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Keeping Productive Work And Research/Planning Separate

By Tim Gross - Internet Business Blog |

It’s easy to “feel” like you’re working online when you’re really not. If you’ve got an online business, you could argue that everything you do online is work-related:

…And the list goes on.

The problem is, you can do those things all day long and have nothing to show for it. That’s why you should differentiate actual productive work versus research and planning.

Actual productive work leaves you with something you can point to at the end of the day and say, “That’s what I did today”.

It could be some writing or work you’ve added to a project, it could be additions to your websites, it could be followup emails added to your autoresponder… It doesn’t matter what it is, it just matters that it’s concrete work done.

If you can’t point to the physical changes or additions you’ve made that day, I’d argue that you’re not actually working.

Being your own boss can be hard, because if you don’t have external deadlines you’re under, it’s easy to slump into low productivity.  A big step towards avoiding that is differentiating between planning and actual work…

For myself, tricks I’ve used are:

1) Using 2nd computer (if available) for surfing, posting, researching, versus my WORK computer for actual direct productivity.

2) Literally putting on a “work hat” or something to signify to myself when I’m actually working versus researching etc.

3) Using a timer to actually clock work time (to avoid that “where did the day go?” conversation with yourself at the end of the day

I highly encourage you to try these types of things to raise your productivity.

Topics: productivity | Trackback URL

One Response to “Keeping Productive Work And Research/Planning Separate”

  1. Mitch Says:
    January 15th, 2009 at 4:23 pm

    Very good advice. I’ve studied similar essays on this, but yours is giving me renewed hope that I can actually learn to differentiate.

    Thank you!

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