Procrastination effects 98.66% of people. No seriously I just made that up but I’m sure many of us suffer from it and I’d be confident enough to say the majority of us do. I do and am not ashamed to say it. I am the king of leaving things to the last minute and every time I do it leads to disaster. Yet whenever I get on top of things early, my life improves ten fold however this doesn’t stop me getting back into the procrastinating swing of things.

There are many reasons as to why we procrastinate. It’s an excuse, an excuse to ourselves to avoid failure, to avoid a fear or to avoid doing things we don’t like. If you don’t do it now, then maybe you won’t fail now so put the stress off to another time. Sounds silly but we aren’t always rational and logical. Is a Task vs Time thing (I will explain this a little later) where you don’t want to spend your time doing a boring task.

I can be known to procrastinate when it comes to cold calling however when I remove this fear of rejection and just get on the phone it’s not so bad. I think to myself “that’s not so bad”, and commit to not putting it off tomorrow either and promise myself to start first thing in the morning. Morning comes and I’m checking every email account I have ever set up, praying a friend of mine is online for a Facebook chat or simply doing ‘easier’ tasks.

I’m getting better though because I have found a few personal methods that have helped me to overcome the difficulties of my procrastination. When I follow these steps my procrastination disappears yet the key is to be persistent and use these methods regularly until it’s second nature.

Do something related - It does not have to be starting the task. Just do something related to it. If you need to start cold calling, get on the phone and pay a bill. Get on the phone and book your massage that you will receive after you finish your task. Need to write a blog post? Then reply to a few posts. Add a comment on a forum. Need to go to the gym? Put on your shoes. The aim is to get into the starting mood where starting is only a tiny (mental) step. If you need to start making some cold calls and your on Twitter “networking” then the process of getting the phone, looking up a prospective client, dialing the number, waiting nervously for someone to answer the phone (almost hoping no one does), then start rapping your heart out seems daunting. So you never start. On the flip side, if your on the phone already, making calls, hearing ring tones, speaking to people the step isn’t really that big. Same goes for writers, your not going to find it easy to start if your on the phone or watching Youtube videos. Get writing something. Start the process and slowly bring your mind up to speed. It’s all a mental shift. Deep down we know picking up a phone and calling takes about 8 seconds but mentally if your not in the right state of mind, the thought of those 8 seconds can be unbearable.  Procrastination is a mental thing so it requires a change in your mindset. Doing something related will hopefully lead to my second point.

Time Blocks and Task vs Time- Set yourself time goals (again make sure they are unrealistic) and work for these time blocks only. I found a good time block to use is an hour, but you can vary that. After ever time block of 1 hr reward yourself with things you love to do. Procrastination occurs when there is a compromise between doing the things you like to do and doing the things you have to do and I refer to this as Task vs Time. This is the relationship between the limited time you have and the time that it will take to complete the task you really don’t want to do.  Get on Youtube or Facebook for 20 minutes after every time block then start the next time block. This reward will reduce the effect of task vs time as you still are able to do the things you love to do and still work on your task.

Ambitious Goals – Set yourself ambitious almost unrealistic goals. If the task you are about to undertake will take 6 hours set yourself a goal to finish it within 1hr. This is a mental mind shift. There is a strong element of time here. If you think you need to do a 6 hour task then that is 6 hours of your day, 6 hours of your life that you will need to forgo doing this task. Therefore you associate that task with being a waste of your valuable time and gather disdain towards doing it and ultimately you will put it off. So set yourself a really ambitious goal. Say that you are going to complete the task in 1hr. Got 100 phone calls to make? Try to do it in 1hr… and charge. Need to write a 4000 word blog post, 1 hr… and charge. This does a few things. It tells you before starting that you will only be working for 1hr. Not so much time wasted. Secondly by working feverishly and intensely you will develop a rhythm which will help break through the wasted time mentality barrier. This brings us to:

Flow – Using the above technique will get you into a flow and this flow is a fantastic tool to target reverberating procrastination effects. Putting yourself into a zone will allow you to block out distractions and focus on the task at hand. The key is to run with it. If your writing just put down whatever comes to mind. Ignore mistakes. Ignore the fact you might ramble and just get into a zone and write. Making phone calls? As soon as you hang up dial the next number. Make it flow. Don’t stop until you have completed your time block.

Getting Started – You might be wondering why this isn’t first on my list. You hear it everywhere, getting started is the hardest part and no matter how many times you hear it, it’s importance simply can never be put into words. So I won’t try. If you can get started then you simply don’t need help in dealing with procrastination, your already there. Instead I thought I’d rather give ideas that would lead to and make getting started easier by changing your mind set. Doing something related, the first point, is aimed to guide you to making the first step which is to get started. The other points are designed to get you deeper into the anti-procrastination mind set and make is easier to get started. The thing is that whatever advice you get about procrastination it’s all to do with leading you to get to this point, getting started. If you can master this then you’ll never have to worry about procrastination again.

I talked about the subject of jumping in the deep end and how immersing yourself enables you to understand a product or service quickly and easily compared to merely trying to understand it.

I did briefly mention my attempt to explain Twitter and my consequent failure. I just wanted to talk a little bit more about Twitter and the effect immersing myself in it has had. I’m not talking about the effect it has had on a profitable level or whether it’s an effective tool or not, I am yet to determine this. I am talking about the effect it has had which is more subtle than direct results however much more significant than that too.

After I began using Twitter I became much more perceptive to any mention of Twitter. Previously I would not concern myself with articles or stories about Twitter so therefore I would barely notice them. As my knowledge improved my awareness increased exponentially and now I see information about Twitter everywhere! How can you miss it? It’s growing at a yearly rate of 1382%! I can’t browse any blog or news site without seeing the mention of Twitter. This was never the case previously as I subconsciously tuned out whenever Twitter was mentioned and it remained relatively unnoticed.

What does this mean? Who cares? Why should you spend 2 minutes reading such a rubbish insight? Well I want to point out that this article is not about Twitter. It’s about knowledge and understanding and the paths and opportunities they can open. I have used Twitter as a metaphor to anything that you have neglected to understand. The more knowledge you possess the more you will become consciously aware and the more opportunities will come your way. Try new things, learn new concepts and open new doors. You never know what you might be missing.

(oh and by the way feel free to ad me on Twitter: http://twitter.com/bakhos)

Just quickly, have you ever tried to explain to someone the concept of Facebook? Sound like an easy task? Well my challenge to you is to visit anyone over the age of 70 and try to explain the concept. Reddit? Digg? Twitter? (the inspiration behind this short post after trying to explain the ‘Twitter’ concept… and failed)

I remember my first attempt to understand blogging. It took me an age to figure out what a Blog actually was. Was it a website? A type of small blob like widget? What’s a widget? No matter how many times someone tried to explain the ‘blog’ concept, it never really registered. That was until I downloaded Wordpress and set one up. It became clear and wasn’t as confusing as my head made it out to be. I swam.

Setting up a company is really difficult… until you actually do it. It’s simply a piece of paper stating that you are officially a big scary company. Not much more than that. I don’t feel so scary.

There are many things in life and in business which make very little sense until you take the plunge and jump in. I am a strong believer that if you don’t jump in the deep end, you’ll never really learn how to swim. Why? Because you will play it too safe. Force yourself to learn and you will.

People fear failure and that’s perfectly understandable. What stops people going into business for themselves? Most commonly, it’s the risk of not having a steady income which to them is a bi-product of failing. So it’s safe to assume that there is always an element of fear of failure which turns people off chasing their dream.

I like failure and I get excited about big flops. I love set backs and obstacles that present themselves and really enjoy losing a lot of money.

Well the previous sentence may not be entirely true but there is an element of truth to it. Every entrepreneur tackles a certain business or project with the aim of succeeding and inevitably if you don’t succeed you may get a bit bummed out. However what you also must (try to) remember is that to every action there is an equal and opposite reaction (Newton’s law). Even better, when applied to the business world it should read “for every action there is an equal or greater reaction”. If you take one step backwards it will usually be superseded by 1, possibly 2 or 3 steps forward. The key is to embrace this powerful concept. When something goes wrong sit back and think about what this failure is trying to tell you. Remember that with your failure there will come a greater benefit in the future.

This brings me to my next question: why would you want small failures? What’s the point of thinking small and losing small? The key is to think BIG. Put yourself out there and if your going to fail, make sure it is BIG. With BIG (preferably Public!) failures will come even BIGGER rewards. The best businessmen understand how to think big and many along the way have also lost big. During these tough times they have been able to bounce back, not just breaking even but launching themselves into their next level of business success.

The problem with small successes and small failures is that they keep you complacent. Limiting yourself to making small gains is the catalyst to settling with what you have. You have not lost much so who cares? Big failures force you to learn, understand and analyse to ensuring your next move is wiser, better and more effective. If your stuck with insignificant small gains and small losses then that will define your business life and it will be just that, insignificant. No one will really notice your losses and no one is going to notice your gains. I know your not this type of person, why else would you be reading this?

The aim here is not to get you to go out and try to fail or lose a lot of money but rather to help you understand that failing is something that should be embraced rather than frowned upon. It makes you stronger and wiser. Take sport as a great example. If you play a sport the only way you’ll improve is to play people better than you and who will beat you. Your failures and losses will point out the areas where you need to improve so you can come back better and stronger until you eventually can win. The you go up another level and start the process again. Playing people far lesser skilled than you does nothing for your skills and you will miss out on the chance to improve your abilities. This is no different in your business life. Set yourself up to play with the big boys and play tough but fair. You will lose and fail along the way, but it will make you stronger and the rewards will be greater.

Looking back at my own experiences I am always been able to find a positive to come out of every negative. Each of these positives have far outweighed any losses initially incurred. In my mobile business I initially paid upwards of $10,000 per mobile application and this left me and my company financially debilitated. Now I manage to get it done for under $1000 which is a massive saving. It enables me to create 10 applications for the cost it used to cost me to make just 1. This was mainly due to being forced back and challenged to find opportunities which provided greater value. This was done without me even acknowledging it and it was only in hindsight that I realised that I overcome that obstacle, ten-fold. I learnt from my negative experiences in outsourcing which cost me many thousands of dollars in programming as well as cost in time. What I learned from these failures has enabled me to increase efficiency far beyond any monetary loss that I once thought was wasted.

What to take note in these examples is that if I didn’t lose I’d still be in the same situation.If I had won a little then why would I change? What would tell me there was a much better way to do things? Nothing. Use your failures to your advantage and remind yourself that big failures manifest into even bigger returns, you only just need to embrace it.

How much do you want to make this year? $50,000? $100,000? $500,000? $1,000,000? Whatever it may be you get to some point where it just doesn’t seem achievable. It seems too hard, too out there and too big of a number for little you to fathom. Well that’s the first and most important step to not reaching your financial goals, believing you won’t. What if the goal seems so far fetched, so hard to believe that you feel your only kidding yourself when you set yourself the target?

The reason it feels so overwhelming is that your focusing too much on the bigger picture, that big number which right now, is just a little bit too big. I believe it is vitally important to focus on the bigger picture and set yourself a target but there is something you can do that will make this goal much easier to get your head around. Break it down.

Thinking of big numbers can get overwhelming so try thinking about little numbers, little numbers that make up your big number. You often hear people discuss what they need to earn monthly to achieve their desired level of income or that target financial goal. I think a month is way too long and that number in itself can get a little too big for comfort. Want a million bucks? Well get prepared to set yourself a target of over $80,000 per month and that’s a lot of cash. Then financial vertigo kicks in and you revise that number down to $10,000… no actually make that $5,000.. ah that’s better.

Well before you start culling your dreams try breaking it down a little more. I mean right down, not per week or day, even per hour. Go right down to the moment, try breaking it down per second. To make a million dollars a year it will require you to make about 3.17c per second. Wouldn’t you say this is much easier to imagine that saying you need to make $100,000 per month? With today’s automated business systems it’s quite standard to set up a revenue stream 24hrs per day so that part is not really a big deal.

For example, If you have a website where revenue is generated through Adsense ads or similar, try to imagine a visitor clicking every 5-6 seconds (15cents per click roughly?). Aim for those clicks, not the monthly $100,000 or yearly million. Bring it right down to basics and immediately the task ahead won’t seem so daunting, shifting your mindset from being totally overwhelmed to saying “hang on, that’s not so bad”. Even 1c per second which is about 1 click every 10-15 seconds equates to $864 per day, $25,920 per month or $315,360 per year. That’s only 1c per second or a click every 15 seconds or so. If you get a click every few minutes then it’s not so hard to imagine building the traffic to eventually hitting your broken down goal.

This can be used for any business. If you sell ice-cream. Sit down and work out the profit margin for each ice-cream sold. Set yourself your yearly or monthly profit target then break it down. How many ice-creams do you need to sell per hour? Once you have worked that out it may seem a little easier to build a marketing strategy and business model to support your broken down target.

Remember what your are doing here is shifting your mindset and taking a different perspective of your desired outcome to tell yourself it is achievable. This will lead to the genuine belief that it can be done and that’s the biggest step you can take towards achieving any goal.

Today the world is shrinking. We are becoming so intimate with those around us that pulling a face may be spotted in Bulgaria. Outsourcing is now big business and the most successful entrepreneurs understand the positives of outsourcing and anyone looking to get into business simply can’t overlook the benefits.

I have used plenty of outsourced freelancers and some experiences have been great and other had been disasters. Today I have a good understanding on when to outsource, who to outsource to and how to manage it. So I thought I would share my top 5 tips to make sure you get the most out of it.

1. Low Level – I personally wouldn’t recommend using outsourcing for value added tasks if you have not developed any prior relationship with the freelancer. If the project is a direct influence on value added for your clients or consumers then I’d keep it local. The reason for this is that when it comes to value, you always need to be accountable, now. When something urgently needs to be changed it is very difficult to jump back to your freelancer who is 8 hrs behind and say “hey, please change”. It might not matter if the project is relatively low level however playing with your value offering and not being accountable in a timely and efficient manner can be detrimental to your business. Go back to the 80-20 principle and outsource the 80… not the 20.
2. Geography - The word on the street is that if your going to outsource, to get the best value you need to head to China or India. I disagree. China and India are becoming more accustomed to people requiring freelance labor from the US, UK, Australia and Western Europe. Freelances in these two traditional outsourcing nations are now taking advantage of the fact that even if they triple their fees their clients still believe they are getting great value. When in reality, they are asking 3x the price for the same average quality. The emerging nations in outsourcing are coming from the Eastern European block as well as my favorite, South America. The reason I would recommend these regions is because they provide excellent value. They may not be the cheapest, which should never be the aim, but I believe these nations provide the best value. Value when it comes to outsourcing means less back and forth and more time your new project or development can spend bringing back a return. If you have spent 30% less yet had it completed 1 week later, how much was that week worth to you? Probably more than that 30%.
3. Secret deadlines - You need to remember that freelancers will do what it takes to get the job. Unfortunately this also means they will give you unachievable deadlines for project completion just to get the deal. You can never underestimate this so factor in a 150% deadline margin. 150%!?!?! Yes 150% (like how I read your mind there?). If you want a project completed for use in 2 weeks (this is your secret deadline), give the programmer a deadline of about 5 days and it may be done in time for your (secret) deadline. I once had a job that needed to be competed in 30 days and it was done in 90 days. This cost me time, money as well as reduced the perceived value from my client. I also have another designer I use for web banner designs and presentation designs etc who I factor in a 400-500% deadline delay margin for. He does a fantastic job but never meets a deadline so I just factor it in and never have any more issues.
4. Stick to the systems – There are many current online outsourcing facilitators such as elance.com, ifreelance and guru.com (among many others) and they have procedures in place to ensure safety and assurance for both the freelancer as well as you the buyer. These include measures such as using escrow, safe payment methods and arbitration services if your not happy with the job. Most importantly the freelancers and the buyer rate each other at the completion of the project. Freelancers consider this as one of the most important marketing tools available to them. A bad reference means a loss of business. This is good for the buyer as there is a level of commitment from the programmer to get a good job done within the deadline. You need to beware of a programmer trying to do work off the sites and going privately through email or Skype. The primary reason they will do this is to avoid paying commission fees to the facilitator but this also can enable them to slack off as they are no longer made accountable for their work. Doing this is a sure fire way for your deadlines to be missed (Im talking about the ’secret’ deadlines!) and crappy work to be submitted. Resist the temptation of working off the structured sites, even if the freelancer give you a better rate. Remember the above example of my programmer taking 90 days instead of 30, well this is how it happened.
5. Work History - Always read through a freelancers history and ask for previous work. Resist the temptation to go for the cheapest price straight away as the quality may reflect what you paid for it. This is pretty basic common sense but extremely vital to get the best out of outsourcing. However I do have a trick that I use which I will share so don’t dismiss the ridiculously cheap ones just yet. Using the main freelancer websites, put up a job offering for a very low level task such as data entry or CMS content submissions. You will most likely get many offers for these jobs and some very cheap deals. For the uber cheap deals, have a look at their history and when they joined the site. If they have no history and have just become a site member, it may mean that they are trying to build up a reputation and will work for next to nothing just so that they have some feedback to display. Think of Ebay sellers who buy $1 ear plugs to get their feedback levels up so that they can be taken more seriously to start selling. The best bargains are in this market as they will do high quality work for cheap in return for your positive feedback. There are always people like this and they can represent the best bargains. If its a low level task you have very little to lose and you never know, you may just find yourself another gun freelancer.

I hope these tips help. As the world continually gets smaller outsourcing will only continue to boom and by giving yourself the best possible understanding you can prepare yourself to enjoy benefits and of course, avoid the pitfalls.

Hunched over, your head drops down, focusing your glare into the floor. What now? Why do I bother? That gym workout isn’t happening today. That block of chocolate isn’t that big, I’ll give it a go. What’s faster a rabbit or a hamster? I’ll Google it.

Everyone goes through a time when it all gets a bit too much, entrepreneurs even more so. Its the life of uncertainty and challenge which gets us excited to wake up every morning but they are the exact same reasons that makes us wonder whether it’s worth continuing. The high and lows of an entrepreneurs life is the definition of contrast, an absolute canyon, an unfathomable warp of time and space from the highs to the lows. It’s a wild ride that works your emotions and nerve like nothing else and as quickly as you shout for joy it can break you, then hit you while your down, several times.

So what do you do when the times are really tough and your body and mind goes into shut down mode? First, you must realise and probably already know, that everyone goes through this. A great inspirational video and article is on Neil Patel’s blog. I’d love to say there is an answer but it’s not that easy, however I will discuss a process based on what works for me and hopefully it may see you through a few more days and help you work through your rough patch. You never know, it may be just enough time for the cycle to start getting things flowing back your way.

Act Negative – What? Yes really, act negative. Take yourself down. There is no point being in a half-hearted mindset. If your stuck feeling 50% and it’s been like that for a while it’s very hard to rocket up to 80-90% in no time. It’s all about momentum. Your stuck in the middle of a hill and that up hill battle is just too steep to gain momentum if your starting from a standstill. You need a running start. Think of it as if you were riding a bike and you see a large hill up ahead. The best way to tackle it is you gather up speed before the hill starts and then ride your momentum up the hill. If you stuck at 50% it’s like getting halfway up the hill, stopping, then trying to get up the rest of the way from standstill. It’s too hard and long of a slog. So when I say act negative what I mean is bring yourself down a bit, to about a nice flat 20%.

How do you bring yourself down to a 20%? Stop your half hearted work. Stop writing another boring blog post. Take a day off and spend it in bed. Don’t shave. Stay in your pyjamas. Don’t do your hair. Sleep in. Don’t go to the gym. Eat McDonald’s three times in the day. Drink normal Coke (non-diet Coke – imagine!!). Have carbs at night. Just for a day or two.

It’s possible that you may be thinking that this is the worst advice ever but what your trying to do by acting negative is consciously and deliberately bring yourself down to a 20%. This is the nice flat section your on before the climb up the hill. Now once your in a pretty downtrodden state set yourself a day when you will charge up that hill and get ready to gather momentum.

How do you gain your momentum? Wake up early. Get some sun (Vitamin D – feels good). Go for a run. Take the dog for a walk. Drink Water. Get a hair-cut. Shave. Dress beautifully. Eat great food. Start Fresh.

The aim here is to do many positive things and build your momentum up. Think of each positive activity as a +1 and the more your do, the more momentum you will gather to break you past that 50% you were stuck in for so long. Then once you get back to your work the momentum will help get you past your boring stalemate. Ideas will come rushing and the energy and drive will flow easier as long as you maintain and use your momentum.

Notice I never state to think negatively. Thinking negative is the root to gaining momentum in the other direction, getting you from 50% down to 10% in no time. Negative thoughts are carcinogenic. Negative thoughts fester, multiply and embed themselves deep and are difficult to overcome. Bringing yourself down should not involve negative thoughts in any way. If you start thinking negative openly tell yourself positive things and if that doesn’t work, watch Seinfeld.

This is not something I recommend every time something goes wrong, that would be ridiculous but rather something that can be used to target a period of frustration and seemingly nothingness. Usually it’s a matter of sucking it up and charging forward but sometimes that just won’t work and may even lead to more minor failures resulting in further negative momentum. Acting negative and doing it superficially can be used in order to give yourself an opportunity to build momentum and break through the ceiling that at one stage made you wonder whether it was all just a bit too much.