Of course, I’m sure you’ve never strayed from your stated goal. But just in case you have, here’s a solution.

So what do you do when you wake up and find yourself off task? Add it to your Later List.

Here’s how your Later List works.

Create a new list or add it to your existing list. I use spreadsheets to organize my entire business, so I add it to my activity spreadsheet. If you use a spreadsheet call that tab “Later”

Each time you find yourself looking at something online that you did not purposely go looking for – stop. Copy the URL and paste it into your Later List.

If you like, you can add a short note – but don’t take over a minute to do this.

Then immediately close your browser and go back to your focused action.

The final step is to schedule a time each week when you give yourself permission to visit sites from your Later list. This is perhaps the most important step of the process.

Why? Because your subconscious mind knows when you’re trying to take away that “fun” site you were looking at. And if it thinks there won’t be another opportunity to go back to it, it may just refuse to get back to business. So be sure you give yourself a reminder to check that later list.

Now you need to get back to what you were working on!

—–

Dr. Jeanette Cates is an Internet strategist who works with Online Business owners who are ready to create their Online Success. Pick up your mini-workshop with more organization tips at http://OrganizeYourOnlineBusiness.com

And now to complicate matters webinars have been added to the mix. Not only can you listen and learn, but you can also watch and learn even more. And while you used to be able to listen to a teleseminar in your car or on a walk, it’s more difficult to get the most out of a webinar if you’re not in front of your computer.

So with so many great teleseminars and webinars offered, how do you choose between them? After all, it seems like there are two or three per night. Here is the “triage” process I use to decide what to attend.

1. Is this information that will generate revenue? If it is, I go on to the next question. If it is not going to help me make more, I have to choose. If its just “nice to know” I generally skip it. Is it likely to be the ONLY time I’ll ever hear this person speak? If this answer is no, I use my time for something else.

2. Is this information I currently need for my business? You are involved with specific tasks and projects in your business. If this fits into those – and will show you an easier, faster, more profitable way to do what you’re doing, join in.

3. Is this information that I am considering using next in my business? While it may not be something I need this week, it could be something I’m planning in the next month or two. If not, I’ll skip it.

4. Will this save me time or money? Time management and productivity are my hot buttons. I’ll listen or buy just about anything that will show me how to save 10 minutes per day. If that’s important to you as well, put it on your list.

5. Is there a replay available? Even if I decide it’s something I want or need to attend, I’ll listen to the replay in preference for attending live. A replay allows me to time-shift, leaving evenings free for my family. It also allows me to speed through the sections I already know and review the parts that need more explanation.

Making wise choices in your listening and watching cycle are critical to your personal and business success. Since most teleseminars and webinars are offered in the evenings, it means you are trading time with your family for listening to someone else. Choose wisely!

Dr.Jeanette Cates is an Internet strategist who coaches business owners to Online Success. She shares her personal productivity systems at Organize Your Online Business. Claim your complimentary mini-workshop and watch it on your own schedule.

I recently saw a great example of massive action at Robert Plank’s blog. It’s well worth reading in its entirety, but here are the highlights. In one month, he

• changed his sales process to double his sales conversion rate.
• wrote 7 articles per day for 2 weeks – total of 99 articles
• created 99 Powerpoint presentations of the content in the articles
• recorded 99 videos with call to action
• loaded all of the articles in an article site
• loaded all of the videos into a video distribution service
• put all of the distribution on autopilot.

Now THAT’S Massive Action!

Two things struck me as I read his narrative – he was willing to work hard and he repeated the same process. So with those two elements, let’s look at how you can take Massive Action in your business.

First, recognize that action requires work. And work requires time. This is the time to record your TV shows and explain to the family that you’ll be working nights and weekends for the next two weeks.

If you spend just 3 hours per night and 12 hours over the weekend for the next two weeks, you’ll buy yourself 27 hours per week – or a total of 54 hours!

Next, decide on the action you want to take. If you need to finish a product, list everything you need to do to finish it. Then get started! Don’t spend over an hour on the list – you’re here to take action, not make a list.

If you need to market an existing product or build a list of subscribers, decide on just 2 or 3 tactics you’re going to use. Robert chose articles and video articles because they are easy, inexpensive, and create backlinks to your sites.

You may choose Pay-per-click ads and teleseminar or articles and blog posts. Or any other combination of tactics.

Regardless of your choices, spend no more than six hours learning to use them. No single tactic should take more than 3 hours to learn. You’re not trying to be an expert – you’re just trying to use it. Then Get to Work!

So the next time someone tells you to “Take Massive Action” not only will you know what they’re talking about but you’ll also be able to give your own example. Get started now.

I’ve observed that there are three reasons that people put off doing what they want to do – or what they know they should do.

Reason #1: Fear

We are all afraid of making a mistake – appearing foolish – being criticized. So if you’ve been thinking you’re the only one – get over it!

When we’re not sure what will happen when we take a particular action, we feel fear. For example, if you’ve never published an article – you may get butterflies in your stomach and think “I’ll just polish it a bit more before I publish it.” That’s fear.

If you’ve never sold a product online, you may be afraid you will make a mistake. Or not do it perfectly. Or have someone email and ask a question you can’t answer.

That old adage “Feel The Fear and Do It Anyway!” is never more true than when working in your own business. You just have to suck it up and Take Action!
 

Reason #2: Lack of Knowledge

When we don’t know how to do something we put off doing it. Case in point: I have long admired and used brandable reports created by others. And I would love to provide them for my affiliates. But I didn’t know how to create them – until today!

Now that I see how easy it is to create a brandable report, my mind is going wild with the possibilities. If this is something you’ve always wanted to learn – and you’re willing to invest $10 in doing it, go here now.
 

Reason #3: Habit

Over time we fall into bad habits. We put one thing off, then another, until it gets to be a habit. For years my husband and I had a habit of never making a decision on an offer the day it was presented. We didn’t want to rush into anything – and we wanted to be sure we had all the facts. That cost us a LOT of great opportunities.

When we changed the habit, turning it into making quick decisions, we have been able to move forward much faster.

Recently we decided to look at hybrids, knowing it was a 5-6 month waiting period to order one. We went in to look at the models and drove a new car home within an hour! Had we put off buying it, there were 2 other people in the showroom waiting to take advantage of that deal. But because we had trained ourselves to make quick decisions, we were the ones who got the ONLY hybrid within 500 miles – with no wait!

Here’s an easy exercise to give you practice in making quick decisions. The next time you go into a restaurant, look over the menu and make a decision. Give yourself one minute total. You’ll be amazed at the results – and you’ll start to form a new habit.

What about the habit of setting aside an email for “later.” Break that right now. Either take action on this email or delete it. Saving it to open again later won’t change what’s inside. You either want that Brandable report product or you don’t.

Here’s to Taking Action!

P.S. I’ve just created a new site – with a growing collection of articles about procrastination and related topics. Take a look at Procrastination Articles. 

P.P.S. You’ll get a kick out of this – I wrote this article a week ago – then put off posting it. LOL (laughing out loud!)

Share the ways you procrastinate in the comments below.

Here are three tips that can go a long way toward helping you achieve the Online Success you deserve.

1.Always Do What’s Best for Your Business

This tip encompasses all the other ides. Obviously everything you do should be what’s best for your company. Yet many people too often forget about this. The forgetting usually happens when people let their own feelings get in the way.

For example, you may get mad at someone online (a customer or someone else) and decide to tell them off. Before you do something like this you need to ask yourself: Will this do my business any good? If it won’t then don’t do it. Do not hurt your business just to gain some temporary satisfaction.

2.Take Care of Your Customers

Repeat after me: “The Customer is always right. The customer is always right.”

Of course, the customer is hardly ever right. But when you begin to think about not treating your customer well, remember: “The customer is always right.”

If you treat a customer poorly you can bet that person will go and tell at least 10 other people. So not only would you have lost that one person as a future repeat customer but you’ve also lost 10 other potential customers.

3.Always Have a Plan

The last of the three great business tips is that you must always have a plan, otherwise you will fail. It’s as simple as that.

Trying to make it in any business without a plan would be like trying to go from New York City to Los Angeles without any maps or road signs.

Be sure to know what you need to do each day and know what you’re trying to accomplish long-term as well. That way you’ll always be able to keep yourself moving forward toward your goals.
If you want to make it in Internet Marketing then you must always do what’s best for your business, take care of your customers, and always have a plan. If you start by following these three great business tips then you will be well on your way to a successful Internet Marketing career.

If you’re serious about running your business online, then you need to get organized for success. With all you have to do, it’s critical that you maximize your time. That’s why I highly recommend Organize Your Online Business. These time-tested tools have helped me run my business online for the past 8 years – and they’ll help your business as well!

If so, read this article carefully.

Over the past 11 years I’ve had the opportunity to work with literally thousands of people as they were getting started online. Many went on to generate revenue online, often replacing their full-time salaries and more.

But there were others who never really got started. They were always “too busy” to take the necessary actions.

Maybe they had a full-time job and were “too tired” at night to put in the hour or two it takes to become successful online. Online multi-millionaire Jim Edwards built his initial success in just two hours a day.

Maybe they had small children and just “didn’t have the energy” to build a business. Online success Alice Seba had small children – and still built a successful online empire, helping a lot of other people along the way.

Maybe they didn’t have someone to “show them the ropes” and help them work around technical roadblocks when they popped up. When he started online there weren’t any web design programs, no Internet marketing courses, and no conferences to teach you how to make money. Yet Armand Morin made 4.2 million dollars selling his bookmarks!

There is ALWAYS a way to be successful.

But I also know there are slow ways and fast ways to success. Given a choice, we all prefer the FAST way to making a living online.

So what’s the secret? I’ve put a lot of thought into this. After all, I know what it takes to be successful. And I know where people get stuck. I also know how to get them unstuck.

One of the things that really helps is making FAST progress – so you can see your progress and be motivated by your own success.

That’s why I’ve created the Get It Done Weekend.

In just 48 hours we’ll take your project and get it finished! That’s right – “we” as in you and I. I’ll be there to

- answer your personal questions
- troubleshoot your technical problems on YOUR computer
- show the how’s and why’s of what you’re asked to do
- ensure you make maximum progress in minimum time

Get all of the details for this unique format workshop. Since enrollment is limited to the first 10 people, you’ll want to lock in your place NOW.

Since this is the first Get It Done Weekend that I’m offering, I’ve set a special introductory enrollment fee. But once those first 10 spots are gone – they’re gone. Because of the nature of the workshop, there will be no replays. So you either get into the Live workshop – or you miss out.

1. Figure out what you want. It may be a new website, more subscribers, fewer support tickets. In online business terms, let’s say I want “more sales.”

2. Now take that goal and ask yourself “What do I need to get more sales?” Again, for the online business owners, it’s probably something like better website sales conversions, more traffic, better followup.

3. Next take one of those topics and start unraveling it. “If I want more traffic, what do I need?” More links to my site, more affiliate referrals, more clicks from my ads.

4. Now take one of those topics and continue to unravel it. “If I need more links to my site, what do I need?” More links from articles, more directory links, more blog posts linking back to my site.

5. Now take one of those topics and keep repeating the process of unraveling it. “If I need more article links, what do I need?” Write more articles, hire others to write more, distribute them to a broader audience. Your answers can be broad or precise. The idea is to identify the factors that are stopping you.

You can see the pattern. I generally use a sheet of paper or a spreadsheet and keep writing the links from one item to the next – making the string longer as it unravels. Eventually you will reach the point where you say I don’t need anything else except Action. And that’s where you start.

The unraveling process is simple and often points out a flaw in your thinking or your business planning processes. For example, the longest strings are the parts of your business that you neglect. The shortest strings may give you the fastest results.

If the same item shows up in more than one string, it may mean you have a crossover in your processes. It may be a source of confusion for you and your staff. Or it may be a way to complete a single item and shorten two strings.

When using this unraveling process on your business, you are able to move to the Action phase of your planning sooner. Plus you’ll have a visual map of how your business works.

Dr. Jeanette Cates is an Internet strategist who works with new online business owners to create Online Success. She is the creator of Organize Your Online Business.

The nightly news often relates the latest natural disaster with its legacy of destruction – loss of property and loss of life. Businesses are disrupted, water supplies destroyed and people without electricity.

If you live in Hurricane country and are a small business owner, you probably have a plan for natural disasters. You know how you’ll operate your business after a natural disaster hits your place of business – how you’ll deal with lack of electricity, flooded data centers and other foreseeable events.

But few of us plan for the ultimate crisis – what to do when “we”, the business owner, have a personal crisis and cannot attend to our business. This might happen with a death in the family, an illness, an injury. All of those things we don’t like to think will happen “to us.”

Smart business owners will plan for this crisis – when you are not able to be there yourself. Here are five areas you need to plan for before the crisis.

Customer relations. You need someone who can call your clients, reschedule meetings, respond to emails and phone calls. This person needs to be trained in your business affairs and have access to all of that information before the crisis occurs. So you need to have an assistant, a customer service department, or someone like your CPA or attorney who can step in and take over your client relations.

Procedures. You need a procedures manual that an experienced administrator could step in and use to operate your business for a period of time. If you are your own webmaster, for example, you need the access information for each of your sites. You need the procedures for shipping products, refunding purchases, and other common tasks in a detailed printed or digital form. Keep it in a place where others can find it – either in your office or online in a secure site.

Backlog of issues. If you publish an ezine, you need to have several issues completed ahead of time. That way the ezine can continue to be distributed, even when you’re not able to write. Without it, client relationships can be lost or damaged. It only takes a few weeks of not hearing from you before subscribers forget who you are.

Residual income. When you’re in a crisis, the last thing you need to worry about is how you’re going to pay your bills. When you have established Online Oil Wells (sales sites that sell digital products and deliver them automatically) that continue to crank out income even when unattended, you can be assured you’ll have a steady income.

Accounts payable. You can’t afford to ruin your credit rating while you’re in crisis. So you’ll need someone to physically pick up the bills from the mail box. Plus you’ll need someone who has access to your checking account, online and offline, who can pay those bills for you, on time.

A word of caution about choosing people for these roles. Your first temptation may be to ask a close friend or family member to be your “back-up.” The danger of that is that if you are in crisis because of a death in the family or your own illness, they will be involved in the same crisis or at least in helping you through it. So try to set up systems outside of your close relations.

Finally, be sure your loved ones know who to turn to should a crisis occur. There is no point in your having made all of the preparations if they are unaware of who to contact to put the plan into motion.

While we never plan to be sick or injured or have someone close to us fall into that category, things happen that are not in our control. That’s the definition of a crisis. But when we understand that such things can and do occur, we can take steps to ensure we have a business left after the crisis has passed. Don’t put off your crisis planning another day.

Dr. Jeanette Cates is an Internet strategist who helps Online Business owners become more profitable. Her reputation as a speaker and trainer has earned her the title of “The Technology Tamer.” Jeanette shares her business systems at http://OrganizeYourOnlineBusiness.com/

Dr. Cates will present on “Let’s Get Together Online! How to Use Online Research, Presentation and Collaboration Tools”

“One of the things that make this Tech Lab unique is the amount of hands on help that the participants receive. Not only is everyone encouraged to bring their laptop, but there will be dedicated Help Sessions spread throughout the agenda,” said Dr. Cates in a recent interview from her http://techtamers.com/ website.

Hands-on workshops are rare in a public setting. So the opportunity to come and listen to professional speakers, sharing the expertise their clients pay thousands of dollars to hear, is unique. Combined with the “no sales” atmosphere and the opportunity to have each of these experts sit down next to you and solve your personal technology challenges is an invaluable experience.

Other presentations at the workshop will include topics such as PowerPoint, email programs, new technologies, blogging, podcasting, productivity, basic website technology, networks and office automation. All of the presenters are professional speakers with a lot of information to offer.

You can get more details and register for the Tech Lab at National Speakers Association website.
www.nsaspeaker.org/technology_lab/index.shtml

Dr. Jeanette Cates is an Internet strategist who works with consultants and other experts to leverage their expertise into Online Success. She is an expert webinar host and a professional speaker in the entrepreneurial market. She is the author of Online Success Tactics: 101 Ways to Build Your Small Business and the Founder and CEO of TechTamers.

TechTamers is a consulting and training firm based in Austin, Texas. With a focus on entrepreneurs, TechTamers has been serving the Internet business community since 1997.

I recently purchased a new computer. Having set up a lot of computers in the past two years, I have a standard set of procedures I go through:

1. Install Microsoft Office.
2. Move Outlook backup file to new computer.
3. Install Getting Things Done (a great productivity tool!)
4. Reboot and test Office installation.
5. Continue installations…

But when I tried step #2, it didn’t work. I put the Outlook backup into the folder the instructions told me to. I went to open the backup – and it wasn’t there.

I searched on the .pst extension for the Outlook files. It didn’t see the file. I checked the location again – and the file was there.

I let it sit for 24 hours, thinking maybe it would cure itself (we humans are so hopeful!)

I copied the file again. (After all, if it didn’t work the first time, maybe I can force it work this time. As Druscilla said in “Cinderella” – I’m going to MAKE it fit! But brute force is an alternative that rarely works with technology.)

I let it sit for another 24 hours, thinking maybe it would grow the file itself.

Then I hit upon a solution: work backwards. I put one email in my Inbox so I would have something to archive. Then I exported a backup file from the new computer. I looked to see where that backup went, thinking if I just put the old backup there, it would work.

When I tried to open the old backup – it was not in the folder!

And that’s when I knew. I had the backup in a folder called “Outlook” – but it was not the correct one. I followed the path to the new tiny backup file I had created, noting every part of it. Then I compared that to the old full backup’s path. And there was one folder difference!

With great glee, I moved the old backup to the correct folder and voila, I’m back in the email business.

The moral of this story: Check the instructions carefully (Yes, the correct path was in the instructions, but I was so sure I was right, I kept reading them wrong.)

If all else fails, work backwards. And learn to relax and enjoy the process. Nothing is so critical that it can’t wait 24 hours till you figure it out.