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How To Track Your Time

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Tracking Time

Time is our most valuable resource. However, not everyone is tracking how their time gets carved out day by day. Instead of identifying how long they stay on social networks, most people make an educated guess. However, an educated guess is not good enough. Chances are you know your strengths and weaknesses in time management. However, what few people know is how powerful their strengths are and how flimsy their weaknesses are.

In order to measure your strengths and weaknesses, you need to track your time. Before you start something, write down the time that you started. When you move on to another activity, write down the time that you stopped. Then, write down the time that you started your next activity and continue the process.

Here is an example: I start writing my book at 5 pm and stop at 6 pm. Then, I look at my Twitter feed from 6 pm to 6:30 pm. Then, I write blog posts from 6:30 pm to 7:00 pm.

By continuing this cycle, you will be able to identify how much time you are spending on certain activities. Maybe you are spending more than an hour looking at your Twitter feed. It is better to catch yourself than it is to make an educated guess. In addition, continuing this cycle and creating this kind of schedule will allow you to identify what you did on your most productive days. If you wrote blog posts from 11 pm to 12 am on 1 day, and you wrote blog posts from 6 am to 7 am, you would be able to identify the time in which you are the most productive for a certain task.

By tracking your time for a week, you will be able to find common patterns. You will be able to identify where you spend most of your time and what goals you need to spend more time on. Write everything down in a notebook so you are able to look back at your results months later. Although this process does help you find out where you are carving your time, the process of writing times and activities is a long one. My recommendation is to track your time once a week every month and compare your results. Then, you will be able to see how you should be carving your time throughout the day.

Time is truly our most valuable resource. In order to get the most out of our most valuable resource, we need to track how we are using time. The numbers may surprise you. What are your thoughts on tracking time?

 

10 Productivity Hacks That You Did Not Expect

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In order to get more goals accomplished, we need to be productive for as much time as we can. There are many things that prevent us from being productive such as television, surfing the web, and other forms of procrastination. However, there are several productivity hacks that can boost your productivity. While some of these productivity hacks are obvious such as setting goals and fulfilling deadlines, there are other productivity hacks that are not as obvious. These are the 10 productivity hacks that are not as obvious.

  1. Exercise. Exercising has been proven as a great way to boost productivity. Exercising requires determination, and after you are done lifting the weights or running around your neighborhood, you will be able to take that same determination to your work. In addition, exercising allows you to clear the mind and do something that does not require you to sit behind a desk.
  2. Have a chain of accomplishments and keep that chain going. If you want to boost your productivity, get a calendar and put a red “X” on each day that you accomplish your goal. Having this visible chain will make you want to keep that streak going for as long as possible. Once you have a good streak, you will never want that streak to end. In order to keep the streak going, you will have to boost your productivity.
  3. Meditate. Meditating clears the mind and empowers the soul. Once you are finished meditating, you will feel empowered as you continue your work. Instead of stopping and encountering writer’s block, meditation gives you the imagination you need to finish writing blog posts and books.
  4. Uninterrupted work. Social media has a big impact on our productivity. A big mistake people make is to check their social networks while working “for a few minutes.” Those few minutes turn into 30 minutes that you lost. If you are working on a goal, the work you do needs to be uninterrupted. Make sure your phone is out of sight and that you will not do anything else to procrastinate.
  5. Start work earlier and work fewer hours. You do not need to work for 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days every year to get your goals accomplished. The secret is waking up earlier. We are at our peak of productivity when we wake up in the morning. As a result, you will be able to get more done in the morning. Then, you will not have to work as long throughout the day.
  6. Get a second monitor for your computer. A common reason why many people are not productive is because they have too many things up on their computer. If you are one of these people, then you need a second monitor. One monitor can contain all of the clutter while the other monitor only contains your work. If you want to be even more productive, get two monitors.
  7. Don’t think about how much time your goal will take. Many people overthink the situation. I was a big overthinker with my Twitter following. When I was gaining 100 followers every day, I calculated too often how long it would take for me to reach 100,000 followers. Now, I no longer do any of those calculations. In the end, performing a calculation does not get me any closer to my goal. Instead of thinking about how much time your goal will take, start thinking of some ways to make your goal happen faster.
  8. Achieve three goals per day. Three is the magic number. If you are just starting to be more productive, giving yourself 10 goals to accomplish in 1 day will overwhelm you. However, only giving yourself 1 goal will make that day too easy. Three is the magic number that will make your day not too overwhelming but not too easy either.
  9. Declutter your working space. If you are the type of person with a lot of papers on their desk, sticky notes all over the place, plants, and other things on your desk, then you need to clean that desk. Clutter encourages distraction. If you lift your head from your computer screen and stare at the clutter, you will be wasting valuable time. What you need to do is declutter your working space so you are able to be more productive. Another benefit is that by having nothing on your desk, you will pay more attention to the sticky notes that you place on your desk.
  10. Learn to say no. Not everything is worth doing. If you say yes to everything, then some of your time will be wasted on doing things that are not important. Do not be afraid to say no. Saying no will save you a lot of time in the long run.

Those are the 10 productivity hacks. By implementing these tactics, you will be able to increase your productivity. What are your thoughts on the list? Do you use any other productivity hacks? Please share your thoughts and productivity hacks below.

 

Why Small Businesses Need To Start Pinning On Pinterest

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pinterest pin

In order for a small business to become successful, that small business must have a big audience. There are no questions about this one. Almost every successful business and individual has a big audience behind them. While there are many ways to build an audience, Pinterest provides a powerful way to build a larger audience that engages with your pins.

Pinterest users engage on the social network more often than on other social networks. While 1% of tweets are retweets, 80% of pins are repins. That means a small business is more likely to go viral on Pinterest than on other social networks. If you need your message to spread quickly, Pinterest is the way to go. Some of my pins have received thousands of likes and repins because users love to repin other people’s pins.

Another big reason why small businesses should start pinning on Pinterest is because Pinterest allows its users to categorize information based on boards. If you provide social media tips, you can create multiple boards that deal with specific social networks. You can have one board with Twitter tips, another board with Pinterest tips, and so on. Pinterest’s boards will allow you to expand your knowledge and give your followers specific content. Specific content will make it easier for your followers to find what they are looking for. Making it easy for your followers to find what they want to see will result in those followers coming back for more information.

On Pinterest, it is easy for small businesses to find targeted users who are on Pinterest for multiple hours every day. Pinterest is a very addictive social network, and that is something small businesses need to use to their advantage. What are your thoughts on the list? Is your small business on Pinterest? Please share your thoughts below.

 

Why You Need To Get Local On Twitter

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twitter local

On a social network filled with hundreds of millions of people, it can sometimes be hard to imagine that millions of those users live nearby. The only reason those people are not following you yet is because they do not know about you. The solution to the problem is to go local. There are some retail stores that are only located in New Jersey. That retail store does not want more followers from California. That retail store wants more followers from New Jersey. Getting local followers will results in more sales for those retail stores.

There is still a powerful reason to go local on Twitter. If you have a remarkable story and let people know about that remarkable story, local people will cheer you on. In the Boston Marathon, spectators always know (and cheer the hardest) when a Bostonian approaches the finish line.

If you are from California, then the people in California are going to cheer you on the most. That’s because we get that cool feeling when we realize an influential person lives in the same state as we do. When you become an influential person, the people in your state, provence, or country are going to cheer for you the most.

Getting local on Twitter allows you to interact with the fans who will extremely love what you do. In addition, getting local can help boost sales. Do not be afraid to put your location on Twitter because people who live (or used to live) in the same location as you live in now are going to talk with you. Getting local is another way to have more conversations with your followers while gaining more followers.

 

How To Successfully Make A Connection With A Journalist On Twitter

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Journalism

Do you want to be on Forbes, The Huffington Post, or one of those other popular media outlets? The main way to get on big media outlets is by connecting with journalists on Twitter and having a remarkable story. There are some tips to help you out with your remarkable story, but in order to get noticed by the big media outlets, connecting with those journalists on Twitter is just as important as having the remarkable story.

There is a blueprint to use that will get a journalist’s attention. Once you have that journalist’s attention, then you can tell them about your story. Here’s what you need to do to get their attention:

  1. Look for a journalist who is not overwhelmingly popular. The less followers a journalist has, the more likely that journalist is to interact with you. You should contact the journalist with 10,000 followers before you contact the journalist with 1 million followers. Even if the journalist who has 10,000 followers is not from your favorite media outlet, it is important to remember that news spreads. When my dog got in The Associated Press, she also went in newspapers like this one, that one, and a bunch of others as well.
  2. Favorite and retweet the journalist’s articles. Only favorite and retweet articles that you actually like. If you like what the journalist writes, and the story relates to your niche or story, then that is the journalist who is likely to write about you (and the person who you want to have write about you). In addition, you can mention the journalist and tell the journalist that they wrote a good article.
  3. Wait for the journalist to respond. Not all journalists respond, but when they do, you need to strengthen the connection. Once the journalist responds to you, then you have their attention.

After you have the journalist’s attention, you need to build on that attention and build it into a strong connection. Here are the steps you need to take in order to build the attention into a strong connection.

  1. Thank the journalist for responding to your tweet the right way. Instead of saying, “Thank you for responding,” you should say something that tells the journalist that he/she is doing a good job on the web. A good response to start with would be, “I enjoy reading and sharing content like yours on the web.”
  2. Continue the conversation by asking an ego boosting question. All you have to do at the end of the tweet is say, “How did you get started as a professional writer?” or something along those lines. When people talk about themselves, the same parts of the brain are triggered as when people talk about food or sex. If that journalist likes food and/or sex (who doesn’t like one, the other, or both), then that journalist will respond to your tweet. Many journalists do not hesitate to promote themselves when the opportunity comes. Asking the question gives them that opportunity.
  3. Respond to that tweet and continue the conversation. There is no rubric for this step. Your response depends on how the journalist responds. The key to the connection working is that you have a lengthy conversation before you ask the journalist to write about you.
  4. When to ask the question. After you get the conversation with the journalist, continue favoriting and retweeting that person’s tweets. That way, the journalist will not forget about you. If the journalist cannot forget about you, then you have won the hardest part of the battle. All you have to do is continue favoriting and retweeting the journalist’s tweets. After 2-4 weeks have gone by, ask the journalist the question. Say something like, “I do BLANK and was wondering if you would like to learn more.” In order to increase your likelihood of appearing in the newspaper, what you do needs to be related to what the journalist writes about.

You should repeat this process for multiple journalists. One of those journalists will say yes, and then it will only be a matter of time before other newspapers hear about you and write about your story. Once you make it in a newspaper for the first time, it progressively becomes easier to make it in others newspapers out there.