“You don’t get any points for working too many hours and getting no results.”
Think back to when you had a day job and you had a boss. Maybe you still do. When that boss made twice as much money as you, do you think he worked twice as many hours? Even worked twice as hard? Probably not. Do you think someone who makes $20 million a year puts in 200 times as many hours as someone who makes $100,000 a year? Of course not. Don’t be silly.
If you’re not making as much money as you want, it might not be an issue of working hard enough but of working smart enough. That’s why you need to not work as many hours, take breaks and continue repeating what makes you money. Most people in corporate America who put in eight hours a day of work really only put in 15 minutes. Think about it. They get there late, they leave early, they take coffee breaks, they check their email – there’s a lot of wasted time.
When you were your own boss and you can set your own hours, you can come and go as you please and that means if you realize you have been sitting at the computer for several hours now without any real results then get off the computer until you’re ready to actually do something. You don’t get any points for working too many hours and getting no results.
That’s why you should treat your computer like a hot seat and here’s what I mean. If you’ve got a simple task completed such as writing an article, finishing a blog post, making a new joint venture connection, recording a video – whatever it is, do that thing and then get off the computer.
Take a walk, do the dishes, clean the house or exercise. Clear your head and focus on something different so that your computer is a hot seat. That means you sit down, do what you’ve got to do then get back up off the computer. When you’re sitting on that hot seat, be sure that you’re repeating what works and what makes you money.
I’ve seen far too many people spend their time checking email, reading forums or communicating on Twitter all day long or even writing a single article all day long when they really should be writing an article in 10 minutes, sending out an email in five minutes, putting the other a blog post in 15 minutes and then taking a break sometimes for the rest of the day.
Because would you rather spend eight hours in a day completing 15 minutes of work or spend 15 minutes getting that 15 minutes out of the way, taking a break and spending time with your friends and family? I know which choice I would take.
