photo credit: sjsharktank

“I could do it if I really wanted to” is one of the oldest and most overused excuses for not getting off your butt and going after something you would very much like to do.

I could lose weight if I really wanted to.

I could start learning how to speak japanese, if I really wanted to.

I could become self employed… if I really wanted to.

I do agree that some degree of will power is necessary in order to gets started at doing something.

However relying on it completely to achieve your goals is not generally the most effective approach.

The reason for this is that as humans, we have this natural tendency to feel doubt at some stage towards pursuing your goal.

Why will power is overrated

Trying to pursue a goal while relying solely on will power is like trying to climb a cliff wall without a rope or safety harness. The moment you get tired, or in this case feel doubt, there’s a high chance you’re going to let go and fall straight back to the bottom.

If you don’t need to rely solely on your will power, then don’t.

Unless you are a person who believes 200% that you will definitely succeed, relying solely on your will power to help you overcome a challenge you have never faced before is a recipe for failure.

Will power is not constant like a flash light that shines at the same brightness all the time. It has moments when it dims, which makes the path ahead that much harder to see.

This is when alot of people are likely to give up, and when that happens, you lose.

Why mentors are important

A mentor or a coach is a person who has already reached the destination you want to reach. This means that they know the path and have 100% confidence on how to get to where you want to go.

Many times people will treat life challenges like school exams. You have to rely completely on yourself and you can’t cheat by referring to the answers.

Well guess what? Having a coach is like having a cheat sheet during an exam.

Anytime you feel stuck or need help with a problem, you refer to them.

Anytime you reach an obstacle you feel like you can’t cross, your coach will be there to show you how to cross it and to push you to keep moving forward to the next milestone.

Coaches and mentors are important because they take the guess work out of achieving your goals.

They already know the path, all you need to do is pay attention to what they are telling you to do.

Even if your flash light runs out of batteries and you’ve lost sight of your goal, you can put your arm on their shoulder and they will lead the way.

Mentors and coaches are there to make sure you don’t stop short before reaching your goals, so if you’re really serious about succeeding, get one.

Related posts:

1. My 2 Step Process To Achieving 9-to-5 Freedom
2. What Losing Weight Can Teach Us About Succeeding At Online Business

photo credit: MrB-MMX

Recently I was trying to get a new project off the ground but for some reason I was procrastinating on it.

I had the time and the means but for some reason I just wasn’t doing anything about it.

At this stage most people would just assume that they are just lazy, however I’ve learned that this is usually never the case.

When I thought about the situation more, I realized that every time I thought about the project, my mind would drift towards 2 specific problems.

Even though I had identified the problems, they were fairly complex and took me several frustrating days to come up with solutions.

Once I’d solved them though, I was able to speed through the project without any major issues.

Your brain, as highly evolved as it is, is not designed to solve multiple complex problems simultaneously and I explain why below.

Why can’t I solve multiple complex problems simultaneously?

Complex problems require significant conscious attention and creative thinking. This is why when you try to solve multiple complex problems simultaneously, your brain goes into overwhelm.

Trying to solve multiple complex problems you’ve never dealt with before at once is like trying to listen to two separate conversations on separate topics simultaneously while coming up with intelligent responses to both. Very hard to do and extremely frustrating for everyone.

Projects all consists of multiple tasks, some of which do not have clear solutions.

As such, when you focus on a project as a whole, there is a high chance you will be attempting to focus on multiple problems with unclear solutions.

This is generally how people end up feeling overwhelmed when they think of big projects.

So how do I avoid procrastinating on projects that  feel overwhelming?

Whenever you are faced with a big project, it is best to break it down into its individual tasks.

From here, it is best never to multi-task when dealing with a complex problem within that project.

By doing that,  you are able to focus your full attention on coming up with solutions for that one problem. This then allows you to progress faster through the project.

By progressing faster, you will automatically feel more productive and this will motivate you to keep moving forward.

Aren’t convinced? Try this exercise

Think of something you have been procrastinating on, grab a piece of paper and start writing every single step you need to take in order to mark it down as complete.

You will find that while you are writing this list you will get stuck.

The reason you will get stuck is because you will be faced with an action item or multiple action items that require you to think hard in order to come up with a solution.

For instance, you may find that the reason you are procrastinating on asking your boss for a raise is because you are afraid that you will not know how to respond to his counter arguments for not giving you a raise.

Here you would need to focus all your energy and attention into figuring out how to solve that problem. Maybe you could role play. Perhaps you could take a class on negotiating. Maybe you could imagine your boss is a cute harmless kitty when you go in to see him/her.

Whatever the case may be, procrastination stems from your minds inability to automatically come up with a clear solution for a particular problem.

On a more positive note though, once you have devised a clear solution for the mental obstruction, your path towards your goal becomes much clearer and you are less likely to procrastinate.

When you’re trying to solve a problem where the solution is not obvious, you need to focus.

Otherwise you risk getting frustrated by your lack of progress which leads to procrastination and ultimately causes you to give up.

Related posts:

1. Exercise 1.8: Creating plans to deal with persistent problems
2. Step 6: Post-Office and potential problems
3. Exercise 6.1: Common teleworking problems and solutions

photo credit: pshegubj

Being an effective telecommuter isn’t something that tends to happen overnight. Reflecting on the last 2 years and all the unlikely and generally unacknowledged issues I’ve had to deal with while telecommuting, I’ve come up with 7 habits that I believe help me be an effective telecommuter.

Far be it for me to say that I am effective, but I get my work done, I don’t stress and I am happy. I think I’m doing pretty well, though it wasn’t always like that and I had to work on it.

So if you’re ready, on to habit number 1.

Habit 1: Knowing how to get yourself to work and to do it happily

This is probably the most important habit if you want to have any hope of staying productive while you work from home.

There are basically two types of employees out there. Those that are intrinsically motivated ( internally driven, inspired to work) and those that are extrinsically motivated (externally driven, motivated by an outside force).

Most people are somewhere between the two to a certain degree, though it is important to ensure you are able to work consistently when you need to.

For instance, you may get too comfortable with your manager not checking up on your work and feel tempted to keep delaying work.

To counteract this you could make it a point to send weekly or monthly reports to your manager so you know that you have something riding on delivering your work on time.

If you are self-employed, you could make it a point to yourself to sit down and work for at least 2 hours in the morning after which you would reward yourself by taking the next 2 hours off watching an episode of your favorite TV show.

Figure out what motivates you and use it to get yourself to work.

Habit 2: Knowing where to draw the line between work and life

When I started off as a telecommuter, my office was also my bedroom.

I wouldn’t say this was the worst idea, but it did make it difficult to differentiate between work time and leisure time, much to the dismay of my partner who would catch me checking work emails before bed time.

When telecommuting or working from home, you need to know where to draw the line between work and life.

This can be done by certain boundaries that you will not cross once you are familiar with your work habits and what you need to do to stay effective.

For instance, you could make it a point not to check emails after 5pm or that on weekends you won’t touch work at all.

Alot of people already have trouble separating life from work while they are working in an office.

Once your home is your office, the lines can start to blur even more, so make it a point to ensure they stay clear.

Habit 3: Remembering to open the window or to go outside

The power of natural light can’t be understated when it comes to being an effective telecommuter.

I didn’t think this was a major issue, until I noticed strange changes in my behavior after not leaving my home for more than a week and generally keeping the shades drawn.

Too much darkness and not enough sunlight turns you into a creature of the night. Depressed, sluggish and out for blood.

Get some fresh air because you can and let some light in to get your daily dose of Vitamin D.

You won’t sparkle, but you’ll definitely feel better.

Habit 4: Getting enough sleep on a normal sleep schedule

Not enough can be said for the benefits of getting a night of undisturbed restful sleep.

You feel better, you work better, you are better. I don’t even use the alarm clock anymore on normal work days.

While this won’t apply to everyone, I find that I generally enjoy my day better when I do not wake up past 10am.

After 10am I feel half the morning is gone and I feel more rushed for some reason.

As a telecommuter, being effective depends highly on your own ability to stay alert since there isn’t going to be anyone around to push you to work if you’re looking abit sluggish.

Try to get the maximum number of hours sleep you can every night so that you feel fresh and ready to face the day when you wake up.

This not only helps you think more clearly. You will be more productive and everything is generally more enjoyable, even work.

Habit 5: Learning to slow down

My sequence of waking up used to look like this:

• Wake up> Computer > Food when I remember > Oh yeah I should maybe shave and brush my teeth

I used to feel rushed in the morning, like I needed to get to work right away and that time was flying.

Nowadays I’ve learned to slow down and come to realize that while work is important, it shouldn’t be the first thing i’m thinking of when I wake up.

Instead, I take the time to actually wash up. Then I go to the kitchen and make myself some real breakfast instead of having a rushed piece of toast and burning my throat on hot coffee.

When I’ve made my breakfast I’ll sit down at my desk (hang on hang on, I’m not working yet) and watch something inspiring like a TED talk or listen to an audio book to put myself in a positive frame of mind.

If I don’t feel like doing that, I’ll just sit down at my breakfast table and look out the window for awhile, taking the time to chew my food without worrying about the clock.

The point here is to learn to slow down and not to rush. Savor the time you have and enjoy it like fine wine.

Why? Because you can. And because it helps you relax and think more clearly about things that are important.

Habit 6: Knowing when its time to just do something else

There are times when you will hit a mental block. When you’re in the office, you’d probably get up, go talk to a colleague, surf the web or do something to ease your frustration on your task.

All the while though you have this nagging feeling that you should be working and that the warden could show up anytime and catch you slacking off.

Sometimes though, enough really simply is enough.

When I hit mental blocks or when I feel like I’ve been sitting down for too long and my legs are getting stiff and my eyes are getting sore, I know its time to just get up and do something else.

There is no point in stressing your mind and your body past the point where it is simply unhealthy to do so.

It’s like trying to drive at 100mph when your car refuses to go past the first gear. Eventually you’ll just break the gear box, then you’re not going anywhere.

When you feel frustrated, I’m not saying give up right away. But if you’ve been hitting a problem for hours, had 8 cans of red bull and the floor is littered with the hair you’ve pulled out of your head, it’s a sign that you need to stop and do something else.

Take a nap, play a game, go out. Just do anything that takes your mind off work.

You’ll usually find that once your stress levels have dropped and your mind begins to relax, the ideas will flow more readily and  you’ll be able to find a solution to the problem that was hindering you.

Habit 7: Doing stuff to help remind yourself how lucky you are to be out of the 9-to-5

Like all things, it is really easy to take what you have for granted if you don’t take time to appreciate it.

Here is a short list of things that I recommend to help remind yourself that you are one lucky person to be able to work from home.

• Wake up at 10am or later
• Spend all day doing something you enjoy doing
• Take a siesta in the afternoon
• Take your laptop and go work outside
• Go do your errands during the day
• Drive to the beach
• Drive to hills
• Just drive
• Work in your pajamas
• Call a friend and catch up
• Make yourself a decent lunch
• Write on your blog
• Watch an entire anime series from start to finish
• Watch a movie
• Go to the gym
• etc etc etc

Related posts:

1. 8 Easy Ways to Look Effective in the Office
2. Step 1: Becoming a Fast, Effective and Independent Employee

The reason I’m writing about procrastination is because at the end of the day, procrastination is ultimately what will hold you back from escaping the office.

I used to be a serial procrastinator because I used to carry the belief that no matter how hard I tried, I would never be able to achieve my desired goal.

I believe this is the fear that many would be office escapees carry around as well. They believe that no matter what they do, they can never escape the office, so they either do nothing or avoid the mission critical tasks by making the excuse that they are too busy with something else.

Below I’m going to talk about 4 simple ideas that helped me overcome procrastination and push myself past the mental barriers that were holding me back from escaping the office and living the life I wanted.

Trimming the Fat – Applying the 80/20 Rule to Everything

When I learned of the 80/20 rule (also known as the Pareto principle), it changed everything for me.

I used to be a hoarder. Not just of stuff, but of information as well. I used to feel that in order to learn how to do something well, I needed to know everything.

Along with this I’m also an efficiency addict. I hate wasting time and like to do things as quickly as possible with maximum impact.

This meant that often times I would get frustrated from trying to do or learn things, as I would always try to learn every single thing there was to know about a subject in order to be good at it, which in reality is impossible if you don’t have all the time in the world.

The 80/20 rule taught me that in the majority of cases, only 20% of what you need to know is actually high impact.

The other 80% is just icing on the cake so to say.

For instance, if you talk about baking a cake, most could agree that making the base is the easiest but most important part.

The part that really takes up all your time is the time spent decorating it and putting all the intricate detailing to make it look better.

You could have left out all the decoration and you would still have what most would agree is a cake, and most people would be happy to eat it if you put it on a plate.

This is just a simple example of the 80/20 rule, but I’ve found that I can apply it to almost everything, especially activities I don’t enjoy so I can get through them as quickly as possible.

The rule isn’t perfect, but for me believing that there is always a simpler and faster way to do something to achieve  the most important results has done alot to help me overcome procrastination and to feel excited about doing new things.

Understanding Yourself – The Rules of Pain and Pleasure and The 6 Human Needs

When I first came across Anthony Robbins audio course entitled Personal Power I was skeptical. I’d had experience with motivational guru’s and they usually never provided practical information that I could use.

I thought this course was going to be same positive thinking mumbo jumbo I’d heard so many times before, but this course came recommended to me from a friend who usually wouldn’t send junk my way.

After going through the first 10 days of the course in a few hours, I was quite impressed by the simple ideas he presented which I could apply to myself immediately.

The key lessons I got from the course were the rules of pain and pleasure and the 6 human needs.

The rules of pain and pleasure

The rules of pain and pleasure state that all our actions are determined by our desire to avoid pain and feel pleasure and that we were ‘hard wired’ to function this way.

This didn’t seem right to me until I understood his definition of pain and pleasure.

Pleasure doesn’t refer solely to physical pleasure; there is also emotional pleasure, which sometimes gets referred  to as psychological or spiritual pleasure .

This applies to pain as well, whereby we experience physical as well as emotional pain as well.

An example of when physical pleasure and emotional pleasure can clash is taking drugs to feel good but feeling guilty later because you feel your family wouldn’t approve.

Another example is the man who experiences physical pain and hardship climbing a mountain in order to feel emotional pleasure later in the form of pride and achievement.

Understanding the simple fact that we will always try to avoid pain and gain pleasure, and also understanding at the same time that physical and emotional pleasure don’t always go hand in hand, allowed me to better understand why I did things and also to change negative mindsets and behaviors that were holding me back.

For instance, I remember the day when I wanted to ask for my telecommuting agreement. I was nervous and my whole body was racked with tension from the thought of finally taking the steps towards achieving the goal I had spent so many months preparing for.

Thoughts of failure filled my head and my focus was moving in completely the wrong direction.

Taking a moment, I reflected on the pain I was instinctively trying to avoid and realized that it was the pain of failure.

I was afraid that all my effort would have been for nothing and that as long as I avoided walking into the office and talking to my boss, there was still hope that  my plan could succeed.

I was avoiding the chance that I could fail.

The next thing I reflected on was the original pain that had caused me to attempt to gain a telecommuting agreement in the first place.

The stress of being in the office even if I didn’t want to be there, the feeling of being trapped and having no freedom, the pain of having to get up every morning at 7am whether I wanted to or not to go to an office where I would sit and stare at a computer for 8 hours, the pain of not being able to spend my most productive hours doing things I enjoyed instead of working, the pain of gradually getting more and more unhealthy with each passing month from spending too much time sitting down, the pain of coming home feeling too exhausted and wanting rest to do anything fun with my partner and friends…  and the list goes on.

Putting all my focus on those pains (I usually find it easier to focus on avoiding a painful to gain pleasure than to simply focus on pleasure) I got up the courage to go and ask my boss for what I wanted.

Had I not known exactly how to personally ‘brainwash’ myself in that critical moment to take action, I may not have done anything and I would still be in the office.

Telecommuting for me has been a life changing event and this simple idea contributed to making it possible.

The 6 human needs

According to the course, there are 6 human needs and that in order to feel fulfillment in life, all of these needs must be met.

These needs are the need for certainty (comfort), the need for uncertainty (excitement and variety), the need for significance (personal identity), the need for connection and love (belonging), the need for growth (achievement and success) and the need for contribution (making the world a better place).

By my definition, fulfillment is a feeling of oneness and contentment with ones life.

Taking sometime to think about times when I felt fulfilled in my own life, it became clear to me that the above needs are indeed fairly accurate.

This helped provide me with a blueprint of sorts in order to find fulfillment in my daily life.

Some people would like to believe that fulfillment is something that just happens and you can’t control it. For me though, I believe that understanding the rules to finding fulfillment significantly improves your chances of finding it.

For example, a time when I really felt fulfilled was when I was a youth leader back when I was in school and college.

During that time I felt fulfilled because I had this feeling of certainty that what I was doing was good. This met my need for certainty and contribution. Through speaking and playing music, I felt I had something unique to offer the youth community and this met my need for significance.

I also made many good friends through my work as a youth leader and this met my needs for connection and love.

The work was also very interesting and challenging which met my need for excitement and variety.

Understanding what to look for in order to achieve fulfillment in my daily life helps me take real steps to move away from activities I don’t find fulfilling ( working 9-to-5 for example) and to take steps towards doing things that I do find fulfilling (constantly learning and growing, spending time with friends and family).

Use Next Action Lists Along with To-Do Lists

Knowing how to 80/20 my activities and understanding how pain and pleasure worked wasn’t nearly enough.

I still had a tendency to get overwhelmed with to-do items and would always carry this fear that no matter what I did, I could never complete certain to-do items.

This led to stress, uncertainty and ultimately procrastination.

Understanding that I needed to find a way to overcome this ‘pain’ of frustration, I sought to find an answer.

My search led me to David Allen’s book Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress Free Productivity.

His book introduced me to the idea of using next action lists instead of just simple to-do lists.

The reason he recommends having a next actions list is to allow you to know exactly what you need to do in order to complete an item on your to-do list.

An example of this would be instead of simply writing “Cook Dinner” on my to-do list, I would write the following action items under it:

1. Go to supermarket and buy beef roast and marinate sauce
2. Go home and put beef roast in bowl with marinate sauce
3. Put bowl in fridge and leave for 2 hours
4. At 6pm, preheat oven to 200 degrees
5. Place beef on a tray and place tray in oven
6. Set timer for 1 hour
7. Begin setting table at 6:50pm
8. Take roast out of oven when timer goes off
9. Place roast on table
10. Dinner is served

Each of the listed action items needs to an actual action that is clear and easy to understand.

The reason why you want to create to-do lists along with associated next actions is because having a clear start to finish procedure on how to complete a to-do item prevents you from constantly worrying about it.

If you want to understand what I mean, try this simple exercise.

1. Think of a to-do item that has been on your mind for some time but you have been procrastinating on for whatever reason.
2. Next, list down all the next actions required in order to tick off that to-do item as complete.

Once you’ve written it all down, you’ll probably find that you feel more relaxed if you were stressed. The reason for this is because you are no longer wondering what it is you need to do in order to complete that item on your to-do list.

Also, since it’s all listed down on paper, you now have a reference outside your head to remind you of what you need to do whenever you feel unsure and start wondering about that to-do item.

If you have been procrastinating on it, what you will tend to find is that there is at least one action item on your list that leads to some form of pain.

For example, if lets say you’ve been procrastinating to call the plumber to fix the toilet, you might find that one of the action items on your list is “clear toilet of crap before plumber arrives”.

I don’t know about you, but clearing out crap is not high up there on things I enjoy doing that lead to fulfillment.

Listing out action items allows you to do three things to help you overcome procrastination:

1. It gets you absolutely clear on all the necessary actions to complete your to-do items
2. It reduces your stress associated with the to-do item. You just need to refer to your next actions list whenever you feel yourself worrying about it.
3. It helps you identify and isolate pain related action items that may be causing you to procrastinate. This then allows you to deal with the main issues that are holding you back from taking action.

Summary

Using these 4 simple ideas, I have been able to overcome procrastination and manage problems that I have struggled with my entire life.

Going through Anthony Robbin’s Personal Power course helped me understand in a fundamental way how my body and nervous system are hardwired so that I can better understand how to achieve results that are both physically and emotionally pleasurable and fulfilling.

This has since allowed me to focus my actions primarily on doing activities that will lead to fulfillment.

Using the 80/20 rule, I’ve managed to trim my daily activities to the most mission critical activities.

By reducing the number of to-do’s and keeping the action items short for each to-do item short, I reduce my chances of procrastinating.

Having the action list’s in themselves also gives me a reliable reference that allows me to track my to-do items and their associated actions so I don’t have to constantly worry about what I need to do.

There will be occasions when creating a short list of action items will be impossible. There will also be occasions when having a list of action items that don’t lead to some form of pain will be impossible to avoid as well (for example, cleaning up vomit and poop with your bare hands).

During moments like these, you will need to reassess the pain and pleasure you associate with that particular situation and try to come up with enough pleasurable reasons to get yourself to take action.

If you’ve ever done something like catching a cockroach with your bare hands to impress a girl when you’d normally scream like a girl if you were alone, you understand what I mean.

In the context of escaping the office, you need to understand that its more about mentality than methodology.

There are plenty of ways to escape the office.

You just need to find a way to either overcome the mental barriers that are holding you back (learn to associate more pleasure with escaping the 9-to-5 or learn to associate more pain with staying in the 9-to-5) or to find a way to work around them (telecommute to reduce fear of income uncertainty while you develop other income streams).

I found that ultimately, the belief that helped me escape the office was the belief that if I didn’t do it, I would be throwing my life away.

Everyones reason will be different, however that was the reason that was strong enough to drive me to take action because I associate alot of pain with regret.

I didn’t want to look back on my life and realize that I had spent the best years of my youth in an office stuck in a job I didn’t find fulfilling when I knew for sure that there was a better way to live that would allow me to pursue and ultimately find my true passions in life.

Related posts:

1. How to Overcome Procrastination Part 2
2. How To Overcome Procrastination Part 3
3. How to Overcome Procrastination Part 1

In this post I’m going to talk about what losing weight can teach us about succeeding at online business.

When it comes to online business and losing weight, most people would agree that there is more than one way to approach either one.

For instance, my method for losing weight would be to exercise daily, eat less fat and generally cut down on the sugary drinks. I wouldn’t alter what I eat too much, and this has worked for me.

My partner on the other hand might opt to stick with a more regimented diet plan like Kate Morgan or Jenny Craig and exercising maybe once a week. This has also shown results and works for her.

There is more than one way for a person to lose weight and in the same way, there is more than one way to succeed at online business.

The problem in both cases though, is that people are always looking for the quick fix and usually don’t have the discipline to stick to the basic principles that lead to success.

Here are some principles that help me succeed at most things and that I believe will work for you as well.

Get A Strong Understanding Of The Basics

For weight loss, the basic steps are:

• Reduce your fat intake
• Reduce your sugar intake
• Exercise at least 3 times a week for 20 minutes

For online business, the basic steps are:

• Start a website
• Produce good, relevant content for your target audience
• Attract traffic
• Sell them a product they want

Once you are very clear on the basic things that you need to do in order to succeed, it makes it easier for you to stay focused.

While each listed step can have different methods to reach them, the important thing to remember is that the goal is to achieve that step.

For instance, where it says exercise 3 times a week for 20 minutes, you can opt to cycle, run, swim, play basketball etc.

For online business, you can attract traffic in multiple ways. Through Search Engine Optimization to get top ranking in search engines; social media sites like Twitter and Facebook; word of mouth through friends or your business network etc.

Each method might produce results better or worst than others, however they all produce results provided you stick to it and work at it consistently.

Choose a Plan and Stick To It

The reason why I used to fail a lot was because I lacked the ability to choose one path and stick with it.

I didn’t have the patience to wait for results and I was constantly looking for a quick fix.

Doing 30 push ups today and then looking in the mirror the next expecting to look more muscular is an impairing mindset not limited to people who want to lose weight.

Many people (myself included at one stage) tend to invest lots of money in internet marketing courses and then get frustrated when they haven’t made money within that week.

Almost every marketing course and weight loss course out there works to some degree.

All it takes is some patience and determination to stay the course until you see results.

Define Clearly What Success Looks Like

You can’t hit a target if you don’t know what you’re aiming for. In the same way, you need to clearly define what it is you want to achieve so you can determine if you are moving closer or further from your target.

For instance, your weight loss goal might be to have reduced by 2 dress sizes within 2 months.

Your online business goals on the other hand might be to consistently generate $3000 a month.

If you don’t know what your idea of success is you’ll never be able to feel like you’re making any progress.

Get a Mentor or Someone to Stop You From Giving Up

When you don’t start seeing results immediately, it gets very easy to lose patience and give up. This is particularly true when you’ve never achieved success in that particular area, whether it be losing weight or online business.

This is why its good to have a mentor or someone who will help push you to ensure you stay the course.

Mentors are able to see success on your behalf, and having gone the path you are trying to take, they are able to give you advice that will help you fast track your efforts.

Taking this advice, recently me and my partner got ourselves a personal trainer.

At first I wasn’t too keen, as I always felt like I knew how to train myself and didn’t need a trainer. The problem was that I wasn’t committed to training regularly.

Eventually though, I realized that this might be the best way to ensure that the both of us got into the gym each week (at least once) and did a proper workout.

After having the personal trainer for some time, I can say that it’s really starting to pay off and that it has really helped us to build momentum in getting to the gym more often and exercising more regularly.

The point is that when you have someone who has achieved what you want to achieve and they are there to push you and make sure you stay accountable, you chances of success go way way up.

Summary

In my opinion, people tend not to succeed at losing weight and online business for the following reasons.

Firstly, they never get a strong grasp of the basic steps they need to take to succeed. Understanding the basics well serves to form a foundation upon which you reference all future action. For example, understanding that the goal is to drive traffic to your site will help you get less hung up if you’re only using social media like facebook and twitter but totally ignoring SEO.

Secondly, they never choose one plan and stick to it. Most weight loss plans and internet marketing courses are built around the basic principles. As such, all of them are designed to work to a better or lesser degree, provided the instructions are followed consistently.

Thirdly, they never clearly define their idea of success. If I want to refuel my car, then success for me would be defined as getting to the petrol station and refueling my car. If I wanted to wash my clothes, then success for me would be to put my cloths in the wash and then hang them out to dry later. If I wanted to lose weight, then success for me might be to be able to fit into my size 27 pants in three months. Knowing where your target is is the first step to hitting it.

Finally, they don’t get a mentor or someone to push them and keep them accountable. If left to me, I might not train intensely every week for 45 minutes. However because I have a personal trainer who pushes me and keeps me accountable, I remain dedicated to my schedule. Overtime though, I’ve found that it becomes easier for me to get off my butt and head out on my own without my trainer. Having the trainer around also keeps me from falling back into lazy habits.

All in all, succeeding in online business or losing weight  is not complicated, however it can be difficult when above four steps are not followed.

Don’t get hung up when you don’t see results immediately. Get advice from people who have achieved what you want to achieve, choose a path and have the patience to stay the course and I can guarantee that you will always succeed in anything you choose to do.

Understand the basics <–> Stick to one plan <–> Clearly define your idea of success <–> Get a mentor or someone to push you if all else fails

Related posts:

1. Why Teleworking Is A Faster Way To Work From Home Than Online Business
2. Why I replaced the word online business with online service
3. What babies can teach us about never giving up and celebrating minor successes

“The weakest of all weak things is a virtue that has not been tested in the fire”

~ Mark Twain

The following exercises will explain a process on how you can systematically test to see for yourself whether you are capable of teleworking from your job.

This is an important step because if you attempt to telework before you are sure you can handle all the potential issues and problems that arise, you could end up back in the office before you can say,”Holy teleworking failure Batman!”

Exercise 3.1: Testing your Part-Time Teleworking ability

Exercise 3.2: Testing your Full Time Teleworking ability

Related posts:

1. Exercise 3.1: Testing your Part-Time Teleworking ability
2. Exercise 3.2: Testing your Full Time Teleworking ability
3. Step 6: Post-Office and potential problems

“My biggest problem is what to do about all the things I can’t do anything about”

~Ashleigh Brilliant

Now that you’ve managed to streamline the processes pertaining to your work, you now need to create plans for persistent interruptions and problems.

If after your streamlining and process refining, you are still plagued by problems and distractions that insist on popping up, you need to come up with a system of dealing with the problem as quickly as possible.

For instance in the case of John, he would always have problems with proof readers who do not respond to emails or who do not return quickly with feedback. He realized that the reason for this was due to his position and that nobody considered him important enough to get back to quickly. To deal with this, he came up with the following solution:

1. He would send an email to a superior requesting recommendations for proof readers
2. Upon getting recommendations, he would then email the proof reader requesting help with the document. The superiors name will be mentioned and they would also be CC’d on the request.

By asking a superior, John saved time looking for potential proof readers and was pointed directly to people who were familiar with the subject matter. Also, by approaching them based on a recommendation from a superior in the company, the proof reader would feel more compelled to respond more quickly to avoid looking bad.

While this didn’t always ensure a speedy response from all proof readers, it did create a higher response rate as opposed to if he had approached them alone. Also, the quality of the feedback was better since he was now being directed to people who were most familiar with the subject matter.

It is always possible to minimize the negative impact of problems that insist on reoccurring despite your best efforts to streamline your work process. The key is to be ready for them when they happen so you can get past them quickly and stay focused on your main work tasks.

Important Points

1. Create procedures to deal with problems that persist
2. The procedures must be simple and can be executed quickly

Related posts:

1. Exercise 1.1: Overviewing your current working process
2. Exercise 1.7: Creating systems to speed up work
3. Exercise 1.6: Eliminating all unnecessary communication

“A bad system will beat a good person every time. “

~W. Edwards Deming

Like a drive through at McDonalds, you need to create a system for your work that is consistent and can be applied over and over again for the same results.

In the previous section you already managed to identify and streamline your work structure. Use this section to streamline it further so that you can go through all the steps that don’t require a great deal of brain power in as little time as it takes to make toast.

Going back to the case study, John found that he spent a lot of time focusing on the details of each manual. He would constantly make sure that each figure was exactly the same distance from the header and body text and that each figure was exactly the same size. His meticulous attention to detail was great, however it was slowing him down tremendously and he was beginning to fall behind.

After awhile, he began to notice the small but consistent things that he would do that would slow him down while working. You’d be surprised by how much time people waste simply scrolling up and down a few pages. He found that he was always looking for text, and headers that he had previously written on different pages. He was also spending a lot of time scaling and cropping individual images on each page, making sure they were just right.

While it might only take 2-3 minutes to scale, crop and position an image properly on a page, multiply this by 60 images and you have 3 hours of wasted time on something that when streamlined, took no more than 20 seconds per image.

Scrolling up and down looking for used text and headers could take anywhere between 30 seconds to 2 minutes. This added to the constant scrolling up and down pages made it difficult to refocus on the task at hand as soon as the text and headers had been put in place.

Below is a table showing examples of how simple tasks can be streamlined in order to create vast time savings when done collectively.

Ideally as mentioned before, you would like to eliminate as many steps as possible from a process. When elimination is no longer an option, the rest of the steps should be streamlined in such a way that you can speed through them with as little thought as possible.

The fewer steps there are and the less you need to think about a process, the faster you will be able to complete something.

Important Points

1. Reduce the number of work steps to increase work speed
2. Streamline tasks that are carried out repeatedly during work so they can be carried out as quickly as possible

Related posts:

1. Exercise 1.8: Creating plans to deal with persistent problems
2. Exercise 1.4: Eliminating all unnecessary tasks
3. Exercise 1.2: Isolating your most important work activities

“The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place.”

~ George Bernard Shaw

The defining difference between teleworking and working in an office is that at home, people can’t physically come up to you and vice versa. Because of this, you have to ensure that you are able to communicate effectively with your office and the people who are needed in order for you to complete your work.

Being able to communicate effectively allows you to simultaneously cut down on the time you spend on emails and also increase the speed at which you complete your work tasks that ultimately translates to more free time at home doing whatever.

Best case scenario is that you don’t need to communicate with anyone in order to get your work done. This allows you to eliminate email and phone altogether and simply report to your manager with completed work.

Unfortunately, there will come times when you will need to talk to someone in order to get a work task done, and this can get annoying when the people on the other end of the line are notorious time wasters.

I will illustrate this with an example from John’s case study.

In his job, John can for most of the time work independently. Sometimes however, John does require the assistance of someone else in order to obtain materials that he does not have access to. In the case of this example, it was some software that he needed in order to test the validity of a manual he had just written.

John sent an email on Friday morning to the software engineer who was in his building requesting that the engineer send him via email the software that he needed. After half a day of waiting, John finally gets a response from the engineer’s supervisor stating that John should forward all requests for software to him and not the software engineer.

Note: In the past, John had always approached the software engineers directly whenever he needed software or help with software of any type. There was no problem then, but now it seemed to be an issue.

After reading the email John found out (via the clear CC continuation of the previous email) that the software engineer had emailed the supervisor and asked him for permission to send the software to John, even though John had always gotten it from that engineer directly. From this, the supervisor then replies that he’d be more than happy to send John the software (he doesn’t send it to John in that email) and proceeds to lecture John on how John should have approached him instead of the software engineer and that the supervisor had reminded John to do this on more than one occasion. The supervisor then goes on to say that there are good reasons to do this though he fails to specify what exactly those good reasons are.

Note: There was only one occasion when he actually asked John to contact him if John ever needed something and even then he had said it in a casual manner and John assumed that he meant that he COULD contact him if he needed anything not that he MUST

On top of that, the supervisor decides to CC the same email to John’s manager and another supervisor who has absolutely nothing to do with John’s work but happens to be in a high position in the company.

The conclusion at the end of the day was that John had no software and had been made to look the fool in the eyes of my manager and some supervisor who has nothing to do with his work but is in a high position in the company.

The following Monday, John proceeds to email the engineering supervisor to ask him for the software he had been waiting for since Friday as he had not heard from the supervisor’s subordinate. John also CC’s this to his manager to cut down on the back and forth nonsense and to ensure that his manager knows that he is indeed doing his job. Five minutes later, John received the software via email and can get on with his work.

Because of pride, egos and people who are just plain lazy, John had to wait 2 days to receive software that would have taken 5 minutes to send if some people would just take the time to shut up and do their job.

I can’t stand time wasters and as such I have learned to ignore most of them whenever what they have to say has absolutely nothing to do with my top 3 work priorities. In the case of my missing software, this was one of John’s top work priorities at the time and due to a few time wasters, he had fallen behind.

The simplest solution I found to deal with time wasters was to simply CC my manager whenever I requested anything from anyone. It’s amazing how effective people can be when they know that a supervisor is watching and they are in a position to be blamed if you fail to complete your work on time. It also helps to know who the person you are requesting something from will receive the most prodding from for not doing their job and CC that person on the request.

Whenever you make a request via email, remember the following 4 points:

1. State precisely what you want
2. State alternate actions if they cannot deliver what you want
3. Be polite
4. CC a superior who is able to scare the person you are requesting something from into immediate action

Here is an example I used on a co-worker when I was attempting to locate a document that I needed in order to complete a pending work task.

–

Bob,

I was told that you are currently holding the engine service manual in your computer. If this is true, could you please send it to me?

If you don’t have it, do you have any idea who might have the document? If you know who has this document, could you please contact them via email and ask them to send me the document as I require it urgently.

Anything you can do to help will be greatly appreciated, thanks.

–

I then CC my manager on this request to ensure that my manager knows that I am indeed working and that any hold ups from that point on are not my fault. Having CC’d my manager, Bob knows that he needs to respond quickly otherwise he will be perceived as a slacker and goes about handling my request without delay.

Keep in mind, my email was direct, stated alternate actions and was polite. It doesn’t help anyone if you are abusive or rude in any way when making requests as this gives people no reason to hurry up and also leaves a bad impression of you on your manager if he is CC’d.

In saying that, don’t think that you can get away with rude emails even if you don’t CC your manager as your sent email can be replied to you with the contents of you previous email and then CC’d to anybody the sender wishes (which include your manager).

While the above mentioned methods will work to prevent people from wasting time when you need something, there are also the time wasters who try to dump unrelated work tasks on you. These people can be deflected using the following two methods:

1. Provide a solution that throws the work back on them (CC’ing your manager in the process)
2. Ignore them completely if they fail to follow your advice

I will illustrate how the first method can be used with an example. John received a request from Rachel in marketing to locate a document. To be polite and prevent complaints, he spent five minutes attempting to locate the document and then replies with the following email:

—

Rachel,

I’ve determined that the document you are looking for is not on my list. Searching through the server I have managed to locate a file that bears a similar name to the file you are looking for. Unfortunately I cannot view it as I do not have the software to convert the file to a pdf. Please contact Kevin as he has the software you need to convert and view the document.

If he is unable to convert the document for you, please ask him to direct you to someone who has the software to convert the file for you.

If the file is found to be incorrect, please contact the document controller as he should be able to locate your document for you.

I apologize as I am currently busy with pending work tasks, so unless this is an item that requires my immediate attention, please follow the steps I have mentioned above in order to locate your document, thanks.

—-

In this email, John has offered a solution to her request and a sequence of actions that she can take to successfully locate her document. By offering an alternate solution that involves no work on his part, he implies that he is trying hard to be helpful when in fact he is creating more work for the person requesting his help.

Most people who ask you for help on useless tasks are usually people who are too lazy to complete the task themselves and feel that they can easily dump the work on you instead. Because of this, by teaching them that bothering you ultimately leads to more work for them, this deters them in future from trying to dump work on you.

To ensure that they do not try to ignore your suggestions and continue bothering you, you state that you are busy and CC your manager in the same email. By bringing your manager into the loop, you make it clear that you are busy attempting to follow your managers work instructions and that by interrupting you, they are in fact interrupting important work that has be delegated to you from a higher authority.

This basically means that if they bother you, there is a chance that they will get into trouble and this is usually enough to deter time wasters.

If however, they insist on making you do their work, simply ignore them. Most of the time, this is enough to get them off your back and they will take it that you are simply too busy to respond. If however, they should happen to be stupid enough to complain to your manager for ignoring them, they are more likely to get into trouble than you. It is already clear from the first email that the interrupters task is not important and that you have tried to be helpful despite being busy with pending work tasks.

In summary, the keys to effective communication when you want something are as follows:

1. State precisely what you want
2. Offer alternate solutions to prevent back and forth
3. Be polite
4. CC your manager

Next, the keys to effective communication when you don’t want something are:

1. Provide a solution that throws the work back on them (CC’ing your manager in the process)
2. Ignore them completely if they fail to follow your advice

While it may be necessary to keep open lines of communication during a project, you want to minimize back and forth as much as possible.

To be in continuous communication with people while you are attempting to focus on work is distracting and slows you down.

Related posts:

1. Exercise 1.5: Eliminating all unnecessary people
2. Exercise 1.4: Eliminating all unnecessary tasks
3. Exercise 1.8: Creating plans to deal with persistent problems

“The man who goes alone can start today; but he who travels with another must wait till that other is ready.”

~Henry David Thoreau

The less people you need to go through in order to get your work done properly the better. In John’s case, he would spend a lot of time searching out people in order to complete his work tasks. After some analysis, he found out that the people who he needed to interact with fell into 3 groups:

• The person who makes the work request
• The people who hold necessary information for completing the work task
• The proof reader

These 3 groups could then be expanded to encompass a number of different people:

• The person who makes the work request
  • Supervisor
  • Engineer
  • External party
• The people who hold necessary information for completing the document
  • Engineers
  • Service people
  • Technicians
  • Document controller
  • Project Manager
  • External parties
• The proof reader
  • Engineers
  • Dealers
  • External parties

People who have nothing to do with helping you complete your main work tasks should be removed from this list. For instance, you may find that every week the payroll clerk or receptionist is calling you to look for a document on the server they might have misplaced.

You might feel like you are being mean by rejecting to help them, but the result of getting side tracked while in the middle of a major task is a loss of focus and longer work time.

If you insist on helping someone with something, let them know that you are busy and will only be able to help them at the end of your task.

While this prevents you from getting distracted, it also has the secondary effect of potentially deflecting minor requests in future.

For requests that are unimportant, people usually don’t bother following up if you insist that you can only help later. Also, people who are impatient will eventually get the idea that trying to get immediate help from you is usually pointless and will stop asking you altogether in future.

While it may not be possible to eliminate all people, it is possible to create a quick reference chart that tells you who you should go to whenever you need something. This is particularly useful when you are used to interacting with a lot of people and helps reduce the amount of time you need to spend thinking about where to get a piece of information.

Related posts:

1. Exercise 1.6: Eliminating all unnecessary communication
2. Exercise 1.4: Eliminating all unnecessary tasks
3. Exercise 1.8: Creating plans to deal with persistent problems