Get Your Priorities Right!

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We all have a variety of priorities in our lives which can affect the amount of time we can spend on our business activities. Those who are older or perhaps retired or self-employed might have many hours every day that they can spend on their online business. Awesome!

Those who have a full-time job or a young family might struggle to find even an hour per day to work on their business. This is a tough situation for some and perhaps you might wonder what you should do in the time you have available to make the most progress with your business.

To help you out I have made a list of activities that you might consider to be part of your business. I then categorised them into what I consider to be either high or low priority activities.

High Priority - Highly Productive - Money Making Activities

  • Creating content for your website - blog posts, reviews, information
  • Creating content for social media - Pins, Tweets, Facebook Posts (all business related of course!)
  • Creating videos for YouTube
  • Research for your next piece of content
  • Studying and implementing WA training.
  • Updating your swipe files (collections of content that you can model for your own business)
  • Lead generation (creating a squeeze page with lead magnet and email list system)
  • Product research - create your own products or find high quality affiliate products in your niche.
  • Problem solving - use resources like Google and YouTube to find solutions to problems in your business - don't bury your head in the sand!
  • Customer research - what are people buying in your niche and what do they need (create a survey on your site or use research tools like CBengine)
  • Create and regularly update your TODO list so you always know what jobs need to be done.
  • Build relationships with other marketers in your niche
  • Maintain personal productivity by working in time chunks with short breaks - e.g. work 25 minutes then break for 5 minutes and then repeat.

Low Priority - Low Productivity - Money Neutral Activities

  • Reading and replying to non-essential emails
  • Reading and commenting on blog posts that offer no learning
  • Installing or adjusting banner ads in your sidebar
  • Choosing a colour scheme and images for your website
  • Multitasking
  • Using social media for non-work activities
  • Searching for new business models (shiny objects) instead of focusing on the proven model you already have at WA
  • Moving onto other jobs before finishing the existing one
  • Choosing wordpress themes and plugins
  • Setting deadlines rather than focusing on making progress
  • Comparing software products to use
  • Working out solutions to problems that "might happen"
  • Choosing new domain names
  • Planning more than 12 weeks ahead
  • Deciding on company structure - sole trader, partnership. Limited company etc

If your time for working on your business is limited then make sure you are only doing tasks which are high priority and productive ones. By doing so you will ensure that whatever time you have available is being used to the maximum benefit of your business.

I'd love to hear your thoughts on this! Is there anything else that you would add to either list or is there something on one list that you would swap to the other one?

All the best

Dave

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Recent Comments

71

I'll be the first to admit my priorities are not always in order - except for the "Planning more than 12 weeks ahead". There are days when I can't plan 12 minutes ahead!

Seriously though, I like both lists especially the High Priority list. It's worth printing out and tacking on my wall!

Hi Susan
I get days when I can't think 12 minutes ahead either!
I am honoured to think my list might find it's way onto your wall!

Cheers
Dave

Definitely will serve as a GREAT guideline for sure!

Hi Dave
I find priorities have an order. Research content, write it, edit it, publish. So while I take nothing away from your high priority list, I find that in a sense, grouping simplifies. The only time to search for a new model is if something consistently doesn't work. . . so long as we're doing what's required.
Thanks for this post, great work.
Happy Sunday
Steve

Hi Steve
Thanks for your input. I take your point about putting things in order.
I find that by having a group of high priority tasks, if time is tight then as long as I am doing something from that group I am being productive and making progress.

Cheers
Dave

Exactly, Steve! Life is way too unpredictable! I tend to go with the flow of each new day! Sometimes it's quite invigorating!

Choosing wordpress themes and plugins...it could take hours. Thank you Dave.

Hi Sandra.
Indeed it could. Best to just choose a theme - WA recommends generatepress - and go with it. You can change it later when you have more time.

Cheers
Dave

That was where my main mistake was--as many others, skipping ahead, themes all over the place, etc.!

A theme is obviously an essential part of the site but for most people any one of the basic themes will suffice to get started. Jay has recommended generatepress so I just go with that.
We can think about changing it later if necessary.

Honestly, Dave, I have a very difficult time with themes, and until I get a grasp on them--if I EVER do--I'll go with Jay's suggestions! I also agree with you, we CAN change it later!

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