Ding! You’ve got mail!
You check your e-email. You reply to that one thing and then you remember that other thing you were going to reply to.
One bit of “important” work leads to another and soon half the morning is gone. If you’re a freelancer like me, this means you’ve made no money.
Sure, you’ve caught up on all the niggling small tasks you’ve put off, but are you any closer to your goals?
If you’re a business owner or a marketer or a writer like me, this kind of time waster frustrates you to no end. But if you learn to organize early and recognize the value difference between shallow work and deep work, you’ll ease your frustration. Let’s look at how that’s possible.
Automate That Shallow Work
You’ll never get rid of shallow work entirely. There will always be that one e-mail you should probably put some personal touches on or that conference call.
But if you could outsource most of your shallow work, would you make more money? Most certainly.
This article by Radcrafters recommends automating your shallow work and as much of your marketing before you even execute your marketing plan. But if you’re already deep into your marketing and you’re manually doing most of it, it’s time to look at digital marketing automation.
Only people my age or older will get the first line of this article. If you’d asked college age me if email would still be relevant in 10 years, I’d have said no.
But we all still use email today to keep up with things like our finances, to communicate to our business partners, and to keep up with our favorite products.
It then makes sense that 80% of retail professionals say their greatest driver of customer retention is email.
But sending lengthy emails every day takes time. Since e-mail still converts decently well, it’s worth it to spend a little money on automation.
Social Media
The biggest problem with social media is that it’s distracting. I deleted my Facebook app just because of this problem. I’ve become more productive since.
But if you’re manually posting to social media, not only are you wasting time, you’re likely to get distracted. Why? Because social media is inherently designed to distract you.
Social media isn’t social, it’s entertainment. You’re using entertainment to attract your customers and leads.
Automation will keep you from falling into that trap. It will also give you more time to devote to your deep work, work that makes you money. And lastly, you won’t forget to post to a particular platform because most automation software posts to all the platforms you need.