How to Break Through Distractions and Get Your Projects Done

Over the last six months–possibly even a year–I’ve felt more than a little frustration over my inability to complete all the projects on my to-do list. I also have  more new ideas than I’ve had in a long time. Additionally, I have writing endeavors I could monetize with a bit of effort spent on creating information products of one sort or another.

Then, of course, there are the book proposals my agent is waiting for me to finish. And I have client work with which to keep up. Plus, there are things I “should” be doing to build both my author’s platform and my writing, editing and coaching business.

Therefore, I felt a bit better after reading Robert Skrob’s second guest blog post. Yesterday Robert, the president of the Information Marketing Association and author of three books, wrote about information marketing. Today Robert mentions that the frustration I feel actually is normal and offers his solution to breaking through the normal distractions of “work”–whether your work happens to be writing, an information marketing business or some other job that takes you away from building a new information marketing business–so you can create new products or get your writing projects done.

As we complete the first week of Write Nonfiction in November (WNFIN), are you feeling behind on your WNFIN project? Are you having a hard time fitting it into your existing work load? Try Robert’s method. See if it doesn’t help you meet your goal this month.

How to Break Through Distractions and Get Your Projects Done
By Robert Skrob

It’s a constant battle; urgent appeals for help and assistance come from all sides.  Meanwhile the important new business ventures get pushed back to tomorrow or next week.

I remember in 1994, I’d built a successful consulting business, billing three times the hourly rate of my competitors and making good money.  However, I had topped out.  I wanted to create subscription revenue from products I could create once and sell many times.  I’d built products for clients dozens of times over the years but none for myself.

I was busy, I was making great money and yet I was trying to launch an entirely new business while I tried to balance it all.  It was stressful and frustrating.  And it still is, this is something I battle with every week.  How do I prioritize all of the work I have to do so I balance the projects that generate revenue today versus the better opportunities that will grow my business in the future?

In 2005 I’d had enough.  After several months of delay I started setting aside every Friday to work only on new projects.  I’d be busy and crazy on current projects Monday through Thursday (and even a few Saturdays.)  But, Friday was sacred.  Friday was all about the new projects that would launch my businesses forward.

If I had meeting requests, calls or projects that came up on Thursday, I explained I had a client commitment all day Friday and I’d have to get it back to them next week.

Then, on Friday I locked myself away.  For many months I worked in the shed in my backyard.  It was the same shed we stored the lawn mower, weed eater and rest of the yard equipment.  However, there was enough space in there for a fold out table and chair.  Plus, I had a window I could stare out of when I was deep in thought.

I didn’t have an internet connection out there.  I didn’t have a phone.  I was able to work, think and write without distraction.  The house I live in today, the pool we built with the waterfall and the nice home office I have were all created by my typing on the laptop in that shed during the Fridays of 2005.

About two years ago a member of the Information Marketing Association told me he was dumping his current businesses, selling it at a steep discount, so he could concentrate on his new info-business full time.  I discouraged him as much as I could.  He told me that he wanted to be able to devote his attention to his business for five days a week.  This way he could build it faster because he could devote his full attention to it.

For months he struggled.  It turns out the stress and pressure of running a business was part of the fuel that was driving him to create the info-business to begin with.  Without that stress he wasn’t able to find the motivation to make it happen.  Plus, without his business his cash flow became tight.  He wasn’t able to invest as much cash into marketing as he’d been able to in the past.  Therefore his business grew more slowly than ever.  The stress and cash flow from his old business had been the fuel for his new venture.

There are many days I wish I could “clear the decks” and work only on my new business opportunities, to abandon everything that doesn’t fit my future.  What I’ve found is that it’s many of those things that are pushing me forward to create those new ventures.  Plus, they provide the cash flow I need to get everything started.

I’ve also realized that it’s supposed to be stressful and hectic.  If you feel overwhelmed, busy and frustrated that’s exactly correct.  That’s how you are supposed to feel.  And, when you feel comfortable you can know it’s time to create some new, big and ambitious goals to pursue.

I created a free video as a guide to help others create a successful business that allows you to do the writing once and to get paid many times for your work.  You can access this video for free here by visiting www.QuickSustainableWealth.com.

Next time you are frustrated that you haven’t gotten your projects completed, feel good about yourself that you are ambitious enough to have new projects keeping you going.  Then, set aside some undistracted time over the next three months (appointments you refuse to cancel) and get it done.  Those appointments and that work are the keys to checking your goals off as COMPLETE, one by one.

How do you meet your current deadlines as well as complete your large, long-range projects?  Comment below.  I want to hear your thoughts and ideas.

About the Author

Robert Skrob is the author of three non-fiction books which are, as he says “customer magnets” for him and his business.  Because he co-authored his first book with Dan Kennedy, the famous direct marketing expert, Robert learned a lot of inside tricks and strategies of turning books into marketing tools.  Today, his books provide him with a steady stream of new customers.   Robert is the president of the Information Marketing Association, a community of individuals providing coaching programs, producing seminars, selling information products and/or building membership site communities.  Because he sees what thousands of small publishers are doing around the country and the world, it gives him a unique perspective on what’s working and the keys to success in the specialized information publishing business.  To access Robert Skrob’s free video teaching authors how to create quick sustainable wealth for themselves and their families doing the writing you love visit www.QuickSustainableWealth.com.

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