If at the end of this “tips for success series” there was a greatest hits I think this would be one of them. Basically I make myself make progress on something every day. It doesn’t really matter how big or small the level of accomplishment ….. just make progress. I talk about being action oriented and this is a great example.
I get a lot of questions about how we manage so many things. Really the secret is we don’t look at it like its tons of things. Its all 1 thing that has many jobs to do. Some of the jobs suck, some are fun, some are just a lot of work but they all need to be done. So completing these jobs is key to making the whole thing work.
So make progress everyday at whatever you want to do. You will find before long you have finished the task that once looked impossible. This is your ShoeMoney Tip For Success #12
Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.
Great tips, keep them coming and i am looking forward to your international shipping! I want one of your t-shirts!
A little progress, everyday. That the basic concept of Kaizen - and is a huge help to people overwhelmed by projects, or who arent sure how to make the giant leap to the next step, and even in finding ways to innovate.
Keep making small, incremental changes everyday and over time, you look back and you’ve made mountains of progress.
I talked about how I use Kaizen a bit in this post - http://code.mincus.com/35/why-your-successful-site-is-leaving-money-on-the-table/
Jeremy,
This series is about the greatest thing you could ever post on your blog. They’re so good, that I’ve probably mentioned them on my site 50 times by now as something everyone should be reading.
Any chance of carrying this into next week as well?
I as well am one step closer to buying a shoemoney t-shirt I will then ad my 100 dollar a day club adsense logo to it. However again I have to wait till international is added to the shoemoney shipping list since I am Canadian. I mean all the traffic from canada combined doesn’t equal that of the good old US of A.
Pushing yourself is always a good choice, specially when a person is starting from scratch :p
Great tip–if you really get down to it and start writing down and looking at all the things you do on a regular basis then it can be overwhelming.
I wouldn’t call this “the end” of the series–in the future you’re going to come up with something else, so frankly I’d just put the series “on hold” for now rather than ending it. Besides, I’m sure you’ll have a day (like I do) when you cannot think of something to post. If you keep it alive you can always go back and add something to “the series”.
OK, I’m done reading RSS feeds for today. Does that even count?
Once you get the ball rolling it’s easier to keep it rolling.
It’s like making a bigass snowball just keep rolling and rolling… and you pickup a lot of stuf along the way that helps out!
This is always one of the tips I tell people when they ask me what to do. I tell them to learn at least 1 thing a day, or improve on 1 thing a day, and in the end, it is amazing how much you have learned and accomplished.
I couldn’t agree more. I try to break my tasks down to “deliverables”. Small pieces I can work on and finish in less than an hour. Sometimes 30 minutes or even 10. Put together enough of those deliverables and you have yourself a killer website, project, result, whatever.
I especially focused on this when I was at home with a newborn. My coding came in literally five minute chunks. Any time I could steal away while she was sleeping I would code. The hardest part of it is getting back into my train of thought. My train derails easily.
I have some other one, a saying that goes like this: “Every road, no matter how long, starts with a first step!” Well, this is what I tell my friends asking me for one or the other, what should they start doing? Anything, as long as you do something and not just wonder about doing…
If you aren’t going forward, you’re going backwards.
Another great post. I’ve often found that rewarding myself with a “fun” task after doing one of the tasks that “sucks” helps me stay motivated.
By the way, how long is this series going to last? I’m lovin it.
How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.
There’s my contribution to the list.
Great tip…this blog is the shiz. Would you stop with the awesome blog posts already, though? The posts have been so good lately, I’m checking my reader like a crack fiend and can’t get anything done! Seriously though, great post.
That is a great tip and something that I have also been trying to keep in mind, especially while working on new startups. I think that it’s easy to fall into that trap where one doesn’t feel like things are progressing as they’d like and documenting progress has worked wonders for me.
[...] Make Progress Every Day - TFS 12 [...]
I keep a list of things to do for the day — anywhere from measly tasks to house errands, creative opportunities to work must-dos. Every time I tick one off I definitely feel a little better about myself. I’m loving the TFS series; it’s very simple yet extremely powerful stuff.
i have a to do list and try to get atleast a few off that list each day some days i am more successfull than others.
Another thing to think about is your own blog or the blog you wanted to start. Write a post per week. After a year when hopefully your out of the sandbox you have 50 or so posts indexed. If you wrote 3 posts per week you’d have 150.
If you write once or more a day you could have over 400 quality pages of content out there and all it takes is a few paragraphs a day.
I love looking back at my 2 health sites and seeing 1000 pages indexed from each after only 2 years.
I agree to the fullest. One thing I realize is that the net tends to take your focus away; I don’t mean by playing online games, just by constantly discovering tons of interesting new stuff. So you gotta keep the focus; time managment can be a pretty good method to achieve that.
I’ve also found that hiring someone to do the mundane jobs so that you can focus on your creative side, (whatever that may be, ie; marketing, selling, creating, etc.) allows your business to grow.
Don
Absolutely, you have to go forward.
I concur completely. Even if I am going to take a day off, I really try to do something and keep moving forward every day. No matter what.
[...] http://www.shoemoney.com/2007/06/04/make-progress-every-day-tfs-12/ Posted by vadim Filed in Lifehack [...]
If I new 3 years ago that I will have success that I have now, I think I would harder before because I was before lazy I was thinking that there want be so much success.
This is really golden. I’ve actually been remembering this tip and it’s helped me out the past few days. Thank you.
Manageable chunks or bitesize chunks is always the way forward. Taking those little steps goes a long way. Best of luck Jeremy.
Good tip and true. It’s hard to make progress every day but needs to be done to establish a relevant stream of achievement and to move forward.