Why the hell would I want to wake up early?  I’d much rather stay up late and get things done then.  What’s wrong with being a night owl?

Why Night Owls Are So Much Less Productive Than Early Risers

Just kidding. That headline isn’t true at all.  There’s nothing wrong with being a night owl and there’s no magical reason that waking up early is better than staying up late (so no flame wars in the comments please).  If you’re staying up late and getting a lot of truly meaningful things done, then keep on keepin’ on.  There is no shortage of people who are burning the midnight oil and creating the life that they want.  More power to them (or ‘More power to you’ if you’re one of them).

But, consider this …

Working Late Could Be A Sign Of A Bigger Problem

Whether you’re working late, you have to ask yourself why you are choosing to do that.  Is it because you’re setting meaningful goals, blocking out time, and tackling them?  Or is it because you are trying to “catch up” or cram things in to an overworked lifestyle?  I spent a lot of my life in the latter, and I can tell you, it’s no fun.  When you’re living a life of reaction – trying to figure out how to handle it all – you open yourself up to “working the problem” rather than working through the problem.

Here’s what I mean.  If you’re falling behind, or you have more goals than time, the simplest answer is to stay up later and try and get more done.  It’s the easiest answer.  But just because it’s easy doesn’t mean it’s right.  Staying up later to “get it all done” may essentially be an enabling behavior.  Maybe the problem isn’t that you’ve fallen behind – maybe the real issue is that your daily habits don’t set you up for getting ahead. In other words, the issue isn’t that you’re not bailing water fast enough, it’s that you have holes in the bottom of your boat.

And if that’s the case, staying up later to bail faster isn’t the solution.  Patching those holes is.  And doing that might require:

• Changing poor work habits

• Improving your time management skills

• Resisting the temptation to engage in time-wasting distractions

• Reducing the number of commitments / goals you manage

• Telling people ‘no,’ even when it’s inconvenient / uncomfortable

• Making a life change (for example, new job / career)

• Etc., etc., etc.

Working Late Could Be Taking The Easy Way Out

Again, if you’re a night owl who is making consistent progress on a life of balanced, meaningful goals, then more power to you.  But if this article has been making you squirm (and truth be told, it’s making me squirm as well as I think of some habits I need to work on), then your spidey-sense is telling you that you might need to start patching holes instead of playing catch up.

Working late is all well and good, but may simply be a way of distracting yourself with the problem rather than facing the discomfort that comes with trying to fix it.  Listen to your gut.  What’s it telling you?

Why I Became An Early Riser – And Why You Might Want To As Well

When I realized that working late wasn’t getting me ahead, I decided to start getting up early instead.  Why?  Because there’s a different dynamic that exists in those early hours, a special kind of time that lends itself more strongly towards getting ahead rather than just “doing stuff.”  There’s something about building that habit that just makes it easier to think about making changes that really do improve your life.

Getting up early has given me time to think abut what I want to do with my life without the distractions of the world.  I can think more clearly and make decisions more objectively, and on top of that, it just feels good to get into a waking groove earlier.  In the next post – the beginning of a series of articles about getting better sleep – I’ll talk more about the specific benefits that come with making the shift to an early riser routine.

Until then, I’ll see you in the comments, and I do hope you’ll subscribe to this blog to catch the “better sleep” series.

Schedule explosions are a fact of life – your boss, your spouse, your kids, your inbox, your immune system (cough!), your bad karma – they all attack your well-laid plans with a passion on a daily basis.  When this happens (and it happens often), you have three choices:

1. Get depressed/drained/angry, and resign yourself to falling behind.
2. Pop open your planner of choice and rejuggle your schedule.
3. Grit your teeth and decide to steer the ship back on course, no matter the pain.

Don’t Let Yourself Fall Behind

Choice #1 sucks.  You don’t want it, not only because it hinders progress, but because it’s insane.  Don’t be bummed that life stepped in and kicked down your neatly piled stack of to-dos … acknowledge that’s how life operates.  You might as well be mad at your 2-year old for dropping crumbs on the floor.  It’s how life works – and when you accept it instead of fiercely hoping it won’t happen, you don’t get sapped and you’re better equipped to handle better options.

As M. Scott Peck wisely said: “Life is difficult. … Once we see this truth, we transcend it.” Translation:  Once you accept that schedules get smashed easily, it won’t grind you down.  You can then roll with the punches.

Rejuggling Is An Option, But …

If your schedule gets hosed, you still want to get things done – you’ll just have to move them elsewhere.  That’s one of the reasons I use an Excel spreadsheet for my planner – it makes it easy to drag and drop blocks o’ work wherever they need to be tossed to after the day has gone to hell.   Since I accept the fact that life doesn’t honor my neat planning attempts, it doesn’t bug me so much.

But there’s a hidden danger here – using rejuggling as a crutch.  If you get into the habit of saying, “Oh well, I didn’t get it done today, I’ll do it tomorrow,” it won’t be long before everything starts moving to tomorrow, again and again, and again … and you get desensitized to how much that sucks.  And your progress slows, because you tolerate the need to rejuggle more and more.

So while rejuggling is a necessity, it can make your productivity muscles flabbier by the day.  That’s why it’s a good idea to temper this strategy with controlled bursts of overtime.

Keep On Keeping On … Even When It Hurts

If life threw you a few curveballs today and you weren’t able to get a few things done, you could rejuggle … or you could push on after hours and decide that you won’t rest until you make progress.  I’m doing that right now.  I was supposed to write this blog article at lunch, but life got in the way.  I was tempted to push it off to tomorrow, but I realized if I made myself do it tonight, after hours, a few things would happen:

1. I would get the task out of the way (and make tomorrow easier).
2. I would protect tomorrow’s schedule (rather than mess it up by my own hand).
3. I would feel better about myself (because I rocked out, even though I’m tiiiired).

But there’s one more benefit to sticking around after hours to finish up the things that didn’t get done earlier:  I get mad. Mad because I let a few things derail my focus today.  Mad because I didn’t say no to a task I should have. Mad because I let a meeting run too long.  Mad at the little things I flubbed on, things I know better about, things that force me to be typing at 11:25pm when I’d rather be sleeping.

But being mad is a good thing. Because if you’re mad enough, you take action to change.

Tomorrow’s going to be a much more efficient day, because I stuck around to finish today’s tasks and because tomorrow I’ll channel my dissatisfaction into a stronger focus.

Nobody likes overtime … but it can easily build your productivity muscles if you push yourself hard.  Focus on keeping on course as closely as possible, even if you have to work personal overtime, and you’l be amazed at how you kick some of your habits in gear.

Try it today – you’ll thank yourself for it.

Want to bust that feeling today and feel like you’re ahead of the game? Then front load your schedule for the day and feel like a champion (and stress less!) by getting ahead of the game.

Front Loading: Your Productivity Bazooka

Front loading is simply the act of slamming out results in the early part of the schedule, rather than the latter. In other words, move your “crunch time” to the very start. By forcing yourself to think in crunch mode right off the bat, you’ll have a much easier time of avoiding distractions, staying focused, and delivering great results.

Three Easy Ways To Make Monday Rock

• One effective tactic I use is to mentally pretend that my boss has given me an urgent deadline that is well before the end of the day. If I have a full workday of stuff scheduled, I re-frame the due date to 1:30 pm, and jump on work like crazy. When you think “Someone needs this quick,” it’s generally more driving than “I’d sure like to get things done faster …”

• Another tactic is to make it a game. Set aggressive mini-milestones throughout the day and start the clock running. When you see the time ticking away, you’ll have an easier time knocking out your front loading efforts. Compete against yourself, and prove how much you truly do rock out.

• A final tactic is to focus on something you want to do with that extra time you’ll have if you crunch for the first chunk of your Monday. Maybe you can reward yourself with some relevant blog reading. Or you can take a long lunch and not feel guilty about it. Or – just as importantly – you can get ahead of the game by front loading some of Tuesday’s tasks instead.

Give It A Shot; Leave Others In The Dust

Front loading your Mondays aggressively can put you way ahead of the competition (as well as your co-workers). While other people are moaning and complaining about their Mondays, you can smile knowing you’ve done more by 12pm than they’ll do all day. And getting ahead of the game is a great way to turn Mondays into something to look forward to.

You’ve read this far – don’t forget to subscribe for more day-rocking productivity tips.

Yesterday on a coaching call I mentioned to a client that excuses are something we tell ourselves to avoid taking action. We say we’re too busy, or we’re too tired, or it’s not the right time because X, Y or Z. Or worse: “I just don’t know where to start.”

“I call bull – - – -.” was my response. We do what we want to do – not what we say we’d like to do, but what we want to do – and we do it at all costs. Think about all the times you went above and beyond, when you did whatever it took, even when it was tough, embarrassing and/or painful – because you really, really wanted something.

Excuses are a simple way of absolving ourselves of taking action. It’s easier to make an excuse than push past our comfort zones, to face our fears, or to take responsibility for the fact that when it comes down to it, we just aren’t willing to take action. And that’s no way to live. No. Way. To. Live.

Allowing excuses to remain in your life is equal to planting the seeds for regret and watering them faithfully every single day. Don’t be a sucker. Do whatever it takes to push past them.

Why am I banging this gong so loudly? Because yesterday I got called out on it, as I had lunch with a friend who asked me why I hadn’t made progress on something that four months earlier was absolutely critical to my long-term happiness. I kept trying to answer, I could recognize that everything I could think of saying was nothing more than excuse.

So I ate my damn Chinese food instead, and then made a deal with him that I’d be accountable for emailing him every single day with a quick note on something I had done to push forward, no matter what. Sent the first email last night. Feels good. Damn good.

Now What Are You Going To Do?

Take your hands away from the keyboard and mouse and ask yourself this: What are you settling for simply because you’re making excuses? What do you need to tackle that’s worth tackling, no matter how hard it is? What matters most that you’ve been neglecting? Seriously, stop what you are doing and think about this NOW, before you let it slide and regret it for years … or forever.

…

…

Now, get in touch with someone you trust and ask them to hold you accountable for proving you did something to move forward on a regular basis. You’ll know if you’re on the right track by how badly you’re squirming when you think of it.

You get one shot at this life. Don’t make excuses. Get accountable. Move forward. Don’t let another day pass you by.

Do something about this now. Not later, when you’ll conveniently tell yourself “I’ll get to it.” Do it now.

You’ll thank yourself for it.

Dave

After seeing success story after success story, I decided that I’d do the same thing. Except instead of waking up bleary eyed, cursing the dawn as I pried myself out of bed, I’d find a way to make it easy to make the gradual changes that would turn me into what I like to call a “power riser” (someone who wakes up ready with enough energy to kick the world’s ass). Here’s how you can do it, too.

Step 1: Decide You’re Actually Going To Do It (And Not Just “Try”)

In the real world, when you try to change a habit, you screw up along the way. You backslide. You have bad days. Most people quit when this happens, and say “I’m just not cut out for this.” You know this to be crap, because you’re not most people. That’s why, if you decide to do this, you’re going to decide that getting up early (and loving it) is something you are absolutely going to do, because you are the kind of person who absolutely rocks.

And no, I’m not sucking up to you.It’s just that as a coach, I know that everybody has this jerk who lives with them called self-doubt, and he/she is going to do his/her best to beat the living crap out of your attempt to do something better with your life, because sleeping in is easier. But the easy way doesn’t get you a big business that gives you all the things you want in your life. So decide that getting leverage on your day is 100% do-able for you, ’cause you’re not going to quit.

Bottom Line: The earlier you get up, the more interruption-free, high-productivity time you have at your disposal. You want that high-powered time so you can get the edge and get more of what you really want. Every time you feel like quitting, tell yourself, “It’s worth it to see this through, damnit!”

Step Two: Decide You’re Going To Do It Gradually

The easiest way to totally screw up an attempt at habit change is to bite off more than you can chew. You know this, because it’s happened. We all do it. Most people bite off more than they can do and quit. But not you. You’re smart enough to realize that gradual change is how habits are formed. So nice and easy is how you’re going to handle it.

If you currently get up at 7:45, don’t try to get up at 5:00 am tomorrow. Shoot for 7:30. When that becomes easy, shoot for 7:15. Then when you get the hang of that, move to 7:00. Do it slow and steady and you’ll win. Your body needs time to readjust it’s rhythm and settle out. Jump too far, too fast and you’re making it hard on yourself and boosting the chances you’ll quit.

Now, some of you are going to say “Bad advice, Dave! You can change habits in an instant!” That’s 100% true, if you have enough leverage. Case in point : Grandma. Tried to quit smoking for years to no avail. Had a heart attack and the doctor said, “One more smoke and you’re a dead woman.” She quit immediately. That’s damn strong leverage. If you’ve got that kind of leverage, go right ahead. But chances are you don’t have a do-or-die situation before you. In that case, gradual change wins.

Bottom line: Resist the bull**** of modern marketing that says you have to have things now or never. Tell yourself it’s ok to make progress incrementally. Give it 3 months, and you’re there for life.

Step Three: Decide You’re Going To Get Up At The Same Time Every Day

I can already hear everybody screaming about this one. “But the weekends are my time to sleep in!”, you say. I say, bah. The reason we want to sleep in on the weekends is because we’re doing things that screw up our body’s sleep rhythm, and by the time the weekend hits, we’re toast. It’s the same principle as eating poorly – your energy levels get hosed.

Let me tell you this from experience (and find any early-riser-by-choice and they’ll agree): When you build the habit of getting up at the same time every day, you will naturally have a boatload of energy when you wake up. You won’t feel the need to sleep in. Of course, that’s assuming you go to bed when you’re tired.

Once you feel yourself flagging at night, that’s your cue to wrap things up. It may feel a little strange (or not “high achiever” enough) to say don’t force yourself to burn the midnight oil, but you’ll actually be more productive this way once you get through the initial adjustment period. Not to knock night-owls, I’m just saying go to bed when you’re tired, not when you’re exhausted.

Do five minutes of web searching and you’ll find study after study that shows that overtime causes a drop in productivity due to exhaustion/mental fatigue. It’s no different with your body. Once you get in the habit of waking up at the same time every day, you’ll be more productive during those early hours than you ever were at night.

Bottom line: Consistency is key (even on weekends). Wake up at the same time every day so your body chemistry gets into a solid rhythm.

Step Four: Decide To Have A Reason To Get Up In The Morning

Most people have such a hard time getting up in the morning (early or not) because they don’t have something compelling to look forward to. There’s no joy in waking up to simply meet the morning grind, especially when the night before was such a late one.

If you want to get up early every day, have something interesting and engaging to do in the morning. If your brain takes a while to “warm up,” make those first 15 or 30 minutes something that doesn’t require a lot of brain power, such as reading a novel or even grabbing a shower. Once you pass through that 15 minute barrier your brain should be waking up sufficiently, and you’ll likely see the warm up time decrease the longer you’re enforcing a consistent wakeup time.

Most people wake up thinking of all the things they have to do, such as work / bills / chores / etc., and of course they want to return to the fog of sleep. Have something you want to do, and view it as something you get to do because of your new discipline, and waking up becomes a whole lot easier.

Bottom Line: Do something fun for yourself in the morning and watch how easy it becomes to get out of bed.

Step Five: Get The Hell Out Of Bed, Now

Your pillow is soft. Your blankets are warm. Your flesh is weak, pal, weak. If you allow yourself to stay in bed for more than a split second, the chance of you blowing your habit-building goodness goes sky high. Whatever you do, when you wake up, get out of bed and get as far away from it as possible. Leave the room if possible. Just escape, before the temptation of sweet, sweet oblivion draws you back.

It helps to remind yourself how crappy you feel (physically and emotionally) when you hit the snooze button. Those nine minutes are a second helping gone sour. Don’t do it. Remind yourself how weak you felt the last time you intended to wake up early (and blew it), and let that shame spiring your butt out of bed.

Oh, and when you do get out of bed, if you’re doing something to warm up, do not sit/lay down. ‘Tis death, friend, death. You’ll just curl up … and huddle for warmth … and before you kn… (zzzzzzzzzzzz)

*Huh?* (shakes head) Oh, yeah, yeah, I’m back. (rubs eyes)

When I started along the early riser path, my #1 tactic was to head straight for the shower immediately after waking up. You stand up, you move around, and you’re golden.

Bottom line: That seductively warm bed yearns for your very soul. Don’t give in. Run, don’t walk, as soon as the alarm goes off.

Now It’s Time To Make This Work For You

These five tips should get you well on your way to becoming an early riser. They were the core habits I developed after I got married, had kids, and realized that a tasty slice of morning was the only way to get my business off the ground.

I had one advantage, though … I was a personal development coach, so I was pretty grounded in the process of developing new habits. So if the thought of becoming a full-out “power riser” seems a little daunting to you, you can make it a whole lot easier by downloading my “early riser” audios here.

Here’s to your newfound productivity (and please leave your success stories in the comments below),

Dave

Scoreboards Are An Undeniable Motivator
I’ve always been a long time believer in tracking your successes. Keeping a running log on what you’re actually doing to move forward on your projects helps motivate you to do more. If you are kicking out day after day, seeing that success log build up makes you want to follow through even more. If you miss a day or two, but you keep checking that log, you’ll feel an internal pressure to get back in the saddle again.

The power of this concept simply generates better results (so much that I’ve devoted an entire coaching session to it in the 30 Hours a Day program). Reinforcing your successes causes your brain to focus on your goal as an ‘eventuality’ more than a ‘possibility.’ And you know from personal experience that when you know for sure that a specific result is going to happen if you take action, you’re much more motivated than if you just hope you’ll achieve it.

What Seinfeld Says About Productivity
In Brad Issac’s post on Lifehacker.com, he describes this exchange with Seinfeld:

He said the way to be a better comic was to create better jokes and the way to create better jokes was to write every day … He revealed a unique calendar system he uses to pressure himself to write. Here’s how it works.

He told me to get a big wall calendar that has a whole year on one page and hang it on a prominent wall. The next step was to get a big red magic marker.

He said for each day that I do my task of writing, I get to put a big red X over that day. “After a few days you’ll have a chain. Just keep at it and the chain will grow longer every day. You’ll like seeing that chain, especially when you get a few weeks under your belt. Your only job next is to not break the chain.”

“Don’t break the chain,” he said again for emphasis.

Over the years I’ve used his technique in many different areas. I’ve used it for exercise, to learn programming, to learn network administration, to build successful websites and build successful businesses.

It works because it isn’t the one-shot pushes that get us where we want to go, it is the consistent daily action that builds extraordinary outcomes. You may have heard “inch by inch anything’s a cinch.” Inch by inch does work if you can move an inch every day.

Jerry and Brad have a solid understanding of how to turn up the internal pressure that actually gets the job done. It takes ten seconds to pull a calendar in front of you and mark off a quick win. Here’s a few simple ways you can make this happen starting today.

Talk Is Cheap – Do This And Make It Happen
Whether you dig paper, dry erase or the web, there are easy ways to put the power of chains to work for you.

• Buy a laminate calendar from your nearest office supply store and hang it in your office, and keep that dry-erase marker handy.
• Print up a monthly or yearly calendar for free at ePrintables (leave the image off when creating the calendar and you’ve got a nice empty box to write your goal in). PDFpad works, too. You might want to check Chris and Ben’s versions of it as well.
• Use the addictive web-based tool Don’t Break The Chain. Simple to use and frees you of the need to use paper (it allows you to create multiple goals so you can manage them easily in one place).

What Is Your First Chain Going To Be About?
Walk the walk – commit to using this powerful technique and then tell us what you’re ensuring you make progress on in 2008. And when you’re done with that, subscribe to this blog to get great tips like these throughout the year.

1. Before you do anything at all in the morning, write down the 3 most important things you have to, have to, have to get done that day.
2. Start working on them.
3. Any time you feel the urge to work on something else, tell yourself “I’ll get to that later. After all these are the MOST IMPORTANT THINGS I HAVE TO, HAVE TO, HAVE TO GET DONE TODAY.”
   (And yes, speak to yourself in ALL CAPS. It really helps.)

Easier Said Than Done? Fuggetabboutit.
Don’t give me “easier said than done.” It’s just an excuse to get out of the work of doing it. Instead, do it already, and find the exceptions to the rules when they make sense. In other words, only work on things that are not the MOST IMPORTANT THINGS when …

• You simply can’t work on them (you’re waiting for a callback or an email reply).
• You have something that is truly, do-or-die time constrained (I have to call Mike by 9am).
• (Some other really good reason I fully expect you to leave in my comments section.)

The trick here is to develop the habit of forcing yourself to work on the MOST IMPORTANT THINGS and get them out of the way as quickly as possible, because that’s where progress is born. Where willpower is birthed. Where discipline is developed. Where strength is sired. (Ok, I’m getting tired of the alliteration, too.)

Bottom line is that we procrastinate (in part) because we want to get out of working on these MOST IMPORTANT THINGS. But if you bite the bullet and do those first – hard as it is – you’ll develop an insane willpower that will take you further than you’re getting now.

So Do This Right Now

• Leave me a comment with your agreements / disagreements / exception to the rule. If it rocks I’ll add it to the list.
• Get the *&^% back to your MOST IMPORTANT THINGS already!

As a coach, I see people miss this point far too often, and I have to correct it in them (and admittedly, sometimes, in myself). Goals can be intimidating to people – not because people are weak or incompetent, but because there’s a level of overwhelm that comes to an achiever when the “big picture” gets too much (or all) of the focus. And achievers like us … we have some pretty big big pictures.

But Small Goals Rock, Too
It’s great to have big goals, but if you aren’t executing on them on a daily basis, you’re hosed. It’s the little sub-goals that get you where you’re going, so you have to stay “in the moment” and focus on knocking them out. Not focusing on gaining the small wins, now, will kill your momentum. In other words, quit daydreaming/obsessing about winning the race and focus on putting one foot in front of the other, now.

Earning a million dollars or losing 50 pounds? Great goals. But it can be a challenge to stay motivated when you’re still working on that first $1000 or first ten pounds. The finish line seems so far away. And that can drain your motivation. While so many people tell you that you should focus on your goals, I’d have to tell you from experience that putting your focus on the finish line isn’t going to get you there.

Focus vs. Presence
If you keep your focus only on your goals, you’ll live in wishful thinking land. (”I’m gonna be rich! I’m gonna lose 50 pounds!”) When it comes time to get into action though, you’re going to be more likely to wish you were at the finish line and you’ll hear that whooshing sound as your motivation slips away. I’ve seen it too many times to count. Being too focused on your goal can put you in the dangerous position of resenting the (serious) work you have to do to get there.

On the other hand, if your focus is on your actions – your sub-goals – you’re going to be on the right track. But when you focus on your tasks, you want to keep your goal present (meaning you remind yourself of it) to put your non-exciting task in perspective. In other words, you don’t say, “I’m going to lose 50 pounds!” you say, “I’m going to get through lunch and dinner without snacking because that’s going to help me lose 50 pounds.” This way, you infuse even a “painful” task like sticking to your meal plan with purpose. And purpose is a seed for motivation.

The Process vs. The Prize
So now you know to keep your focus on your tasks (because those tasks are what you have to make sure you do) and to simply keep your goals present as a way to make sure those tasks have a motivating meeting. But what do you do when you are focusing on your task … and you aren’t taking action?

When my clients struggle with generating the motivation to take action, it’s generally because they are focusing ONLY on the process (painful task) and not the prize (awesome goal). Their breakthroughs come when they are redirected to focus on going through the process as a means of grabbing the goal. (Again, keeping the goal present but not in focus.)

In other words, it’s a hell of a lot easier to do something you don’t want to do when you are firmly convinced that it matters.

So Get To It
Take a minute now and think of a goal you’re stalling on – one that you think about a lot but that you aren’t taking action on. What’s the next action you need to take on that goal? Read back through this post and from that article on Trizle and get your focus off you what you wish you had and back onto what you will do next. Do it now – you’ll thank yourself for it.

- Dave Navarro

Help! What Do I Do?
A lot of people react to this situation in a typical way – they just kind of freeze up. Since it’s not obvious what should be worked on, and since there are so many competing priorities … sometimes nothing gets done at all. Maybe it’s because they spend time analyzing “the best” course of action. Maybe it’s because, unable to choose a big priority to focus on, they do something relatively unimportant.

Who knows. But if you’ve been in one of these spots, you know exactly what I’m talking about. Big important things don’t get done because of indecision and self-imposed time pressure. So what’s an achiever to do?

Give Your Schedule Both Barrels
One solution is to use the “shotgun approach.” A shotgun shoots pellets in a spread pattern, covering a much wider range of fire than a simple pistol. Now, I’m not saying if you’re stuck for what to work on load up a real firearm … but what you can do is shotgun your schedule.

Instead of choosing one or two major things to work on, set a wide range of tasks that spread over many different areas of life that will only take 15, 20 or 30 minutes each. Maybe you hammer out a blog entry, file that small stack of paperwork in your briefcase, make 3 phone calls, and whatever other set of small tasks you can think of to hit as many areas of life that you can reasonably cover.

“The Peace Of The Done.”
While this won’t advance you much in any particular direction it will do one thing – it will get you going. It will start greasing the wheels of productivity and leave you with that feeling that you now have less to do than you did before, and that is a good feeling, my friend. The kind of feeling that helps you get more focused on the things you really do need to be working on now, so you can take action with the confidence that comes with clarity.

So, if you reach a point where you’re not sure what “the best” course of action is, shotgun your schedule and just start doing small meaningful tasks as quickly and consecutively as you can. You’ll soon break out of that spot you’re stuck in and put yourself into a better position to move forward in the long term. Give it a shot. You’ll thank yourself for it.

- Dave Navarro

First Things First: Remember, Time Is Money
How much is your time worth? If you’re not sure – or if you’ve ever really considered it – then you need to take a long hard look at why you’re even in business in the first place. When you work, you either trade your time (now) for money (now), or you’re working on building future income.

It’s easy to value your time if you’re getting paid right away. If you get $25 an hour for every hour that you show up for work, the motivation is simple because it’s in your face. But if you’re an entrepreneur, it’s not always so simple. When you have to do product development, copy writing, and marketing before you see a dime, it can become more difficult to get yourself to focus and take action on what you need to do.

But time, indeed, is money. So if you haven’t figured out your worth-per-hour (or potential worth), stop reading and do it now. If you’re totally unsure, just think of how much money you’d like to reasonably make per hour of serious work on your business. Is it $25? $50? $100? Whatever you feel you’re worth, put a dollar value (or, of course, your home country’s currency) on it now.

If you’re a very serious entrepreneur, you need to consider that to be at minimum a three-digit number (or at least a very high two-digit one). Let’s assume for this example that your time is worth $100 per hour.

Now, How Much Money Did You Forfeit Just Now?
This is where the tough question comes in. How much time have you wasted today due to procrastination, disorganization, or whatever? How much non-productive time did you tolerate? Think seriously about this number and multiply it by your hourly rate, and it will probably scare you. I know it scares me.

If you’re worth $100 and you wasted 15 minutes of time surfing the web when you should have been building your business, that’s $25 you’ve just flushed down the toilet. It’s money you’re never going to see. And that half-hour you can’t account for today? $50. By the end of the day this can add up to a lot of money, even if you value your time far less than $100.

Keep That Price Tag In Front Of You
At the time I’m writing this, I charge $125 per hour of consulting. So when I realize that I’ve let myself slipand I’ve wasted 30 minutes getting sidetracked or doing an “okay” task rather than my best task for the moment … I realize that I’ve just blown a little over $60. When I break it down further, I have to face the fact that the real value comes out to about $2 per minute. And that hurts when I have to face up to the fact that I spent x number of those $2 minutes in the land of the not-so-focused.

And you better believe that a realization like that lights a fire under me. When I realize that I’ve been procrastinating, or getting diverted, distracted or derailed, I ask myself “Am I really willing to blow $2 a minute on this?” You see where I’m going here.

You Set Your Value (And Boy, Do You Believe It)
The key to all this is that you have to get in the habit of asking yourself this question constantly. You have to keep it running in the background all the time so that it ill become an ingrained belief – a fact of reality rather than just wishful thinking. When I started out with this I set my Outlook to pop up a reminder every 15 minutes and it worked like a charm. Find out what method works for you best and start building this habit. Learn how to value you time and you’ll want to take so much more action than you’re taking now. So put this into practice. Do it now. You’ll thank yourself for it.

- Dave Navarro