How to handle your infinite to do list (To Do List Tip #1)

(Prefer to read instead of watch?  Scroll down for a summary.)

As a one-person business, your to do list is literally infinite.  There is an unlimited number of things you could be doing to build your business.  This video teaches you how to know what to work on.   Link mentioned in video: https://www.michelechristensen.com/daily

Summary here:

  • As a solopreneur, your to do list is infinite – there is literally always more you could be doing to build and promote your business.
  • It’s no surprise that so many solopreneurs feel overwhelmed!
  • Having a solid strategy for your business will help you know what to work on.
  • With a strategy, you know exactly how to find new prospects and convert them to clients.
  • You can confidently say yes or no to any opportunity depending on whether it fits into your strategy or not.
  • Takeaway: Don’t even try to do everything you hear about.  Have a strategy so you know exactly what to work on.
  • If you liked this tip, go to www.michelechristensen.com/daily and get a copy of my free report “The 5 Biggest Mistakes Solopreneurs Make in Writing Their Daily To-Do List and How to Avoid Them.”
  • Please use the social sharing buttons below this video to share the video with your friends and colleagues who would find it valuable.



Learning new stuff is way more fun than working!

Ask Me Anything, Segment 9

(Prefer to read instead of watch?  Scroll down below the video player for a summary.)

In this video, I talk about the trap of avoiding work you find unpleasant by spending too much time learning. This is Segment 9 in the Ask Me Anything series. You can find the entire series on my blog or YouTube Channel under Ask Me Anything.  www.michelechristensen.com

If you prefer to read instead of watch, here are the notes for this video:

  • It’s easy to get sidetracked when you are learning too many different things from too many different people.
  • Learning can be used to procrastinate the work you really need to be doing to create income.
  • It’s important to always be investing in yourself by learning new things about your business, but balance this with the need to implement what you learn.
  • I help people to have a streamlined, efficient business and to know exactly what to be working on and what not to be working on.  Click on the “Send Me More” button below the video player so I can send you more great tips and strategies for running your solopreneur business.



Measure your results to improve them

Use Metrics to Know What Works

From my book “Use Metrics to Know What Works“…

One of the hallmarks of successful entrepreneurs is that they take action. They don’t wait for the time to be perfect or for some mythical moment when everything lines up, they get busy and get going. This is a hugely important trait for success, but it can also be a curse. The problem is that many entrepreneurs are so action oriented that they go off in random directions with no plan. It’s not enough just to take action – you have to be taking action on the right things.

This is where a lot of entrepreneurs get into trouble. Yes, you do need to be taking consistent action, but if you don’t take some time first to determine what you should be doing there’s a good chance of not getting the results you want. The problem is that it is really hard for an action-oriented entrepreneur whose idea keeps him up at night to take a step back and do some research and planning. Later, the problem becomes taking the time to measure and analyze results when you would rather be doing more.

So many business operate like this:

  • Start doing something in hopes of growing your business
  • Sales don’t come as desired
  • Add another activity
  • Repeat

Can you see the problems with this approach? First, you can only repeat this cycle for so long. There is an absolute upper limit to the amount of activity that you can add to your business. At some point, you will run out of hours in the week. Second, if you keep adding new things without taking away anything you’ll end up with a bigger and bigger list of activities to keep up with. Your attention becomes split and you end up expending a lot of energy switching between and managing all your projects. Third and most serious is that you have absolutely no way to improve. There’s no feedback or indication of what’s working or not and how to improve. This is the biggest problem of all because testing, measuring and adapting is the only sure way you have of making sure you are on a path of continual improvement. Continuing to blindly add activities with no clear plan is like trying to get across town on your bicycle by pedaling faster and making random turns. If you don’t stop and consult a map before and during your trip, you won’t know if you are even heading in the right direction. All of that activity may actually be taking you further from your destination.

It’s almost impossible to get things just right on the first try. That’s where being action-oriented is an asset – as an action taker you just get out there and do something. However, the shortest path to success after you take action is to learn from that experience and adapt your next attempt.

When you take action with no planning, there is no way to measure and no way to close the loop. Everything you do will be just random shooting in the dark with no way to adapt and learn. Often the only feedback you get is “that didn’t work.”

For all of these reasons, metrics (i.e. measuring your results) is often one of the first areas I work on with my clients because we really can’t begin coaching and moving forward effectively until they have a feedback loop in place. As much as I wish I could, I simply can’t pull the right answers out of nothing. I need data to work with in the first place and a way to measure results once our ideas are implemented.

If you aren’t doing any metrics, or you want to see how metrics can help you, head over to the Kindle store and grab my book “Use Metrics to Know What Works.”  This article is taken from Chapter 1, and the rest of the book teaches you not only the principles of metrics but how to do metrics for specific purposed in your business.  Grab your copy here:

Use Metrics to Know What Works

(No Kindle device?  No problem!  You can download a free Kindle app for your phone or tablet, or install the free Kindle reader for your desktop.)



Learning without implementation accomplishes nothing

Ask Me Anything, Segment 8

(Prefer to read in stead of watch?  Scroll down below the video player for the notes.)

Earlier this year, I gave my email subscribers the chance to ask me anything they wanted to about their business.  In this video, I talk about the trap of learning too much and not implementing enough.  Learning new skills to build your business is a great thing to do, but you have to implement what you learn for it to help your business grow. Learning without implementation does not help your business. This is Segment #8 in the Ask Me Anything series. You can find the entire series on my blog or YouTube Channel under Ask Me Anything.  www.michelechristensen.com

(Note the event link I mentioned around the [2:00] minute mark does not show up on some views of this blog post.  Here is the link: www.michelechristensen.com/blbp)

If you prefer to read instead of watch, here are the notes for this video:

  • Learning is fun, and implementing can be long, hard work so there is a big temptation to just keep learning and not take the time to implement.
  • The fun of doing new things begins when you finish them and they begin to work.  If you want to be successful, you have to buckle down and implement what you are learning and not just jump to the next thing.
  • I attended a live weekend event last year and it took me 5 months to get everything from that event implemented.  Make sure your time and money investment pays off when you attend a live event by implementing what you learn.  For more information on the Big List, Big Profits event, click here.
  • The one thing to take from this video: implement what you learn or you are just wasting time.
  • If you like this tip, please go to www.michelechristensen.com and enter your name and email address so you can receive ongoing tips and strategies just for solopreneurs!

 



Use Metrics to Know What Works

Use Metrics to Know What WorksToday is an exciting day!  My newest Kindle book is now available!

(Can’t wait? Here’s the link!)

This book will teach you how to stop guessing, flying by the seat of your pants and running yourself ragged just to make a living.

In this book, I teach the basics of metrics, or using measurement to know what is and isn’t working.  As a one-person operation, you simply cannot afford to be wasting time on things that don’t bring your results.  Without a way to know for sure how well your efforts are paying off, how do you know where to spend your time?

This book is written specifically with you, the solopreneur, in mind.  After laying out some general concepts on metrics, I show you where to start and exactly what to measure.  The book even includes a downloadable starter kit with a tutorial video so you can get started right away.

Click the link below and grab your copy today:

Use Metrics to Know What Works

No Kindle device?  No problem!  You can get the free Kindle app for your smartphone or tablet or use the free Kindle desktop reader.

Get your book copy here

If you aren’t sure if this is for you, I invite you to imagine how great it would be if you knew you were working on the best thing you could be doing right now.  That’s the confidence and clarity that measuring your result can bring.  Get started today by downloading your book here.


Automate Your Grunt Work – free sample chapters!

The Solopreneur's Success Strategy: Automate Your Grunt WorkOne of the biggest problems solopreneurs face is how to get it all done.  There’s so much to do, and only you to do it.  Even if you use outsourced help, there is still an infinite amount of things you could do to grow your business and you can only do some of them.

Part of managing your workload is making sure you are working on the right things and not wasting time on activities that don’t produce results.  For the activities that do add value or simply need to be done, I suggest automating as much as possible.  Automation has several advantages over doing it yourself or having someone do it for you, and some of those advantages are:

  • Automation can run with little or no management.  Once you set up an automated process, it can often run with no intervention by you indefinitely.
  • Automation is cheaper.  Many of the tools I use are free or very inexpensive.
  • Automated process are generally error free.  Even the best and most conscientious human will make mistakes, but computers don’t.  A well-designed process can save you mistakes later.

I believe that automation is important enough to solopreneurs that I’ve written an entire book on the subject.  I’d like to offer you a free sample, so you can see how automation can help your business be more streamlined.  If you are interested in getting two complete chapters from my book “Automate Your Grunt Work,” fill in the form below and the chapters will be on their way!




Fear of Missing Out (#fomo)

Ask Me Anything, Segment 7

Earlier this year, I gave my email subscribers the chance to ask me anything they wanted to about their business. This video explains how “Fear of Missing Out” or #fomo  can drive you to spend way too much time trying to learn new things instead of growing your business.



The first two things to learn when you are just starting your solopreneur business

Ask Me Anything, Segment 6

Earlier this year, I gave my email subscribers the chance to ask me anything they wanted to about their business.  In this video, I share the two things that I think are important for new solopreneur business owners to focus on learning when they are just starting out. This is Segment 6, and the link I mention in the video is here: http://www.getyourlistgrowing.com




40 Self-Care Practices to Keep You Well

Self-Care Practices from Tandy ElisalaBeing stressed and overly busy are things that many people know well.  As a solopreneur, we are vulnerable to stress and overwhelm because there are so many balls to keep in the air.  If you run your business correctly, it is do-able to have a profitable business and an enjoyable life.

Part of running your business is taking care of yourself.  When you ARE the business, you have to care for your most important asset – YOU.  If you aren’t in top form, how will you serve others?

To give you some self-care ideas, I have a guest post from Tandy Elisala, Founder and CEO at The Center for Inspiring Greatness.  This woman knows how to get things done and how to practice self-care.  Check out the bio at the end to see what I’m talking about.

Here’s the article:

Self-Care. We know we should be good to ourselves and spend time taking care of ourselves. Sometimes we’re good about it and other times…not so much. Stress can have a serious impact on our physical, emotional, mental and spiritual well-being.

“Harmony is the inner cadence of contentment we feel when the melody of life is in tune. When somehow we’re able to strike the right chord – to balance the expectations of our families and our responsibilities in the world on the one hand with our inner need for spiritual growth and personal expressions on the other…Usually, when the distractions of daily life deplete our energy, the first thing we eliminate is the thing we need the most: quiet, reflective time. Time to dream, time to think, time to contemplate what’s working and what’s not, so that we can make changes for the better… Learn how to pause.”

~ Sarah Ban Breathnach

 

I don’t know about you but when I am super, over the top busy is when I need to exercise the most self-care. It’s also the time when I tend to fall out of these habits. It’s the worst thing we can possibly do! It’s almost like the busier we get, the more stressed we get and the less time we take for ourselves. I’m sure we’ve all been guilty of this from time to time. The truth is… If you aren’t taking care of yourself, there will be nothing left for anyone else.

Taking even five minutes a day on a self-care ritual will help your overall well-being. Here is a list of 40 simple self-care tips in no particular order:

 

1. Get enough sleep – 7-9 hours of sleep a night is what most people need.

2. Take deep breaths throughout the day.

3. Spend time with someone  you love.

4. Spend time with a friend.

5. Take a walk.

6. Prioritize your day either each morning or each evening for the next day.

7. Read a book or watch a movie…preferably a funny one!

8. ASK for help.

9. Exercise.

10.  Listen to music! Music is a universal language:-)

11. Take a vacation.

12. Reduce time on the computer and/or TV…and don’t eat while watching TV.

13. Eat slowly and with family.

14. Take up a hobby.

15. Review your goals.

16. Have a gratitude practice. Say, write or affirm three things you are thankful for each day.

17. Enjoy a bubble bath.

18. Enjoy nature. If you can’t spend time outdoors, open your doors or windows to feel the outside…unless it’s snowing or dreadful weather…then stay inside:-)

19. Meditate

20. Pray

21. Write, say, or silently affirm affirmations. Focus on all things positive.

22. Paint your nails

23. Get a massage or give yourself a foot or hand massage.

24. Get reflexology.

25. Get a hair cut.

26. Pet a furry animal (if you have a cat or dog, that’s perfect).

fb_cat_notetoself_relax

27. Make and keep doctors appointments.

28. Cook your favorite (healthy) foods.

29. Play card games.

30. Give yourself a facial.

31. Take a class.

32. Go see a local comedy show.

33. Take a nap.

34. Write a letter to a friend or hand write thank you notes. Yes, I said hand write.

35. Find a way to pay it forward.

36. Eat right.

37. Drink enough water.

38. Have an ‘evidence of success’ jar and put something in this jar DAILY that you are thankful for, something that went right that day or something you learned. At the end of each month (or wait until the end of the year), you can read all your notes and really feel blessed!

39. Attend a church service that speaks to your soul.

40. Set time aside to do all of your errands and block the time and  get ‘er done. You’ll feel better knowing everything is done in one afternoon (for most types of errands anyhow).

There are countless ways and variations to exercise self-care. Making sure you have a self-care practice in place is key to maintaining balance…particularly when things get hurried in life.

Tandy Elisala

Tandy is a Certified Professional Success Coach, Mindset Mentor, Author, Speaker and Consultant. She is certified in various alternative-healing modalities including Hypnotherapy, Thought Field Therapy, and Reiki. Tandy has 25 years’ proven experience as a corporate executive, speaker and coach. Tandy was a full-time caregiver for both parents simultaneously while kicking cancer’s butt a third time and raising three children as a single parent. Tandy’s book, Healing Through the Chaos, helps families taking care of loved ones navigate the issues associated with caregiving. Tandy lives in Tempe, Arizona, with her three kids, amazing dog, and three cats. Order Tandy’s book at www.tandyelisala.com or www.amazon.com.



Brand new: Strategic Solopreneurs Facebook group!

Strategic Solopreneurs on FacebookWant to connect with other business owners rocking the solopreneur business world?  Come join this brand new Facebook group that is just for people who love their one-person business.



Who is this for?  Anybody who dreams of a successful, sustainable and profitable one-person business.  It can be done and it is a joyful way to work.  However, just because you’re a solopreneur doesn’t mean you can or should go it completely alone.  Share your successes and challenges, get ideas and input and contribute what you do best.

Ready to join?  Click the link below and request to join.  Your request will be approved within 1 business days in most cases.

Strategic Solopreneurs Facebook Group

Want more information before you join?  The group guidelines are in the “About” section at the link above, and a copy is pasted below for your convenience.  See you there!

Welcome smart business owner! I’m so excited that you have embraced the simple and profitable solopreneur business model. In this group you’ll find a wide variety of businesses, but we share a common love of running a one-person business.

Here you can find connection and interaction that working alone can be lacking. We’re about helping each other and learning, not spam or promotion.

Questions are welcome! You can ask about best practices, which tools to use, what’s working now, or get opinions on your ideas. Please refrain from posting questions that are easily answered with a Google search. Part of being a successful solopreneur means that you are willing to do research when you need to learn something new.

You may post to the wall at any time, but there is a specific theme for each weekday. If you want to participate in that day’s theme, post your response in the comments of the post showing that day’s theme. Promotion is only allowed on Thursday when that is the theme of the day, and you may only post a promotion in the thread for the theme of the day. Promotion includes both paid and free offers.

Here’s a peek at the weekly lineup:

  • Metrics Monday – We’ll take a look at one thing you can be measuring to help you businesses
  • Social Tuesday – Connect and share on other social networks
  • Strategy Wednesday – Make sure you know why you are doing every single thing you do
  • Promo Thursday – Post your free and paid offers in the thread for today’s theme
  • Fun Friday – This will be all about fun and getting to know each other
  • Wellness Weekends – Thoughts on leisure, recreation, quiet time and time off.

To help you become more productive and feel less overwhelmed right away, I have a free report for you that gives you simple changes you can make to your daily to-do list that you can start doing today! Grab the report here: https://www.michelechristensen.com/daily

 

 

 

 

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