Being a marketer who works from home, there tends to be a lot of distraction. It’s not what you think. The distraction comes not from working at home, it comes from having my radar on for the latest and greatest.
Yes, I like staying on the cutting edge of my business. You probably do too. Information in the 21st century is so abundant that it’s difficult to sift through the stuff that actually help and the crap that doesn’t.
“It’s a huge time waster. You tend to develop what’s called The Shiny New Object Syndrome.”
You know what I mean, right? Something new and shiny comes along right when you’re in the middle of a project. What happens is you drop the project you’re working on because you’re distracted with this new thing. Then you think to yourself, “whoa, this is cool. I’ll do this and spend money on this, and do this, and do all these cool things. My project can wait.”
What ends up happening is that you jump from one new thing to the next, leaving many projects and opportunities incomplete and unrealized. I’ve been guilty of this too.
Plus, there’s a lot of other distractions that hamper productivity. Facebook? YouTube? You get my drift? Uh-huh…
So how does one stay on course and complete what you’ve started? The answer may be obvious, but the implementation is what makes ALL the difference. How about a web-based “To Do List?”
Why a web-based To Do List? Well, what’s the first thing most of us do when we turn our computers on? Open a web browser!
In this great information age, when we hop on our computers, we don’t normally open a separate application to see our To Do List, we open a web browser to see what’s happening in the world. It could be to read the news, go on Facebook, Google+, Yahoo!, YouTube, look at pictures, or your visit your favorite sites and read regularly visited blogs.
What I did was I signed-up for a free account at TaDaList.com where I edit my To Do List. But here’s the trick: MAKE YOUR TO DO LIST YOUR DEFAULT HOME PAGE.
What happens is when you open a web browser with the mind to do something unproductive, your web browser shows you your To Do List! Genius, huh? <sarcasm>
This is an awesome way to keep yourself on track and completing tasks. TaDaList allows you to share your To Do List with anyone. You can choose to let others edit it or limit them to just reading it. It’s a powerful tool and is particularly useful to share when working with someone. Did I mention it’s FREE?
If you work with a team, BaseCampHQ.com is a more professional grade tool. Their lists have awesome functionalities and allows you and your team to leave notes and messages for each other, and lets each of you check off completed tasks. This is especially critical if your team members are located in different time zones or work different hours from you.
The company behind these two brands, TaDaList.com and BaseCampHQ.com is 37Signals.com and they have done a fabulous job creating productivity tools that keep you and your team on track.
Now go be productive and check out these totally awesome tools. 🙂
