Microtasking: Microtasker

How to be an early riser without an alarm clock

by jamie on April 23, 2013 in Productivity with 1 Comment

Any successful person worth their salt will tell you that being and early riser is one of the most productive habits you can ever have. But to get the habit to stick can be a tricky process. I’ve learned some techniques you can use to give you the wake up boost you need – and you don’t even need an alarm clock.

When I started to rise early I tried a variety of methods. I used Steve Pavlina’s technique of going to bed when you feel tired – regardless of how late it is and setting the alarm. I also used Leo Babouta’s method of putting the alarm back ten minutes each day until it reaches your desired time. Both techniques worked but I kept slipping out of the routine. Since then I’ve developed a system which works for me and I believe will work for you too. Here we go.

Be prepared

Get breakfast ready the night before. I fill the kettle, and have 2 cups ready for tea or coffee for my wife and I. 2 bowls of porridge are ready to go. (Yes I bring her breakfast in bed every morning. No I’m not whipped I just like spoiling her ok!)

Tidy your workspace. Make sure your desk is free from clutter – except for any relevant material that you intend to work on. Also make sure your computer desktop is clear to remove distraction. I use a killer little free app called Launchy which saves time clicking around for any programs I need to open – and helps keep a clear desktop environment.

Plan your morning. Know what it is you intend to work on – and even make a to do list if need be. I’ve found having a set plan relaxes me before going to sleep. It also simplifies things when you go to work. Another bonus is that your subconscious mind can get to work on any ideas you may have to while you sleep.

Look forward to the mornings

Do something you really enjoy or a high priority task. I like to blend the two. My routine is to get up, wash, breakfast. I do physiotherapy exercises for my back and meditate. A few push ups also gets the blood circulating. The priority part consists of writing. I pick an idea for a blog post which I have and plan it out with a few bullet points. Sticking with this habit means I’ll have a ton of blog posts to fall back for when I ever get overloaded with other work.

Go to bed and visualize your morning. See yourself working and completing the task – and enjoying the fruits of your labour. Know deep down that you will use the time productively. You will find this eagerness greeting you when you awaken.

Early rising toolkit

Water – THE ULTIMATE WAKE UP JUICE! Drink at least a pint of it the night before. Very few people drink as much water as they should. Drinking a pint at night ensures that you are properly hydrated and helps you get a good sleep. This is how to wake up without an alarm clock since you’ll have to make pee pee. When you get up for a pee it will be early. If it’s too early – just stay up and get even more done. Eventually your body will find a natural rhythm. Trust me it works!

Optional – alarm clock. In an ideal world you can leave it across the room so it forces you to get up to switch it off. This can be a problem if you have a family and it wakes the house up. My method aims to get rid of the desire to press snooze because you don’t want to go back to sleep. I love the mornings because I have filled them with good stuff that I look forward to.

I hated getting up in the morning for years until I tweaked this little system. Please give it a try for a few days and let me know if it works for you. If you have your own habits please let the rest of us know by leaving a comment.

Why every successful blogger must learn Copywriting

by jamie on April 19, 2013 in Blogging, Copywriting, Writing with No comments

Andrew Becraft via Compfight

What is the primary purpose of any piece of writing that you put out online — whether a blog post, a networking email, a sales letter or a tutorial?
For starters, to get what you’ve written read, right? (Brian Clark, Copyblogger)

All writing follows a similar format. It is to lure the reader into the story, the information or call to action. And it is more important with blogging and copywriting because of the amount of distractions available to internet readers. Bloggers, like copywriter needs more than commitment to reading, they need ACTION.

Why Tolkien would suck at blogging

Imagine J.R.R. Tolkien lived today and he published Lord of the Rings on his blog. Think it would be an instant hit? Think it would be a cult classic? Would you have the patience to scroll through miles of virtual descriptive passages about Tom Bombadil’s forest songs, or mythical kingdoms in Elvish? Or would you click the link to “10 instant tips bring your girlfriend multiple orgasms” ?

Lord of the Rings – and any book you have in your hand dominates your attention. Usually you read when relaxed or in bed and have the time to focus on the book in hand. This is an ideal situation, and one not often found for online reading. On the internet even the most minimal blogs such as Zen Habits discuss decluttering and advocate less distraction. Yet the posts still contain links to other blogs on minimalism with another 100 blog posts on writing, frugality, simplicity while linking out to other sites on blogging, business and web design…

Why good Copywriters with crap content get better results than you!

If you want your posts to be read your writing has to overpower the links in your post, ads in your sidebar and every other clickable element on the page. Your writing must pull the reader deeply into your content and make them feel like they have struck gold with your wisdom. Your content is the goldmine. Good Copy is the trail of nuggets leading them towards it.

Without a decent understanding of Copywriting you are trying to lead your reader to the goldmine by leaving them a trail of rocks and dirt. All while better Copywriters could leading them with nuggets of golden Copy towards mines of silver and scrag. These readers will still subscibe. Because they have still found golden nuggets haven’t they. Your goldmine lies undiscovered because they never got as far as your content.

Which brings us to the point…
You must be good at everything

A successful blogger doesn’t just want to be read. He doesn’t have a million copies of his book being sold in Waterstones. A blogger is part writer, part marketer, part social media strategist, part mentally unstable. To be read you need traffic. To get traffic you need to be subscribed to, shared, liked, tweeted, linked to. That will only happen if your content is read. And that will only happen if you lure your reader towards it.

The best way of getting regular traffic is through an email list. Relying solely on SEO is gambling with your content. To have an ongoing traffic strategy you must employ either email blogging, social media or both. That means having a clear call to action – and to optimize that you need great content – which means to have your content read – which means to learn basic Copywriting.

Here’s a link to a brilliant introduction to the essentials of Copywriting. And here’s a link to a free guide from a Copywriter and blogger who knows what he’s doing.

I stopped rising early and all I got was this lousy blog post

by jamie on September 18, 2012 in Motivation, Productivity with No comments

“The early morning hath gold in its mouth”

- Benjamin Franklin

If the title caught your attention then it has achieved its aim. Now I can assure you that this blog post is not lousy at all. It was written spontaneously on my first morning of rising early again. It is also the first post I have written in a week.

Rising early is the easiest and most enjoyable way to be more productive, period.

Rise early to get things done

I work full time and 6 people live in our house – 4 of them are kids. This leaves precious little time to work on my goals.

I am lucky if I get to sit at the computer from 8pm-10pm. There is no point in the day where I can sit and write without the risk of being interrupted – except the early morning.

This means getting up around 5am.

Sound rough? It isn’t. It’s my favourite part of the day. I get to do whatever I want with complete peace, freedom and guilt free!

I stopped rising early…

For the past 2 weeks I fell by the wayside. The effect on my output and a state of mind was dramatic. I was on the verge of giving up on all my goals – and even slept in for my day job twice. The only thing that motivated me to get back in the habit was the thought of going back to my day job – for ever and ever, unhappily ever after.

Here is what to expect when you give up this best of habits…

The Pro’s

1. It prevents burnout – enjoy your rest and don’t feel bad about it (for the first day or two)
2. Use the time to bond with family and friends
3. You can get those niggling jobs around the house finished
4. It makes you realize how strongly motivated you were previously
6. When you decide to be productive again you will wake with a renewed determination to succeed

The Con’s

1. Your bed will be the cosiest place on earth, until the discomfort of guilt creeps in
2. You will become less organized
3. You will become less productive and efficient
4. You will become frustrated at not being able to pursue your goals
5. When you have time later in the day – chances are you won’t use it
6. You will lag behind in your goals and procrastinate more and more
7. You may become negative and overwhelmed with your lack of progress
8. The more sleep you get the more tired you will become
9. Even when you are not tired you will seek new ways of procrastinating
10. You will lose confidence about achieving your goals and become riddled with negativity

Micro manifesto: How to avoid the negative effects of rising later

The next time I am feeling near burnout I will be putting measures in place to help prevent the negative consequences of sleeping later. Here they are.

1. Give yourself permission to sleep later – but limit it to a certain time and days
2. Give yourself permission to work less on your goals but do not stop completely
3. Use the time to do the household tasks you have been neglecting
4. Ease yourself back into the habit of rising early over a few days
5. Do a re-evaluation and planning of your goals
6. Focus on the people who matter to you most, family and friends

One day has passed since I drafted this post. I have re-motivated myself completely and am re-scheduling my workplan to a far more efficient structure.

Sleeping late and getting depressed helped me see what I could lose.

Rising early again brings it all into the realm of possibility.

How to Create a Daily Writing Habit

by jamie on September 11, 2012 in Productivity, Writing with No comments

You think you are a writer? You think you can fly?

We have all heard the story about the guy on LSD who thinks he can fly. He leaps from his window and soars, his opened mind free from the concept of gravity. Splat! His pulped remains are then scraped from the pavement by some unfortunate cop.

In our early days we often think we should write when we are inspired. It feels like the ideas flow from a higher source while we interpret the information by writing. These are excellent times for writing and we must seize such opportunities. But we must not rely on them.
Writing from inspiration is like plunging from that window. You jump to your computer, you flap your fingers excitedly and ride the winds of enthusiasm. But it is temporary. Too often we burnout and leave the project to fester because that initial boost has left us.

How do real writers write? How do birds really fly?

Birds evolved from dinosaurs. They made the journey from a leaping lizard with a few feather to the variety of birds we see today. All Birds have to go through the same micro-evolution from the egg to flight. They might make the initial jump from the nest – but this is not what makes them really fly.

Birds really learn to fly from the ground up. Every day. They are motivated by a primal instinct for survival. If they don’t get back to the nest, they get eaten!
Writers have to write. Every day. Without daily writing they will never reach their goals. By doing it they have a fighting chance of achieving success. Or will die trying.
This is the path all successful writers must take. You must do the same.

You have wings

If you can hear language and read words then you can write. You have wings and have the ability to really fly. All you need to do is practice.
Good writers force themselves to write every day. When those inspirational waves hit them they write faster, higher quality, more fluid and expressive work. Not because they are more naturally gifted. They are just familiar with their craft.

Writing creates its own inspiration

When you sit down to write – within 10-20 minutes you find lots of new ideas bubbling up to the surface. Literature is often called stream of consciousness – we are always having new thoughts, new ideas. Writing is simply a way of recording that information as a hardcopy.

Simple Steps to a Daily Writing Habit

1. Commitment – If you want to reach your full writing potential you must commit to writing on a fundamental level. Period. Commit for the love of the craft and the desire to improve as a writer.

2. Ideas – Always be thinking about ideas – jot them down when you have them. Carry a notebook or write them on your smartphone. Copy them onto a spreadsheet and build a growing list that you can browse when it’s time to write.

3. Planning – Write a brief plan. For blog posts create a strong heading and plenty subheadings. If it’s a short story then write a synopsis with a rough plot structure. For an article create your heading, main points to be covered and your references and sources.

4. Writing – Set a time to write – early in the morning or in the evening is ideal if you work a full time job. I always do a first draft in a plan text editor like Darkroom of Focus Writer. Write the first draft from start to finish, or until you run out of time. Just write – do not edit.

5. Proofreading and editing – Proofread and re-write the article. I do a bare minimum of 3 read-throughs and edits before publishing or submitting. This is usually the most time-consuming part of good writing. The first draft of this article took 1 hour. Proofreading and re-writing took 3 hours and it is 500 words shorter and completely different.

Simple steps to create a healthy mindset

1. Always write what you want to write about – creating a blog is good for this
2. Don’t let you inner critic loose on your first draft.
4. Use tangents as ideas for future projects (I found 3 from this post).
6. Do not rush the editing process – and complete it for every project.
7. Single task it – only work one project at a time.
8. Do something with it. Publish it, submit it, put it up for review. Get it out into the world.

Distraction Free Writing in a Busy Home

by jamie on September 3, 2012 in Freelance Writing, Productivity, Writing with 3 Comments

Our house buzzes with activity from around 7.00am until 10.00pm. As I write this post our four children are having multiple conversations and toy fights, my wife is cooking dinner and there is a decorator upstairs whom I supply with a constant stream coffee.

Yet I write – undistracted.

Many of us have busy lives and it is all too easy to blame the mayhem of family existence for our own lack of productivity. For those of us who just can’t get the work done there is another writer with a busier life, less time and more words on the page. If you want to become a more productive writer then consider some of the following tips to help win the war on distraction.

Internal vs. External distractions

As I write this sentence my 3 year old daughter is screaming in the next room. There have been people at the door, and I have been interrupted several times. These are all external distractions. They can be annoying but they are easy to deal with when you implement the following methods.

There is another, more pernicious type of distraction however. I just googled “how to avoid distractions” in order to research articles for this post. Within 5 minutes of reading an article I found myself perusing e-courses on computer programming and was on the verge of signing up to another blog. Although I’m interested in it programming is completely unrelated to my goals and this blog post. This is an example of internal distraction and it is a dangerous threat to your writing.

Which is worst?

The truth is all distractions are really internal. This is because we allow our minds to wander – and we choose how to react to our external circumstances. Thus a constant noise can become an annoyance to an unfocused mind – or a challenge to one determined enough to see the job through.

Remove as many distractions as possible

First let others know that you are going to be working for a certain period of time. Your family should acknowledge this and be respectful so long as you don’t neglect your duties before and after your creative period.
Second you want to remove as many physical distractions as possible when we sit to write. Find as quiet a place as possible. Create a clear working environment – remove all but the essentials from your desk. Light, paper and pen or computer screen.
Switch your phone off – or put it on silent.
Close down your internet browser, email client and any other applications – with the exception of reference materials.
Use a basic text editor. When writing I like to use a basic text editor such as darkroom. You can use Writeroom if you have a mac or Pyroom for Linux.I have also been experimenting with Focus Writer and Writemonkey – these are similar to darkroom but have added features such as spellcheckers. With the exception of Writeroom these programs are all free and open-source. Darkroom doesn’t even have a spellchecker – I like this because it allows me to write fast – without the typo’s being highlighted. When finished my first draft I’ll copy and paste the document into Word for editing.
Fight fire with fire – or noise with sound. For dealing with noise levels in the house I use USB headphones and listen to progressive house or trance music. I find this type of music to be uplifting and energizing and the steady beat helps create flow to the writing process. You can listen to any kind of music – although it is probably better to listen to music with as few vocals as possible. Some people say they can’t write while listening to music. I suggest you give it a proper chance – at least for half an hour to experience the zone. Surely it must be easier to write with music rather than children crying and fighting!
Alternatively you might try to find some noise cancelling headphones so at least you have slightly less disturbance.

Focus

It goes without saying that you must focus to achieve good results. This is even more important in a distracting environment. By clearing the workspace, using plain text and having a steady beat focus should come more easily.

Forget about what is going on around you – it is already taken care of and if you are needed you will be interrupted anyway so don’t fret about it.
If you are still struggling then just aim to write the first sentence – and brush all criticisms of style away for the time being. Keep on writing until you reach that sense of flow. When you get there, stay in that zone. If you are interrupted keep that same focus on the person who comes in and listen to them. Why? Because if you listen and communicate that you understand then the interruption will pass quickly and smoothly and you will adjust back to your project. If you keep trying to “write in your head” when someone is talking to you – it will only prolong and aggravate the interruption and your focus.

Deal appropriately with interruptions

Remember your values. Earlier on my parents dropped by for a visit. My value system places my parents very high on my priority list and I remembered this. I closed my project and went out to make tea and talk with them for an hour.

My wife interrupted me and asked if I could give her sister a lift into Edinburgh Airport the next day. I said yes and made a mental note of it and got on with this article. I didn’t start making talking and have coffee and a bite to eat and allow another hour of unproductivity to pass.

If the interruptions are below the task priority – treat them as such. That is – give them your full attention for the minute or two they deserve and don’t let them pull you away from your work.

No distraction has been significant enough to pull me from my chair yet.

Phone calls can wait – you can call later or text if need be.

Sometimes we are interrupted by people or events on a low order of priority. They can be dealt with most effectively by the means such as this.

Get angry – take it on

If you have removed all your distractions but find you are still annoyed by the goings on then allow yourself to get angry. Anger is a source of mental energy and it can be utilized in your writing.

Let your anger come out in a writing rant and give yourself have free reign no matter how offensive – but stay sure to keep within the boundaries of your goal. Sometimes writing in anger can get a bit personal and you wouldn’t want anyone else to read it. For this you could use a piece of free open source journal software.

This program is encrypted with your own unique password and is saved automatically even when you close it down. It still requires your password when you go to open it up again.

I also use this just to keep a private journal but it can be useful for these mega rants.

So embrace the anger. Your sentences may not be the most eloquent or coherent but you’d be surprised how prolific this can be and how many little gems it can produce for ideas – especially if you write fiction and expressive language.

IF ALL ELSE FAILS TEST THE FOLLOWING METHOD

How to Deal With Annoying Interruptions — powered by Cracked.com

Final Word

I hope you found this useful. If you have any other tips people trying to create in busy houses please leave a comment.

The birth of Microtasker

by jamie on August 30, 2012 in Goalsetting, Motivation, Productivity with No comments

This blog doesn’t muck about with fluff – but it deserves to a have its story told. As with all my writing there is value contained throughout the entire post. If you want to go to the value summary just scroll to the bottom for the main lessons I have learned in setting up this blog. If you want to gain maximum value from the lessons I have learned over the past year then read on…

Part I: How one tip from one blog can change your life

Microtasking is a term I first stumbled upon while reading Steve Pavlina’s Personal Development blog.

In essence, microtasking is the process of taking a large, daunting objective and breaking it into manageable chunks. Steve calls these “microtasks”. Steve’s was the first blog I ever read and it made a considerable impact upon me. This was the first time I knew I wanted to create a blog one day.

Reading just one blog for only a week or 2 can change your life. After reading Self Development for Smart People I implemented 1 idea which created a chain reaction and ultimately this blog. The idea – become an early riser.

I became an early riser…which led to…
…peaceful mornings…
…regular meditation…
…less stress and more relaxed…
…increased productivity…and one tired morning to…
…do 5 push-ups…
…10 push ups…then 20…then sit ups…deeper meditation…
…one day I go for a run…
…then run further…
…then run 10km without stopping…the list could go on and on

By this time I had long stopped reading Steve Pavlina completely. Just by sticking to that one habit of rising early I was meditating, exercising and writing. I became physically stronger, psychologically less stressed and happier as a result.

Lesson – respect to the power of blogging!

Part II: I get caught in The Planning Trap

I was interested in blogging and Internet Marketing. I thought it would be interesting to chart my IM progress on a blog. Microtasking would be the method I would use to achieve my goals – hence the name.

Within 24 hours of having that idea I registered the domain name, installed wordpress and wrote this blog post.
No that isn’t true.
I had vague notions about what I wanted to do in terms of internet marketing and blogging. Way too vague.

Some months passed. I fell for some scammy internet marketing products. I spent months researching and taking no action on Internet Marketing. Along with my current job and a big family there was masses of information to take in and it was hard to trust any of it. Information overload much?

I fell out of the habit of meditating and exercise. I had lots of vague IM plans but they all required a hell of a lot of hard work for a long time with no guarantee of success.

I freed myself – I quit. I had been neglecting Tracy and the kids and had to get my priorities in order. I spent more time with family. I realized how much I had missed simple family life. I became more proactive and organised around the house and was soon back on track with rising early and meditating again.

Part III: The Planning Trap Revisited!!!

I wandered back into the blogosphere in my spare moments. This time I found fresh blogs, dozens of them – Zen Habits, Smart Passive Income, and Viperchill to name but a few.

I read Leo Babouta’s Zen Habits regularly and took on some great advice on minimalism, focus and decluttering. I read some killer content from Glen Allsop’s Viperchill which had 10,000 word posts of high value well written inspiring content on Internet Marketing for FREE. Pat Flynn’s Smart Passive Income provided dozens of “how to” video tutorials and Podcasts – again FREE. These guys were making serious money and weren’t ripping people off with slimy sales pitches and e-books. This was my second inspiration.

I wanted to create a blog. It was then when I registered the domain name.
YES I actually did this time.

I even wrote up a load of article titles and ideas and began to write one or two.
Then I stopped. I was under no illusions about how slow blogging is to make any money – especially with my time constraints. It could take a couple of years of hard work before I’d see any real compensation. That’s if everything went well!

Part IV: Respect to The Minimalists

Finances were tight at home. We had to second guess whether or not we could afford to get the kids a McDonald’s and often realized that our second guess was correct. i.e. we couldn’t justify spending money on big macs.

How could I justify spending the next year working on something that takes away from family time with no financial return. Also – I still had no success, had taken no real action on Internet Marketing – even to blog about!

Still, at nights I would read blogs because they gave value, ideas, and inspiration – and they were free. One night I stumbled upon a great post about blogging on The Minimalists. This was the post which awakened me to really getting started. Forget about money, traffic, ego, fame, and trying to sound slick or false. Give value, write for your readers and enjoy the journey. The real rewards don’t have a cash value. Improving writing skills, giving value, helping people, building a community, self-development, learning skills, meeting fellow bloggers – these are the reason to blog successfully.

Part V: Goalsetting and Vision

The pursuit of blogging with the idea of making money from Internet Marketing stopped me from starting in the first place! This may not be the case for everyone – but it was for me. I find it difficult to write passionately with a financial agenda. That intention to profit would often be in conflict with the interest of your readers. And your readers are very hard to come by so you don’t want to irk them!

Making money from blogging is great. Blogging just to make money is a slippery slope to a schism in your identity.

One day – I won’t go into details in this post. But one day I hit rock bottom. Rock fucking bottom. Depressed, alone, afraid, stressed, weak, broke.
I had control over nothing. Or so it seemed.

I did what I always do in those moments of despair. I began to write. It was angst ridden gibberish at first but my ramblings soon morphed into a journal-type document. I wrote for about 3-4 hours straight.

It began with me at rock bottom – convincing myself that I was good for nothing and would never achieve anything even if I did have time to myself.

By the end of writing I had a very close estimation of what I really wanted to achieve in life. I had also gained complete freedom over my time by declaring myself master of my own fate. This blog would be instrumental in achieving it.

I am not suggesting that you have to hit rock bottom in order to find your goal. But what was made clear to me was the importance that writing has occupied in my life. It is a habit that will always be with me and a skill that I can utilize.

Blogging is the ultimate platform for a writer. Complete freedom of expression – no holds barred. Blogging offers the ability to generate your own audience and readership to communicate with. There are multiple ways of making a living from blogging; it is an enjoyable, inexpensive pursuit.

This time I have clearly defined this blog’s purpose…
Microtasker is a blog built to help motivate, educate and inspire people to take action on their goals.
Microtasker will be the place where I display the methods I use to be as motivated and productive as possible so that other may benefit
Microtasker will contain my own experiences as a blogger, writer and internet marketer to give readers an idea of what to expect from a real Newbie’s point of view.
Microtasker will act as my portfolio until I am an established freelance writer.
Microtasker is the hub of my Internet Marketing endeavours
Microtasker is a community of supportive people who seek to accomplish goals they once thought impossible

Part VI: Lessons learned

1. Decide your goal – find your true purpose
I cannot emphasize the importance of this strongly enough. Don’t wait for rock bottom or when you get fired or dumped. Quite simply – if you cannot identify your passion and dream then you will never be fully motivated.
2. Visualize it – and I mean properly, not as a vague idea lurking around the recesses of your mind. Make it real – see yourself where you want to be then reverse engineer the steps you had to take to get there.
3. Believe – you must believe. If you don’t believe you can, then you won’t do. You must give yourself some credit that you can achieve. I might not get 100,000 subscibers and retire at 35 – but I can improve my writing, deliver value to readers, and create a community at the very least.
4. Take immediate action – no matter how small a step it is – take it. I had the idea, months passed, I registered the domain and months passed, I wrote my first post, and months passed. If I had just persevered all those months ago I would have lots of posts and some subscribers. But there is only now. There is no tomorrow.
5. Form the habit of doing something every day. 10 minutes every day is better than 10 hours one day and nothing for months. Because that 10 minutes usually turns into 2 hours or as long as you can manage.
6. Microtask it – Objectify your goal and create a step by step plan to achieve it. Make the steps as small and as basic as you like. Make the tasks so ridiculously simple, easy and quick that you have NO EXCUSE to procrastinate.
7. Use software to help if need be. I will be reviewing open source software that I use to increase my productivity every day. These are simple easy to use programs that are absolutely free. I am using one right now to write this post.

Conclusion

So there is a concentrated outline of how this blog was born. Now I have the job of feeding this baby fresh posts on a regular basis. I’m done procrastinating, over planning, pissing around and not taking action. Now it’s all about taking action. It’s all about creating. Will I make mistakes – yes. I already have. Will I learn from them – yes.

And so will you.

The Planning Trap – and how to escape it

by jamie on August 16, 2012 in Goalsetting, Productivity with No comments

Can you think of a Self Development course or blog anywhere in the world that doesn’t peddle the mantra of proper planning upon you? Of course they are correct in emphasizing good planning methods.

BUT – and it’s kind of a Jennifer Lopez butt – because it’s all very nice to look at, but over-planning can be a major obstacle to taking action and achieving your goals. Does this apply to you?

For instance, have you ever been in the position of believing that you are taking action but you are actually just refining your plan more and more? You set your goal; you plan a course of action. You poke holes in the plan, over analyse it and re-plan. Wash, rinse, repeat. Often you don’t even take the initial steps towards your goal.

Sometimes we find ourselves actually creating the obstacles to hold us back. This is a fear based habit that we have all faced at some point. We fear failure and the simplest way of not failing is never to try in the first place. So we find problems both real and imagined and rationalize our own inaction. To destroy these fears all we have to do is see them as the illusions that they really are and they vanish like ghosts. There are many quick and simple ways of doing this. It’s simply a matter of shifting your perspective.

I mean think about it. You don’t have time for your goals – but you have time for nights out, television, sleeping in, other people… You can’t afford the $100 start-up costs for your business but you can spend $100 a week on take-outs and beer, cigarettes. We work at jobs to earn money and spend it on treats for instant gratification instead of investing it in our passions to create genuine happiness for ourselves and value for others. Sometimes our goals just seem too grandiose for us to achieve. We look at them as years of hard slog and our brains convince us to take the easy way out and give up. It’s not completely our fault. We are hard wired to take the easy route. Evolution has seen to that. But we also have self-awareness. So let’s use this to our advantage and break free from procrastination…

Below you will see the major indicators that you may be in the planning trap. Ask yourself if any of them apply to you. Consider each before you begin/continue planning how will accomplish your next goal. If they do apply – implement the relevant solutions ASAP. When you see a change in momentum (and you will) leave a comment to encourage other readers how they worked for you.

1.Self-deception:

You believe that you are taking action and making progress. Planning is just a precursor to taking action.

The reality is you are running on a treadmill watching a mental projection of possible outcomes. Our minds find it easy to mistake these dreams as realities. Planning is like imagining all the bad things that could happen and trying to avoid them before you take action.

Solution: Mindfulness

Always be aware that planning is just a precursor to taking action. A different feeling comes from implementing a plan than from just goal setting and planning. This is like the difference between wanting (goal setting) to be a writer and outlining a story idea (planning). When you are actually typing away, in the zone and buzzing with excitement 100, 1,000, 10,000 words into your first story, or blog post – this is taking action.

Simply be mindful that this is the feeling you should have when you work on your goals. If you don’t have this feeling then you have planned enough and it is time to take action. Or you may be working on the wrong goal.

2. Information overload and confusion:

When you try to plan for the unexpected you find that there is no end to what can happen. You think of all the mistakes that could be made, you see how your original plans become obsolete. Your thoughts become negative and problematic. You get confused and your enthusiasm dwindles alongside your confidence. There are many challenges to achieving your goals. Don’t allow them to beat you before the first hurdle. This can prevent you from starting in the first place.

Solution: Get started – take action daily

There will always be challenges. This is how we learn best – from experience. Once you have your plan set up – take immediate action.
Do just one single thing every day. If you do more then that’s great but just make sure you take at least one step every day. Make it easier by completing a task from your plan where no challenge is faced.
For example if your goal is to launch a blog then decide on a domain name. When it’s decided then buy it right there and then. Don’t leave it festering in a notepad as a vague idea. That’s all you need to do. Next day get hosting and install wordpress and get used to the interface. You don’t have to post or do anything else. Just play with it. Just feel the excitement from taking your first step. Next day write your first post. Or even the first draft of your first post. Your first image. Your first choice of a theme. One small and easy task at a time every day. Before you know it you will be up and running and growing in confidence.

3. Waking up to the planning trap

Sometimes you realize that you have spent days or weeks in the planning stages of a project and have taken no action. You are deflated, annoyed, unconfident. You have lost all your momentum, the task in hand with all the infinite possibilities of failure make your goals seem too big for you. You have convinced yourself that it is not worth the effort. The work- benefit trade-off isn’t enough. You have also forgotten why you set out to accomplish your goal in the first place.

Solution: Visualize your goal regularly

Along with implementing steps 1 and 2 – it is important that you visualize the final result that you want. This fuels the fires of desire. Visualisation can give an energy boost to take action and also to believe in yourself.

See yourself as having already achieved your goals. Now you must experience the accomplished you in the first person – looking back at the old (current) you. You have arrived and you are remembering the person you once were, with all the doubts and fears. You are happy, wealthy, in love, slim, whatever it is you want to become. This is also a great vantage point because you can look back and see all the steps you have taken to get here. All of a sudden the goal becomes more attainable, the excitement returns. From here it is frightening to imagine that you never even started. Imagine you never crawled out of the planning trap that you were in for days, weeks, years. What would you say to yourself? Get bloody working – it’s great up here. If you do this often and vividly enough it is actually difficult to not take action because the benefits are so worth the effort.

4. Giving up

The confused thinking, information overload and lowering of the excitement leaves you feeling overwhelmed. You blame other things for not following your goal. You have wasted your time, you don’t have the money to invest, and you can’t take the risk. These gurus are full of crap – living the dream is just not for you. All the buzz and excitement you first felt when you originally visualized your goal has gone. The project gets shelved. Your dream is caught in the planning trap and the big bad wolf of defeatism has come to gobble it up.

Solution: Remember your whys

If you want to give up on a goal then that is fine. Put no pressure on yourself. You don’t need to do it; no-one is judging you. But before you do – I want you to 2 quick exercises. Once you have completed them you can throw in the towel if you still want to.

Exercise 1. Write down your whys
Ask yourself why you wanted to achieve the goal in the first place and what you wanted to accomplish with it. In short, write down your whys and answer them honestly.

Why do I want to achieve X?
How will I feel when I achieve X?
What will I get out of it?
What will others get out of it?
Be as detailed as you can in answering each of the questions.
You want to become financially independent so you can provide a better quality of life for your family. You want to become a writer so you can express yourself and influence people. You want to learn photography because you love the idea of creating beautiful images and having a valuable skillset.

Exercise 2. What have you already achieved?

What are my achievements?
What am I good at?
What do other people say I am good for?
How do I feel about it?
Remind yourself of what you have already accomplished. We are so used to being in our own skins that we are too often unaware of just how far we have come.

A few years ago I had never known many kids and honestly couldn’t be bothered with them. Now I have four and am considered to be a great dad and step-dad. I am also a fun uncle. Not so long ago I would have avoided them like the plague. Now I talk and joke, and get to act like a kid myself with them and I love it. That is with no goal setting or planning whatsoever. You are already skilled in multiple ways. Think about your achievements that you would have once considered impossible just a short time ago if you were “planning” to achieve them and imagining all the obstacles you’d have to overcome.

Exercise 3.

Am I capable of achieving my goal? (the answer is yes but you still need to ask yourself the question for the desired effect)
Do I still want to achieve my goal?
If not then what do I really want to achieve?

If you still want to achieve your goal then create your plan, make a decision and take action. Bookmark or Copy this post. Keep in mind steps 1-4 and I guarantee you will be more productive if these indications were true to your situation.