The Butler Project

Money. It’s everywhere. For good or for bad, it’s all over; and everybody needs it just about everyday.

I didn’t think we’d be talking money last week when I went to The Police concert, but it showed up again. Just before performing “Don’t stand so Close to Me,” Sting turned to the audience and told us, “I used to be a school teacher. I had a mortgage, a pension plan . . . .” Then he looked around and asked, “What happened to me?!” The crowd went wild; it was a fantastic concert.

So what did happen to Sting? Before he was Sting, Gordon Mathew Thomas Sumner was just a school teacher who loved making music. He played anywhere and everywhere he could. Eventually he joined up with Stuwart Copeland and Andy Summers to form The Police. The rest is rock and roll history.

But the history of The Police is not the important thing here, rather, it’s the fact that these three guys who love making music are still doing it 30 years later, and still, from the looks of it, loving their “jobs.” Judging from the cost of our tickets, they’re making pretty good money too.

Do you wonder how it would feel to make money doing something you love? Are you stuck trying to figure out how to do it? Check out this article from Steve Pavlina, he calls it “love money,” and he has some great ideas on how to bring it into your life.

Jim started his first pest control company 16 years ago. It’s worth many millions of dollars today. But what looks like a well oiled money machine now wasn’t always that way.

Mark: So, can you tell me a little bit about what have been some of the major setbacks that you’ve experienced?

Jim: That is a pretty broad question … Biggest setbacks are usually the ones that you don’t foresee … I had a still born son that was born the summer I started my first pest control company

Mark: Wow

Jim: That was a tough thing. All of our pregnancies with my wife and I have been very, very, very, very tough… And so in this particular instance, we were a new company. It was a new pest control company, so we were doing primarily ALL of the billing, MOST of the technician work, ALL of the selling. We hadn’t even really brought on employees yet. And so, to be able to handle the grief load that my wife and I were experiencing … and then to plan for a funeral, to be there for my kids…

The morning of the funeral, I was servicing homes; the day before the funeral, the day after … the afternoon when my son died, I was servicing homes. And I didn’t WANT to do that and my wife didn’t WANT me to do that; it wasn’t fun. And there were definitely some feelings of guilt associated with it, but that’s what had to be done.

That same summer, there was a week where my [partner's] father became deathly ill in the hospital, and my brother became deathly ill in the hospital; it looked like both of them would die. And so we had to say, “Ok, well, which one of us gets to take a week to go be with our dying loved ones?” We literally called their doctors and said, “What’s the likelihood of death?” And the one who had the highest likelihood of death from the doctor, and it was close, got to go be with their loved one. And it ended up being a good choice. My partner went to be with his father who died within the next 5 or 6 days.

That wasn’t fun. I mean, I certainly wanted to go be with family, but over time, [I've discovered] if you go ask people who’ve started businesses that failed, and you say, “What happened that made your business fail?” Well generally they’re going to always tell you things that they didn’t forsee from the beginning. Things like my my story: I had a still born son. Some terrible disease happened to my wife or, you know, my partner and I, on the same day, had family members close to death, and this was at the inception of our business, and so you know, we had to take care of our family. And people would say, That’s an honorable thing; it’s honorable that you were there to be with your family.

And that is honorable, but if you [ask people who have successfully started businesses] “What was the hardest part about making that business successful?” … Well, the answer is the fact that life continues to go on, the bad and the good and all of it happens while you’re starting a business; you don’t do it in a vacuum.

And so, generally the people whose businesses are successful found ways to overcome and found solutions and the strength of will to overcome the problems that the other people couldn’t. And really … as far as I’m concerned, that’s where the rubber meets the road when it comes to being successful in entrepreneurialism. I’m not saying that you ignore your family when there’s hardships, but you find a way to balance and to persevere. if you think you’re going to go start a business and you’re gonna go a three year stretch of your life while you’re trying to get it going without having major family catastrophes or major things happen in the world like war or a recession, then if you haven’t planned and can’t account for that in the beginning, then you’ve already planned to fail before you’ve even started.

Ever wished you were “creative?” Or “a natural?” Longed for the word “genius” to be used to describe your actions? Well, the realization of your dreams may be just around the corner if your mind is set the right way. This is according to Stanford Psychologist Carole Dweck who conducts her research in personal, social, and developmental psychology.

In her new book, Mindset: The New Psychology of Success, Ms. Dweck suggests a “growth mindset,” one that welcomes challenge, change, and accepts mistakes as part of the learning process is the path to success in many areas of our lives including relationships, parenting, and work.

If you’re reading this blog, you are probably already geared for growth, but encouragingly, Ms. Dweck has found you can nurture and increase your tendencies towards growth, learning from your mistakes, and embracing change.

I encourage you to read more about the growth mindset.

Clipart from Clipartheaven.com

Here’s a snippet of Mark’s conversation with Jim, multi-millionaire business owner, and super charged entrepreneur.

Mark: A friend of mine who is himself already a millionaire said if he could ask a lot of financially successful people one question it would be, “What single attribute do you possess that has contributed most to your success?”

Jim: Are you asking me that question?

Mark: I am.

Jim: Ok, what single attribute do I possess that I think’s most contributed to my success? … I’m going to focus on two.

[Emily: But I'm only going to cover one of those in this post today.]

Mark: Great.

Jim: I’ve kind of said this before, but one of them is that I think that I look at the world for the way it is, not the way I wish it was. But I have the vision to be able to see how I want it to be and what I would like it to be. When we look at ourselves and analyze our behavior, and say, “You know what, I’m a millionaire in embryo, with the behavior of a garbage collector.”

[Editors' note: we don't believe Jim was referring here to employed, hard working, and very necessary garbage collectors. Based on the context of his whole interview, we believe he was referring to the stereotypical lazy person and threw in garbage as a negative emphasis. We love and appreciate our garbage collectors!]

I think it’s important that every job that you have or everywhere you go, [maybe] it’s school, you’re able to be honest with yourself, about your behavior and about the circumstances and where you are. I think when you’re interviewing or meeting with people, as you look as business plans, just as you interact in the world, (even in family relationships,) be honest enough to look at your relationships and look at the world around you and try to see it through objective goggles, and accept things for the way they are.

I mean, imagine where we would be if the world and the banking [industry] would have been able to look at what should have been very clear and [see] all the sub prime loans that we were making, [and] what would happen when those interest rates reset… They were loaning money to people that they knew in the future wouldn’t be able to pay those loans back. So you have these large hedge funds and other people funding those loans and buying them, and why are they buying them? Because they refuse to look at the reality of what the world really is. They get caught up in the hype!

And I’m saying this can happen in relationships where we don’t understand what our children are doing or what they’re up to or we don’t understand our own behaviors just in general, in anything we do. Objectively look at the world for what it is in an honest way. That’s a good place to start. And I won’t be specific how I finally did that in my own industry, but I think that I made a lot of my strategic business decisions, even starting with the sales training that I had at the beginning, saying, what we’re doing doesn’t work, so why [do] the same things that don’t work? Here’s the objective honest look; we need to find another way.

The Butler Story

Back when we Butlers (there are 4 of us siblings) first decided to go into business together, we started out with a model that was basically gaming the system. We were smart enough to figure out where the money was online and how to get to it without providing any real value. We made a lot of money in a very short time (all legally, mind you) and without a whole lot of work. It was exciting. It was exilherating, and we made big plans for quitting our jobs and taking exotic trips in the near future.

That first business model was really a flash in the pan and when the cash flow dried up, we agreed we wanted a more sustainable and fulfilling business model. That’s when we turned to ecommerce and started selling trailer hitch covers.

We set some pretty lofty goals for ourselves, most of them leading directly to the aforementioned quitting our jobs and taking extended vacations. One of our brothers did in fact quit his job, and made the family business his sole income.

Well, that was all fine and good except that none of us had looked objectively at the situation nor had we developed the habits necessary to be full time entrepreneurs. We had meetings, we set goals, we accepted tasks with deadlines. And then we watched TV, went surfing, played golf, went to the movies, stayed up late, read novels, spent hours on digg, took the kids swimming, watched some more TV, and basically did everything but work on our business with commitment and discipline. We were “millionaires in embryo with garbage collector habits.”

How has that worked out, you wonder? Well, our brother Peter, who quit his job, had to go back to work. The income goals we planned to reach after 4 months weren’t realized until 19 months into the business. We also had to face the sad fact that our site wouldn’t be supporting the family any time soon.

But, after looking how things really were, making changes, and putting in a lot of hard work, things are looking up. In fact, we’re about to hire our first employee. More importantly we’ve learned A LOT on our entrepreneurial journey. Mark quit his job a few months ago and is supported by another business he started. Peter is quitting his job today and will live on the income he now makes freelancing. And bonus: we’re taking a fabulous vacation in a few weeks, all expenses paid by Trailer Hitch Universe (our ecommerce site).

Are we still “millionaires in embryo?” Yes. Do we still have “garbage collector habits?” Yes; sometimes more than others. But we’re improving our productivity every week and looking at things objectively and honestly. As we evaluate future plans and goals, we do so with an awareness of our individual strengths and weaknessess and real life circumstances.

Last week I was pretty jacked up about a new business idea I was working on. I need to make some more money and this seemed perfect for me: an internet based business in a field I have been involved in (off line) for the last 12 years that would probably cost less than $500 to start.

Not wanting another experience like that I had with vending machines, I checked and rechecked myself, did I really have the three things every entrepreneur needs?

• Money? Check. I can handle $500.
• Mentor? Check. Like I said, I’ve been in the business off line, and I have my brothers to turn to when I need help with the internet stuff.
• People? Check. This will be a solo operation for a while, and if it takes off, I’m confident I can hire good help. Plus I have family who will take a very active role as supporters and consultants.

Knowing I had the three essentials tied up, I started to do some more research to see if I could really make a go of this idea. Besides determining whether you have the commitment and discipline to take on the task of starting a business, it’s also important to ask yourself these questions:

Is there a market for this service?

Since I’m considering an online business, I checked online. There are a couple of services already running in my proposed field. That’s not a bad thing. In fact, I would have been really disappointed if there had been no competition; that’s a pretty good sign there’s no market either. Both of the top services I found have been around since the late 90s; another good sign–they must be making money.

Can I deliver to my customers?

To me, this question is two fold– first, can I get my customers to use my site, and second, can I give them the service I’m promising? I’m not worried about getting people to my site; there is adequate search traffic for the keywords I would target, and I know how to get listed with search engines. (Our family’s ecommerce site is ranked in the top three on Google for all of our main keywords; it can take a while, but I feel pretty confident in our system.) Additionally, since my service targets parents of school age kids, I know I could write articles for on and off line parenting publications. This would be great, positive exposure, and I know I can drive the traffic to my site.

Can I give the service I’m promising? I think there are enough people on both sides of the service looking for a way to connect, so while I’m not as confident about the answer to this question, I think I can do it.

Do I have enough money?

I know, money is one of the three essentials I already covered, but it’s important enough to look at again. Because I have experience starting a business on the web and experience in the field I’m getting into, I won’t have to hire much help. Buying a domain name and hosting for the site will cost less than $150 the first year, and I’ll do all of the content creation myself. I plan on relying on search engine rankings for the bulk of my advertising (which is free except for the work involved, which I will largely do myself). So, I don’t anticipate start up costs being over $500. In fact, I think I could do it for $250 depending on how much my brother’s technical expertise costs me.

Can I Offer Something New?

Here’s where I look again at the two sites already offering my proposed service, I’ll call them “Site A” and “Site B.” Site A is ugly. The colors are terrible; it’s poorly designed and inconvenient for the user. Additionally the fees they are charging are higher than I anticipate charging for the same services. I know I can do better on all those points. I’ve also checked into their SEO (search engine optimization–how they get noticed and ranked by Google and other search engines), and I feel confident I can match their efforts quickly, even surpass them given some time.

Site B is another story. Site B looks good. It’s well designed, easy to use, and they offer a free service in addition to two levels of paid services. Site B has a lot of users. That’s good for me; that means people have sought out this service.

Can I offer something new? I know I can improve on site A’s model. If they were the top competition, no question, I’d jump in with both feet. Site B has me thinking twice though. I’m not sure I can improve on their service. I know I can get first page rankings with the search engines pretty quickly, but with site B’s longevity, I’m not sure I could ever surpass it (rank higher in search results). If people are going there first, I don’t think they have any reason to then come to me.

I have thought of a few things I could offer my users that Site B does not. Are they strong enough to be my selling point? I don’t think so. I don’t know for sure, but I don’t think so.

So, Where Does This Leave Me?

I admit, was a little discouraged when I realized I had nothing significant to offer over Site B. I really thought this was the perfect way for me to make more money, but I’m not confident I can command the market, nor do I don’t think the market is big enough that I could share it with Site A and be profitable.

All is not lost though. In planning my business strategy, I came up with some good ideas of perks to offer my users. I still may start a smaller site, a blog perhaps, to test the demand for those items. I have signed up as a free user of Site B myself. By using their site, I may find a way into the market after all.

Finally, I am considering taking my model off line and concentrating on a smaller geographic area using more conventional advertising. I lack a mentor for that kind of business, and it may cost more money, so I’ll research it, get a better idea of what’s involved, and decide from there.

We’ve had a couple of posts featuring my interview with Nate, a technology sales executive who shared with me what it was like to be involved in the tech boom and bust. Later in the interview I asked him (as I ask all of the millionaires) what made him successful.

Mark: The thing that keeps coming up in these interviews that’s so interesting is it seems to me that attaining wealth is very often very boring, and unglamorous. Now, having wealth doesn’t seem to be boring, as I caught you in the middle of a two week heli-ski vacation, but getting wealthy…the people that I’ve talked to have said: “Be smart, hang in there for years, make smart choices and the next thing you know you’ve got something.” Has that been your experience?

Nate: Well, I got into technology in my early 20s, and I rode the wave. And I was smart enough to go where I could get stock options, you know, equity stakes, so I there have been four or five or six days in my life where the equity payoffs were, were financially very good for me (when companies went public or got acquired). I’ve just been really conservative in my approach and tried to get equity, and you don’t have to be overly smart to ride the rocket ship that has been the technology industry for the last 25 years.

I think what I’ve done is no matter what level I’ve elevated to or how much money I’ve made I’ve never forgotten that I’m just basically a lowly salesman and every single day I’ve gotta get up and work and earn my keep, which is why at 7:30pm at night I’m the only guy in the office sitting in Seattle (away from home), it’s just that basic work ethic of every day I gotta deliver, every day I’ve gotta do a good job, you know, so I can feel like I earned my keep.

Mark: And so you’ve spent 20+ years as you put it, as a lowly salesman, doing what you do. What do you think is the biggest or the single most important attribute that you have that’s contributed to your success?

Nate: It’s going to sound like a cliché but it’s 100% perspiration, 10% inspiration - or however they say it. I think it’s really just suiting up every day, reading up on technology, technology you’ve gotta stay up on. You gotta know what your competitors are doing. You’ve gotta know where the industry is moving. You’ve gotta be able to adapt and change and learn new concepts, and you’ve just gotta pick up the phone, go see a customer and stay out with them. Get them to see the benefits of your technology versus what everybody else is doing. I mean that’s ‘Sales 101′ in almost any industry – not just technology.

Mark: Well, it’s basic, but most people don’t do it. Why not?

Nate: Yeah, there are just a lot of lazy people…a lot of lazy people out there.

What I found interesting was how Nate almost downplayed his success by saying that basically any ”dummy’ would have done what he did over the last 25 years if they had been in technology sales. He’s not unusual, this kind of modesty is common in most of the millionaires I’ve talked with.

But it’s ridiculous to say that anybody would have done it, because hundreds of thousands probably started down the path about the same time he did, and they didn’t arrive where he has. That’s what is powerful about Nate’s advice: show up everyday, stick to it, grow and adapt, and you’ll reach your goal.

Since I started interviewing millionaires a few months ago I have been struck by how many of them started their career in sales. I’ve spoken to two who have started selling pest control (and subsequently achieved financial freedom owning pest control businesses), and one who started selling encyclopedias door-to-door and parlayed the income into a portfolio of rental properties that allowed him to retire at a young age.

I spoke to another who learned the furniture business as a floor salesman at a local furniture store and went on to open his own stores, which also allowed him to be permanently financially independent. One of my more recent conversations was with a man who has spent his whole career in technology sales, and although he’s never owned his own company, he’s been able to acquire and sell enough stock options with his company that he could now retire any time he felt like it.

Model the Millionaires - Learn to Sell

I believe everyone should learn to sell.

Now, I’m not talking about selling in the soft sense that you always hear: “everyone is in sales….all communication is sales…if you’re a manager you’re in sales…if you’re a parent you’re in sales…if you’re dating you’re in sales…etc.” That’s all fine and it’s true to an extent. We all have to persuade in our everyday life, and you can call that selling.

But there is a big difference between convincing your subordinates at work to complete their tasks and convincing a real life sales prospect to give you money in exchange for your product. That’s why there are millions of successful managers and millions of washed out salespeople.

Asking people to part with their hard-earned money is not easy, and the truth is they say ‘no’ the vast majority of the time. That’s why so many salespeople quit, and that’s why it pays so well. Early on I stopped caring when people said no, but that’s another post.

Here are three big benefits of becoming successful in sales:

1. Sales allows you to acquire cash much more quickly than a salaried job, and you have much greater control over your income than you would with a salary or hourly wage.

2. Sales requires you learn the some of the most important skills in business: goal setting, persistence, determination, accountability, long term perspective, and a high tolerance for rejection and frustration.

3. Success in sales gives you real flexibility in your work life, allowing you to finally be free of an office and a time clock. I know that’s one of the most cliche statements you’ll ever hear, but it also happens to be true - and thank goodness.

Sales and Entrepreneurship Go Hand In Hand

After I had been in commission only sales for about two years I talked about it with a close friend of mine who had also spent a lot of time in the sales world. He knew about my aspirations of business ownership and this is what he said:

“I’m really glad you got into sales and you became successful at it. Commission sales is the closest thing to entrepreneurship because the skill sets necessary for success are so similar. So many brilliant people have incredible product ideas every day, but their business can never get off the ground because they don’t know how to sell their idea or their product. If you’ve had success in sales you’ve already won most of the battle because it’s just a question of finding the right product and using the skills you already have to sell it.”

That’s one of the most true and significant statements anyone has ever made to me, and I’ve seen it come true in my financial life. I spent four years working for a company, first just as a sales rep and then as a sales manager. I lost all fear of talking to people and asking them to buy my product. When I started in sales I was terrified of the phone. Today I have no fear of calling strangers and striking up a conversation with them.

Thanks to that confidence I had no fear as I walked away from my stable corporate job to start my own business. I knew there might be ups and downs in my income, but I had already experienced that in my sales job. I knew there could be setbacks and disappointments, but I wasn’t worried because those are things I dealt with a thousand times over the last four years.

Confidence and Peace of Mind

What do I love most about my career in sales? Being successful in sales has given me pure confidence and peace of mind. After four years of having my paycheck be 100% my responsibility, I no longer have any concern over whether I’ll be able to pay the bills. If my business fails, I know I can get any one of 1o sales jobs and have my normal income back within 90 days or so. That’s a great feeling.

Looking for money? Aren’t we all? Whether you’re trying to finance a new business start up, consolidate some debt, or looking to get into your first home, there’s an option that you may not have considered before: borrowing from friends and family.

Now, I know, it’s not wise to mix money and relationships (look at the divorce rate in the US and one of the top reasons is money), and I would rarely suggest it to the average Joe. But with the mortgage crisis the way it is and you looking to be frugal and creative with your resources, the idea of borrowing from someone you know might be worth another look.

You have to be committed.

First of all, don’t consider this option if you do not 100% trust yourself to pay the loan back. If you have a history of going back on your word, or starting things you can’t finish, pulling friends or family into your mess is not worth it. Not worth it. If you can’t honestly trust yourself to pay the loan back as promised, don’t go into debt. I don’t care what the interest rate is, or what a deal you’re getting, don’t go into debt.

That being said, if you need a creative source of money to invest in a home or an income producing asset, you might want to consider a personal loan.

The problems with personal loans.

The problems with personal loans are generally tied up in the people: they have different memories of how much and when the loan was to be repaid; they fail to nail down an interest rate; they forget to make payments; they argue over late fees. No wonder personal loans are generally trouble.

The best way to make or take a personal loan.

However, if you have (or are yourself) a willing lender, you can make the process much easier, and safer by making the loan legal with a promissory note. We took advantage of owner financing when we bought some property a few years ago. A local title company drew up the papers and processes the monthly payments. They take care of all the tax documentation for both the borrower and lender. In fact, we have no contact with the lender, and he has no headache with paperwork coming from this loan.

Protect yourself.

Besides the convenience, there are several advantages to putting the loan officially on paper. First of all, with the terms of the loan legally recorded, both parties are safe from the other “forgetting” the original agreement. This will, in theory, save many a personal relationship from the obvious pitfalls of a personal loan. Secondly, the IRS requires lenders to pay tax on interest income for a loan over $10,000, that means more paperwork. Third, if the borrower does default on the loan, the lender can prove it and take a capital gains loss on his/her income taxes.

Put space between the two of you.

If you use a service as we are with our title company, they will, for a small monthly fee, take care of the IRS forms and process the payments. Not only does this save you time working on paper work, it puts some “space” between you and and your friend or relative. The title company will charge the late fees, if needed and make the collections phone calls if it comes to that. The lender then can’t give the delinquent borrower a break as all the terms of the loan are on paper, and therefore legally binding.

If you’re not comfortable finding a local title company, you can find these services on the web. www.virginmoneyus.com has a particularly nice site with many options to really tailor the loan to your needs. Even if you don’t need a loan, I would recommend checking out this site as it is just another example of Richard Branson’s brilliance when it comes to filling people’s needs and making money doing it.

P.S. Mark says this post “reads like sales copy on a loan site” and seems to be keyword stuffed. It was written as neither of those; I just thought personal loans were something our readers might be interested in. Anyone want to chime in on this? Please do.

Mark: I’ve probably talked to well over 1000, 2000 really financially struggling people in my time as a distance education sales rep. And in so many cases, these people tell me stories about “Well, everything was cruising a long, but then THIS [happened].” And, you know a lot of them want it to be 9/11, a lot of them want it to be “my boss,” whatever it was, but they have that moment [where] years ago they just got off track, and they’ve never gotten themselves back on track

Jim: Yeah, and I would point to it and say “Is that really the real problem?”

Mark: Exactly

Jim: And I suggest that that’s not the real problem. The real problem is starting something before you have the strength of character and discipline to see it through. That the true power comes from the ability to make and keep commitments.

$100,000 to bench press 270 lbs? I WILL win that bet.

It’s just like lifting weights

Too often we think, you know, “I’ve never started a company before. I haven’t shown any behavior in my life that shows discipline. I’m lethargic, I’m indolent, and I procrastinate, but all the sudden on one day I’m going to wake up and I’m going to have the ability to be a disciplined decision maker.” That is the great lie that so many people succumb to. Because it’s just like lifting weights. I haven’t personally been in the weight room in three years, so if somebody bet me a thousand dollars that I couldn’t bench 270 pounds tomorrow, it’s not like that thousand dollars could motivate me to do it. If they offered me a hundred thousand dollars to bench press 270 lbs tomorrow, I still can’t do it.

Mark: Right.

Jim: If they offer me a million dollars, it’s not like I can say, “Ohh, now I can do it.” If they make me that bet that I can’t bench press 270 lbs two years from now, they are going to lose their bet because I’m disciplined. I will make it happen. I WILL make it happen. But it’s foolish to take the bet if the bet means I have to do it tomorrow.

Well, similarly, too often people rush into trying to, they foolishly and ignorantly think that they are more disciplined and stronger than they are. And so I think the foundation of preparing to be successful whether it’s starting your own business or successful in anything… is your ability to make and keep commitments.

Put up a good fight for 6 months, a year, two years.

If you can’t be disciplined, then how is it you are separating yourself from your peers? The reality is that most people are not disciplined. Most people do procrastinate. Most people do not have the ability to consistently make good decisions based on good values, day in day out over a long period of time. Most people are good sprinters. They show up at a new job or start a new business and they’re really good for a week. Maybe they’re really good for a month. But… very few people can put up a good fight for 6 months, a year, two years, and that’s my opinion.

Preparing for success

My opinion is that the key to preparing for success is to start making and keeping commitments and developing some self discipline and that gives you the power necessary to see you through the tough times or the “unforeseen tough times.”

Photo credit: ericmcgregor

So much of what our millionaires talk about is getting things done. Jim especially talked about being productive, moving forward everyday and always looking for ways to be more efficient.

Over the past few years in my life, particularly since having my fourth child and starting an online business with my family, I have had to learn to become more efficient and productive with the few free hours I have any given day. I’ve tried many things, but these are the things that work consistently without requiring lots of extra work. They may seem very basic and obvious, but put into action have made an incredible difference in my personal productivity.

1. Get your zzz. Nothing helps me get more done than being fully rested: I’m more positive, I don’t have energy slumps during the day where I don’t want to do anything, my mind is clearer, and I have the energy to physically get up and get busy. Try going to bed earlier (that’s between 9:30 and 10 pm for me) for a month, and you’ll be hooked.

2. Chop it up. I originally discovered the power of breaking big tasks into smaller jobs with housework–instead of cleaning the whole house in one day, I use 6 days of the week. So while my house is never completely clean (a pipe dream with kids anyway), it’s also never completely dirty.

Knowing I wanted to write this post about getting things done would have sent my former perfectionistic self into serious “put it off and try to forget it mode” (which, in it’s worst case includes a lot of junk food and mindless TV.) Instead, I sat down a week ago and put out a very rough draft. I came back 3 days later and made some revisions; then I had only a few changes to make this morning. I had to start earlier, but I had nothing to get overwhelmed about, and nothing to stress over.

I read once that a person can focus on one task for about 90 minutes and then will lose productivity without a break. Breaking bigger jobs into smaller tasks completed over a longer period of time keeps you fresh and limits stress.

Photo credit: laffy4k

3. Watch the clock. Sometimes, when I just can’t stand the thought of the work that has to be done, I give my self a time limit and say, “I have to work on this and give it my all for this many minutes.” (I’ve found I can do just about anything for 15 or 30 minutes.) I use this trick for transcribing our millionaire interviews. Taking those interviews from their audio format and putting them on paper is an overwhelming and dreaded task, to say the least. But even on the worst day, I can do it for 15 minutes. Sometimes after that time is up, I am so happy with the results, or so interested in the interview, I keep going for 15 or more minutes. Other times, I gleefully quit after the timer rings and move on to something more enjoyable, or at least different, to give my mind and wrists a break. I feel good that I did some of the interview and know that I don’t have as much to do the next time I sit down. I’m happy because I did part of something that needed to be done and I’m that much closer to finishing it. That positive energy moves me forward in my next task too.

If I’m working on a task that needs to be done over and over or that will never be finished (think cleaning a bathroom or commenting on blogs), I give myself a time limit and just get done as much as I can. I know I’ll be back and can pick up the slack next time.

4. Offer a reward. Getting things done is a reward in itself, but for those days when you need a little extra encouragement, decide on a reward for yourself when you get your work done. For me, it’s reading, calling a friend, spending time outside, going out to eat, etc.

5. Straighten up. Can you really get stuff done when your work area is messy? Clutter puts me on edge, and is a constant reminder that I have other stuff to do. If I can keep my work space and my home in order, I have a clearer head and less stress; I can work more efficiently and focus on the task at hand. Often, a five minute investment in organizing my desk or office pays off in huge dividends of a clear head and work quickly completed.

Clean up after yourself as you go. It’s much easier to take care of items right after you use them than it is to let a big mess pile up and then take care of it. Force yourself to clean as you go for a week and see if the results aren’t motivation enough to turn that into a habit.

6. Prioritize. Make the most important things to get done the first things you do. I’ve heard it said that each day begins the night before. If you take the time to plan tomorrow tonight, and put an emphasis on the most important things you need to accomplish, you know where to start the next morning when you’re fresh and ready to go (because you went to bed early, right?). If you’re getting the most important things done first, you’re progressing on your goals and moving to where you really want to be.

7. Walk the line. Jim (millionaire business owner) knows the shortest distance between two points is a line. He decides where he wants to get and takes the shortest route to get there. Figure out where it is you want to go and make sure your daily tasks are in line with that vision.

If you’re not consciously moving toward your ultimate goals, you’re probably taking on tasks that you think society requires, not tasks that are important to you. For example: shopping. Do you spend time, money and energy buying food, clothing, household, or electronic items that you think you have to have to keep up with your friends and neighbors? Use that planning time the night before to make sure your tasks are in line with who you really want to be.

These are the things that work for me. Take them, try them, and make them yours. Whatever works for you to keep you moving forward, that’s where you want to be.