Marketing is one of those things which once you get into it, you can go down the rabbit hole real fast. You can find yourself with the intent of being productive, but really you end up killing time and just being busy. The below information is designed to give you some incite in being productive over being busy. While the intent was for marketing specific, this can definitely carry weight in other aspects of your life or business or business life.
Here are some tips and tricks to assist you in being productive versus being busy.
- Self-awareness Before you start looking into marketing strategies, be self-aware to recognize your abilities as you sift through the data. There are a lot of marketing tools you can use to develop your company. Some, you can immediately use with no training. Some, you need self-training to use. Some, you need professional training to use. Be self-aware to know you do not have time to learn some marketing tools. Evaluate your time, budget, and skillset. Be self-aware of where you spend each of those.
- Time management. As mentioned above in being self-aware, time is a critical attribute to being busy or being productive. What I consider the biggest time suck is social media. It is designed to keep you scrolling. Every so often some piece of content sticks out in the millions upon millions of sensory elements. Then, you click on it and it takes you into another sensory element, then another, then another. Next thing you know, you had planned to review content for an hour and it’s three hours later. You started with good intent to be productive and ended up being busy.
- Goal setting. It is ok to sit down before engaging in marketing, reviewing marketing tools, or scrolling content to decide on a game plan. This to me is a crucial element is being productive versus being busy. It you take a few minutes and write down your intent before engaging; then, you can revert back to the items you wanted to focus on before you started. Make a list of key things you hope to accomplish. The goals you write down in black and white now become tangible items to assist you in keeping focused through your marketing research.
- Reflecting. This is a part of time management mentioned above, but it has its own accord. By taking planned breaks, you give yourself a moment of time to regroup and self-reflect of where you are in the process toward your written goals. By setting time stops for planned breaks, you step away from the action. By stepping away from the action, this can potentially pull you away from the rabbit hole you fell into. Planned breaks give you control of your actions with regards to the goals you set in planning before engaging.
- Counselling. You have access to other people. They are resources for what you are trying to accomplish. You never know what experience or wisdom they may be able to provide you in time management, marketing, self-awareness, or goal setting. Consider the information they provide a gift. You can open it and use it. You can tuck it away for later. You can regift it or you can just accept it, smile, and not use it. Please consider, when you ask for advice, you are opening the door for others to take time away from you and your goals; therefore, you may end up being busy while trying to be productive. Be specific with your questions and give the intent to your audience, so, at least they will be aware of what you want to accomplish.
My hope is this will add value in organizing your time to assist you with accomplishing your goals. If you need any other tips or tricks, please feel free to reach out, comment below, leave some feedback, or just say, “hey, I read this.”