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How To Create New Habits In Your Life

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habit creation

The habits you choose for yourself can either hold you back or propel you to new levels of excellence. They are the lifeline of your life. While few bad habits can literally kill people, many bad habits derail our efforts and result in unfulfilled lives.

I want you to become one of the people who develops good habits that create a positive impact in your life. The best part about developing new (positive) habits is that it doesn’t take much time to turn new activities into habits.

According to science, it takes about 66 days for any activity to turn into a habit (about two months). To some people, 66 days may seem like a lot, but for most people, 66 days is about 0.0025% of our lives (assuming a life expectancy of 71 years).

In such a minuscule amount of time, you can turn ANY activity you desire into a habit. However, as we move forward with our lives, it becomes more difficult for us to find that minuscule amount of time within our lives. Different tasks take up our time and we find little to none of our time left to hone in on another habit.

Not only can we create additional time to master new habits, but we can also change our lives by changing the habits we use to guide us. Here’s how:

 

Identify What You Want To Eliminate

Before you consider mastering a new habit, assess all of your current habits. Which habits are bringing you down? Which habits are preventing you from being your best?

Those are the time sucking activities that you must address before doing anything else. The biggest habit that obstructed my success was constantly playing video games. As much as I enjoyed them, they constantly took me away from my work. I got great at certain video games but my business was at a standstill.

I eliminated my habit of playing video games, and that extra time allowed me to move my business forward at a faster pace. All of a sudden, I was accomplishing bigger goals and giving myself a more grand vision.

Have A Replacement

If I had given up video games to watch more TV, I didn’t really get closer to living a more fulfilled life.

I gave up video games with the intention of playing the piano. This replacement made it easier for me to give up on video games. However, there was an unintended consequence with this decision.

Anytime I couldn’t play the piano, I found myself surfing YouTube far too often. I can’t always play at home since I like to play in the evening or later (see what I mean).

To combat this problem, I have decided to play earlier in the day. Having a replacement isn’t just a matter of deciding which habit will replace your bad habit. You must also become specific about when you’ll implement this replacement habit.

I set up my college schedule so I can easily play the piano on campus in the middle of the day.

 

Gradual Evolution

When I got back to playing the piano (this was my first time playing in about eight years), I didn’t play for several hours. I played an easy song three times. That was it. Since then, I’ve learned how to play songs like Dancing Queen, Skyfall, Blank Space, and others.

With an undisturbed schedule, I can play the piano for hours upon hours without end. I continued practicing every day and got really good at playing the piano. There’s still much for me to learn, but I made a big leap since the day I started it up again.

 

Remove The Barriers

If you strive to master a habit but find yourself surrounded by barriers, you’re not going to master that habit. Playing the piano in the evening gave me a small window of opportunity, and as school work piled on, I began to miss that opportunity more often.

That’s just about the time I started to surf YouTube videos for about an hour just before going to bed (I know, terrible on my part).

Playing the piano on campus allowed me to stop surfing YouTube. The moment you put barriers around your positive habits, the easier it will become for bad habits to slip into your life unnoticed until they strike with a heavy blow to your time, money, and relationships.

Taking the path of least resistance will give you more time to focus on your positive habits which will give you less time to focus towards your negative habits.

 

Track Your Progress

To ensure your habits become a strong part of your life, you must track them every day. By continuously tracking your habits, you’ll soon feel the pain of not sticking with a habit and the joy of accomplishing your goal.

I have a habit of making at least 5 videos per day. Every time I accomplish this goal, I write it down in a notebook and feel happy. Every time I don’t make a single video, I write the dreaded “0 videos” which gives me more motivation to make five videos tomorrow.

Keeping that notebook with you at all times will keep you accountable to every action that you take today, tomorrow, and for the rest of your life. This is such a powerful exercise that makes you more aware of the habits that doom you and the habits that are helping you shine.

 

In Conclusion

The habits you choose for your life will either make or break you. Any bad habit can get removed from your life as long as you have a positive habit that will replace it.

Remember that the 0.0025% of your time that you commit towards developing a new habit can dramatically change the remaining 99.9975% of your life. Every action you take to develop better habits is moving you in the right direction.

What habits do you live by? Have any tips for habit formation? Sound off in the comments section below.

6 Tactics To Avoid Inbox Fatigue and Write Better Emails

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inbox emails

Your inbox can be full of opportunity or endless distraction. The inbox is addictive. Unread message notifications attract our attention like puppies, irresistible and impossible to ignore.

But a few minutes in your inbox can easily turn into hours while your projects are left waiting in limbo. To avoid falling into this continuous trap, follow these six tactics.

 

#1: Hire A Virtual Assistant

Do you find yourself responding to emails the same way to save time and energy? Do you spend too much of your day reading and responding to guest post submissions? If so, consider hiring a virtual assistant.

By reading through your emails and prioritizing which ones need your attention, a virtual assistant will help you resist the urge to incessantly check your inbox

If a virtual assistant cuts through just half of your emails each day, you’ll have more time to focus on your projects and feel less anxious about responding to every inquiry.

 

#2: Set Time Aside To Send and Respond To Emails

While outsourcing some of your email tasks frees up time and energy, it’s important not to forget that your inbox can present you with valuable, and often unexpected, opportunities.

In your quest to spend as little time as possible in your inbox, be sure you (or your virtual assistant) can spot those opportunities when they arise.

Some opportunities just randomly appear in your inbox. For example, once I got featured in The Huffington Post simply because I read and responded to an email immediately. I spent some time on a thoughtful submission that ended up in this HuffPost article.

Indeed, if I hadn’t checked my inbox, I wouldn’t have become a HootSuite ambassador, a Power Of Broke ambassador, or an affiliate for some of the top courses around — all of which have directly influenced my success.

And if I hadn’t allotted a portion of my day to writing emails, I wouldn’t have guests for my podcast, written guest posts, or achieved many of my goals (a lot of things come together for any individual’s success).

You don’t have to send and reply to emails every day of the week. I prefer to send and reply to emails 4-5 times per week, and I never leave email unattended for more than two days in a row.

I’ve found it’s better to address your inbox several times throughout the week than to choose one day to attend to your email. That one day will be rough, believe me, and you might miss out on time-sensitive opportunities.

Plus, if something comes up that day, you’ll find yourself overwhelmed by two weeks of email waiting for you the following week.

 

#3: Remove The App From View

I often find myself in a staring contest with the Mail icon on my Mac Book Pro. When the app is visible on my computer’s dashboard, it usually wins, but even the most disciplined among us can get distracted by a “New Message” notification.

When I’m working on an important project, I always force quit the Mail app. This makes the icon temporarily disappear from my computer’s dashboard.

Out of sight, out of mind.

Force quitting the app not only hides it from view, it also turns off inbox notifications. I can always turn the app back on and visible on my computer’s dashboard via the search function.

Once I’m finished working on a particular project, I move the Mail icon back to my dashboard because I don’t want to miss out on a potential opportunity. Sometimes, though, I’ve missed things simply because I forgot to turn the app back on!

 

#4: Unsubscribe From 1 Newsletter A Day

BEFORE YOU CONTINUE READING: If you’ve heard it here first, don’t unsubscribe from my emails just because you’re following this method.

Okay, here we go.

While people mean well when they email you their latest updates, blog posts, videos or products, these emails quickly become overwhelming (especially if you’re subscribed to dozens of newsletters). More importantly, it’s easy to miss priority emails in the shuffle.

That’s why I recommend unsubscribing from one email list every day. Take a look at whose emails land in your inbox. I’ll bet you’re not actively engaging with many of those individuals, brands or products.

These are the lists you should unsubscribe from. If you’re not actively engaging with email content, you’ll do yourself (and the sender) a favor by unsubscribing.

Why are you doing the sender a favor? Because for every email you pass over — combined with many others who do the same — the sender may be flagged as spammer.

Not only that, it’s better to know when a receiver is not a prospect in order to build an email list of quality leads.

Think of your inbox as a pricey piece of real estate and get rid of anyone who isn’t paying the rent. Even senders you like, but with whom you do not engage, should be shown the door.

 

#5: Make Your Replies Short

The previous tactic will decrease the number of emails you’ll receive in a given day. However, you’ll still get emails from people making inquiries. They may ask for advice, whether you’d like to contribute to their blog, pitch a story, or something else.

Naturally you’ll have to respond to some of these emails.

But your responses don’t have to be lengthy. The rule I follow is to aim for making my email responses no longer than five sentences. Some of my replies are only one sentence long. I don’t have time to write several paragraphs, and the receiver most likely doesn’t have time to read them.

Many of my email contacts follow a similar mantra. Seth Godin and Neil Patel were both guests on my podcast. To land the interviews, I had to reach out via email, but our exchanges were short and sweet.

In fact, I don’t recall ever receiving an email from Seth or Neil that was more than one sentence. Nearly everything was a one-liner! Neither of them waste time on long emails; they get their message across clearly, succinctly (and politely) in one or two sentences instead of one or two paragraphs.

Why do I mention Neil Patel and Seth Godin? Because I admire them both for their contributions to the entrepreneurial community. Seth has written 18 bestselling books and Neil has founded several million-dollar companies.

Look at how your role models do business and mimic them. Then you’ll become a role model for others. Quick responses free up your time to focus on other things. I go by the maximum five-sentence rule, but when I can get my message across in one sentence, I do.

 

#6: Ask People To Shorten Their Replies

How many times have you had to read an email more than once to understand what it’s all about? These kinds of emails are annoying in every sense of the word. Here’s the rubric for most of them:

The first paragraph opens by stating credentials. The second paragraph repeats the same credentials. And the third paragraph is a mix of credentials and the actual request.

You’ve lost me after the first sentence. Here are my choices:

  • Completely ignore the email
  • Reply to the person and ask him/her to shorten the email to no more than five sentences
  • Read the last paragraph to see what the person wants from me

Of course, if I receive an email expressing gratitude, I read it word for word. I appreciate those kinds of emails, even if they’re lengthy!

But most people want to receive short emails that get straight to the point. Regardless of whether you make this request to your audience or not, be aware of this tip when you send emails to me (or anyone else).

 

In Conclusion

The inbox is a double-edged sword filled with opportunities and distractions. To rule your inbox’s world, you must become conscious of how you spend time with it, and monitor how it affects your ability to complete projects and achieve daily goals.

You can’t just eliminate your inbox, but you can’t let it rule your life either. Your inbox is a wonderful servant, but a terrible master. You are the keeper of the kingdom, and you must protect it from greedy landowners.

What are your thoughts on managing email and your inbox? Which of these tips resonated with you the most? Do you have any tips to share? Sound off in the comments section below.

Episode 21: How To Sell Over 2,000,000 eBooks With Adam Houge

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Adam Houge is an author and a beacon of hope for self-published authors. The status quo view of self-publishing is that it’s hard to make money and sell books. Adam proved both of this myths wrong by selling 2 million of his self-published book.

 

Adam’s initial motivation wasn’t to make money. He was more focused on spreading his valuable content and getting his books into the hands of as many readers as possible. He wrote a religious book in the midsts of a series of medical bills and retirement from his day job. This is the book he wanted to spread. After writing 100+ books (not a typo), he’s now done just that—spread his message. In this episode, he discusses how he found the time to write 100+ books. 

 

Adam also talked about overcoming the 30 day drop off in sales after your book gets published. He doesn’t just get sales in the short-term. His books continue generating sales years after they were published. We also talk about keywords and categories, Amazon’s SEO.

 

Adam treats us to a mini course on all things Kindle marketing. If you’ve got Kindle books that you want to promote, listening to this interview will greatly help you with your efforts.

 

As always, our guest shares his favorite inspirational quote, and much, much more.

 

 

Key Links from the Show

 

www.thefanbaseformula.com – Adam’s Training Course for Authors

www.adamhouge.com – Adam’s Personal Site

 

Learn:

 

– How to keep sales up on Amazon Kindle

– Why Keywords and Categories are so very important

– How to make your book reach the right people

– Adam’s best learned career lesson

– What most authors get wrong when first publishing

– Adam’s favorite inspirational quote

Episode 21: How To Sell Over 2,000,000 eBooks With Adam Houge

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Adam Houge is an author and a beacon of hope for self-published authors. The status quo view of self-publishing is that it’s hard to make money and sell books. Adam proved both of this myths wrong by selling 2 million of his self-published book.

 

Adam’s initial motivation wasn’t to make money. He was more focused on spreading his valuable content and getting his books into the hands of as many readers as possible. He wrote a religious book in the midsts of a series of medical bills and retirement from his day job. This is the book he wanted to spread. After writing 100+ books (not a typo), he’s now done just that—spread his message. In this episode, he discusses how he found the time to write 100+ books. 

 

Adam also talked about overcoming the 30 day drop off in sales after your book gets published. He doesn’t just get sales in the short-term. His books continue generating sales years after they were published. We also talk about keywords and categories, Amazon’s SEO.

 

Adam treats us to a mini course on all things Kindle marketing. If you’ve got Kindle books that you want to promote, listening to this interview will greatly help you with your efforts.

 

As always, our guest shares his favorite inspirational quote, and much, much more.

 

 

Key Links from the Show

 

www.thefanbaseformula.com – Adam’s Training Course for Authors

www.adamhouge.com – Adam’s Personal Site

 

Learn:

 

– How to keep sales up on Amazon Kindle

– Why Keywords and Categories are so very important

– How to make your book reach the right people

– Adam’s best learned career lesson

– What most authors get wrong when first publishing

– Adam’s favorite inspirational quote

How To Expand Your Freelancer Army

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freelance teamwork

One of the best decisions you can possibly make for your business is to outsource some of the work to freelancers. The more work you outsource to freelancers, the more time you have to commit towards other opportunities.

Some people turn away from outsourcing because of the costs associated with making the switch. Others want to outsource as much of their work as possible but find themselves limited by their budgets. Regardless of your current status, you need to expand your freelancer army. The more tasks you delegate, the better.

Here’s how you expand your army of freelancers:

 

Everyone Gets A Legit Part

Before you even think about hiring another freelancer, you must ensure that you have legit tasks available. A legit task is a required task but also a time-sucker that you don’t enjoy. Scheduling social media posts, creating pictures, and editing podcast episodes were some of those tasks I needed to outsource.

While I outsourced those tasks the moment I got the chance, I have never thought of hiring a ghostwriter, outsourcing training course creation, or outsourcing the email broadcasts. I enjoy those tasks. If you don’t enjoy any of the tasks in your business and are desperate to outsource everything, then you are in the wrong business.

When I want to hire another person to make my life easier, I assess everything that I do in a given week. What are the tasks that I enjoy? What are the tasks I want to get off my back? Which of those particular tasks take up most of my time?

These are the questions I ask myself before I post a job and eventually look through the job applicant’s cover letters. With clarity on my requirements, I can rest assured that my life will be made easier.

If you don’t have this clarity, you risk hiring a freelancer for the wrong reason or hiring someone who won’t meet your expectations. The result is an intense level of stress that will suffocate your “extra time” you got from hiring the freelancer.

 

Gradually Grow The Freelancer Army

If you go right out the gate and hire a dozen freelancers, you’ll get overwhelmed. Gradually growing the freelancer army means growing it at a consistent pace that makes sense for your brand. If you hire too many freelancers at once, you’ll have a difficult time communicating with everyone and getting on the same page.

Outsourcing different tasks will save you time, but hiring too many freelancers creates a new problem. Now you have to manage them and ensure that your freelancers are as effective as possible. Outsourcing management to a manager will make your life much easier as your freelancer army grows, but when you start out, you are the manager.

Once you feel comfortable with every freelancer you’ve hired, you can then expand and look for other options. The more comfortable you become with your freelancers, the quicker you can look for someone to fill your next job.

 

Don’t Rely On One Freelancer

A common mistake people make is to assign a super VA. This “super VA” can apparently accomplish any task you give him/her. Most people who find themselves in the super VA position will take on any task you give them to please you and make more money.

Relying on one freelancer to get everything done in your business is like relying on one musician to play all of the instruments at the concert. It won’t end up well.

Instead of relying on one freelancer, you must hire more freelancers who specialize in certain areas. I hired my first freelancer to help grow my Pinterest account. I didn’t hire that freelancer to edit my blog posts. I needed a different freelancer for that job.

People can do anything, but not everything. Don’t act like your freelancers can do everything because they can’t. Putting that unnecessary workload on an individual freelancer will create more stress for both of you (subpar work combined with your recent hire desperately trying to please you in so many ways).

 

Reinvest Your Time Wisely

Here’s how you actually get to grow your freelancer army. Every other tip at this point has been laying the groundwork for this one moment.

If you hire someone to schedule your social media posts, you need to know and remember two things:

Cost per hour

Number of hours this person will work for you each month

Let’s say I hire a social media manager who gets paid $10/hr. This social media manager works for two hours per day.

I pay this social media manager $600 every month.

To continue working with this social media manager, I MUST make at least $600/mo to balance out my expenses. If I make $595/mo with my extra time, then I’m losing money and my current path doesn’t make sense.

At this crossroad, you have three options:

Fire the freelancer

Look for a less expensive option

Reinvest your time more wisely

When you hire a freelancer to save yourself time, you must be prepared to make more additional money than you’re spending on that freelancer.

 

Look At Costs And Results

Not all freelancers are created equal. Some do the job to near perfection while others miss a few things. Every month, I make it a point to assess all of my freelancers.

I identify what work is getting done and how much it costs me.

If I’m happy with the work and am getting a good ROI from reinvesting my time wisely, I keep that freelancer. If a freelancer strains my budget or doesn’t get the job done, I have a decision to make.

If the expensive freelancer does a phenomenal job, keep that freelancer if your business still aligns with that person’s work. Never give up good freelancers because those are the ones you don’t have to worry about. If you feel like your freelancer would catch you during a trust fall, keep that freelancer on your team.

 

In Conclusion

Growing your freelancer army is a numbers game. If the decision makes financial sense and you make more money with your extra time than you spend to save that same amount of time, then you made the right decision.

Each month, monitor your freelancers’ progress to determine whether you’re still making the right decisions or if the landscape has changed.

What are your thoughts on building a freelancer army? Have any tasks you’d like to outsource? Have any tips on acquiring more freelancers? Sound off in the comments section below.

How A Structured Schedule Will Make You 10x More Productive

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structured schedule

If I tell you that a structured schedule will make a huge impact on your productivity, would you believe me? You should.

While too much structure might seem to run contradictory to entrepreneurship, most entrepreneurs pursue their dreams precisely so they can do what they love at a time they choose.

Thus, adhering to a structured schedule (of your own creation) not only makes sense, it will also make you 10x more productive and drive the results you crave.

In this post, we’ll dig deeper into why a structured schedule works and how to commit to making it part of your life.

The Biggest Myth

When people think about a structured schedule, they usually envision all their free time suffocated by work. They even imagine their work time (not to mention their creativity) becoming suffocated.

They think, “No, I can’t make a video at this time because my schedule says that I must write a blog post.” It’s true that a structured schedule is very specific, but that’s exactly why it works.

The problem with free time — even the time spent thinking about what to work on — is choices. Let’s say you’re trying to decide whether to:

  • Write a blog post.
  • Send an email to a particular person.
  • Write an email broadcast.
  • Make a YouTube video.
  • Interview someone for your podcast.
  • Write a chapter of an ebook.
  • Create a training series.
  • Read a book.
  • Participate in an online course.

Tell me in TWO seconds which one you’ll choose: 1…2…

Have you made a choice? Do you need more time to ponder the list? Have you thought of something to add to the list? Did the list remind you of something else?

What usually happens is all of these ideas (and others) will float around in your head until you eventually decide on one. But even when you do, you’ll likely wonder if you’ve made the right decision, or if you’ve forgotten about something more important than your chosen task.

Let’s say you decide to write a blog post. After you complete the post, you’ll once again have to decide what to do next. It’s an endless, anxious cycle. And a huge waste of time.

Should I make a video? On what topic? Should I scrap that idea and read instead? Actually, should I read or watch a training course?

A structured schedule creates clarity and takes the guesswork (and anxiety) out of deciding what to do next. And a structured schedule even offers flexibility.

For example, bloggers try to avoid writer’s block — when ideas aren’t flowing and they’re left staring at a blank screen, sometimes for hours. Lots of people experience this feeling several times a day or week.

A schedule can save you in times like this. Simply switch up your tasks and keep moving.

Plan Out The Bookends Of Your Day

While writing this blog post, I anticipated one common response might be: “How can I structure my schedule when it’s bound to constantly change?What if someone cancels an interview? What if a real-time emergency comes up?”

Like the writer’s block example above, you may have to make adjustments during the day so you can maintain an optimal level of productivity. And a structured schedule will help you switch things up with efficiency.

With that said, there are two untouchable portions of the day during which no person or unrelated task can ruin your productivity.

These are your bookends: early morning and late in the evening. Think about what you usually do at 3pm and 5am. I’ll bet that at 5am nothing is standing between you and your productivity. At 3pm, however, it may seem as if everything is standing in your way.

Realizing that you won’t likely get as much done at 9pm as you would during the work day, plan out your day from start to finish paying special attention to the bookends — because virtually nothing stands in the way of your productivity during those times.

Wake Up Earlier 

The earlier you wake up, the more poised you are for success. I strongly believe that, and here’s the logic: no one is going to interrupt you or make a request at 5am. That’s when “everyone else” is sleeping. If you wake up at 5am, you’ll have several hours of undisturbed productivity.

Being an early bird works better than being a night owl. I’ve tried both, and it’s better to get to bed earlier so you can wake up earlier. The biggest reason for that is because starting fresh lets you get much more accomplished than you can after a taxing day when your willpower has been tested to the max.

Just one aggravating issue during the day can interrupt your concentration at night. As an early bird, nothing has happened yet so there’s no prior events from the day that can distract you from your work. Rising early and getting things done also makes you feel more productive as the day goes on.

In addition to feeling (and being) more productive, you’ll enjoy improved health. I don’t understand why so many people take their health for granted. I’ll just say that the healthier you are, the more productive you are. Think about that the next time you go to McDonald’s (if you don’t eat there, good for you!).

Putting that shade aside, here’s the truth about early birds and night owls:

Your brain is still active when you sleep. If the last thing you think about is how anxious you feel about your work, those thoughts of anxiety will carry over into your sleep and still be there when you wake up.

This is why I read a personal development book before I go to bed. I feel mentally charged when I go to bed, and that feeling carries over into the beginning of the next day.

And did you know that the first hour of your day determines how the rest of your day will go?

Track Your Results

Once you identify how to structure your day, keep track of your progress. This is where you walk the walk instead of only talking the talk. The best place to track your results is in a notebook because you can refer to it at any time and make any necessary adjustments.

Tracking your results in a notebook lets you see in which areas you struggle and in which areas you thrive. If you timestamp when you accomplish certain goals, you can also identify which times of day work best for accomplishing specific objectives.

Are you better at writing blog posts before 11am or after 2pm? Tracking your results and adding a few details allows you to answer that question. The more of these types of questions you can answer, the more productive you’ll become and the more you’ll optimize your structured schedule.

In Conclusion

Creating a structured schedule allows you to gain clarity into what goals you need to accomplish and when you need to accomplish them. Structured schedules don’t remove the freedoms of entrepreneurship. Rather, they amplify your potential.

What are your thoughts on creating a structured schedule? What would you like to accomplish with a structured schedule? Have any productivity tips for us? Sound off in the comments section below.

*image credit: Pixabay