Read this list below and tell me if you are doing any of these things?
1) Try to accomplish to many things at once
2) Dont stick with something long term
3) Change your focus too often
4) Not carving out time to accomplish goals
5) Are not realistic about time frames around projects
6) Not looking at projects to see if they are a long term fit
7) Wanting to jump in on a growing trend with out researching the effort behind it
8) Not Giving your self enough time to fail
9) Not building a “business plan” aka researching the project to see what it will take to be successful
10) Unwilling to cut out other items to let your project flourish
Did any of the items above stand out to you? This is a just a small list of why we fail and don’t gain traction when starting a project. Its been a bit of my pet project for 2014 in my effort to be more successful. (Which is a bit of a oxymoron, since qualifying success is a very personal achievement)
I have talked about in past blog post that you need more money and this requires changing you thinking and life a bit to get that side hustle going. But what happens when you have changed your life, picked your side project, spent good money for things like licenses and such, and nothing is happening?
[tweet bird=”yes”]Your not getting any traction and dont know why? [/tweet]
I would like to let you in on a little secret that successful people know. And this is something that I am starting to make part of my daily practice.
[tweet bird=”yes”]Successful people reduce their obligations and block out distractions to get stuff done. [/tweet]
This is one of the biggest things you can do to go from not making any traction to getting stuff done. Most of the time we are failing because we are adding another item to our plate. When in reality you may not have enough time to begin with, and adding a new item to your plate is not going to be an effective way to get any traction. What ever the scenario is there is almost always something that can be cut out to make room for your project.I was recently talking to my dad about this and Let me walk you though a bit of our conversation.
This conversation was sparked because he was feeling like he wasn’t making any traction. So we went about listing all the “non negotiable” items that were on his plate. Then we started assigning hours required to each item above. Needless to say he realized very quickly that his “hours” per project exceeded what was realistically available for the week.
Dads Obligations
- Work (includes out of state travel)
- Family Time
- Rental House
- PMP Certification Course
- ACN Business (Direct Sales Company)
- Bird Dogging (looking at deals for rental houses)
- His own remodeling for the house he lives in
- Reducing the amount of items in my parents house (getting rid of clutter)
- Alternating weekend yard sales
- Networking Meetings
- ect… (you get the point)
I pointed out to him that he would have to reduce some of the obligations listed above if he hoped to get anything accomplished this year. I went into detail to explain that working 40+ hours a week and studying for the PMP certification alone are huge time requirements, and this is not including the other projects on his list.
But of course he was concerned because he had committed to a lot of the items above and spent money on those commitments, and in some aspects a lot of money to have that commitment and didn’t know a way out. There also was the obligation to complete his PMP because of his job and the training that they were providing to project managers within his company. This was definitely something that he has to pass and cant just “quit”. But you get the point.
I ended up revising his list to make it a bit more manageable so that he could accomplish this on his list but to only add a new item once an old item had been completed.
Revised List
- Work (includes out of state travel)
- Family Time
- Rental House
- PMI Certification Course
- ACN Business (Direct Sales Company)
- Reducing the amount of items in my parents house (getting rid of clutter) by Alternating weekend yard sales
- Networking Meetings
Is this still a lot of things to see on his plate? I definitely think so and once the PMP certification is completed it looks like a more manageable list. With the fact that there were some obligations that he could not get out of because of work or money spent that included contracts. So Instead this means re organizing his schedule to something closer to the sample below.
| Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Saturday | Sunday |
| Work | Work | Work | Work | Work | Yard Sale | Study for PMP |
| Study for PMP | Networking Event | Study for PMP | Study for PMP | Study for PMP | ACN Selling | Family Time |
| Prep for Yard Sale |
This is by no means a perfect schedule. But it is a start. The main point is to look at your own schedule and see what items you can take off your plate. Can you siginificant other take care of something for you? Can you back out of a recurring meeting and replace it with your side hustle? This is where people tell you to quit watching TV or give something else up and magically you will have all this extra time. In the real world it doesnt work. There are still going to be dinner to cook, bills to pay and quality time to spend with family. I am suggesting that we look at the items on out plate and focus on things that will move us forward. This especially includes spending time with family. Still stuck on what to cut? Write down your list and run it by your spouse or best friend. Tell them what you are trying to accomplish and what the time frame is. I bet you that they will be able to cut a few things out of your schedule and give you plenty of reasons as to why it needs to be off your plate. This is also a great opportunity to negotiate as to what you think is important (aka the side hustle) and explain to someone outside of your inner monologue as to how you are going to get there. They may see a gap or be able to give you feed back that will save you tons of time.
This may not be an easy conversation and can even bring up deeper emotions. When Ben and I had this priorities list i ended up crying, because I was trying to force a side hustle to fit this image that I missed and want to turn back into, not because I was so passionate about my work that I couldn’t help but talk about it. It brought up a whole can of worms that I never expected and gave us an opportunity to talk about a bunch of different things that dont normally happen on a Thursday night. It wasn’t easy for my ego but worth every minute of it.
I hope that you can have this discussion as well. Tell me in the comments below what you are cutting off your list to get things done.
Here is mine:
Fighting to cook dinner every night, when take out will do.
Feeling obligated to take care of everything in the house hold.
consolidating my side hustle to one project at a time and only taking new projects on once published.
Feeling that I do not deserve a night of me time because X house hold thing is not completed yet.
