 Time is such a precious resource especially when you are working on your business I hope that you're not working too much and so how do you spend your time when you're working on your business? So that's what this video is going to be about so I call this true productivity this this topic and Productivity people usually think of as getting things done but You can get a lot of things done that don't actually move your business forward and Then you can get a relatively few things done that move your business forward by a lot so the way that I define true productivity is being in meaningful contact or valuable interaction with the people that your business can most serve Versus being in your own head working on your website, you know Preparing or planning that course or that book that you haven't yet announced. Let me explain It's very easy in our business to be doing things that Feel like we're getting something done. So for example, I'm working on my website. Oh, I'm working on my book Or I'm working on my course. I'm working on Always planning and preparing something But when was the last time you were actually in interaction with your audience and your market? That's it. So I really think of true productivity in three areas your content Being actually placed in front of people. Okay, for example, if you're posting to your Facebook business page and you're not running Facebook ads It's not truly productive because nobody is seeing it if only 10 people or 20 people are seeing it it's not enough people to To to build a business right so true productivity content is content not just creation, but also distribution making sure it's out there offerings Creating offerings and announcing them as soon as possible so that you can get feedback and hopefully get some new clients Would you like some new clients? Would you like some new sales? You know soon sales in your business, right? So content sharing and distribution offerings visibility announcement and Conversations are you having conversations with your potential clients? Because without conversations things don't really move forward, right? So let me refer to some of my notes here I'm actually reading to you from One of the chapters in my book joyful productivity Which by the way, if you don't know there is now Joyful productivity now has an audiobook version. So if you prefer to listen I Have a wonderful reader who has recorded the audiobook for me and she has a wonderful voice So check out the joyful productivity audiobook. I think you you might enjoy it if you like this kind of topic So let's talk first about what kind of people Would it make sense for your business to be in to be in valuable interaction with as frequently as possible? Current clients of course people that you are already paid you for your services and you're helping them You're serving them ideal prospective clients people who follow your Facebook page or your YouTube channel Who are engaging with you and seem like they really get a lot out of what you do and they might be Potential clients so ideal prospective clients Ideal former clients people you've worked with already that you really enjoyed working with that they might want to do some more work with you in the future Your referral sources people who refer business to you, you know, that's that's a that's a very important part of your ideal audience And the evangelists the biggest fans of your content that share your things forward That's also part of your ideal audience. So if your workday isn't Involved with being in contact with one or more of these people through content offerings or conversations. I really wonder Then you should be questioning what you're doing with your workday and I'm going to share with you a list of Suggested activities or tasks that you might want to think about putting into your workday or your work month And also a list of questionable tasks things that you might want to drop so it's important for us to have a to-do list Yes, but also a to drop list. Do you have a to drop list things that you should write down? So, you know, am I am I spending time doing that? Maybe I shouldn't be spending time doing that That's not such a good idea. So I'll share both of those lists with you. Okay, so my truly productive to-do list here we go One and not in any particular order really but one creating and publishing Content for my ideal audience not spending too much time perfecting it Okay, to engaging on the meaningful comments On my content now. I have been Kind of neglectful about that in the recent months. So I apologize. I'm not responding to your comments as much as I used to Just there's so much on my plate as you can see there's a lot of things on this list of to-dos and you can you can You don't have to do all of these things but If you're if you're working day isn't spent doing these things. I really you should really question what you're doing with your time Okay, three Contacting fans or colleagues about doing market research conversations or fan interviews. So if you're not contacting your Email subscribers or your Facebook fans or your YouTube subscribers or commenters on a regular basis Asking them to be in one-on-one conversation with you to learn about what they're buying That's related to what you offer and what they're trying to buy that they can't find that's related to what you offer And therefore you can ask them. Hey, you know, I've got this thing I wonder what are your thoughts about it? Do you think people would want to buy this and how can I improve it so that people would want to buy it more? You know that kind of those kinds of conversations for Reaching out to prospective clients to offer and a sample session of what you do or an exploratory call. So This is basically when people have already reached out to you through comments on your content or through You know inquiries about your services Are you reaching back out to them? Are you following up and inviting them to a to a phone call to a video call? To answer their questions about what you do or to help them out in a sample session so that they can experience what it's like To work with you in number five reaching out to referral partners to schedule a mutual support networking call So referral partners are people who have an audience that you think your services or products would be great for and You have a sense that they would be they would have time for you They would want to make time to have a networking call with you to see if they want to refer some business to you or vice versa and Yeah, and usually it's people with a similar size audience as you so if you have a similar size the number of fans that I have Please reach out five thousand fans or plus or minus a thousand of real fans not not not fake fans But yeah similar size audience, you know, you should reach out to people Plus or minus a couple hundred, you know depending and I don't I would say plus or minus like 20% in terms of variation of fan base something like that 20 to 30% I'd say, okay Thoughtfully number six thoughtfully connecting with previous clients that you've enjoyed working with have you done that recently? It's time to do it. Okay, especially Well, yeah, I'm recording this in the new year But it's really anytime is good for connecting with previous clients number seven contacting current clients To schedule the next session if need be number eight announcing your next event Announcing your next course your next workshop This is what I prefer to do before I start preparing for a course. I sell it I announce it to you all saying hey, I'm about to create a course I kind of gauge your interest to see if you're interested in it if there seems to be enough interest then I spend time Writing the sales page preparing the course a little bit And then after I've prepared the course just a little bit After I prepare the course a little bit And I created the sales page and I then I sell it to you to see if you want to buy it because if not enough of you buy it I'm not going to make the course and you should have the same mindset too You shouldn't be spending months and months creating something if you don't know people are going to buy it or not You should only spend time creating something when you already have sales this is To me it's become obvious because I've been doing this for 10 years to some of you it's a revelation I spend very little time creating something if I don't have sales already I spend time getting a sense from you. Do you want to buy this? Oh, you do want to buy it? Oh, okay All right, great. Let me start putting the sales page together Okay, see if you actually buy it. Oh, you bought it. Oh enough of you bought it. Oh great Now I'm going to start putting it together That's how I create my courses I create a after I get enough sales and a step by step as the course goes along so That's that's what I mean by announcing the next event workshop or course because announce it give yourself a real deadline to create something You know at least the first module of it see if there's enough sales to make it worth your while number nine preparing for a great meeting or event Preparing for a for a meeting or event I should say a client meeting Uh, you know if you're teaching something so preparing number 10 being truly present in that meeting Um number 11 sending email newsletter to my subscribers number 12 posting my offering And uh announce announcing the next thing versus posting it is just kind of reminders about the next thing That's what I mean. Number 13 getting feedback from my audience about my offerings Draft to a sales page, etc. I should be reorienting some of these things. I realize number 14 doing paid Advising for my content facebook ads google ads Um, are you doing that? Like I said, if you're not using paid ads for your content Are you are you sure there are enough people seeing your content if you're posting? I see some of you posting to your facebook business page But you don't run facebook ads and you get like one like proposed and I just wonder What are you doing? Okay, if you're only getting one like proposed, how do you have I don't even have the patience To post to a social media platform if I only get one like or zero likes Per post I really don't understand what you're what you're doing if you're posting to your facebook page and nobody's liking it Consistently nobody's liking it or one person's liking it Two people it's not enough people not enough people are seeing your stuff. You have to spend money on facebook ads Let me repeat that you've got to spend money on facebook ads if you're gonna post to your facebook business page I do I spend money You know to my to my facebook is otherwise nobody sees it, right? So it's it's been a requirement to spend money on facebook ads since 2013 Did you know this in 2013 facebook made a change whereas Before 2013 if you post it to your business page most of your fans will see it starting 2013 they turned off the spigot And decreased the fan base decreased the visibility of facebook business pages by 90 So now only about 5 to 10 percent of your fans will see any of your postings That's why we all have starting 2013 already. We've all had to spend money on facebook ads Maybe you haven't started well now Certainly it's time to start okay 30 dollars a month. Do you have 30 dollars a month? You can budget for your business I hope you'll say yes if it's your business If it's your business, you don't have 30 dollars a month for advertising What kind of business is that right? Please please spend at least 30 dollars a month. I spend two to three hundred four hundred dollars a month on my business for facebook ads on one business the other one too so It's 30 dollars a month. There's not too much to ask of you. Okay. Just start just start. Okay. Um Paid advertised number 15 paid advertising for my offerings if I post the reminders Oh upcoming course or whatever it may be I run paid ads on those as well number 16 getting feedback about my from my clients About how to improve my services. That's important too number 17 writing a book or course on a schedule So that I publish rather than perfect You notice there's a difference between writing Or creating on a schedule versus just doing it knowing that at some future point. It's going to be created That's very dangerous If you're creating a book or a course and you don't you haven't already announced when it's going to be published It's dangerous own Because you could be doing it for two five ten years Or for two five and ten months when it really should be only taking you know for an online course You'll only be taking you At most two months to create something at most Maybe one I create a new course every month and I'm just extremely busy So if I'm busy and I'm creating a new course every month if you're not that busy You can certainly create a new course once a month Uh and a new book once every six months. I that's I'm busy and I do one book new book every six months on schedule What about you are you as busy as I am? I don't know. Maybe you are you have if you have family to take you have kids Okay, fine. If you have kids, you're busier than me. Okay If you have aging parents that live with you, you're taking care of them. You're busier than me But if you have neither of those situations Your kids are not you know young kids. You're taking care of them You know, you have no no excuses in my opinion. You have no aging parents living with you You have no excuses Unless you have a full client slate You have no excuses you should be writing a new book every six months Creating a new course every month in my opinion. It doesn't have to be short. It doesn't have to be long It doesn't have to be complex or perfect. Just create something every month Announce something every month so that you can keep your audience um Knowing your rhythm so that you have accountability of creation you are a creator So why aren't you not creating? Right on a regular consistent basis that your audience can expect from you and some of you are and I I applaud you And I encourage you. I I wish for you continued consistency and joy in the creation and Always continually learning about yourself and about Your audience because of these creations and continued service, right? Um number 18 implementing a course or article that helps me do one of the above all right This is especially important for all of you who are watching this if you watch my content Chances are you watch other content or you watch my courses or you you watch other people's courses I never Watch an online course Unless I am actively implementing that thing right now So I will watch for 15 minutes And I will go implement for half an hour I'm not going to just Watch and now of course. I'm shooting myself in the foot because I do want you all to attend my one hour courses Like George, what about your one? Well, those are bits if you're if you're attending my live courses. It's more fun There's interaction. There's more networking going on but Um, but if you're buying my courses, please don't just watch the whole hour and go wow That was great and then move on with your day You should be watching 15 minutes or five minutes at a time and then pausing and then going doing just doing something with it Or reading an article or reading a book. Are you just reading and like oh, that was cool. That was great I felt like I learned something There is no true learning Without action and without mistakes You have to no matter how much you've learned through a book or a course You have to then take action and almost certainly in your action. You're going to make mistakes. I welcome mistakes I'm like, oh, I didn't do that right. Oh that ended up with no results or negative results. Huh Like curiosity kicks in and say What did I what could I do differently next time what I do differently tomorrow, you know So never read an article read a book watch a course Unless you are actively implementing it right then and there So whenever you instead of read, I mean sure you can read in your free time But I'm talking about in your working hours from 8 a.m. To 6 p.m. Or whenever you work Do you first of all, do you have scheduled working hours? We should start there because if you don't have scheduled working hours, I'm worried about your business I would not invest in your business if you don't have scheduled working hours because How can a business not have scheduled working hours? It's it's just there's no consistency. There's no Reliability, there's no accountability. So you have to have scheduled working hours Okay, mine is 7 a.m. To 7 p.m. Except I take large chunks of breaks. I take, you know An hour for breakfast and nap during during my working seven hours that I'd work 12 hours a day Okay, but during those 12 hours during in the middle of the 12 hours. I take one hour for breakfast and nap Oh, uh, no, I'm sorry. Uh, no in the morning in the morning. I'm sorry I take the hour and a half for dog walk breakfast and nap an hour and a half I take another hour. So that's two and a half hours in my 12 hour day already That's another hour for lunch and nap And then two more hours in the late afternoon for a dog walk and snack and nap. I'm like a baby I I nap three times during my working day um So that's uh four and a half hours So I work 12 12 hours a day 7 a.m. 7 p.m. But in those 12 hours, I have four and a half hours of breaks So what about you and those are all scheduled in I'm very religious about those things So do you have a scheduled work day? And do you have scheduled breaks that you I never work more than two hours at any one stretch of time And even in those two hours, I work in 25 minute segments unless I'm in on a call or in a meeting Obviously, then I do the meeting but if I'm just working on my blog post or book or course or uh administrative duties, it's it's 25 minute segments with a you know 27 minute segments with a three minute break, you know, that kind of that kind of working style So um, anyway, if I'm implementing if I'm if I bought a course and I'm implementing it I schedule it into my working day and I don't just watch the whole course and enjoy and eat popcorn or whatever And I go watch 15 minutes or five minutes of it I implement for half an hour or whatever it takes I watch enough. So you should be doing that with your learning, okay Number 19 asking a question on social media or in a group that will help me get unstuck doing any of these activities You probably do that as well. Maybe you have a support group that you can ask I have a group program It's it's full right now, but you might want to inquire about the the next year Uh group program you can ask questions in my group program and you know get get my help get other people's help Number 20 getting one on one, uh coaching and consulting to help me do any of the above I hire coaches to Number 21 eliminating or delegating as much of everything else as possible Okay, that's that's productive too. It's productive to eliminate things from your to-do list I encourage you to do that or delegating or or just outsort or automating it or just getting rid of stuff And number 22 interspersing various forms of self-care throughout my work day I've already talked about that just now. So these are the 22 actions that I actually spend my working days on What about you you should start to write down if you have never done time Tracking or time logging. I highly recommend it. I do it every year for about two weeks In fact, I'm just about starting to do that now Uh start of a new year um I recommend you you log every 15 minutes of your waking hours From the time you wake up to the time you you lights out to go to bed Log every 15 minutes do that for at least three days I'm talking about regular working days not with your on vacation. You don't have to log your time But just like you're wondering what do I release? Yeah, George has this list of what do I really spend my time doing? Do you are you clear about that? If you're not clear about that You are letting go your most important asset in your life, which is your time That you should be protecting your time more than any other asset in your entire life Because you can't get it back right this one life of yours is so precious Every 15 minutes I mean, you don't have to literally stop what you're doing every 15 minutes But every hour you stop and go what did I just do in the past hour? And it could be like, oh, I just spent 45 minutes surfing facebook for no good reason or not any Perfect right that down. There's no judgment. There's no blame. All you're looking at is your patterns go, huh? And just go don't judge yourself. Don't blame yourself. Okay There's never never never a need for blame or judgment There is only a need for curiosity Look back. Huh, isn't it interesting that I just spent an hour I just spent half an hour watching george's video, but not implementing Okay, well, that's interesting. Well, what can I do differently? Okay? We're gonna oh, okay. If I ever watched george's half an hour video I should spend another 15 minutes at least doing something different Like scheduling something or or or implementing something in some way. Don't just let it pass right So time logging do it for at least three working days and tell me what you discover fighting Okay, let's talk about let's end this video with the questionable to drop list. Do you have a to drop list? let me get you started with With with what you might want to drop from your list one changing your website You don't need to change your website honestly you you Nobody really cares about your website except for you Not really honestly. Um, I haven't changed my website in years It's still the same. I know you go to my website. It's so boring. It's the same thing for years and years and years So changing your website whether big changers or small changes should be really be questioned like no, I don't do that I I almost never unless I really there's a compelling reason like oh, I'm giving I'm giving out wrong information my price is wrong or I no longer offer that service or Oh, my course description has to be updated because people are buying the wrong thing Yeah, of course you change your website then it's a it's a real important urgent reason But otherwise, oh, I have a new describe the new way how I describe myself. Well Don't change it yet Go with your new way For another month or two See if it really sticks before you make changes, but it's really like these kinds of changes Nobody will notice it except for you You know and people who really want to work with you don't really care that you describe yourself better in a little bit better of a way Honestly as a marketer cannot how can I say this? I am saying this People who want to work with you They don't care that much how your website looks or Reads or whatever they really don't they they're going to look past all that and and look to the Whatever you've already created is fine is what I'm saying. Okay Honestly, if you really have a question about it comment below I might not have time to look at it, but if I do I'll let you I mean Actually, I should I should say I don't want to start going into free website consultations here, but It's probably okay It's probably okay. Your website is probably fine. Honestly, you probably don't need to change it If you want to make changes give yourself a two to three month waiting period of an idea before you make a change Because otherwise you're just tweaking your website forever. Oh, I'm not ready to really launch yet because I still have to make tweaks the biggest delay the biggest like One of the biggest pitfalls I've seen in entrepreneurship. Oh my website's not quite ready yet No, your website's fine. No, whatever you have just put it out there Okay, people who will want to work with you or look past everything They will climb over mountains to work with you no matter how bad your website is no matter how bad your social media is They will climb over mountains to work with you Those are your ideal clients You need more visibility. You don't need a better website. Okay, so number one number two To drop is working on any future product service course or book Without having announced it first Because again, you're in the pattern of preparing forever, which is the biggest pitfall to time suckers for entrepreneurs If you are making lots of money if you're making a full-time income if you're supporting your family thriving Okay, fine. You can work on things without a deadline You can work on things without having announced it because you already you already made it you already there But if you're struggling if you don't have enough clients if you would like more clients or more sales It's probably because you're not working on deadlines. It's probably because you you keep preparing planning That's why money's not coming in Because people aren't seeing your stuff and they're not seeing it often enough You're not repeating your offers often enough for people to go. Oh, yeah, that's right. That's what she does Right people don't don't think about what you do until you say it often enough okay, so um Be really really careful about working on anything until you've announced it publicly You have a deadline you have an accountability with the public that you better put that thing out Okay Now relationship with deadlines is another entirely different psychological matter I've written a post about that in the past repair your relationship with deadlines. I love deadlines now They are a blessing. You should not look at deadlines as a as a dread. Oh my god. I'm not going to fail I'm gonna deadlines are a blessing They are what allow us to create in this life This life has a deadline. Do you ever wonder why we are given a big deadline in this life? It's called death Right. Why why are we giving a deadline? Why are we why of all possible universes? Do we not have an internal life in this third dimensional body of ours that There's a deadline. Well, there's a lesson there. Oh even god gave us a deadline So what does that tell us about deadlines? Should we fear death? Should we dread? Should we be so afraid that it paralyzes us? No, we should learn to love death. We should learn to be friend death Right, whether you are stoic or whether you are a christian or buddhist or whatever you want to call yourself We learn to be friend death as the ultimate deadline that allows us to Urge us encourage us give us urgency to create in this life to become all Everything that our souls wish to become in this life and then See that ultimate deadline as a lesson and then create lots of micro deadlines for ourselves die every day die every hour Right be reborn. Right. It's like these little deadlines create urgency create a blessed urgency I see deadlines as just beautiful wonderful For example deadlines, I should end this video now going on too long If I didn't have a deadline for my video service should be about half an hour or no more Otherwise, I'm wasting your time. Okay, then I'll be talking on for two three hours And that's waste your time as well as mine, right? Okay, so, um What reading articles and books unless you're implementing? I've already talked about a lot of this stuff Getting training unless you're also implementing Getting another certification because it might help your marketing drop all those things drop all those things I'm going to let you read the article later But uh, essentially, you know focus on the truly productive list And I encourage you so Encourage you to make your own list. What is a truly productive it George has named as 22 truly productive actions So what are my 20 truly productive actions? And George has in the article, you'll see my 11 to drop actions things to drop What are your 10 or 20 things to drop? Okay, the the core is you should always be invaluable Be in valuable interaction With your ideal audience if you're not doing that you should be questioning. What are you doing with your time? If you're preparing planning you should always have announced something to your audience first Or you have a lovely blessed deadline to work towards So that you're not just preparing planning forever, right? Okay, so I hope this is helpful For you and um, thanks for those who are joining me here for the live video of Mona Sharon Ross Diane Carissa Roy Ludovic Jayce, uh, Joanna Stacy, thank you all for joining me and um Yeah, Joanna says I need to create a publishing schedule for my next book or it never gets done Yeah, and it might get done in like two to five years or something like that But but you could have created something much shorter time and up leveled your skills Much faster with with with a blessed deadline, right? Yeah, so let's see here. Yeah, Chris says, you know, I yeah, I'm guilty of continuing to tweak my website All of us are it's so easy, right for all of us to go Yeah, let me make another website change. Yeah, but we're really just changing it for ourselves. Nobody else really cares Right, so the people who want to work with you who want to buy your stuff will climb over mountains and do it You don't have to convince the people who are like this That is one of the biggest, uh Changes to authentic marketing conventional marketing tries to get you to persuade and convince everybody Which is exhausting and it doesn't even really work that well Authentic marketing is to be yourself and to serve and and and bless Frequently prolifically on a deadline on the blessed deadline and then you'll find that people will climb over mountains to work with you That's how it works, right? That's how it works so, um Thank thank you. Chris. This is hey, can I get on the waiting list for the group group for 2020? Thanks. Thanks for asking Um, be sure to you know, I'll I'll maybe I'll write your I'll write your name down on my on my waiting list So I'll contact you. It looks like my my group programs going forward are probably going to be filled Uh, just every year without having to announce it. So Um, so yeah, any of you interested just let me know personally and I will personally invite you When when the next year is about to start so that you can apply And if I have any more room then I'll announce it, but I think going forward I'm not going to announce it. I was kind of embarrassed this A couple months ago when I announced the group program because I was planning to announce it by the time I announced it It was already all full. So it was kind of Not a great feeling, but um, but yeah, so let me know and I'll certainly I had you to the waiting list there. Okay. All right remember set blessed deadlines befriend them see them as blessings for Uh, for your creativity and for your up leveling in this life and for your full expression Uh, and your and your empowerment is really what it is about. Okay Blessings and I look forward to seeing your progress and let me know how you get along with with some of these ideas Take care