If I’d Only Get Out of My Own Way

Hello, my name is PotPieGirl and I have IM-ADD. Yes, I have a cut and dry, classic case of Internet Marketing Attention Deficit Disorder.

Bless my lil’ heart, I am in my own way. I get so distracted… so off track. I can start off working on a site about dog food and end up browsing thru eBay looking for….

Uh oh, can’t remember what I was looking for.

It goes something like this:

Writing article about dog food.
Reminds me I need cat food.
Makes me think of how I used to dress my cat in baby clothes when I was little.
Makes me remember how that poor cat hit the floor running as soon as given a chance.
Hits? Uh oh, wonder how my stats on my sites are doing…. holiday traffic has been not-so-good.
Check stats… again.
Satisfied (ha) that traffic still stinks, I return to what I was originally doing.
Hmmm..what WAS I doing?
Makes me think of how my husband laughs at me when I get “scattered brained”
Husband…… Christmas…. sure would like to find one of those Crimson Tide Coaches shirts for him….
PRESTO… I’m in eBay… looking at…new cell phones.
Dog Food article is left in the dust. Inevitably, I will remember about 4am that I was working on an article…..

Am I the ONLY one that is this way?

Someone once told me (or I read it somewhere… or I made it up….)

“The only thing standing between you and your goals…is YOU”

Ain’t THAT the truth?

If I’d only get out of my own way!

Obviously, my example thought pattern above was an elaboration … kinda =) However, I really do find myself wandering while online. There are so many things that distract me away from my online “office” , how about you?

My Top 5 Online Business Distractions

1. Stats.
Oh, I love stats. I rely on them… I pour over them…. I may be addicted to them! Is there any reason to check your stats any more than once per day? Is there? Heck, my more established sites and campaigns don’t even “need” to be checked more than once or twice a week – so WHY do I check them so often?

2. Email
There, I said it. Email is a big distraction of sorts for me. I take pride in trying to return any and all emails to me in a very timely manner. I also am on many “lists” of other marketers. Why? Not because I like being sold to….but because I love seeing HOW others sell to me.

You can also learn a lot from your own actions.

Ever ask yourself why you opened one “list” email and not another? What about the subject made you click? Ever wonder why you instinctively deleted an email? These are all important things to keep in mind when creating your own email campaigns.

All that aside, how many times a day is it necessary to check your email?

3. Forums.
I love me some forums. People share such valuable information and insight! There is a wealth of knowledge available in so many forums out there. Thing is, there are SO MANY forums out there..and many of those are really, really good. How often do you check in on forums?

4. The Learning Curve
No matter how much I learn, I constantly find myself in a place where I want to either, a) know MORE about something, or b) need to learn something else. I’ll go to Google, type in what I’m looking for, and then find myself on this “click click scavenger hunt”. I always find “treasures”, but many times, they were not what I was originally looking for. And what WAS I originally looking for? haha!

5. Firefox
Yes, FireFox, as in the browser. Go ahead, laugh. Trust me, I’m laughing, too! I love Firefox… at any given time I have at least 8-10 tabs open….all with the site names staring at me as I work. Yes, you now can probably guess correctly that at least ONE of those tabs is some sort of stats program, another is my email….another is a forum (or two…or three). Having all those tabs open can be very convenient, no doubt. But, am I conveniently distracted? Or distracted by convenience?

Who knows… but I sure get distracted.

How about you?

What are YOUR Top 5 Online Distractions?

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