Friday, March 28, 2008

Using your personality to build your business

I've learned something about myself-I have a short attention span.

I never would have believed that. In fact, I am able to sit for hours at a time doing nothing but researching. It is nothing for me to work for 6-7 straight hours.

But what I learned is I can only do that for a short period of time before I become bored with something and have to change it around.

This is good because it is going to help you build an effective business.

I realized that when I work on my writing I work best by working on multiple projects at various stages of development simultaneously. If I focus on a single thing for too long it becomes stale.

Are you the same way? Or is your attention span shorter? Do you need to change what you're doing every 30-40 minutes?

How can you use this personality trait to build your business as a writer [which, of course, includes marketing]?

Make your daily calendar reflect your God-given personality. If you need to change your activities every 30 minutes don't block out 4 hours of writing time in the afternoon, then yell at yourself because you got bored after 45 minutes. Set a timer for 35 minutes and when it beeps set it for 15 more. During that 15 minutes surf the net to research for your story, reply to one email, go make a sandwich or change the laundry. Then when the timer sounds a second time reset it for 35 minutes and go back to writing.

If you are like me and can focus for hours at a time but once your concentration breaks you're a goner [that is gone-er] then set the timer for 2-3 hours [or even 4]. Do NOT turn on the internet at all [and if you have wi-fi resist the temptation to double click :-) ] and when that timer beeps quit [for a break or the day].

Instead of trying to make your personality conform to some predetermined "success formula" work the way that works best for you.

Just make sure you're taking time to work.

I'll see all of you Monday and hope to have some exciting new things to share. I have some interest in the writer's retreat weekend so if it is something you'd like to participate in [or know more about] let me know.

Your Coach for the Journey, Tiffany "When will this snow ever end" Colter

3 comments:

Tracy Ruckman said...

This post describes me so well. I've thought many times about setting a timer (I did it for my kids when we were homeschooling) but talked myself out of it. I may try it now that I know I'm not alone in my quirks! :-)

Great post. Thanks so much!

Anonymous said...

My step-son has this problem when he is trying to do his homework. Maybe we will have to start setting a timer to give him breaks and thus make him more productive.

Anonymous said...

I've been using a spreadsheet to track the time I am spending on my projects. it's eye-opeining to see how much of my non-writing projects (websites for others, blogs, research, etc.) takes from my writing time, even in one week.

It's an excuse, I know, but now I can SEE where my time and energy are going.