7 day challenge

Great advice for those of us with Chronic Procrastinating Disorder. Speaking form myself I've been lurking in this forum off and on for 2 or 3 years fantasizing about building my own IM empire. This post inspired some banter between my Self and ME >>>

SELF: Let's get motivated... write down 7 of the tasks you keep procrastinating....
ME: "Ok, good idea... I'll do it tomorrow"
SELF: "Do it now ... start today or tomorrow your desk will still be a mess and that pile of stuff you planned to list on eBay will still be in the middle of the living room floor"
ME: "Ok, you're right... I'm making a mental note and the first item on the virtual list is to write it all down on paper"
SELF: "Maybe you should just post your list in this thread and get it over with"
ME: "Hmmm.... good idea... maybe I should. But first I need to make a fresh pot of coffee"
SELF: "Ok, you got your coffee... now write your list!"
ME: "But what if someone actually reads it??? That might be embarrassing"
SELF: "Stop making excuses... nobody knows you here... some don't care anyway and the others are here to be supportive so they'll send encouraging words and good vibes."
ME: "Yeah, you're right... OK I'll take the 7 day challenge"

MY LIST:

1. Clean up my office, clear out the debris and find a notebook... there must be one here somewere... write my List on paper today... and while I'm at it start writing a daily journal cuz it stream of consciousness writing is a great discipline to help overcome this wretched Chronic Procrastinating Disorder

2. Post all that stuff on eBay... I don't want it and it takes up too much space... it's worth several hundreds of dollars and I need the money

3. Keep a positive attitude about getting layed off so suddenly. Don't forget I was bored to death with that job and it didn't pay enough anyway. Think of it as a ticket to freedom and take advantage of all this free time. Get serious about the IM venture. Blogging, affilliate marketing, niche marketing, membership sites... no reason I can't do them all but I really MUST stop over thinking it and just PICK ONE go for it!!!!!

4. Use the money from that eBay stuff to buy a few more domain names and start building some websites

5. Get the kitty spayed before she sneaks out and gets herself pregnant.

6. Figure out the cheapest, fastest, easiest way to drive traffic and MAKE IT HAPPEN

7. Start all over again by writing a new list for next week

I'm in.

Day 1 - Sunday - return to creating my "Inbox" pile and sorting my office junk, as described in book I'm reading (title escapes me.. something like How to Get Things Done). The funny thing about this task, was I started it about 4 days ago, made great progress, felt great about doing it, worked for the 2+ hours that I had and now every day since I've found other stuff to do and just can't seem to get back into it.

Day 2 - Monday - list all products that I'm currently selling from 1ShoppingCart and set them up as downloads using my newer download software.

Day 3 - Tuesday change all product link pages to point to newer software downloads and export all previous purchaser information.

Day 4 - export any affiliate information. Come up with a game plan for affiliate commissions (case you hadn't figured out... I'm taking steps to get off 1shoppingcart, going to save the money).

Day 5 - any additional steps needed (such as completing new affiliate setup) to get off 1ShoppingCart. Cancel my other two (or three) membership subscriptions (this is the month that I take my ongoing "make money" expenses to almost 0.

Day 6 - add up all existing debt. Make up monthly budget now assuming $200 a month in internet profit.

Day 7 ... hmm... not sure. I'm going to leave this undefined for the moment. I really like the idea of something that's been hanging over one's head. Okay... finish write-up of product evaluation that I've owed someone for.... way too long.

I am going to allow myself the rule of doing them out of order if I so choose.

Say are there any prizes in this challenge? Ah... only the reward of getting rid of that item hanging over your head. Good enough for me!!

P.S. Bart.... you didn't list your 7 things. Or were you keeping those to yourself?

Nice share!

I love this idea! I recently did something a little different, but it was also very effective.

I had a "Clear Out the Crud" Day. I listed a bunch of tiny tasks that had been falling through the cracks, and worked through almost all of them in one day. Many of them were only 10-minute jobs, but they were the things that never seemed important enough to make it to the daily to-do list.

Knocking out a bunch of little "I need to do this one of these days" tasks was incredibly freeing.

Now I may try Bart's idea for some of the bigger jobs.