Stephan Miller
Building Websites, Traffic, and Income
A List of Free Tools to Keep Your Stuff in Order
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A few months ago, about the time I stopped posting so much at this blog, I ran into an issue. I had a lot of things to do and could not keep them in my head any more. That was my old method.
I tried a few things to help me out, notebook systems, online systems, software systems. However nothing really worked quite right for me, and I always ended up going to more than one place to find information when I was working and I always had more than one central control panel. I also misunderstood the meaning of the “inbox”.
Priorities in Traffic, Time and Money
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When you do a lot of things, you have to have a system of priorities. I say that and yet I can also say that I get sidetracked about 50% of the time. There are those days when everything comes together. But I am driven like a MoFo, so even on those days, the to do list is never empty at the end of the day.
And if these things you do are spread apart, you must create your own system. No one will show you how. Being a blogger means wearing more hats than you ever thought you would. Throw anything else in that mix and add even more hats.
The Continuous Process of Change
Repeating Myself
Now let’s see if I can write this post without repeating myself. Or I will have to start calling my blog 101 ways to look at productivity. But I guess that’s the way it goes. If I looked at the concept of productivity I held a few months ago I would have to laugh. And if I wrote about it and you read it, you think I am the most wishy washy person around.
Panic As Fuel
I am a relatively organized and driven person, but I do get comfortable. Comfortable is spending way to much time exploring and not enough time marketing and getting links. Comfortable is putting off my 4 hour sessions of work that I do on the weekends and settling for the couple hours a day spent on my daily to do’s.
Then something happens. What is something?
- The basket all my eggs were in gets banned by Google.
- Other Adwords advertisers advance heavily on my campaigns for days before I notice it.
Comfort Zones, Slacking and Brain Enemas
I’ve been a slacker for a couple of weeks now. The money has been good, so I slowed down. Not here at my blog, but with other projects. It’s a habit I know well and one that has sabotaged me a lot.
I ran into a place where I became comfortable. "Oh, this is nice. I can stop here a while."
The bills are getting paid. There is a little left for savings. We refinanced the house. And all the taxes for last year are going to be paid. I have been paying $300 a month for two years to the IRS. Nice to have that monkey off of my back.
My Firefox To Do List
I carry a Moleskine around to write random ideas down which I later put in a bigger notebook which consist of to do list, article ideas, half finished articles and marketing ideas.
I only recently pulled my head out of my ass and set Firefox up to reopen all the tabs the next time I use it. It has become my instant to do list. No need for notes I can lose. Its all right here.
When I shut down for the day. I just make sure all the tabs that I want open when I turn my computer on, are.
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