Posts Tagged: motivators

Monday Motivation — 2 Comments
5
May 08

Monday Motivation: Good Habits

Morning jog

Creative Commons License photo credit: Dafydd359

Feeling much more upbeat this week. I think a little legitimate discontent was exactly what I needed to push me in the right direction.

I tend to do life in cycles. Right now, I’m moving into a fitness phase where I care again about being healthy, so I’m going to shift some of my time and activities around to fit that goal. It helps that the weather is getting nicer, making it much more appealing to venture outside.

I’m shifting the format of my plan a little, too, to reflect the areas I’m working on.

Business

The goal

My big business goal is to get on top of it, stay on top of it, and then replace myself.

We’re planning on getting pregnant and having a kidlet (no particular time frame, as these things happen when they happen, but could be sooner rather than later) and I don’t want to be tied to a job at that point.

That’s not to say I won’t work; I’m pretty sure I’ll always work, just because I like it so much and find it interesting. I just don’t want to have to work.

My coach, Marla, helped me a ton last week by proposing a schedule. I’ve been having trouble balancing the big projects (that need regular effort to move forward, but don’t have the same sense of urgency as the little ones) and the quick, “it’s just a little change” jobs.

The path

  • Stick with the schedule. Today that means doing the two big projects for two hours each this morning, taking breaks, and doing the small projects in the afternoon.
  • Send invoices! (Meant to do this last Thursday…)

Health

The goal

I’m stuck around 150 pounds and 30% body fat, and I want to be at 133 and 19%. This will make me faster on the bike (making it more likely the boy will spring for the mountain tandem idea!) and be more congruent with both the things I want to do and my identity. The current disconnect is slightly stressful.

The path (for today)

  • Create a list of goals and rewards. These are very motivating to me. (Done!)
  • Move during my breaks (2 walks a day) and during phone calls.
  • Find and subscribe to a couple of spiritual podcasts to listen to during walking breaks. (Making them spiritual gets two birds with one stone. :) )

Extra-curriculars

The goal

Other major initiatives I’m involved in right now include the Black Ink Project and singing every other week for music at my church. I need to make a point to devote sufficient time to each of these.

The path

  • Participate in the first Black Ink call (and have my headphones handy so I can walk while I’m listening!).
  • Buy the three songs I need to practice today, and set them to play while I’m doing less mental work.

Want to jump in yourself?

Just leave a comment saying what you’re going to do today, or post on your own blog and leave a link.

Monday Motivation — No Comments
21
Apr 08

Monday Motivation: Capitalize on Existing Opportunities

The ebook is finally finished and up for sale! Whew.

I’m generally a very positive person, but last week’s demands just about killed my positivity. The Mac issues I mentioned turned out to be a crashed hard drive. There were definitely some things to be thankful for (that I had backups of almost everything; that the software I bought arrived fairly speedily and recovered most of what I didn’t have backed up; that I have my laptop and wasn’t dead in the water); it just added significant stress to an already-stressful week, partially due to the time required to work on the problem, partially because I’m just not as comfortable coding on my laptop, and a lot of it just the mental stress of juggling everything.

Still not quite done with the Mac joys. I have the backup on an external hard drive but still need to replace the dead one to get up and running. Don’t know when I’ll find the time to do that! Feeling overwhelmed by that and all of the other “should do” tasks that are getting trampled by urgent ones.

The title of this posts pretty much sums up my struggles (in a positive way!). I have all of these opportunities that just need a tiny little push to turn into something, and I’m having a hard time pushing.

I’ve bought ad space but not sent in my ads; I have potential clients who are asking me to do work, and haven’t found time to reply yet; I have all the content done for my main site but haven’t put the design up to make it all accessible; I have all the makings in place for several new services I haven’t found time to promote.

Ugh.

What do you do when you feel like this?

Thinking back to what’s worked before (because I think that’s my best bet), I do better when I have a concrete list of steps; I don’t do well with ambiguity. So here’s what I’ll do today, before 5:20pm when I am leaving for music practice:

  • Close all tabs and reboot my computer (if you think this sounds trivial, you don’t know how I use tabs…)
  • Write a list of all known outstanding projects (both client and business development) and break them down into tasks
  • Schedule those tasks
  • Create my ads and send to Wendy
  • Send out promised review copies of ebook
  • Process all emails in my inbox (only 42!)

Looking at this list, it seems kind of pathetic, but my gut tells me to stop while it’s still manageable. No doubt this short and unimpressive list will keep me hopping!

Want to jump in yourself? Just leave a comment saying what you’re going to do today, or post on your own blog and leave a link.

Monday Motivation — No Comments
14
Apr 08

Monday Motivation: Reduce Project Load

I’m hoping against hope that it’s not going to be “one of those days.” It started out well, considering I’ve already gotten through most of the 150 emails (!) that came in over the weekend and it’s not even 8am yet, but then I wandered into the office (I’d been working on my laptop) and found that my Mac was locked up.

It didn’t respond to any of the happy “kill program” commands, so I finally hard-rebooted it and now it’s not coming back. I’m no Mac guru, but I’ve tried a whole bunch of remedies found via Google, and no luck yet. Computers are finicky beasts, though, so I’m hopeful that something will work. I’m going to call my local Apple-friendly computer store when they open and see what they suggest.

In the meantime, I’m incredibly glad I installed FolderShare last week, so most everything is backed up on my laptop (where I’m typing now) as well as my JungleDisk. If I need to work on my laptop, I can, it’s just not as nice for coding.

My big priority for this week (other than getting the misbehaving Mac working) is to finish up some outstanding projects that are really stressing me out. I have new projects lined up for next week and am going to have a nervous breakdown if I have to do them all at once, so the obvious answer is to finish up the current ones first.

One of the projects is a client’s web application and the other is the ebook.

For today…

I’m going to focus on the client project and make as much progress as I can there. I have about seven other obligations for the day, but this is going to be my core task.

For the week…

I’m going to keep working on the client project, and do the following for my ebook:

  • Decide on a final name
  • Get a cover and site designed (starting the process today)
  • Set up sales and affiliate program
  • Format the book
  • Do an interview to promote the book

Want to jump in yourself? Just leave a comment saying what you’re going to do today, or post on your own blog and leave a link.

Monday Motivation — 1 Comment
24
Mar 08

Monday Motivation: Get Caught Up

Last week was sort of dully, vaguely unproductive. Nothing I can put my finger on, but I just didn’t make much forward progress. I’d really like to get this week off to a better start!

No overarching theme for this week, just a diverse bunch of things I’d like to move forward on.

Today’s to-do list has just six items on it, plus four emails that need written, and an inbox (only 13 messages!) to clear. However, four of the six to-do list items are big items, and I’d like to be done by 4pm today in order to be ready for tonight’s Bible study (need to read and prepare dinner). I’m also going to commit to a “closed list,” meaning I will not allow interruptions by adding new items to today’s list; anything that comes in today will be added to tomorrow’s list.

If I get my list done today, I’ll be closer to my ultimate goal of making my business run without me. My reward will be the simple joy of being done at 4pm. :)

Want to jump in yourself? Just leave a comment saying what you’re going to do today, or post on your own blog and leave a link.

Creative Commons License photo credit: moon angel

Monday Motivation — 1 Comment
10
Mar 08

Monday Motivation: finish that site launch!

I’ve been puttering away at a new site, WordPress Theme Review, for months now. It was a case of too many dependencies: among other things, I didn’t want to launch it until my main site was done (it’s not), I had to create a plugin to add special features (did that), I needed to customize the theme (did that), and want to create a little badge for theme designers to show their results, so they can help me promote it (haven’t done that).

I eventually realized I was never going to launch the blasted site if I refused to lower my standards a bit. I’m a big fan of the motto “Ready, fire, aim” but sometimes it’s easier said than done. I got the core stuff functioning, but decided to launch without finishing my main site and without the badges.

I need this site to start making me money, and then I’ll be able to justify the time needed to add the other features. Of course, I still need to get my main site perfected functional, but that shouldn’t delay the money-making part of this site.

So today, my “must do” tasks revolve around finishing this site launch. I have already made some progress by inviting some friends to mention the site, but I’m also going to:

I’m also going to do the rest of my 19-item to-do list!

Want to jump in yourself? Just leave a comment saying what you’re going to do today, or post on your own blog and leave a link.

Monday Motivation — 2 Comments
3
Mar 08

Monday Motivation: Let’s Get This Party Started!

I’ve long admired Wendy Piersall’s Monday Motivation concept, and starting this week, I’m going to jump in.

The concept is simple: public commitment (which I call “obligation”) is a powerful motivator. I can harness this power for good by telling you all (okay, since this is my first post, “you all” might be a rather small group, but whatever!) what I’m going to accomplish, and then I’ll be more likely to do it.

Wendy frequently uses either penalties or rewards as additional motivators, but I’m feeling too overwhelmed to add anything else at this point, so we’ll see how a simple public declaration works for me, and adjust as needed.

This Monday

  • I currently have 18 items on my to-do list (and an additional 7 already checked off, woohoo!). As you can imagine, that’s a lot of pressure, but they are all what Covey would call either “important-not-urgent” or “important-urgent”–no busy-work here. So completing this check list is what I commit to do for today.
  • I also commit to update you on my progress before I go to bed.

Want to jump in yourself? Just leave a comment saying what you’re going to do today, or post on your own blog and leave a link. :)