It’s really rather remarkable what kind of distractions can get in the way of your focus. You sit down to your computer and you have planned several hours of specific tasks you want to complete toward your internet business. You even have a list!

Then you open your email. Wow, you say, I have 79 new e-mails. Yikes. Of course, you did just join that latest giveaway and they had some great free downloads and all you had to do was give them your email address. That’s pretty simple.

So now you are on their lists. And they want you to buy something… anything!  The next greatest and latest, the best must have thing for your new internet business. Well, what are you to do? What if they are right? What if some of the stuff they are selling really would help you in some endeavor you are aspiring to? What if it might save you some time or effort? What if it really would let you become successful? Afterall, you do have a limited budget for growing your business.

So…you start opening and reading and clicking…

what do you mean 4 hours have passed!! I must get dinner, the kids will be home from school, the dog needs to be let out.

How could this have happened. I had a list!

Sound familiar. Well it certainly does to me. This has happened to me over and over. I love those giveaways and I have been around long enough to have gotten on a few lists that keep me informed of the next one coming. It’s free! You have to check it out.

Or do you?

Here is my take on this. There are just a few things you must do to make money on line.

  • You need a product, be it yours, an affiliate’s or google’s (adsense)
  • You need a way of contacting people, be it a blog, a website, email campaigns
  • you need people to sell it to

These are the essentials, albeit extremely oversimplified.

So you know you have an idea of what you need to to do to accomplish this, remember you had a list, but distractions are killing your efforts. Day after Day, and week after week and soon month after month of your precious time away from diner, the kids and the dog keep slipping away and you are no closer to your dream of working from home.

What can you do?

Well there is something you can do. It took awhile, but I finally learned this and it has made a huge difference in my online life.

You must be aware you are being distracted!

That’s it! That’s the big secret! All the internet gurus know this secret, but they will not necessarily share it with you. They figure you’ll probably figure it out but until then they will continue to be part of the distraction.

So are you going to ignore your email. Tape it shut with duct tape so it can’t get you again. No, of course not. But…

Have a plan…a little better than a list. Here’s what I do.

  1. I plan my time to do my online work every week just like a real work schedule.
  2. I share this plan with my family. I, of course, made the plan with home life in mind so that no one is neglecte, not even the dog,  and everyone in the family can help me be successful by respecting the plan.
  3. When I sit down to my block of time to work online, I have a designated 30-45 min of time to look at email. Now this means peruse. If you have 79 new emails. YOU MUST NOT LOOK AT ALL 79! You are going to have to good at glancing through them, prioritizing them and looking at the ones you feel are really important or interesting. You can always come back to this later and continue to clean it up while you are watching TV with the family with your laptop in use.
  4. Here is where you list comes in. Nothing feels as good as being able to check things off your list. Let me repeat that. Nothing feels as good as being able to check things off your list. You feel like you are really internet marketing. You feel like this really is important and you are doing something toward your freedom from the JOB. You are really working from home. IT IS GREAT! Try it!
  5. Work your allotted time for the day. Check off a thing or two from your list. Stand up feel proud and go cook dinner and oh, let the dog out.

Feel really good about yourself. You did it! You worked at your internet marketing business. You know you can’t help but be successful if you can behave as a professional and take your work seriously.

Give this a real concerted effort. You may not be perfect at it for awhile. It is really hard to get away from the email and distractions and it takes a minute for the family to fall inline. But it will happen. I promise. It did for me. It will for you.

Next time we’ll talk a bit about that next great thing, that must have something or other. Until then, please be good to yourself and keep working to quit your JOB.