Busy, busy, busy, busy, busy, busy, busy, busy, busy, busy… bankrupt.
That’s the depressing downward spiral I see way too often in the Internet marketing space.
Especially in 2012, when running an online business can include any (or some would argue ALL) of the following…
- Blogging
- Guest blogging
- Filming videos
- Writing sales copy
- Writing to your list
- Managing your traffic
- Building your funnel
- Forum posting
- Maintaining your fanpage
- Keeping up with Twitter
Sadly, that list doesn’t even include helpful money-generating activities like creating products, or setting up payment options.
If right now, you’re trying to do everything above yourself… If you’re chasing your tail, and not really getting anywhere…
Then you’ll want to hear what I have to say in today’s post…
Being Busy Is NOT a Business Strategy
Being busy every once in a while is fine. All of us go through certain times (like product launches) that can get a little hectic.
But when busyness becomes a way of life, when we’re permanently busy, when we are rushing from one thing to the next, with little to no downtime…
There’s a very real problem.
It’s a problem because when we are deep inside the vortex of our businesses, our busyness can look very impressive.
It’s easy to mistake our busyness with purpose, focus, and drive.
Suddenly, we confuse busyness with being productive. But permanent busyness is never as productive as it feels or looks. In fact, busyness has zero implicit value in itself…
You see, if you are always busy, you end up in cycle of doing, doing, doing, with little results at the end of the day.
Usually one of the first things to go is your ability to discriminate between things you really need to do, and things that don’t necessarily need to get done at all.
Next, you start confusing busyness with success, and effort with effectiveness.
Are You Busy with the WRONG Things?
So, let me ask you another question to really think about…
Are you confusing being busy with importance… are you busy on the truly important pieces of your life?
When everything that makes life worthwhile – friends, family, hobbies, enjoyment, fun, travel, learning, and making a difference has been swallowed up by the demands of growing our businesses…
The dream of owning your own business quickly becomes the nightmare of a life sacrificed on the wrong things for the wrong reasons.
I’m sure you’ve heard the saying… “Life is what happens when you’re busy making other plans.”
Sadly the sentence could be changed for entrepreneurs, “Life is what passes you by when you are busy in your business”
So I want to challenge you today to think about what it is that really matters in your business… in your personal life.
Make a list of these tasks in your journal. Then go through your list and cut out what you can live without. Force yourself to focus on only the handful of tasks that really matter.
But before you do that, here are a couple questions to consider…
1. Does this post apply to where you are in your business right now?
2. Do you feel like you know what’s important in your business?
3. Do you feel like there’s never enough time to do everything?
Let me know in the comments and I’ll address this in my next post.