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.

But I can afford to be. It doesn't hurt anyone. The whole reason many people read 50 productivity books and never become productive is that they lose hope when the system doesn't fit them. They can't live up to the productivity guru's goals. Well, guess what you don't have to.

Your own productivity methods have to become a Frankenstein monster that you build from all the books you have read and all the experiences you have had.

Relearning

I initially through out all the things in GTD and Zen to Done that had to do with date specific deadlines and delegating. A few months ago, I had no real deadlines. A few months ago, I had no one to delegate to.

Now I do. So it's time to reread the book, actually digesting those parts I need now.

I have also launched another blog. I have a few blogs but most I promote via their feeds, SEO, and links. It takes a lot of work to bring your blog into the social arena and blogosphere if you really want to make a dent. These other blogs are not ready. I am not sure if I have the time to put in, but they make me money the way they are. So I am trying with two.

And the new blog has been around for a while, but like I said, I haven't gone too much out of my way to promote it.

A few other thing woke me up lately. The change in the Entrecard system and the change in Alexa. Yeah, I took a few hits. But I am happy for it.

What the hell was I doing wasting so much time on this crap? Ego. It's nice seeing numbers get bigger or smaller, whichever one is better. But I am not after the brass ring here. I am after the whole damn carousel. Time to stop bullshitting.

And I am not really sure of the changes yet. I say I started blogging a few months ago. That's when it became the main focus of my study. I wanted to find useful things I could use to expand what I was already doing. Spending an hour a day clicking isn't one of those things. Getting a few "cool post" comments isn't either.

Wasting Time

So I will be looking at cutting out time wasters. I have had MeeTimer going on this browser for a few weeks now to see how much time I spend where.

I will be setting specific intervals for doing things. For example, I check my Adwords ROI every day. I run the whole script I wrote daily to see how much I made the day before. But the most I act on the results is probably two days a week. I shouldn't run the reports daily.

I think with posting I should write like a raving, non-editing lunatic a couple of days out of the week. Just move words until I build a bank of articles and then edit and add links and images when I am posting. I do get in a groove and it's hard to start it up for a half an hour just to shut it back down. Plus I will be writing some pretty hefty report sized pieces. I need to build a little more stamina.

I will fill that I free up with more worthwhile, forward moving, sustainable activities. By sustainable, I mean work that will keep on giving. If I had received all of my traffic from Entrecard, I would have dropped much further down on the Top 100 list after this last Alexa update. I only dropped 5 spots even though my Alexa ranking almost doubled. That's a number based way to look at it.

Let's look at it another way. To keep Entrecard going, I have to be active with it every day. With the same amount of time, I can get links to my site and see the results of that work through search engine hits for months.

What Now

Each effort has it's place. I just think I am a little unbalanced now. Time to mix it up and see what comes out. It's been a long couple of weeks of trying to adjust things and hitting dead ends.

And it has reflected on a lot of things in my life. Some days I am just not the type of person you want to hang around. And that has to change.