In the mood to waste your day away? Here are some bullet-proof techniques that will help you to throw away every productive second.
- Check your stats all day – This technique is especially effective if you have a small amount of traffic – wish for more visitors instead of working for them. The more you check your stats, the more traffic you’ll get, right? Right?… Anyone?
- Get lost looking at the sites of other people. Start this off by looking for link exchange partners, except make sure to lose your focus when you get to each site. Click through all of the pages in every site you come across in order to maximize the time wasting.
- Do your monotonous tasks while you’re fresh. You should avoid writing content while your alert – stick to the monotonous stuff (link building, etc.) during those times to destroy your chances at productivity. Come back when your brain is too wasted to write content – that way it will take three times the work to complete something worthwhile.
- Watch t.v. while you’re working. I tested this technique for years and I can tell you that its effectiveness is simply amazing. I haven’t been nearly as effective as wasting my day away since I ditched the t.v. that used to be by my work station.
- Don’t eat during your work day. The low blood-sugar feeling that comes from not eating regularly can help you to lose all ability to think and process information. This can help you to ward off effective writing and business planning if used efficiently.
- Never, ever plan your day’s activities. Shooting from the hip helps you to work on the stuff you want to do while forgetting about the things you need to do. This unfocused method can be very effective at helping you to refresh your latest post like a hundred times to look for new comments (you know you do it).
- Jump into projects without completing the task at hand. Getting yourself into 15 projects at once can help you to avoid completing tasks, so use it for progressive time wasting. This method scales up very nicely according to the amount projects you try to juggle at once.
Adam Dempsey
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The stupid thing is I do actually do all of those and then wonder why I don’t get much done!
Stonkin
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Cheers Court, I just ordered a Pizza….sheesh I always forget to eat.
No, seriously. I get so obsessed with getting my shit done stuff like family, socialising and eating don’t get thought about too often.
I blame Vic. He’s training me to be link building ninja machine.
Liz Jackson
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I’m 6 for 7 LOL… Bet you can’t guess which one I actually DON’T do… haha.
Court
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I’m guessing…. eating. Oh wait, you just told me that over IM.
Frank C
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Must….not…click…on…Hulu!
On #5, I do this too well. My wife says I have a “computer gut”
Court
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Well Frank I have computer gut AND I forget to eat during the day so I’m getting the worst of both worlds.
TV on the Web
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Great post. I find myself wasting a lot of time if I do not have a solid goal for the day–certain things I need to get done before 5 or whatever.
I have a question for you Court. Do you recommend a program for email collection and sending out email newsletters. I’m trying to find a good program that can help me manage this.
Court
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Use Aweber for sure.
Alejandro Reyes
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#5 & 7 were big for me!! this is a great article and i hope a ton of people are not only reading it but applying it…EVERYDAY!
Mark McCullagh
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A lot of these points hit home for me: NOT doing productive tasks when I’m fresh; wasting time in my emails and surfing others’ sites; poor planning.
I gotta go and do some work!
Dinheiro
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unfortunally i’m one of the guys where almost all 7 points fits me so well
!!
But i’m trying to eliminate them all, and i know i’ll.
Asia'h
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Court,
I find that # 7 hits me hardest…
#1 used to be a problem but my Stat-Watchers Anonymous group has really helped me there!
Great list, thanks for the reminder!
Elliott
God Punishes Internet Marketer
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What about checking your 12 email accounts every 15 minutes.
That’s my problem
Tevin
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#7.5 Stare at your RSS reader for a new make money secret. Instead of taking action on the ones you already know.
Internet Marketing Coach - e1Net
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Gee, i work faster with the TV on but other Internet Marketing Consultant can only concentrate on EITHER the TV or the Laptop haha.
Or at least some music. High paced tunes get me working and typing really fast, anyone else using this?
Cheers,
Fione Tan
Internet Marketing Coach of http://www.eOneNet.com
Vic
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LMAO Court by far you know number one is my favorite.
But I have to say I am guilty of number 5 big time it is amazing how fast the day goes when you are working your daily plan suddenly you turn around and it is 5 pm and I have not had one bite to eat. Then I figure out why I am kind of dizzy.
Court
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That’s about when I am totally useless and start getting annoyed at anything and everything lol. It happens to me quite a bit.
William Profet :: One Job Two Salaries
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Some more ways to waste marketing time:
1. Browsing and playing in Facebook, MySpace, chats, etc.
2. Checking e-mail 100 times per hour.
3. Making random changes in your site/content in order to “improve it”.
4. Not sleeping enough – you will feel sleepy all day long and won’t be able to do anything right.
… more to come…
Good luck,
William
KG Lew
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great post… always good to throw some humor into the mix.
Venkat
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Are you watching me?
Digital Music Recording
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One more very important bullet proof strategy – Allow a lot of visitors to come and disturb you!
Rick
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Guilty as charged, especially
wasting time reading other sites. I found Grizzly’s site
about 2 weeks ago, which led to yours & Vic’s sites. This has cut my time-wasting way down, as I am now taking Grizzly’s 5 part course,
“Make Money Using Blogs”, and after 2 months I actually posted my first blog yesterday.
Us rookies really appreciate the help from you 3 guys.
Thanks
Rick
My Internet Business Review
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Great tips i agree to all 6tips cause watching tv make me distracted but it all depends on person right.
Maria Reyes-McDavis
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Great, practical tips! Distraction and chaos is the number one sabotaging agent of online entrepreneurs!
Great Post, Thanks!
Maria Reyes-McDavis
Monika Mundell
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Hahaha, guilty as the sin in person. That just reminds me, I haven’t checked my stats all day.
Better go and check my adsense income, lol. I’m the worst with number 5. Like you Court I get dizzy at 5 PM and wonder why.
Today is save though, just eat some yummy ravioli.
morgan
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Checking your stats all day, I love it! That’s some seriously good time wasting there…especially when you have only a handful of visitors. Then you can determine exactly how to target those two are three people again. What did they search for? How can you target people just like these? What keywords should you really be using? I’ve known people to waste away their days like this…much like the Mirror of Erised! (nerd alert!)
Fiar
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The only one I’m really horribly guilty of on a regular basis is getting lost surfing the net.
I can’t believe forgetting to eat is a problem for so many people.
Blogger
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Wow! very well said, I agree with you, lol.
Money Maker
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Funny list, but so true.
During my early days of web entrepreneurship, I was a professional time waster and a pathological stat checker – lol.
Forex Trading Strategy
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My Excuses:
Look at stats all day–adrenaline rush.
Get lost looking at others’ sites–you share a lot of helpful info so I can afford to get lost on this site.
Do monotonous tasks first–I got to complete the boring first or I’ll never complete those tasks.
Forget to stop working to eat–saves me money:)
Fail to plan days activities–Takes up too much time.
Multi-tasking; therefore, never completing any one task–I may not finish them but this method helps me to start all those important projects.
If only excuses were hundred dollar bills!
Nicole Price
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Seems to me i picked up some bad habits along the way
. Good job you pointed them out, i do need to be more vigilant and not waste my time.
Simple Mom
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How did you know?
I think all of those except the t.v. one ring true for me. It’s amazing how even taking a day off can really re-energize my spirits and energy to blog!
Mark Wilson
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Hahaha youtube is the one that gets me. I have spent so much time watching babies laugh and people being hit in the crotch it’s sickening LOL.
I'm a fuc... idiot
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Thanks for the nice tips carlo. I really have to manage my time.
Andre Thomas
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I have to say I’m guilty for 3 of the 7 things!
Julie-Tenerife
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Have you been spying on me?
Distracted
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Ugh, ya got me on 7 counts LOL After reading your post I had to run the scanner for bugs and pinhole cameras.
Seriously though, mornings are the most productive part of the day for me. I really wish my work station wasn’t in the living room right beside the television. The Food Channel really makes my mind wander. What it all actually boils down to is…you shouldn’t be writing such interesting posts 
Scott Million
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Cheers! I think I would never realized that I’m doing most of these until I saw your post. I think you really hit the nail right on the head when you to “always check your stats” when I started on my search engine marketing campaign I always tend to check it out all day, and oh, boy… I really did get some traffic. c”,)
Chuck Points
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Wow, at first I was laughing my self to tears because of the obvious sarcasm of the post, but the fact that every point you said I actually do on a regular basis.
Then to make things worse (but also made me feel a little better about myself). I started scrolling through the comments and most of them were from people thinking the same thing as me.
Thank you for such a great post. I am going to have to bookmark this one for future…. reference
germansexmovie
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What I shall do is to send you both a write up on how I made use of your advise over a period of time.
helltube
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But the simple fact is that this is a very tough niche to get into
Scentsy
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I am the wants to do 15 things at a time kind of person lol. I have to stop myself and finish what I am doing before I move on sometimes it is extremely hard to do.