Time Management And Staying On Task

Have you ever noticed that some days or maybe a lot of days when you get started working your business after a while you find yourself so far off task that you might-as-well have not started in the first place? Checking email, Facebooking (non-business activities like reading personal posts, posting comments, and playing games, etc. You know what I'm talking about – fun but unproductive), or surfing the web looking for a new cell phone cover.....unfortunately it is very easy to burn an entire day engaged in these kinds of wasteful activities without realizing just how much time has actually gone by.

I know that we all can become easily distracted from the tasks we know need to be done. Not necessarily because they are difficult, boring, or we hate doing them, that's not it at all. We're all very busy. And there are so many things that need to be done, along with hundreds of distractions & responsibilities from family (especially if children are part of the equation), friends, & life in general, and as we all know there are only 24 hours in a day. At one point I became so frustrated with my inability to stay focused on the task and not seeming to be able to get anything accomplished that I almost gave up on trying to do this business. But I'm no quitter and this is too important to give up on. So I decided to sit down and figure out a way to fix this issue I was having with my productivity. And after much trial and error, this is what I found works best for me. It may or may not work for you. But if you are experiencing the same difficulties staying on the task it's certainly worth a try, right?

Anyway, here it is.

• For my last business activity of the day, I review my list of tasks that need to be done. I keep a running list that I update as things change. If something new comes up I add it, so my list never gets completed. I'm constantly adding items to and subtracting items from it.
• After I review the list I prioritize each task; the most important in the top or number one position and the next important item in the second position and so on and so forth until all the tasks are ranked on the list.
• When I have finished prioritizing the list I look at each task to determine if its something I want or even can do myself. If it is something I can't or don't want to do I outsource it. Keep in mind that it will require some time to set this up and some cost, but outsourcing can allow you to accomplish much more in a shorter time frame. Virtual Assistants can be a valuable resource and are not really all that expensive if you invest the time to set it up the right way from the beginning. If you can afford to do this it can make a big difference in your business, but even if you can't afford it when you first start out you will definitely want to incorporate this into your business as-soon-as-possible. Outsourcing will make your business run more efficiently and be more profitable. This has the effect of giving you more time and freedom, which is why we do this business in the first place, right?
• Next, I estimate the amount of time each task will take or how much time I want or need to spend on it.
• Then I set a goal of which tasks I'd like to get done the next day. I shoot for 3 to 4 hours of work. I try to set a reasonable number of task to fit the allotted time, but I also like to challenge myself to accomplish more than I think I can, so I tend to put quite a bit on my list, but that's just me. You don't have to put more than 1 task on the list if that's all the time you have to spare. At least you are doing something to move your business forward.

The critical things here are:

1. don't overload yourself,
2. don't fret about NOT getting everything on your list done, as long as you are taking action then you're making progress, and you will never go wrong doing that.
3. and most importantly reward yourself for moving forward and getting something accomplished.

Sometimes if my list is really heavy I will break it up into more manageable groups and take breaks in-between groups as a reward for completing a set of tasks. But I always keep track of how much time I spend doing non-business activities and I determine beforehand how much time that will be and I remain very disciplined regarding that schedule.

Discipline is the key – you have to be disciplined to make this work.

My personal preference is to try to get my list done early in the day to avoid interruptions. It just seems easier and things flow smoother that way (from my experience). However, this is not really a hard, set in stone type rule, it's just a general guideline that seems to work best for me. Like many things in life, when applying to advise from someone else, you will need to test different schemes or modify a few things until you find what works best for you. Don't be afraid to experiment, you never know, you might discover a much more efficient way for you to get stuff accomplished, or develop a greater insight in the process that gives you an advantage, or maybe even create something new you and others will find beneficial.

We would love to hear from you regarding your experiences or comments. Your feedback is important to help us improve the information we regularly share with our readers.

To Your Success,
Christopher Gibson

P.S. For more Business-Marketing-Personal Development information & products, please visit our website CLICK HERE TO SEE IT!.

A Few Tips For Healthy Living

It's difficult to imagine how anyone could not be aware of just how many people on this planet are in poor health, the evidence is everywhere. The news speaks of it daily and all anyone really needs to do to realize the full scope of the problem is to look around as you walk down the street. There are large numbers of people that are struggling with ailments, suffering from a lack of energy, burdened by disability, overweight, and dealing with a host of other conditions. So how can you make sure you stay healthy, instead of becoming a statistic? Let’s take a look at some major factors you should be thinking about if you want to maintain or improve your health.

Most of us actively seek a Healthy Living. Those of us that do already exercise and try to eat right, and for the most part that is a fantastic start to a healthier lifestyle. Below are a few of great tips that will have you to a new level of healthy living in no time at all.

#1 Take the Time to Connect With Others

By our very nature, human beings are social creatures. We seek connections with others. We create families. We nurture our young. We identify ourselves with social groups. We form important communication, spiritual health, intimacy, and emotional connections that nurture our well being and is just as critical as eating a healthy diet when it comes to nourishing our minds, our bodies, and our spirits.

Being the social creatures we are means that we crave physical touch, we can't live without it and we cannot get that from our cyber friends. Dating back to the 1930s, a number of studies indicate that infants that are touched grow at a faster rate than babies who are just left lying in their cribs. Touch affects our brains in a profound way and helps to develop our nervous system.

Today we connected in so many different ways, especially at the technical level. Yet, that closeness, that connection we so desire with other people in our day-to-day lives has actually diminished. Many of us spend our entire days surrounded by people but we communicate very little, and many feel completely isolated. Recent studies have shown that people with large social networks tend to live longer than those who live a lonesome life. So the importance of face-to-face time with friends and family can't be understated.

#2 Take Your Supplements

Healthy eating is essential to optimal health, but our food seldom provides us with everything we need to stay healthy, therefore it just makes good sense to take a daily multivitamin. Research in the matter has proven that good quality nutritional supplements can help you in achieving optimal health.

In a recent study by Wyeth Consumer Health, they found that older adults who take a daily multivitamin had an inexpensive yet powerful way to stay healthy. That study also tested how taking a multivitamin affected five diseases: diabetes, coronary artery disease, prostate cancer, osteoporosis, and colorectal cancer. Those researchers estimated that a daily multivitamin taken by an elderly person resulted in an approximate $1.6 billion potential savings in health care cost over a five year period, as well as an approximate $2.4 billion in avoidable hospitalization for heart attacks.

You should take a multivitamin and mineral supplement every day.

#3 Eat Properly

Obesity is at epidemic levels in the United States. Estimates are that more than 60% of all Americans are overweight and, of those that are overweight, 36% weigh in as obese (even more disturbing is the fact that 32% of all adolescents are overweight as well), if that's not alarming enough, then I don't know what is. Especially considering that just a generation ago, obesity was rare. And while some of this can be attributed to genetics, clearly the vast majority of it is related to sedentary lifestyles and improper nutrition.

There has been a multitude of books written on the subject of dieting and nutrition, everything from low-fat diets to no fat diets to low carb diets, and most everything in between. Study after study has conclusively determined that the best diet in the world is to simply eat sensibly by including fresh fruits and vegetables, lean protein, whole grains, non-hydrogenated dairy products in your daily diet while avoiding sugar - especially refined sugars and excess sodium, and consuming alcohol in moderation. The best way to do this starts by avoiding prepackaged foods as much as possible. The less processing your food undergoes before it reaches your table, the better it is for your health. By properly feeding your body and cells, you'll maintain consistent energy levels to work through any tasks you encounter during the day, ensure proper sleep patterns, and optimize your immune system to prevent illness.

#4 Exercising

The next element of this approach is exercise. Once you’ve executed your balanced diet, you should now have the energy and the nutrients available to actualize an exercise program of some degree. You don't need to 'pump heavy iron' for hours every day or train to run a marathon to benefit from exercise. Recent scientific studies indicate that a moderate heart rate elevation for 20 minutes, at least 3 days per week if done consistently, yield the best results. It places less stress on the body, is less time consuming, and is much easier for the average person to maintain their motivation to do.

Keep in mind that 'calories in = calories out' is the equation to maintain your weight. This means that in order for you to reduce your weight you need to burn off calories in excess of what you eat, you must be at a caloric deficit. The most effective strategy to achieve this caloric deficit is if you walk at a steady pace for just 20 minutes/day 3 to 5 days/week (without increasing your food intake – you will burn around 300 calories/day, and that equals 900 to 1500 extra calories burned every week). If you maintain a reasonable dietary intake and modestly increase your physical activity level as described above, you could expect to see a decrease in body fat of about ½ pound to a little more than 1 pound/week. Seems like a small amount, but if maintained over the course of a year that equals approximately 25 to 50 pounds. I'd say that's a fairly good outcome for your efforts, wouldn't you?

Studies prove that a person’s metabolic rate increases during physical exercise and will remain elevated for several hours after. That means you get the benefits of that 20 minutes worth of exercise for an extended time after you actually stop exercising.

If you have been leading a sedentary life, take it slow, especially at the beginning. Start small. If you have health issues always check with your doctor first. As mentioned above, one of the easiest and most effective exercises is walking. You really don't need anything more than a good pair of walking shoes and you will reap all the benefits of exercise including calorie burn, strengthening your heart, building endurance, and improving your bone density, not to mention the boost in your self-esteem, a more positive body image, and your overall confidence.

#5 Sleep

The last element of this approach is sleep. Sleep is just as critically important to staying healthy as exercise and eating properly. Generally speaking, an adult requires an average of 6 to 8 hours of good restful sleep every night. Sleep allows the body time to recover, and your immune system gets a boost in functionality as well.

A recent study by the American Cancer Society found that those who sleep less than 6 hours or more than 9 hours/night had a 30% higher death rate. So you can see just how beneficial it is to make sure that you are getting the proper amount sleep you need every night.

These are a few simple things we all do every day, and making some small changes can have profound effects for you as long as you remain consistent and disciplined. These are great tips that many people are not aware of that can have a major role in improving your life and longevity. When it comes to your health, always think outside the box. While nutrition and exercise are two very important components to healthier living, there are many other things that can ensure you remain healthy now and for years to come.

BE WELL MY FRIENDS,
Christopher Gibson

P.S. Getting healthy and supporting our members is what we're all about here, get all the information HERE if you would like to be a part of our special community.

The Secrets Of Free Advertising

It literally boggles the mind to consider the sheer number of opportunities available for obtaining free advertising for your products and/or services. There are so many proven ways to promote and market your wares, at little or no cost, that listing all of them here would be impractical. Just know that the possibilities are only limited by your own imagination, your determination, and your energy.

Listed below are just a few of the most effective techniques I use.

One of the most powerful ways I know and use to get free advertising is to write an article relative to your particular expertise, talent, skill, knowledge, or experience and submit it to all the publications and media channels that deal in the dissemination or publishing of that related subject matter or information.

Get the word out, en mas; become a tireless self-promoter and establish yourself as the expert in your field. Plain and simple: become your own publicity and sales promotions writer.

Make certain you "tag" everything you publish with a CTA (Call to Action), in the form of a quick note or P.S. listing your address for a catalog, store/dealership/franchise opportunity; web address for your website/newsletter/blog or just to get more information.

Another great technique is to become a guest on as many radio and television talk shows or interview type programs as possible. This is actually much easier to accomplish than you might think.

Start out by writing a letter to the producer of the program(s) that serve your market, and then follow up with an in-person visit or telephone call. Make sure, in your initial contact, to emphasize that your product or service would be of interest or value to the listeners or viewers of the program – stress the benefits like perhaps that 'it may even save them time and money'.

Another way of getting free or very inexpensive exposure includes posting advertising circulars on all the free bulletin boards in your area, especially in places like the coin-operated laundries, grocery stores, and beauty and barber shops.

Consider handing out circulars to all the shoppers in busy shopping centers and malls, especially on weekends.

You can also conscript your own children (if you have any) or enlist the aid of middle school, high school, and/or even college students in your area to hand out circulars door-to-door.

You will find that many publications will offer a contract for space. In this kind of arrangement, you send your ad to the publication, and they will hold on to it until they have some unsold ad-space they need to fill. At which time, they will insert your ad (the ad-price will almost always be one third or less of the regular price for that ad-space).

Keeping with this strategy, don't forget to check in with the suburban neighborhood newspapers, they might even turn out to be a hidden customer treasure.

Make sure you check all the publications that carry the kind of advertising you need. Many mail order publications that are just getting started offer unusually low rates to first-time advertisers; or they may offer a free-of-charge insertion of your ad when you pay for an order that runs for three or more issues; you may also be able to find some special seasonal ad space at greatly reduced rates as well.

Also, there are a variety of publications that may offer a "Per Inquiry" (PI) type of ad-space arrangement. This is where all orders go directly to the publication, the publication takes a commission from each order, then forwards the orders on to you for fulfillment.

If you publish any kind of catalog or ad sheet whatsoever, then you will definitely want to get in touch will all the other publishers in your market-space and query them about possibly exchanging advertising. In exchange for you running their ads in your publication, they agree to run your ad (of comparable size) in their publication.

Probably the best strategy to get tremendous exposure at the absolute lowest relative cost is when you advertise a free offer. There's nothing else in this world that beats the "Free Offer". Everybody loves free, right?

Just run an ad offering a free report or cheat sheet, or a "list of" that would be of interest to most people, especially in your market. Have anybody interested in your offer to send you a self-addressed stamped envelope to receive the report, and depending on the appeal you are able to generate for your report and the circulation of the publication in which your ad appears, you could easily be overwhelmed with responses!

The report (a simple one-page report) could invite the reader to send money for more information or to become a member, whatever your particular business model uses.

You could also, with a full page advertisement on the backside of the report, use it to promote your book or other product.

The aim here, of course, is to convert all these responses, or at least a large percentage of them, into sales. This is done via your "Call to Action", found in the full page ad on the back of the report, and in other offers, you include with the complete package you send back to them, which tells your reader what to do to get more information.

As I stated in the opening paragraph of this article, it's just simply a matter of unleashing your imagination and energy. If you do that, you have powerful forces working for you that can help you reach your goals. 

* TIP: At the same time you are having your return address printed on your marketing mail piece envelops, you can also have promotional ads relative to your product or service printed on the front or back of your envelopes.

Although the majority of this article's methods are not specifically directed to an online application, the conversion to online is really very simple. Instead of thinking "print publishers", think "website publishers", in terms of mailings of reports, use website landing/opt-in and download fulfillment pages instead.

To Your Success,
Christopher Gibson

P.S. I hope you find this information helpful. Thank you for reading. A Business doesn't have to be complicated, expensive, or time-consuming. We can show you a better way. CLICK HERE TO LEARN MORE

Blogging for Profit Begins Here

To succeed at blogging for profit, the main thing that you will need is a large readership. A great number of people dream of blogging for profit. This goal is certainly attainable for anyone of average intelligence, a willingness to work hard, and a rudimentary understanding of blogging technology. Yet, few people really manage to reap any profits they work so hard for from their blog. Most who attempt to make money with their blogs will not succeed for two reasons.

Most often, bloggers have unrealistic expectations of how fast their readership will grow and how much money they will make, and when these expectations are unrealized the disappointment can be a crush to the desire to keep blogging. The other trap that many bloggers fall into has to do with a lack of planning. If you want to make a profit as a blogger, (much like at anything, for that matter) a major key to success is to develop a realistic plan and stick to it.

As more and more blogs appear daily, having a creative writing style or a unique idea is no longer enough to garner the attention necessary to build a readership. Readership = Traffic. The higher your traffic, the more revenue advertisers will agree to pay you. However, cultivating the regular visitors that you will need to make a profit isn't easy and takes time to build.

Monetizing your blog is not that difficult, and here is a little course I have developed that will give you all the information and tools you will need to make money on your blog. It's called 7-Days To Blogging Success!

To realize your blogging for profit dreams, you have to balance your number of posts and using some of your time to bring in new visitors by setting up link exchanges with other bloggers, making contacts in the blog community, and following other established methods of generating traffic. And keep in mind, even if you are a marketing genius or have a really great idea for a blog like I said above, success is not going to happen overnight. But regardless if you are or aren't a marketing genius, my 7-Days To Blogging Success! e-course will help you do the things this blog post is telling you to do to build your readership and blog value.

To market, your blog effectively spend some of your time writing posts and an equal amount of time marketing your project. For certain, updating your blog as often as you can is a great way to keep it high on blogrolls and in the blog search engines like Technorati. Once your readers know that you update frequently they will return to your site regularly. It should be noted that it does not matter how often you update your blog, if nobody is reading it, so don't neglect to spend time marketing your site. I can't stress this point strongly enough!!! Learn how here 7-Days To Blogging Success!

Gaining the kind of readership that blogging for profit requires takes time, and likely will take at least several months before you are able to make much of a profit. Stay committed to your blog during this initial rough period. Stay motivated, set goals for how often you will update and how many readers you want to attract, and then, as always, reward yourself for sticking with your plan.

To Your Success,
Christopher Gibson

P.S. Check out 7-Days To Blogging Success! and our other great products. Click Here To See!.

You Are A Superhero And Don't Even Know It.

Don't laugh. YOU ARE!

Let's face it, haven't you always wished, since you were a kid, that you had some awesome superpower? Be it super strength, or super speed, or x-ray vision. And why superpowers? Because it's cool, right? Well yes, but more so because you probably couldn't be hurt by anybody and you could help and protect other people as well.

Well, I'm here to tell you that: You are a superhero! But you probably don't even know it. You possess a superpower that makes you special.

Did you know that within you, within each of us, within all of us, there is the potential for unimaginable and limitless power? No matter where you come from. Regardless of whether you are a man or woman, black or white, rich or poor, young or old, it doesn't matter. You have inside of you great power, and you probably don't even realize it (most people don't).

I'm talking about the power within you to make a difference in the lives of others, to help another human being have a better experience or to just feel better about themselves. A wave, a friendly smile, it doesn't take much, and in return, you gain so much greater reward by being responsible for lifting the spirits of another human soul.

If that's not a superpower, then I don't know what is.

Will you step into your hero?

My pledge and my promise have been, for as long as I can remember, to make a difference in the life of at least one person every day. That's just how I am. That's how I live life, every part of my life.

And that includes my business also.

Yet even better, with my business I have the ability to not just make a difference in someone's life, I have the ability to totally change that person's life in a profound way that can't be done by any other means.

So I challenge you, starting today, to make a difference in at least one person's life every day; smile, say something nice, open a door, be a mentor, change a life for the better and be the superhero you were (we all were) meant to be.

To Your Success,
Christopher Gibson

P.S. Ready to step into your superhero? CLICK HERE NOW TO LEARN HOW! And I'll see you on the inside.