Smarter or Harder…

I’m taking a few weeks vacation so this weeks blog was pre-recorded and written prior to my departure. How smart is that? So I’ve put aside my usual thoughts and decided to write about something else: Working Smarter or Harder?

Sometimes harder isn’t better. You know the old adage: “To succeed, you just have to try harder than the next guy”. If you ask me, and pretty much any successful business person, they’ll always tell you that working smarter is better than harder. That’s all fine but what does it really mean when you’re starting an online business?

Why Smarter Will Always be Better

We live in a fast-paced time, everybody wants everything yesterday. If you can’t find it on your phone or search engine within the next 30 seconds, you huff and puff and move on.

Life has gotten to a point of being so ridiculously demanding that one of the first questions an employer asks is: “How good are you at multi-tasking?” (another myth – but more about that later) and if you’re taking too much time responding to emails, work requirements, due dates, etc…, you’re deemed a slacker if not incompetent.

Whether you like it or not, technology has made leaps and bounds in providing information to everyone. Heck, when I started working in the 80’s, I was a sales-representative for a telex company! (Am I dating myself yet?).

The good thing about all of this though is that you can get a lot done with less time — let me explain.

A few years ago, when you wanted to set-up a website for your business, you had to hire a computer guru who knew how to code HTML, lay-out the pages you wanted, tell him about the color scheme you also wanted and let’s not forget the font and size of each page. And don’t forget, the layout wasn’t the same for a desktop a tablet or a smartphone, oh no; you had to make sure that your coding was made specifically for that.

Today, with the likes of WIX, Shopify, and many others, you can have your website set-up just the way you like it within a couple of hours and be ready to either blog like I’m doing now or sell merchandise.

Add to that the fact that there are many other applications and Plugins that are available – most free – and you’ve got a safe, secure way to not only update your website rapidly but also reach out to clients and any other person who comments on your blog; just like you’re going to do after reading this! (I sure hope so!).

Fooling Yourself To Do Many Things All At The Same Time

“Multitasking is like constantly pulling up a plant.
This kind of constant shifting of your attention means
that new ideas and concepts have no chance to take root and flourish.”
– Barbara Oakley

I love that quote; it got me in trouble back in the day. I was having quite the discussion about “multitasking” and how it was just a nice 80’s marketing word that had been created to show how well we could do so many things all at the same time and yet we couldn’t. Funny thing, even a computer doesn’t do two things at the same time…

A few years ago, I read a book by Gary Keller “The One Thing”. It totally changed my way of thinking and of doing things. He talks about how you can cut through the clutter, achieve better results and more importantly, dial down the stress. I so suggest that you buy yourself a great gift and search for it on Amazon; it’s worth it’s price in gold.

The one big takeaway that I loved and implemented into my life was this: mastering what mattered to me.

With what I learnt from the book, I now only plan 3 things to do during the day. If I finish those, I’ll just add another three.

Focusing on What Needs to be Done

Someone a lot wiser than me once told me that when you focus on what was requested, it’s as if you fall into a tunnel – with everything else just falling to the way-side. Becoming so focused on what needs to be done can seem as if time stands still.

I’m sure we’ve all experienced that at one point or another in our lives; we’re so focused on what we’re doing that someone talking to us has to literally nudge us to get our attention. (I’ve been told by women that men have this type of focus; but it seems to occur mostly during sports or at a preselected time that best suits them only!).

All kidding aside, by focusing on the predetermined tasks, we can get so much more done.

Using The Tools We Need Wisely

There are so many online tools available to help you succeed online it’s incredible. As I mentioned earlier, When you’re lucky enough to have found a great mentor, like mine, Dean Holland, you’re in a totally different league – your plan to succeed has not only been written – it’s put in front of you in a way that you can easily follow along, learn, apply and succeed. I’ve never been in a better position than now to have success with my online Affiliate Marketing business.

Like I mentioned earlier, if you would have told me that I could have pre-written my blog, recorded it and planned it to publish this week, I probably would have laughed and yet, here it is, I wrote it just prior to leaving on vacation; I wanted to see how I felt about writing something off the cuff instead of the usual weekly way.

I find myself so fortunate even if the past couple of months have been an emotional roller-coaster; I’ve been able to keep my business going and more importantly, continue to learn and apply the teachings that Dean provides. That is something worth being smart about!

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To your success…to our success!