How To Make Yourself Really, Really Want To Take Action

There are countless ways to try to overcome procrastination, but one little strategy I use is something I have to share with you because it works so well for me. It lights a fire under me almost every time I use it, even if I’m starting out from a state of complete “blah.” Would you like to know how to apply it? It will take about ten seconds to use once you understand the concept.

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