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Please pick up where you left off by jumping to http://www.davenavarro.com/wealthblog.  See you there!

Dave

Be Vigilant About Correcting Mistakes

Mediocrity is the habit of shrugging your shoulders at your mistakes.  If you want to spin your wheels, by all means, don’t focus on fixing the problems in your time management skills.  Just “keep trying to do your best.”

But hell, if you’re reading this, that ain’t you anyway.   But it’s a real easy point to miss.  Life is busy, and optimization is something that usually takes the backseat.  But you can’t let that happen if you want to free up massive amounts of time and get better at everything you do in your life and your business.

So consider this – at the end of the day, take 15 minutes to look back at how you spent your day.  Consider the mistakes you made that cost you time, cost you focus, cost you results.  If you’re human, you’ll likely have more than one.  Write ‘em all down.

Then pick one – just one – and decide for yourself that you are not going to let that mistake happen again.  Really commit to making a quick & easy plan to eliminate whatever it is that mistake is … or at least to put a hell of a dent in it.  It may take you a while, but if you commit to focusing on fixing that one issue and hammer at it every day, you’ll knock it out for life.  And that’s a huge payoff.

And that list?  Once you’ve overcome that issue, grab another one.  Repeat, repeat, repeat.

Remember, if you don’t review, you can’t record & measure your issues.  And what you don’t measure you can’t manage.  So make it a daily practice to scrub out your mistakes, rather than settling for repeating them.  You’ll thank yourself for it.

3 Time Management Lies That Hold You Back

Everybody wants more time.  I just checked Amazon.com and saw that a search for “time management” pulls up almost 8,000  products.  There are so many time management theories out there that claim to be “the one.” 

The truth is, there’s no one-size-fits-all solution … everyone thinks differently, works differently, and has different needs. In the final analysis, you’ll likely get the best results from  borrowing techniques from multiple sources and creating a  solution that custom fits your lifestyle.

But there are three common misconceptions that people have  when it comes to time management that can totally ruin your chances of doing it effectively, so I want you to be aware of  them in case you need to take action to avoid falling into the same trap.  Here goes:

#1 – You need to create a massive, perfect system right now.

Now, this sounds like a good idea – start from scratch and  create a completely organized, perfect system that takes care of all of your problems.  Unfortunately, that rarely works in the real world.  Effective time management requires building a  number of skills and disciplines, and to try it all at once is generally an invitation to failure.

Don’t try to change everything at once.  Just make a small change today.  Decide you’re going to get better at capturing tasks so they don’t get lost in the shuffle.  Decide you’re going to  set aside 15 minutes a day to return phone calls so they don’t  stack up.  Do something simple, get the hang of it, and then add something else to the mix.  That’s much more reasonable and  much more likely to stick long term.

#2 – If you can’t make someone’s system work, you’ve failed.

Few things are more depressing than purchasing a program, then failing to be able to put it into practice.  It’s hard to handle. But you can’t let it get you down.  In reality, only a fraction of any time management program will mesh 100% with your needs and your lifestyle.  

So rather than beat yourself up about not being able to put it  into practice perfectly, go in with the mindset that you’re going to pull out what works for you and forget about the rest.   Remember – as long as you can pull *something* out of a program that can help you with time management, you’ll be reaping the rewards for decades.

#3 – The time management system will fix everything.

Oh, if only it were true.  Remember, a time management system’s function is to lay out a process of how to use your time more effectively, but the limiting factor is still your willingness  to put it into practice.  No matter what system you try out, you have to focus on developing your own personal discipline to  follow through.  So as you go through a system, note where you’re having follow through programs and make fixing that your top  priority.

Take each of these points to heart and you’ll walk into your personal time management journey from a position of strength.

So go take that action you know you need to for today.  Find just one way you can be a better manager of your time, just for today. Do it now.  You’ll thank yourself for it.

Plan A: Getting the Most From Your Morning

There’s no point in waking up early if you’re not going to squeeze a hell of a lot of productivity out of it.  If you’re not going to focus & get things done, then go back to sleep.  (Actually, I’m kidding.  Don’t do that.  Read the rest of this instead). 

A powerful strategy to get maximum results from your morning is really pretty simple … plan it in detail.  Otherwise you end up with “Plan B”:

Plan B: Wake up & get some stuff done.

As you can see, Plan B pretty much sucks.  So let’s look at a sample Plan A:

5:30-6:00 – Get up, shower fast, eat breakfast while reviewing goals for day
6:00-6:15 – Study AdWords optimization techniques
6:15-7:00 – Put what I’ve just learned into practice
7:15-7:45 – Write today’s blog entry
7:45 – Get ready and head out to work.

Not rocket science.  But still, almost nobody does this.  They make a to-do list, maybe, but they don’t attach specific times to them.  They don’t set time limits that will put the pressure on them to focus, not get distracted, and above all, produce something.

Repeat after me: I must produce something every day.

If you don’t, then you’re spinning your wheels and wasting your time.  You’re hurting your ability to focus.

If this sounds annoying, if it seems a little anal to hammer down the exact times you’re going to produce the exact things, then by all means, don’t try this.  But then honestly ask yourself if you’re accomplishing as much as you want to.

If you do want to accomplish more, you’ve got to put the pressure on yourself and you’ve got to set yourself up to win when it comes to focus.

So give this a try (and by ‘try’, I mean make it part of your routine forever).  You’ll thank yourself for it.

- Dave

 

What Wendy’s Can Teach You About Time Management

I’ve been seeing the new Wendy’s commercial for their 99 cent value menu – you may have seen it too. If not, the idea is that “you’ll never think of a dollar the same way again.” Everybody starts talking in terms of what they can buy with their money – “I only make about 6 junior double bacon cheeseburgers an hour”, “these shoes cost 85 Frosties,” or “you look like a million crispy chicken nuggets.” It’s a different world when you value your money that way.

That said, I stand by the belief that people “don’t have time” because they don’t properly value their time in the same way. Now, I’m not saying that you should ask for a 3,000 Frosty a year raise or try to save 100 Biggie Fries on your car insurance … but you need to think about how you value your time. That’s the only way you’re going to get yourself to use it in the way that will best serve you.

I’ll give you an example. I *had* a 40 minute commute to work. Now I have a two phone call commute to work. You see, it hit me one day that I don’t keep in touch with friends and family like I should, yet I have this time in the car. I wasn’t valuing that time. Now I am, and I’m getting a lot more out of it.

You can have a lunch hour … or a lunch & blog entry hour. You can get up an hour early in the morning … or get up one-page-of-your-ebook in the morning.

Stop thinking about time in terms of minutes and hours, and start thinking about it in terms of what valuable thing you can accomplish with the time.

If you don’t, you’ll waste a lot of it, while not getting the things you care about done.

How are you valuing your time?

• Need time management advice? Email me at advice@milliondollarleverage.com and I’ll respond via this blog.
• Want to free up 15 hours a week (60 hours a month!) to work on what’s important to you? Drop by http://www.wealthbeforedawn.com.

How To Make Time When There Is No Time

Whether it’s with my coaching clients or with the people I interact with from day to day, everybody’s pinched for time. Everybody’s too busy. And (most) everybody doesn’t see how they can make more time in their already “too busy” schedule.

Well, at the risk of sounding simplistic, there’s only one way to get more time. You take it.
You have to operate from the belief that there is definitely some time, somewhere, that you can grab on to. You’re wasting (or underutilizing, if you want to be polite about it) time every day. There’s the time you’re in the car. The time you’re waiting in line. The time you’re in the shower.

It may not seem like much, but it’s key. Just follow me. These tiny snips of time, these slices of your day, they’re your golden opportunity to hold a little strategy session with yourself where you ask, “Ok, what can I do today to push things in the right direction? How can I free up 15 more minutes than I would have had today to do something I haven’t been getting to? Where can I defer doing something I don’t really need to in order to focus on what matters more?”

In truth, we have a lot more time (and money) than we let on … because we’re rationalizing the fact that we’re wasting so much of it. We’re giving it away. You have to start taking it back.

So today, keep conscious of those little slices of time, because they are your golden opportunities to reinforce the habit of acting “on purpose” to make better use of your time.

If you think this post has no value, read it again (and again) until you “get it.” None of us are using our time 100% effectively, including myself. If you’re not consciously choosing to use these “time slices” to start pushing yourself in the right direction, little by little, don’t be surprised if you feel “pinched” by time for the rest of your life.

Take on your day “on purpose” and take back a few minutes today, and tomorrow, and the next day. You’ll get better at it each day. Do it now. You’ll thank yourself for it.

(And if you want to free up massive amounts of time, of course, go to www.wealthbeforedawn.com).

How To Make Your Copy Convert Better, Part 1

Here’s a smart morning move for you that can start earning you money immediately:  leverage the power of forums to make your sales copy convert better. 

Here’s the deal – you’ve already invested time (and possibly money) into building your sales copy.  Because of that, you’ve build up a certain skill level when it comes to writing copy (even if you feel that level is close to zero!).  And your copy is already likely making you a certain level of sales as it converts X percent of visitors to cash-paying customers.

So you want to make one of your primary focuses (I know, it’s ‘foci’, but that’s not as readable), you want to make that priority to double your conversion rate over the next, say, three or four weeks, if possible.  But let’s start with at least 10%, if that doesn’t sound doable.  You can certainly make it 10% better with a few good hours of work.  Here’s the 30-second version of the solution:

Step 1: Build a copy of your sales page in a different directory (so people won’t accidentally stumble upon it.  This is the copy you’ll play around with, your ‘test’ copy.

Step 2: Go to as many forum resources as you can and ask for some critques.  You’ll find that people who know more than you, as well as people who make their living writing copy will be happy to give you some solid advice.  It’s what I do with every page I write.  There’s no faster way to get better at something than to get training from people with more experience than you. 

 Here are some good places to post your critique requests:

http://www.copywritersboard.com/

http://www.selfstartersweeklytips.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=44 

http://www.turningideasintodollars.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=9 (paid forum)

Step 3: Tweak your copy based on the feedback and go back to step 1.  Lather, rinse, repeat.

Do this and you’ll set yourself up for getting to that “doubling” point as quickly as possible.  Start today.  You’ll thank yourself for it.

Triple Your Wealth, 10% At A Time

 Just a quick thought for you this morning …

 Where do you want your sales to be at the end of the year?  Where they are now?  Just a little bit higher?  Maybe 50% higher? 

 Nah …. you know you want more of an increase than that, but you also know it can sometimes seem a bit intimidating to ramp up sales by a huge amount.

 I want you to consider “the 10% solution.”  If you took the time to improve and optimize your sales and marketing skills by just 10% a month – which, honestly, is a small enough number to seem more than reasonably doable – where would that get you at the end of 12 months?  Let’s do the math.

0 effort towards improvement = 100% of current sales
1 month of improvement = 110% of current sales
2 months of improvement = 121% of current sales
3 months of improvement = 133% of current sales
4 months of improvement = 146% of current sales
5 months of improvement = 161% of current sales
6 months of improvement = 177% of current sales
7 months of improvement = 195% of current sales
8 months of improvement = 214% of current sales
9 months of improvement = 236% of current sales
10 months of improvement = 259% of current sales
11 months of improvement = 285% of current sales
12 months of improvement = 314% of current sales

Where do you want your sales to be at the end of the year? 

If you want to get serious about increasing the amount of money you’re bringing in, you need to get serious about improving your skills.  And to do that you need to take the time.

You don’t have the time?  Find it.  Make it.  Take it.

Time is money.  Don’t pass up any of either this year.

Go do it now.  You’ll thank yourself for it.

Time Is Money

Time Is Money.  It’s an undeniable truth in any business and it will make or break your bottom line in 2006.  If you want to make more money – and not just a little bit more – but a *lot* more, you’re going to need to free up more time starting right now so you can concentrate on the five profit centers of your business:

• Creating New Products / Services
• Building Your Mailing List
• Building Your JV / Affiliate Network   
• Improving Your Sales Conversion Rate  
• Improving your PPC/Adwords/Adsense Results

All these things take time … but all have massive payoffs.  Spending a dozen hours learning how to double your conversion rates, just for example, instantly doubles your income.  Taking the time to land a solid “power affiliate” could increase your sales ten-fold.  It would be “business suicide” not to invest more time in these high-return activities.

The only problem is … where do you get the time, when you’re busy doing so much already?  There’s no ‘easy answer’ … you just have to develop the skills to take your time back so you can build the level of wealth you really want.

As an internet marketer, your #1 priority should *always* be freeing up time (and making the best use of it), because when you free up time, you have the chance to make the work you’ve *already* done become more profitable.  You can double your income *without* having to constantly double the hours you put into your business.  You can get the jump on your competition without re-inventing the wheel.

So in 2006, your top priority needs to be getting your hands on more time to put into the key activities that will make you more money.  There are three ways to do this, but only one will really give you the most return for your effort.  Which one is it?

Is it staying up later?  Sure, you can do this, but it can lead to being wiped out, which is going to drain your energy and productivity during the day.  Staying up crazy hours to try and build your business isn’t your most effective strategy in the long run because it impacts every other area of your life.  It may work out for you in the short term (like during a product launch), but it’s going to slow you down long term.

So, is it packing more into the day?  Well, that’s an okay strategy … but not your best one.  Of course you’re going to see some improvements by trying to make your day more efficient (and by all means you should put some focus on this), but it introduces a new problem – you’re taking your already busy day and making it *busier!*  While you may get more accomplished, you have the added stress of trying to juggle it all, which can make it a lot harder than it needs to be to focus.

Instead, your best bet is to do what few people do (and it’s one of the reasons so few people are wealthy!) … become an “early riser.”  And before you go “no way!”, hear me out on why this simple habit could take you from flat/low sales to six-figure sales in 2006.

When you get up earlier you can tackle your business activities with no interruptions, with no added stress of the day, and with a more powerful focus than you’ve ever had before.  Even getting up just one hour a day earlier can net you 30 hours a month that you *didn’t* have before.  And how much more money could you make if you had an extra 30 hours a month to improve your sales page copy … an extra 30 hours to increase your click-through rate … an extra 30 hours to write traffic-drawing articles …

And the best part of it is, when you get in the habit of waking up earlier, you get a head start on your business activities, so you’re not crunching the rest of your day – and sacrificing the other important things in your life – in order to get the income that you want.

The major thing holding people back from becoming an early riser, though, is the misconception that it’s a hard habit to master or that it will leave you feeling exhausted.  But it’s really not that hard – it just takes a little bit of patience putting a few simple habits into place.  And it certainly doesn’t have to leave you exhausted.  I’ve spent almost 30 years of my life as a “night owl”, getting up at 6:30-7:30am, but now I get up at 5:00 am every day, and it’s a breeze to get out of bed (even if I was up late the night before). 

Sure, I may feel a little tired when I first get up, but that feeling is gone in about 5 minutes because I’ve trained my body to produce energy on demand in the morning.  And by doing so I’ve freed up around 60 hours a month to build my coaching and personal development program, which is paying off handsomely (and is one of the reasons you’re reading this even now).  But that’s not the best part.

The best part is that I want to personally take you on the journey as well.  I want to help you to free up 30 to 60 hours a month (or more) to devote to doing the things that will make you much more money in 2006.  All you have to do is click the link below to find out how (and get a free “cheat sheet” on how to do it as well).

              http://www.wealthbeforedawn.com/

Time Is Money.  There’s no denying it.  If you want the keys to getting more of both, click the link below and get your “cheat sheet” right now.  You’ll thank yourself for it.

              http://www.wealthbeforedawn.com/

             
To your success,
Dave