Price says
Hi Zahid
Thanks for visiting my blog and for your feedback.
Sue