Top 10 Tips To Increase Your Blogging Productivity

I have been working from home for just over three months now, in the beginning I found it hard to focus and my productivity dropped, especially in the summer months when the sun was shining and beckoning me to go out. Today I’m going to share a few tips that I have put in to practise…

1. Write down special goals – If you work from home, you have to do this – There are just too many distractions and no boss watching over your back every minute of the day. On my table I have a small card that I write down 2 mission critical tasks for the day. That way I focus on the most important tasks and outsource the rest.
2. Wake up at the same time everyday – Set a time to get up each day and stick to it. I get up at 7.30am to exercise, then have my breakfast and start work around 10am. I stick to 4 hours of work a day.
3. Turn off phone and instant email notifications – Having constant interrupts makes it harder to stay focus. I make sure there are no interruptions when I am writing a blog post because my readers want the best from me. Don’t you?
4. Exercise – I find doing exercise in the morning gives me so much more energy and motivation for the day, if you don’t regularly do exercise, try it for one week and see how you feel. Your mind will be clearer for the day and you might shed a few kilos along the way!
5. Tidy office – Keep your office clean by filing away piles of paper. If you have notes written down, transfer them to your computer and put a reminder to complete them. That way you will have less clutter and paper lying around.
6. Music – Not for everyone but I find music really helps me work during the day. Put something light and soothing on in the background.
7. Daily schedule – Even though you are working from home and don’t have to follow the usual office rules, try and set out a daily plan for yourself – start at the same time, have lunch at a set time etc – I find it helps to have a daily routine.
8. Just do it – If you are like me you have certain jobs that you try and put off because they’re dull or take ages, make sure it gets done first thing in the morning when you are fresh and motivated.
9. Outsource – Even though you can do a job doesn’t always mean you should do it – why not outsource that boring coding job which will leave you free to concentrate on more important jobs or jobs that you enjoy doing more.
10. Close your door – If there are distractions at home, like people calling round or noisy kids, make it a rule to not be disturbed when your door is shut.

All of these are pretty obvious things to do but if you don’t do any of them, give it a go and see if your productivity improves.

Tyrone Shum
Increasing Blogging Productivity

Outsourcing Increased My Productivitiy By 200%

Recently I’ve been testing some new ideas with “outsourcing” for Internet Business Path and from what I can gather, it’s been able to increase my productivity by at least 200%. What I did before outsourcing work to people was to create a mindmap of what the business needed in order to grow and continue to run without my input. Below is the mindmap of my businesses in it’s simplest form:

If want to create one, a really good software to use is FreeMind. It’s very easy to learn and very powerful for any business because it allows a business owner to laid down their ideas in a logical path. Since applying a mindmap to my business I’ve been able to design the system to increase my productivity by 200%.

How Do I Outsource If I Don’t Have The Money?
Firstly let me say, if you don’t have the money to afford $3 – $5US an hour to pay someone to handle your tasks that needs to be done repetitively, then you shouldn’t be in business. Okay, I’ll be fair and tell you this: I had the mindset previously to do everything myself because it was always about not having enough money. I know how you feel when you first start running an Internet business or is still a one man show, but it’s having the courage to step out of your comfort zone and learn to delegate tasks to other people to do. It’s not going to be perfect at the beginning, but with a little training, some trial and error and time you will be able to leverage your time and increase your productivity.

Outsourcing Administrative Tasks
An example that I’ve been able to outsource for $3 US an hour is the ability to get my virtual assistant to check and reply to customer service emails every second working day. Provided that I have given the guidelines and information for how to respond, I have eliminated at least 10 hours a week of my time that I used to spend replying and following up emails. When you think about it, it only costs me around $30 US for a virtual assistant to free up 10 hours of my week. Isn’t that worth the trade off when my time is worth $500 per hour? There are many other examples I could give you on how to outsource your work, you can read more of it in my Internet Business Blueprint report.

A Web Developer Will Solve All Your Website Issues
If you’ve read my business timeline, you would know that I graduated with a Computer Science degree from UNSW. Even with a degree in Computing Science I’m still not a good programmer and I choose not to be. I would rather leave the technical issues for a web developer that I can hire on an ongoing basis and pay them to work on my projects. It would take them a couple of hours to do something that would take me all week. Hence the websites I design and this blog you are reading has been designed by a web developer I hire and I simply project manage the process to achieve a great result for my clients.

A Bookkeeper Will Keep The Tax Office Happy
If you’re like me and hate seeing piles of invoices and accounts unreconciled, then I know you would hate book keeping. It’s a crucial part of your Internet business and without it there’s no way to measure how well your business finances are doing. There are systems that allow you to keep track of your business online, but not all of them are compatible with the tax laws within your country. Therefore I still purchase accounting software that is meeting Australian standards, such as MYOB Accounting. I hire a book keeper to help make sure my accounts are up to date and to generate reports to show me the financial health of the business. I hire a book keeper on a monthly basis where I can have all my paper work batched and she will enter the information at one time. She makes sure that my books are up to date and tax is paid on time and I don’t get calls from the tax office. She would save at least 20 hours + a month of book keeping that I would have had to do myself, all for the cost of a dinner with my partner.

I’m Still The Writer And Internet Marketer
I love writing and expressing my ideas on Internet Business Path and will continue to do so for a very long time. I found that it’s a great way to communicate with people from all over the world and I love receiving feedback and comments. I do this because I’m passionate about Internet business and if you know me I usually share my ideas with my friends and family most of the time. I could outsource the writing to a ghostwriter quite easily and let someone else do the marketing, though I have learnt that these are my strengths and communicating and promoting my business is my passion.

Tyrone Shum
Outsourcer