Identify And Eliminate Distractions To Succeed

I know I’m not alone in saying that the toughest thing an internet marketing newbie has to contend with is information overload and it’s effect on your productivity.

You got up this morning with all the best intentions. You planned on checking your email, maybe checking some web stats, posting to your blog and maybe a few forums. Then you’d have lunch and start working on the “real stuff.”

You know, the money making ideas you’ve been trying to fit into your day for the last week?

That’s your plan, anyway.

Well, your morning email turned into several promotional videos for products you’d love to buy if you had the money. Of course, you have to read those free e-courses you signed up for when you only wanted a free report, right?

You keep telling yourself that, as long as you’re learning something, it’s not a waste of time. It seems like a solid argument when you look at it.

How easily we deceive ourselves, though.

The truth is if you’re a newbie like myself, the last thing you have time for is an endless string of interruptions. It’s true that this affects veterans and newbies alike but it’s especially dangerous to the new internet marketer who hasn’t learned the system that works for them yet.

So, what do you do about this? How can you pass up any new information when there’s so much to learn?

Here are my suggestions:

• First things first. Take a look at your email folders. Open each one of them and see who has been sending you emails most frequently. These are the first ones you need to scrutinize in terms of value recieved. Chances are the ones sending you the most email are also trying to sell you a high-priced product. Are you in ANY position to buy this product? If not, I would seriously consider waiting on their next email, unsubscribing and deleting their email folder. Repeat this process with every email folder you have.
• If you don’t have folders created for each list you’re subscribed to, take the time to parse out each email to its own folder so you can go back and do the first step. Otherwise, you’re just confusing yourself more with an unending inbox.
• Do the same process for any videos you’ve downloaded to watch “sometime.”
• Here is a newsflash: if you don’t watch the video when you first get the email about it, 99% of the time you never will. Why add to your confusion by leaving things laying around you didn’t find absolutely urgent to watch when you first heard about them?
• The same thing for videos as for email: if you just have them laying around all over your computer, make a central location and evaluate whether or not you plan on watching them REALLY.

I know a lot of people will read this and claim that it is irresponsible to pass up any opportunity to learn or get in on the latest money-making scheme.

I counter that by saying that if we set goals for this week, month, year, etc. and evaluate everything we do in terms of those goals, we will be taking the first giant step. The step I’m talking about is doing. After all, that is the only way we’ll ever become successful and anything that consistently blocks us from taking that first step must be eliminated.

These simple steps are just a beginning but they will go a long way in helping you to identify and eliminate the distractions that experienced and newbie internet marketers alike have to overcome to succeed in this game.

How do you deal with distractions? Please leave me a comment so we can all discuss it.

Jeff

[tags]eliminate distractions, internet marketing newbie,simple steps[/tags]