How to Skyrocket Your Productivity and Eliminate IM Overwhelm

by PaulV
32 replies
If you are starting out with internet marketing or you have been doing it for years, it is very common to be pulled in many directions at times and become overwhelmed, which can be completely toxic to your productivity.

I've put together a few tips to apply that will help eliminate that feeling and skyrocket you productivity.

Keep it Simple.

Focus on 1 Thing at a Time, no matter what. It's too common for us to want to go after 5 things at once. The illusion that we can do everything all at once can be extremely detrimental to our success. Especially when first starting out.

The mind simply cannot take on too many things at once. When we stay focused on 1 thing and "keep it simple" we can persevere.

Only Subscribe to 2-3 Lists.

Unsubscribe from all the rests! It's easy to constantly get flooded with emails when we subscribe to so many lists. So many of the times lists from IMers are nothing but promotion after promotion. And sometimes they're really good promotions.

The warrior forum has so many high quality products but we wont be able to succeed with any of them if we keep buying every single one that comes our way!

Unsubscribe from all those lists you've joined to eliminate these distractions, but stay on 2 or 3 of them that do provide value.

Cancel Your Distractions.

Email, Facebook and Twitter should all be closed when you're trying to get work done. I know it's fun to keep signed in to your email so you can check how many sales you've made the moment they come in. But you will be able to see EVERYTHING at the end of the day.

Emails and social networking can be HUGE distractions. Sign off of your distractions and dedicate 4 hours each day on getting your projects done. Then you'll be ahead of most internet marketers!


I hope these 3 tips will help boost your productivity. It can be difficult to follow through and stay disciplined all the time but by doing so you will be able to take your success to the next level.

All the best,

Paul
#eliminate #increase #overwhelm #productivity #skyrocket
  • Profile picture of the author himanuzo
    Choose one technique in internet marketing and focus and learn continuously it for getting maximum result. And take action it continuously for making money online. Only one technique is enough to take your success to the next level.
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  • Profile picture of the author Jackson Tan
    adding on.. take MASSIVE CORRECT actions.. eventually, is a matter of how hard you work and how fast you gain success..

    Cheers!
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    • Profile picture of the author Hani D
      Originally Posted by Jackson Tan View Post

      adding on.. take MASSIVE CORRECT actions.. eventually, is a matter of how hard you work and how fast you gain success..

      Cheers!
      I agree with you, taking action is the most important thing in your life
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    • Profile picture of the author PaulV
      Originally Posted by Jackson Tan View Post

      adding on.. take MASSIVE CORRECT actions.. eventually, is a matter of how hard you work and how fast you gain success..

      Cheers!
      Great addition! Yes, taking massive action is extremely important.

      I like how you added CORRECT in there.

      Taking action alone could make someone broke really quick if they were headed in the wrong direction.

      It's best when you find 1 proven method that has worked well for others and then take massive action so it works exceptionally well for you.
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  • Profile picture of the author Manie Amari
    Love the first tip PaulV, However, don't agree with tip 2. I think one should subscriber to all lists that are providing value. You learn a lot quicker what others are doing and also what's converting. In fact OPL has shaped my IM game. It's nice listening and learning from what the guru's tell you to do, but it's a lot better learning from What THEY ARE ACTUALLY DOING, if you get my drift


    Manie
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    • Profile picture of the author PaulV
      Originally Posted by Manie Amari View Post

      Love the first tip PaulV, However, don't agree with tip 2. I think one should subscriber to all lists that are providing value. You learn a lot quicker what others are doing and also what's converting. In fact OPL has shaped my IM game. It's nice listening and learning from what the guru's tell you to do, but it's a lot better learning from What THEY ARE ACTUALLY DOING, if you get my drift


      Manie
      Hey Manie,

      You've made a great point.

      I think you're absolutely right BUT I wouldn't suggest using your main email address when subscribing to all these lists.

      What I've done is I've created 1 gmail address that I use just for subscribing to lists and I subscribe to a bunch of lists with that address.

      My purpose here is to learn about what these marketers are doing (as you've said) and to see what products are being promoted for research purposes.

      But I will only check this email about 1 time per week.

      I would definitely not suggest doing this on an email address that you check on a regular basis for the reasons I've outlined above.

      Thanks,

      - Paul
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  • Profile picture of the author idoitbigtime
    tip #1 ==> TAKE ACTION
    tip # 2==> Promote Offers with 100% comission
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  • Profile picture of the author Lou Murphy
    Thanks for starting this thread Paul. These tips are solid.
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  • Profile picture of the author Tbyrd626
    Yes, don't be afraid that you are missing out on other things. It's perfectly fine to put your blinders on, so-to-speak, and stick to one thing. As a newbie myself, I struggle with overwhelm. It's so hard in the beginning because when you are new, you sometimes don't know what you SHOULD be doing with your time. I have learned that I need to just focus and ignore much of what I hear in order to keep moving forward. Learning and doing is tough, but I'm getting through it one day at time.
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    • Profile picture of the author PaulV
      Originally Posted by Tbyrd626 View Post

      Yes, don't be afraid that you are missing out on other things. It's perfectly fine to put your blinders on, so-to-speak, and stick to one thing. As a newbie myself, I struggle with overwhelm. It's so hard in the beginning because when you are new, you sometimes don't know what you SHOULD be doing with your time. I have learned that I need to just focus and ignore much of what I hear in order to keep moving forward. Learning and doing is tough, but I'm getting through it one day at time.
      Yes, exactly! Practicing selective ignorance can be a great thing.

      Learning and doing can be less tough when you break it all down into small taks and complete each of those tasks one at a time until you're all finished.

      Once you know what you want then put those blinders on for every thing else and narrow your focus down to just your 1 main goal. Then it may not be so hard after all.

      Best of luck to you!

      Paul
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      • Profile picture of the author CurtisSWN
        Just do it.

        Action always trumps "study" or "research", and it pays off best.
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        • Profile picture of the author Jesse L
          Originally Posted by CurtisSWN View Post

          Just do it.

          Action always trumps "study" or "research", and it pays off best.
          But you can not win a race if you are running in the wrong direction. Just acting without thinking is what a lot of people new to this do. They take off running but are heading in the wrong direction. Then, by the time they figure out they are headed the wrong way, they are just too tired to turn around and head in the correct direction.

          No one thing alone can do it. Your business must have a mixture of planning and Then acting. Not the other way around.
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        • Profile picture of the author PaulV
          Originally Posted by CurtisSWN View Post

          Just do it.

          Action always trumps "study" or "research", and it pays off best.
          Absolutely! Just as long as it's correct action so that you're going in the right direction.

          Originally Posted by Jesse L View Post

          But you can not win a race if you are running in the wrong direction. Just acting without thinking is what a lot of people new to this do. They take off running but are heading in the wrong direction. Then, by the time they figure out they are headed the wrong way, they are just too tired to turn around and head in the correct direction.

          No one thing alone can do it. Your business must have a mixture of planning and Then acting. Not the other way around.
          Yeah, definately could burn out and be broke if you're taking action and going in the wrong direction.

          If that happens you gotta just get back up, do more thorough research about the direction you're going in, and try it again until you persevere!.
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  • Profile picture of the author DaCato
    My productivity has gone way up ever since I started working in uninterrupted blocks of 50 minutes.

    Just set a timer, and close everything else but what you are working on!
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    • Profile picture of the author PaulV
      Originally Posted by DaCato View Post

      My productivity has gone way up ever since I started working in uninterrupted blocks of 50 minutes.

      Just set a timer, and close everything else but what you are working on!
      Thanks for sharing this.

      I've heard of software where you can do kind of the same thing to set aside a certain amount of minutes for the tasks you want to get done and then an alarm will go off when the time has ran out. Then you move on to the other task.

      This would work great for managing tasks and tackling those big projects.
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  • Profile picture of the author TimK06
    I think these tips will certainly help some people. It will certainly help me.

    Thanks a million
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  • Profile picture of the author stephenwaldo
    Great post, and I agree with these tips for the most part. I definitely recommend all newbies "keep it simple", although I think that many of the best Internet marketers are skilled at multiproject management.

    For tip number two, I would recommend subscribing to ZERO lists unless you're actually building an e-mail list yourself. No sense exposing yourself to shiny objects without rhyme or reason. If you are seriously dedicated to list building, then by all means, but no matter what anyone says e-mail marketing NOT for everyone, and those that spend their time elsewhere should just save themselves the time.

    In fact, I think the same thing could be said about Warrior Forum. If you're on this form, you should have an express purpose – either learning or marketing. Anything less is a waste of time.

    If I were to add a few of my own tips, they would be:
    1. Start each day with your hardest task
    2. Keep written goals in your work area
    3. Do what works for you, not what everyone else is telling you to
    4. Develop self-control; the biggest difference between success and failure is hard work
    Again, great post and I hope the newbies out there are taking notes!
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    • Profile picture of the author PaulV
      Originally Posted by stephenwaldo View Post

      Great post, and I agree with these tips for the most part. I definitely recommend all newbies "keep it simple", although I think that many of the best Internet marketers are skilled at multiproject management.

      For tip number two, I would recommend subscribing to ZERO lists unless you're actually building an e-mail list yourself. No sense exposing yourself to shiny objects without rhyme or reason. If you are seriously dedicated to list building, then by all means, but no matter what anyone says e-mail marketing NOT for everyone, and those that spend their time elsewhere should just save themselves the time.

      In fact, I think the same thing could be said about Warrior Forum. If you're on this form, you should have an express purpose – either learning or marketing. Anything less is a waste of time.

      If I were to add a few of my own tips, they would be:
      1. Start each day with your hardest task
      2. Keep written goals in your work area
      3. Do what works for you, not what everyone else is telling you to
      4. Develop self-control; the biggest difference between success and failure is hard work
      Again, great post and I hope the newbies out there are taking notes!
      So far the award for best response goes to you Stephen!

      Thanks for sharing such great tips. I especially like tip #3 which takes time to figure out for many newbies but once you discover what works for you then getting into laser focus and scaling that method can have an incredible impact.
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  • Profile picture of the author J. Barry Mandel
    Hey Paul,


    In theory it's a good idea only to be on a few lists because you won't get DISTRACTED, but in reality it's very easy to be on dozens of list and still be highly efficient.

    As of right now I have exactly "83,850" emails inside my Gmail account not to mention the "49,000+" from my personal account.

    Do I get bogged down with looking at EVERY email?

    Not a chance!

    Do I though have a good over view of what's going on in the industry or niche I'm in?

    Definitely

    Why?

    It's because I'm highly selective in what I read.

    If I think something of interest is there from the subject line then I can easily pick and choose what I want to read

    I hope this helps people reading - it's very easy to get caught up in blanket statements "Defintely do this or defintely do that", but it doesn't have to be that way


    Best,

    Justin


    Originally Posted by PaulV View Post

    Only Subscribe to 2-3 Lists.

    Unsubscribe from all the rests! It's easy to constantly get flooded with emails when we subscribe to so many lists. So many of the times lists from IMers are nothing but promotion after promotion. And sometimes they're really good promotions.

    The warrior forum has so many high quality products but we wont be able to succeed with any of them if we keep buying every single one that comes our way!

    Unsubscribe from all those lists you've joined to eliminate these distractions, but stay on 2 or 3 of them that do provide value.
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    • Profile picture of the author PaulV
      Originally Posted by Justin Mandel View Post

      Hey Paul,


      In theory it's a good idea only to be on a few lists because you won't get DISTRACTED, but in reality it's very easy to be on dozens of list and still be highly efficient.

      As of right now I have exactly "83,850" emails inside my Gmail account not to mention the "49,000+" from my personal account.

      Do I get bogged down with looking at EVERY email?

      Not a chance!

      Do I though have a good over view of what's going on in the industry or niche I'm in?

      Definitely

      Why?

      It's because I'm highly selective in what I read.

      If I think something of interest is there from the subject line then I can easily pick and choose what I want to read

      I hope this helps people reading - it's very easy to get caught up in blanket statements "Defintely do this or defintely do that", but it doesn't have to be that way


      Best,

      Justin

      That's true but not everyone has the self discipline to ignore (or be highly selective with) the catchy headlines from dozens of highly skilled marketers everyday. Especially when first starting out.

      Sure it doesn't have to be that way, everyone is different.

      Establishing what works best for you is the ultimate goal.

      Other suggestions made on this thread have been that you should subscribe to absolutely no lists at all, to as many lists as possible.

      I suggested reducing the lists to 2-3 because that is a good balance for the average person so that they do not get caught up with information overload. Or analysis paralysis as the saying goes.
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  • Profile picture of the author SteveCb06
    Great tips here. I am just starting out in IM and I have already noticed that I am spreading myself too thin. A few days ago a trashed a few projects that I started and never finished and told myself I am only going to focus on 1 at a time. So far, so good.
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  • Profile picture of the author Sarevok
    I agree 100%.

    I'll add a few things that changed my mindset for the better:

    1 - Stop multitasking.
    Now, I know that sounds crazy for those with ADD (me among them), but it's important to only focus upon one thing at a time. Remember this golden rule: when you multitask, you're sucking at everything you do. Focus on one thing.

    2 - Make daily goals. What good is focus, if you don't know what the hell you're doing? The first thing you should do is establish a plan, then develop goals in order to accommodate your plans. If you're not working towards something, you're probably going in the wrong direction.

    3 - Get a separate email account.
    Paul's right about not letting yourself get junked down by junk mail. But I go a step further. I actually have a private email list specifically for watching the gurus. Why? I want to see what they're up to. In all probability, I can learn something about the market by scheduling time to watch what the gurus are saying.

    4 - Never stop learning. A wise professor told me to never stop learning; you're only old, in fact, when you stop learning. Guess what? I learn tons of material here on the WarriorForum, and also concrete my own mindset by telling others things I've discovered. It's also a great place to ask questions, regardless of your current skillset.
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    • Profile picture of the author PaulV
      Originally Posted by SteveCb06 View Post

      Great tips here. I am just starting out in IM and I have already noticed that I am spreading myself too thin. A few days ago a trashed a few projects that I started and never finished and told myself I am only going to focus on 1 at a time. So far, so good.
      That's great progress. Just keep to that, write it down and stick in near your computer if you have to.
      Best of luck.


      Originally Posted by Sarevok View Post

      I agree 100%.

      I'll add a few things that changed my mindset for the better:

      1 - Stop multitasking.
      Now, I know that sounds crazy for those with ADD (me among them), but it's important to only focus upon one thing at a time. Remember this golden rule: when you multitask, you're sucking at everything you do. Focus on one thing.

      2 - Make daily goals. What good is focus, if you don't know what the hell you're doing? The first thing you should do is establish a plan, then develop goals in order to accommodate your plans. If you're not working towards something, you're probably going in the wrong direction.

      3 - Get a separate email account.
      Paul's right about not letting yourself get junked down by junk mail. But I go a step further. I actually have a private email list specifically for watching the gurus. Why? I want to see what they're up to. In all probability, I can learn something about the market by scheduling time to watch what the gurus are saying.

      4 - Never stop learning. A wise professor told me to never stop learning; you're only old, in fact, when you stop learning. Guess what? I learn tons of material here on the WarriorForum, and also concrete my own mindset by telling others things I've discovered. It's also a great place to ask questions, regardless of your current skillset.
      Remember this golden rule: when you multitask, you're sucking at everything you do. Focus on one thing. - Great point! I like that.

      I agree about the separate email account. That way you can check on them at your leisure instead of having to sort through them everyday (if they were in your personal email account).

      I really appreciate your contribution Sarevok. Thanks for sharing such great info with us!

      - Paul
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  • Profile picture of the author lanew
    My tip: IM is billions of dollar industry. It's only growing. There's plenty bread to go around! Please slow down and focus on one thing to your best abilities.
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  • Profile picture of the author J Bold
    I think you should subscribe to as many lists as possible with a gmail account, then filter them to skip the inbox and head to a special folder that you have to click on to see. As long as you can resist the temptation to click on it all the time you'll be good. It's dead easy to do and works for me while eliminating distractions and getting rid of inbox clutter.

    I do this so I can go in there for some inspiration at times or to see if there's a big launch I somehow missed. Although if I'm busy I still miss them sometimes...
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  • Profile picture of the author Randall Magwood
    I can attest to the subscribe to only 2-3 lists part. I'm only on Kim Roach's and Mike Filsaime's list.
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  • Profile picture of the author MKCookins
    Thank you for the Great tips!

    I am already starting to see that I spend on average 20 hrs on the computer a day. So making the best of your time this way will help
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  • Profile picture of the author tjaysen70
    Yeah this is a pretty good post and describes the one thing you need to have, and that's focus. You don't have to spend hours on your computer all day, but instead if you focus on income producing activities, you will get results and then the overwhelming part goes away.
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