Setting Priorities and Using To-Do Lists in your Internet Marketing
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The document discusses strategies for managing priorities and to-do lists as a sole business owner, highlighting the importance of focusing on significant tasks. It suggests using methods such as a simplified daily task list and an urgent/important matrix to prioritize effectively. Ultimately, the document emphasizes the necessity of taking actionable steps towards achieving goals, even if only spending a small amount of time each day on productive activities.
Setting Priorities and Using To-Do Lists in your Internet Marketing
- 1. Priorities & To Do Lists When youβre your own boss, it can be awkward knowing what to prioritise. There almost certainly arenβt enough hours in the day to do everything, especially when youβre not just the boss but the sole employee of your business. So how can you make sure that the important stuff gets done? Preferably on time!
- 2. Priorities & To Do Lists To-do lists are one option. Personally, I donβt like them as β for me at least β I find that more things appear on them than get crossed off. The lists can be good for making sure that small things happen. But for major items, I find that theyβre less useful.
- 3. Priorities & To Do Lists One way to get over that is to have a relatively short list of things that need to get done β revamp your website, create more content, do some promotion, that kind of thing β and then have a separate βdo this todayβ list that has shorter tasks that can actually be completed today. So if your main task was creating content, you might decide to split it down like this:
- 4. Priorities & To Do Lists β Decide on topics (remembering not to use that as an excuse to procrastinate) β Pick one of those topics and decide on some sub-topics β Write content for a specific amount of time, even if the piece isnβt finished in that time β Stop writing mid sentence, mid paragraph. This is a technique I learned recently and it works because our minds generally hate things that are incomplete. Stopping part way (as if the buzzer has gone off on that quiz show you used to watch) accomplishes this neatly.
- 5. Priorities & To Do Lists You can do the same kind of list for any big task on your to-do list because every big task is just an amalgamation of lots of smaller tasks. So you could have a βmasterβ to-do list, pick an item from it and work on that for a few days (or weeks) until itβs finished.
- 6. Priorities & To Do Lists One snag a lot of people find is working out the priority of the things on their list. Itβs tempting to mark everything as a number one priority. But when you do that, the effect is for nothing to stand out and (assuming youβre human) thereβs a good chance youβll pick off the easier tasks first. After all, youβve marked them as top priority so they must be important.
- 7. Priorities & To Do Lists Using an Important/Urgent matrix can help overcome that. Split a piece of paper into 4 segments so that it looks as though youβve drawn a giant + sign on it. Label the top columns Urgent & Not Urgent. Label the side rows Important & Not Important.
- 8. Priorities & To Do Lists Then assign your to-do list tasks to one of the boxes. Get this as right as you can but go with your first instinct on each task. Youβve then got your priority list. Anything in the Urgent Important box is high priority. Anything in the Not Urgent, Not Important box can safely be left undone, maybe forever.
- 9. Priorities & To Do Lists Another way some people sort out their priorities is to pick just one thing to focus on β for the day or the week or until itβs finished. Itβs not something Iβve personally used but I know quite a few people who do use it very successfully. Thereβs a book called βThe One Thingβ that goes into the idea in a lot more depth. Check it out on Amazon and use the Look Inside feature to decide whether itβs an idea that will work for you.
- 10. Priorities & To Do Lists The big thing with all these methods is to actually do something. Itβs all well and good having a list of things to do. But if thatβs all it is β a list, quietly nagging you somewhere β then itβs not much use.
- 11. Priorities & To Do Lists Itβs far better to take action on your list. Set aside some time each day to work on your internet marketing business. Even something as seemingly small as an hour a day can work nicely. Especially if itβs focussed. Itβs generally thought that a lot of people who work 8 hours a day in offices donβt actually spend much more time than that on productive work.
- 12. Priorities & To Do Lists Meetings, reports, checking & answering emails and all the other things that happen in office life take up most of their time. So even if an hour seems far too short a time to make a difference, do it regularly and youβll be pleasantly surprised how much it mounts up.
- 13. Priorities & To Do Lists For instance, if I spend an hour on my internet marketing I could: β Write upwards of 1,000 words of content β do that for 4 or 5 days and youβve got some massive content β Create a slide show video like this one β it takes me maybe 40 minutes to write the content, 10 to record it and another 10 to upload it & do all the behind the scenes tasks to get it live β Add useful replies to forums and Facebook groups (taking care not to get side-tracked and think youβre being productive when youβre not) β Outsource some simple tasks on Fiverr to get them off the main to-do list
- 14. Priorities & To Do Lists So spend a bit of time on your to-do lists and prioritising them in a way that works for you. Then make sure you do the really important part β actually doing something towards your internet marketing business. You can have all the plans and ideas in the world but if they stay as that, youβre no further ahead.
- 15. Priorities & To Do Lists Do something. Even if itβs not perfect (it never will be perfect anyway) And if youβd like more practical, real world help with your internet marketing, join my list by clicking this link.