My cat hides in the bathtub. The game is hide-n-pounce. The challenge is irresistible. With all the stealth of a liquored up ninja, I ease to the outside of the tub. First to pop over the edge and surprise the other wins a point. The game is to five.
Hard to believe I'm still single.
When I decided to re-sync my life, I was full of fire and passion, ready to put in 16 hour days, willing to fore go sleep, friends, and family in order to launch my business. As the awesome
Pat Flynn says - It's all about working hard now so you can sit back and reap the benefits later...
It's been 10 weeks since I've accomplished anything.
Distractions must be a common problem for busy people trying to launch a business while still working a regular job (or jobs). Here are some of my distractions and how I manage them.
Real Paying Gigs
I've got work coming out of my ears. I'm turning work away. If not for the economic hole I'd dug for myself, I'd turn away more work to focus on building
mybusiness rather than someone else's business. Because that's the goal, becoming Captain of the S.S. Dave. However... it'll be a while before Internet marketing can cover my expenses. As much as it grates on my soul, paying work has to take priority.
Solutions
- Keep reading successful entrepreneurs blogs and listen to their podcasts. It keeps my mind on creating the business and lifestyle I want. A couple of awesome blog/podcasts that keep me motivated are The Tropical MBA and Internet Business Mastery. Jay and Sterling at Internet Business Mastery are really good for mindset. Their latest podcast is about handling procrastination. It's worth checking out. Dan (and Ian) at the Tropical MBA put out really useful, actionable content. Plus he lives and works from various islands in the Pacific. I so want to do that...
Surprises
Why do I keep thinking something won't happen? Some things have to be dealt with right away, there's no putting them off or rescheduling them. It might be illness, maybe the furnace has gone out, it might be selling your house, perhaps a friend needs a shoulder to cry on. What ever it is, it has to be taken care of right away.
Solutions
- I've got nothing. Right now, everything gets put on hold to handle the issue. Perhaps I need to plan on spending a few days each month dealing with unexpected stuff? Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.
My Rock-n-Roll Lifestyle
For some reason people like hanging out with me. And for the most part, I like hanging out with them. Even though they chew up a lot of time and money, I need 'em. I don't really get vacations, so they're the only thing holding my fractured psyche together.
Speaking of time and money, girls are a HUGE distraction. But again, I need 'em. At least they smell better than most of my friends...
Solutions
- I'm not hanging out until 10ish at night. It gives me time to work through the day and into the evening, yet still have an hour or two of fun.
- No more worrying about some silly girl. It chews up too much of my brain. This can be applied to any number of other things, but I'm applying it to silly girls.
My Brain
My poison is thinking up stuff. Maybe it's ADD. Maybe it's my entrepreneurial spirit yearning to be free. What ever it is, it's fun. Implementation is too mundane. Focusing on one thing gets boring. When I hit a rough patch implementing something, switching to something else or strategerizing on other projects seems more efficient. But too often it's just an excuse to do something more fun.
What makes a rough patch? Typically it's something I'm trying to do perfectly. Perfection is subjective, difficult to achieve, and time consuming. I work a lot and I've been doing it for awhile. Spending valuable time trying to hit a difficult, subjective target like perfection grinds away at my energy. Burnout becomes a serious problem. Some days it's a frickin' challenge to focus, much less focus on work.
Solutions
- Perfectionism: Deadlines. I'll give myself a certain amount of time to complete a small task, set my iPhone timer, and GO! With an open-ended amount of time, I'll goof off. A set amount of time (usually 30 - 60 minutes) focuses me . For large tasks, a project completion date helps. It forces me to focus on core functionality and keeps me from adding every bell and whistle. If a bell or whistle is needed, it can be done in a subsequent release. Releasing crap is not an option though. If the core functionality isn't right, its worth the extra time to make it solid.
- Ideas: Write ideas down and come back to them later. When my latest glimmer of brilliance shines, I jot it down in my iPhone using the Notes App. It isn't fancy but works great. Later, usually when I'm waiting for a plane or friends to show up, I'll review the ideas. The bad and mediocre are deleted. The gems get more thought.
- Ideas: Outsourcing. There are a lot of success stories and a lot of horror stories. My take is that you need to manage outsourced workers closely, and you'll likely have to cycle through a bunch of them to find good ones. For small, well defined tasks, fiverr.com rocks. Though you'll often get what you pay for with fiverr.com, it's good practice for managing outsourced work.
- Burnout: Working from a coffee shop in Portland is just like like working from a coffee shop in Denver. Perhaps change of venue to Portland or New York would help. A pure vacation would be nice, but it isn't in the cards right now.
These are the distractions I've encountered. What distracts you? How do you deal with distractions?
