Am I Not Motivated Enough?
I work 50-55 hours/week, and am dealing with a lot of stress at home, so I tend to tell myself all of the time, that I just haven't had time for WA...but I've been noticing a pattern with other WA members. I see so many people who say that they stayed up until 3 or 4am just to work on this, people who have jobs as well, and kids and spouses, or they have kids and do not have partners to help them out...and somehow you guys are all getting through and finding time. I sit there and think, where are these busy people find the time?! I have noticed something with a lot of WA members that maybe I haven't been doing enough of...sacrificing sleep. I claim to have no time, but there are 6 little hours at night that I'm wondering if I should be utilizing...my sleep hours!
So often, I scroll through the live chat, blogs and comments and I see comments like, "Up at 4am with coffee," or "It's going to be an all nighter," or "Haven't gone to bed yet," and it's 7am and I have just started my work day, when they are finishing up yesterday. I'm wondering if maybe I need to start sacrificing more sleep.
I just wanted to ask you extremely motivated people about how you do it. How do you find the time? What helps keep you awake, or keeps you lasting off of about 4 hours of sleep or less? I'm serious, I want this so bad, but just don't know what to do to get through it. Any advice is helpful. I know some may say, well you are blogging now instead of working on your website, but whenever you see me on WA, I'm actually at work, and I'm not able to even type more than a sentence in between customers...so this post has taken about an hour, and usually it would have taken me about 5 mins. I wish I could work on it more at work, but it's barely enough time to think, and I can't even do ANY lessons while I'm here, so basically dilly dallying is all I can even do on here while at work.
Please help if you have any advice for those who feel too busy to work on their WA projects. Thanks!!
Recent Comments
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Motivation and determination is 'Key'. Just get focus and cut sleep from 6 to 5 hrs each night. Take quick naps when possible.
I carry a notepad with me everywhere I go and make lots of notes, I get ideas for posts at the most unexpected times. Before I know it I have pages of ideas for posts. Then I put it all together in a word processor as and when I get a few minutes. Although this isn't my ideal way of working, it's a necessary compromise while my life is the way it is.
If you want it bad enough, you'll find a way around your obstacles :)
Through out my life I have occasionally tried to sleep less or stay up all nights and sleep during the afternoon, etc. You can go without enough sleep for short periods of time but after a while you will go a bit loopy. I am sure some people are getting very excited about setting up there new WA website and staying up late working on it but I doubt they can sustain that for very long without having to do catch up sleep. If you really can not find the time any other way I would suggest doing a 4 hour session then 2 hours sleep but only do that once in a week. This would only be short turn thing to get going. You really need to find time on a more permanent bases to maintain and expand your affiliate web site(s). I know everyone is different but my experience with WA is I signup about a month ago and I got one website up and running, signed up at 3 affiliate programs and have added their links to my web site, got google analytics setup, and am on course 3, lesson 7 and it is taken me about 50 hours.
Yeah, maybe if I do a sleep sacrifice night only once a week, like you were saying the 4-2, but then get a better sleep on other nights. Maybe the "sleep sacrifice night" will be more productive. That could be well worth it. I think I'm going to try that.
Work smarter not harder.
I am one of those who set off with a bunch of ideas and plans and only had time to start the infrastructure not the content. I have 5 sites planned, but little content. I am currently working 6 days a week, so I use that last day for errands and relaxing.
I am working on my sites this weekend actually. I am keeping firm to working instead of relaxing. Here is a few tips I picked up, hope it helps you:
1. Plan ahead to optimize time.
I know I want to have at least 5 articles per site. I am making a list of the articles I am planning on writing and if any products I am promoting. If I have the topic and/or product down, I can think about the article during the week.
2. Tools:
Onenote/Evernote
https://evernote.com
I use onenote, there is also evernote. If I think of something for an article or idea, I open up my notes and jot it down.
I may have the whole article up in bullet points before I even get to write it, making it easier to write.
Canva
http://www.canva.com
Quick infographics program for easy social sharing. Maybe you don't have time for a full paragraph, or the focus to write for long.
Canva makes it easy to make a quick good looking infographic to share via instagram/pintrest/facebook/twitter/tumblr .Include your affiliate link and not only do you promote your site, but may make a few sales as well.
Videoscribe
www.videoscribe.co
Quick whiteboard animation software. This may take a bit to get used to but after a while you will find making videos to be pretty quick. Same with canva, make a video promoting your site and maybe a product and post it to youtube with your affiliate link or site link.
3. Motivation:
Place a sticky note in front of something you use every day: (monitor, mirror, dresser) and leave a pen. Make a note to yourself to help you keep your drive. You may also use this to jot down notes as inspiration hits you.
4. The Stephen King approach:
When asked how he writes so much he replied he writes 6 pages a day. Now this is hard, but try it a little smaller, If you have 10 minutes a day, write a paragraph for your article/post. Whether you are writing it on your computer, napkin or recording yourself on your phone, you can find 10 minutes for a paragraph. Sometimes it helps if you don't focus and start rambling, when you have time you may find some useful bits in that rambling, and if not at least you have accomplished writing for 10 minutes. This will help you get in a pattern of not stopping and keep moving forward.
5. Set aside time:
Try to make a date and set firm to it as unavailable. If you plan on saturday 1-3pm that is your time to work, then keep to it and don't let errands, work or fun to interrupt it. Keeping this time/date the first few times will get you in the habit of keeping time set aside.
First of all, don't sacrifice sleep. I found that it helped me to keep a journal (DayTimer) of activities to see how I used my time. I am a morning person so I do the important stuff in the morning and routine stuff in the afternoon.
Steve is so right - you have to do what you can with the time you have available. Don't try and get by on too little sleep - it will affect your focus as well as your general well-being. I feel really ill when I don't get enough sleep and that's the last thing you want.
Just remember that every little step you take is a step closer to attaining your dreams. Slow and steady wins the race :)
Yes, I must not get down and remember every step is at least better than standing completely still. Thanks. You guys are really encouraging me.
Rini - You have the motivation. I understand the time issue and shorting yourself on sleep will only harm you physically. I am "between jobs" now which makes this much either but soon (I hope) I will be facing the same challenge as you.
I know you will get some other more helpful responses than this in a few minutes, but from my point of view, you just do the best that you can with the time you have.
It may be slow, but as long you can do something, no matter how small, to include staying in touch with the community as yo are doing, you will succeed.
Ok Paul, Loes, Jude, Rick, Michael, Marion - over to the experts on this!
Steve
Thank you! You are right, that seems to be the advice that I'm getting, which is so encouraging. I have such an all or nothing mindset that it's crippling me. I act as if I NEED 2 hours or more every time I work on this...but you guys are right, every little step, every day will make a difference. Must keep that in my mind, even if it's just 15 or even just 5 minutes, that's better than zero. Thanks!
Hi Rini!
I'm one of the lucky people that have a job that lets me do whatever I want as long as my work duties are done... That being said I do spend a lot of time during the night working on my websites, learning, posting to social media... just because I like being up, and I prefere working at night.
BUT
What worked for me was simply cutting off the time I spent on social media wasting my time on reading stupid stories, or watching silly movies on YouTube. Think of it this way - how much time during the day (after your work) do you spend on your mobile or pc going through social media, YouTube etc. This time (in terms of making business online) is wasted (unless your social media activity is related to your business). Maybe try working with that before you sacrifice your sleep ;)
Good point. I have to check if I'm wasting little minutes that could be adding up to, 15 mins or even an hour. I should take a second to stop and wonder if what I'm spending my time on is worth it. Thanks!
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You have to keep in mind that developing your online business is a marathon...not a sprint. All our circumstances are different and with that comes different amounts of time to commit to their websites. Many of us work full time jobs, have families and other commitments that require our attention.
Hang in there Rini...work on your website as much as you can when you can and you will start seeing big changes! :)