Who Has Even Got Time for This?
Not me. I’m a father of two young boys, 7 weeks and 6 years old. I have 2.5 businesses and a busy network. I absolutely DON’T have time to create content…
And here I am, trying to smash it out on a Friday afternoon when I know I could have done it earlier in the week, but I prioritised client work, proposals, and networking. But I know the outputs and the value of the content, so I’m here regardless.
This is my lawn yesterday. After I cut the lines in.
No, they’re not perfect. But does anyone come to my house and say “Oh gee, Paul – those lines could have been straighter”? No. They don’t.
What they say is, “Wow, how come you have a young family, 2 businesses, and you’re STILL the only guy in the street with a trimmed, well-kept lawn, AND you’ve cut lines into it!!!? How do you find the time?”
What I’m saying here is two things.
We Can All Find the Time if It’s a Priority
When you’re super engaged in something, passionate about it, and see the value in getting it done, the time can be found. Alternatively, if you REALLY can’t find the time and it needs doing anyway, you will pay someone to do it. Either way, it gets done.
The stuff you find yourself looking at after three weeks on your ‘to-do’ list? Bin it. It’s not that important. And if you can’t bring yourself to bin it, because a small voice inside is nagging you, then you need to change what you’re doing and mix it up, because you’re leaving important tasks on your to-do list that will make a huge difference to your business.
For tips on prioritising tasks and enhancing productivity, check out Maximise Your Productivity.
Procrastination is a Killer in the World of Content and Business
As an ADHD employee in retail, I was forced to find ways to complete tasks I didn’t want to do. I trained myself mentally to get them done… to become a ‘completer-finisher’ as Dave Plunkett describes me. Organisation came the same way… not because I enjoyed it, but because it was necessary.
The stuff that sits on your ‘to-do’ list for ages is also probably the same stuff that, if you can find a way to make it a habit, it will CHANGE your business forever.
Learn more about overcoming procrastination in How to Create More Content with Less Time.
So How Do I Do That?
Accountability
First up, find someone to hold you accountable for getting it done. If you’ve got someone you need to ‘report’ to, then it’s much more likely to be achieved.
Reframe It
Stop seeing it as the task that needs to be done. See it as the outcomes you will achieve in 6-9 months as an output of what you’re doing.
Two Diaries
Most folks make the mistake of thinking ‘this needs to be done today/this week’, but never create a space for the long-term jobs.
If you want to be truly successful in managing your tasks, you need to create long-term, mid-term, and near-term goals/tasks and organise them.
In this digital age, it’s tempting to use the likes of Notion or similar – and I’ve nothing against that, IF it works for you. However, despite being a tech nerd, I’ve found I still can’t beat a good old hand-written diary each day.
One diary is for ALL the jobs that need doing. Ideally, each page split into long, mid, and near-term jobs.
The second diary is for what I intend to accomplish today. I take jobs from the first diary and put them into the second diary. I add all the near-term tasks, one mid-term (minimum), and one long-term each day.
And here’s the important bit – in my mind, I frame that as having been given that task list by my ‘boss’. (Inner boss, if you like, thanks Joe Leech). And I’m not allowed to leave for the day until those tasks are done – without a VERY good excuse.
If I DO have to leave without completing those tasks, I consider two scenarios:
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It was worth sacrificing doing those jobs to jump on the ‘unknown unknowns’ that came in – and they will result in better gains. However, I now need to make sure these other things get caught up on and analyse the priorities of those tasks for importance and urgency.
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I was unrealistic in what I planned to do today and didn’t manage to complete what I planned… therefore I’ve been hard on myself, unrealistic, and ultimately, self-defeating. You wouldn’t do that to an employee… DON’T do it to yourself. It’s not helpful.
Granted, the above doesn’t directly correlate with content creation… but then again, it DOES. Content is often bottom of that pile for most people. So if you don’t figure out how to defeat your procrastination… you’ll always be finding reasons not to create.
For additional strategies on content creation, read Creating Blogs that FLY: SEO, AI, and Lead Conversion.
And with that, you’ll always struggle with personal brand and inbound leads.
Either it’s important to you, or it’s not!
Stop with the excuses, and get going!!!!
