First, the two apps–

Freedom from the Internet

If you’re looking to block your computer from web access for a set period of time, you need Freedom. This handy little application will completely block you from the Internet anytime you turn it on. Simply open the app, set the number of minutes (from 1 minute all the way up to 480), and turn it on. Presto! No more web access for you, buddy. (Mac AND PC versions available for this app.)

Self Control from Your Mindless Web Surfing

If you’re looking to block only particular websites, I highly recommend Steve Lambert’s “SelfControl.” Turn this app on and you can designate exactly which websites you want blocked. Create a running list so anytime you turn it on, the same sites are blocked. Enter the number of minutes you need a little self control, activate, and ba-bing! No more annoying little sites like Facebook, Twitter, or email access. (Mac only.)

The makers of the Freedom app also recently released a new app which I have not yet tried out called Anti-Social which basically does the same thing as SelfControl but is available for Mac AND PC.

Why Get Away from the Web?

This point might be obvious for some and completely missed by others, so let’s unpack it. If you do any kind of work on the Internet (which includes virtually all of us these days), chances are extremely high that you spend a great deal of your computer time surfing aimlessly and getting lost in the high tide of websites, email, and social media.

Whether you want to believe me or not, you simply do NOT need to check your email, Facebook, and all your other little accounts 1723 times per day. It’s NOT doing you any good.

BUT…

Quite frankly, it’s really really really HARD to stay away. I don’t know about you, but the second I sit down and pop up my laptop screen I’m racing off to about 1,326,028 websites, email accounts, and god only knows what. All it takes is one little thought in a different direction and click, click, click, and suddenly I’m watching random videos on YouTube about how to blow bubbles in my beer.

UNLESS…

I make a point of activating Freedom if I want to stay off the web completely or SelfControl if I want to do focused work online.

Neither of these applications are expensive. Freedom is just $10 and Anti-Social is $15. SelfControl is free. And just think of how quickly this tiny little investment will translate into income-producing work time.

There’s a time for silly websites and random web-browsing. But if you can get a little help from these applications, you’ll be far more likely to know when it’s time to get some work done and when it’s time to play.

Why Relocate Your Life and Your Business?

Relocation has been at the center of my lifestyle-design and business-building strategy since my first journey to Berlin in early 2009. Much of this was inspired by the well-known business book, The Four Hour Work Week.

A Four Hour Work Week? Are You Kidding?

Not really up to speed on all this 4HWW (Four Hour Work Week) mumbo jumbo? Take a gander at my 4HWW Series articles here…

4HWW Part One
4HWW Part Two
4HWW Part Three
4HWW Part Four
4HWW Part Five

I once read that the best ways to power up your motivation is this…

1. Back yourself into a corner.
2. Do everything in your power to get out.

I believe this is exactly why I managed to go from a $37,000 per year college instructor to a six-figure Internet Business owner in just a few years.

To go from zero to 60 required serious motivation, and I had it. No doubt about it. But here’s the real key: to muster super-high levels of motivation requires LOTS of reasons to succeed. It can’t be *just* about money or *just* about travel. And it can’t be *just* about prestige or status. You’ve got to find LOTS of reasons and they MUST be very real to your mind, body, and soul.

Maybe that last line sounds a bit hokey, but I’m quite serious.

If your reasons for doing something big don’t resonate on a mental, emotional, and spiritual/higher level, then you’re simply NOT going to make it happen. Again, I’m talking about doing something BIG, something life-changing. The reason most people never take action to achieve something big is because they don’t really want to do it. Why not? They don’t have enough reasons.

Before I read the 4HWW, I already had a desire to start building a business. In fact, I already had a business. It just wasn’t exactly running like a machine. The ideas behind The Four Hour Work Week resonated with me in many powerful ways and on many meaningful levels. I wanted to travel more. I wanted to meet different people from around the world. I wanted to experience different types of cultures, cuisines, and ways of life. And most of all — I wanted to live a better life. I wanted to work smarter not harder.

To put it all in one simple statement: I knew the rat-race sucked and I didn’t want to spend my life doing it.

Relocate, Renew, Recharge

Before I get too far astray in this blog-sized novel, let’s get back to what’s happening right now. As I write this, I’m sitting on an AeroMexico flight to Costa Rica. My girlfriend is sitting next to me playing on her iPad while I’m over here struggling to speak Spanish with the flight attendant pouring my coffee. Life is good. Pura vida!

What is it about travel that inspires us so much? It’s two things: Time and Freedom.

Think about it. Why are vacations so damn wonderful? Time and Freedom. And why do most people in modern cultures look forward to retirement so much? Time and Freedom. Remember childhood? What was so great about the playground, school recess, and summer vacation? Time and Freedom.

This is exactly why I love relocation so much. In a nutshell, relocation is traveling to a new place to live, work, and play. But for me it’s really a chance to recapture the true spirit of things and get back to the basics.

Mini Retirement v. Relocation Recalibration

My last relocation in early 2009 to Berlin, Germany, was more of a 4HWW mini-retirement. I went there to get away from work and to learn more about myself. But this time my purpose is much different. One of the best things about relocation is the process you go through right before you leave. It works like this: First, you unpack your current life. Then, you pack up your new life and hit the road. Somewhere in between you get rid of 80% of the crap you don’t really need. When it’s all finished, you feel a great sense of relief, clarity, and lightness. It’s probably one of the most therapeutic things you could ever do for yourself.

This time around instead of a mini-retirement, I’m looking at this journey as more of a “Relocation Recalibration.” Instead of avoiding work, I’m going to reclaim more balance between work-and-play. For my business and personal life, I’m looking to do one very important thing — focus on what’s really important in life and ignore everything else.

As Stephen Covey once put it — “Begin with the end in mind.” The path will unfold before you…

One reason I’m so excited about my launch is pretty simple:  Frankly, I’ve never seen anybody offer what I will be offering.

Sure, there are countless article marketing ebooks out there.  But I’ve yet to see anyone create a full-fledged member’s resource area with complete courses and highly targeted video trainings.

(Trust me, I’ve read virtually every ebook out there and even they can’t come close to offering as much massive value as I have been preparing for you.)

Whether you’re an affiliate marketer or a small business owner, someone just getting started or someone with tons of experience on the web, I know you’re going to get a lot out of what I have to offer.

But back to the point.

I was going through some of my member’s only resources today when I ran across a few images on a presentation that I think you should see now.  People are always asking me about the potential of article marketing and what they can expect it to do for them.

Folks, check this out…

This is why I am incredibly excited about my upcoming product launch — The Article Marketing for SEO Membership Website. How can I describe it? Let’s just say I’ve finally managed to condense my years of experience, lessons learned the hard way, and success formulas for making it on the web into one sexy little information warehouse.

What’s This All About, Jason?

My goal is simple:

The members-only exclusive website teaches everyone how to get more results online — how to get more traffic, how to increase conversions, how to rank higher in Google, and how to make more money from your websites!  All of it can be done with Article Marketing, and I’m going to show you exactly how…

Plus, I really want to attract a wide range of individuals into the members area so we can continue to develop and enhance everyone’s understanding of Article Marketing, Search Engine Optimization, and Internet Business day-after-day.

This is not just a membership, folks — this is a full blown Mastermind Academy!

Why Now? What’s Up Your Sleeve?

The only thing up my sleeve is TONS of information, videos, courses, lessons, live trainings, and an overwhelming amount of high quality content! I’ve worked with thousands of clients over the past 6 years on everything from article writing and article marketing to SEO, copywriting, and full-blown Internet Business setup.

It’s been a long-time goal for me to create an information resource website just like Article Marketing for SEO because it’s simply the best way to share my knowledge with as many people as possible at one time in one place.

You see… Before I became a successful Internet Business Entrepreneur, I was a college instructor at a private junior college in Central California. Fresh out of university, I worked my butt off as a young professor (some of my students were twice my age!) trying to share my knowledge of writing and the English language.

I always loved teaching but the income was never very promising and the work was not always rewarding. That’s when I turned my hand to professional copywriting and web marketing consulting, which I ran as a side gig between classroom instruction and grading papers. Before I knew it, my consulting services were taking off and I was developing an international web marketing service business.

Meanwhile, I started taking everything I was learning about Internet Marketing and ranking higher in search engines and building my own passive income Affiliate Marketing and Adsense websites. Eventually, this helped position me as an Article Marketing expert, leading me to develop one of the leading article writing service firms on the web.  It took awhile to leave teaching completely — even when my business was flourishing, I continued on at the college teaching just one course per week. The energy, feedback, and enthusiasm from my students was more than enough to pull me back to the classroom each week.

The lessons I learned in the classroom are still with me today. Teaching professionally forces you to learn patience, understanding, and requires a tolerance for multiple points of view and a variety of learning styles.

Eventually, I did leave the classroom completely so I could continue to grow in other ways — mostly by traveling to Berlin, Germany so I could explore Tim Ferriss’ theories on the Four Hour Work Week and learn how to get better at managing my time. My 7 months living abroad also taught me a lot about priorities, friendships, and enjoying life. I even met an amazing girl there, who ultimately moved back to California with me where I now live in Malibu.

But I always knew I’d get back to the classroom one day. I just knew that teaching in a traditional classroom was not for me. I wanted to teach but I wanted to do it in an area where I could help create real, measurable change in people’s lives and where I could work with people who had a real passion for learning. That’s when I started devoting JasonClegg.com writings to entrepreneurship, passive income, niche marketing, and everything related to changing your life by creating your own source of income on the web.

The Article Marketing for SEO membership website is my first major information product since I wrote my first ebook right out of college — How to Make Money Selling Used Books on Amazon.com (but that’s another story altogether)…

I’m sure this membership website will be the first of many more info products to come. I have so much to share and contribute to our community, I can’t wait to give back. But trust me, everything I do will have a sparkle and shine that will put all similar info products to shame! No offense to anyone else, I just have really high standards.

The Early Bird Launch and Affiliate List

I’m still hard at work behind-the-scenes of ArticleMarketingSeo.com but I’ll be launching it very soon and opening the doors for new members. In the meantime, if you’re interested in becoming a member and/or an affiliate, be sure to join my Early Bird Notification List so I can keep you posted on the launch info.

Early Birds are going to get a deep discount off the regular membership rate. Affiliates are going to be eligible for some cool prize giveaways too! Either way…

Click here to sign up!

Let’s face it… You simply cannot build a massively successful passive income system online without help. And not just any help, I’m talking about highly qualified, well trained, and eager help…

I know you’ve been hearing this over and over again, especially since the Four Hour Work Week phenomenon. Today, there are tons of websites and online services that make outsourcing easy for virtually everyone. From Elance.com to GetFriday.com, the options are endless!

Unfortunately, most people FAIL at outsourcing. It’s true. Most people just plain suck at getting other people to work for them.

At some point in building my own business, I realized that outsourcing is the single greatest key to my success online. For some reason, I have had LOTS of success finding great people, training them successfully, and getting them to do GREAT WORK — in many cases, these people do it even better than I do.

But here’s the crazy part…

I know there is still so much opportunity for building my business even larger by getting even better at outsourcing.

And that’s when John Reese came knocking with his new Outsource Force product.

Here’s the deal — John Reese is an amazing internet marketer with an impressive track record of making money online and creating high quality information and training products to help the rest of us get similar results.

John’s product is coming out soon, and I will definitely be getting a copy. It’s going to cost at least $2,000 but I’m confident the material will be INCREDIBLY USEFUL and should yield at least 10x the cost in additional business for me. I have no reason to think any different for you.

Obviously, I’m promoting John’s product here and don’t want you to think anything else.

But even if you aren’t in a position to buy the product, you absolutely MUST watch the free videos building up to his launch. I’ve already watched video one 2x and would urge you to do the same. If you want to make it big online — whether you’re just getting started or eager to reach your next level of success — these videos are going to help you do it!

Go check out Outsource Force right now!

In this article, I want to go to the next level and talk about how to finish projects. The project matrix tool is perfect for evaluating and choosing projects. This is definitely important and a critical first step. But afterwards you can be left with some difficult questions…

What do you do once you’ve chosen a project? What’s the best way to get started? And how can you take a project from idea to completion?

Long-Term Goal Setting – Motivation That Helps

To understand how to finish projects, first we need to look at the drivers behind project completion — goals.

At the beginning of 2010 I set some pretty large goals for myself and my business. Back around January, that was enough to keep me motivated and focused. But somewhere around early February, the game changed a bit for me. I found myself losing focus and increasingly distracted. Instead of taking steps to build and grow my business, I kept hitting roadblocks and getting stuck in the mud.

Don’t get me wrong — there’s nothing wrong with long-term goals. They are essential to the bigger system I’m building in my life. They help keep me centered around my values and my dreams.

The problem with long-term goals is they take too long to realize and, after a period, they’re not really that motivating. This, of course, is exactly what Tim Ferriss is talking about in “The Four Hour Work Week.” In the business and career world, the carrot most of us think about is retirement. That’s what we’re working for, right? That’s the big pie-in-the-sky. Trouble is, retirement is too far away to excite most of us (especially 20- 30- and even 40-somethings). And to top things off, the conventional formula of “save and invest now and get rich later” simply doesn’t work for most people these days.

So… what’s the solution? As Tim suggests, mini-retirements are a much better way to break up the work monotony of life and keep things interesting…

Another book I’m currently reading, The Power of Full Engagement, makes a similar point from a more scientific perspective. Oscillation, the authors point out, is one of the keys to happiness and productivity. On, off, on, off — on again and off again. This is exactly how we move through sleep cycles. First we begin to fall slowly into a deep sleep before entering the deepest stage called REM where we get our most rejuvenating rest. Then we come slowly back up into a wakeful state again before repeating the cycle. In sleep, we move through these cycles every 90 minutes.

The lesson we have to learn from our sleep, according to The Power of Full Engagement, is that our work-play or work-relax balance should also be built around oscillation. Work, play, work, relax, work, play.

Now, how can we apply this information to help with finishing projects?

Short Term Goal Setting – Motivation That Works

During the last two weeks in March, my girlfriend and I took a trip to Europe for some rest-and-relaxation. We also had a social media conference to attend there, but that’s another story…

Before we left on the trip, I decided to think of the trip as a mini-retirement and to set a goal of finishing some things on my to do list so I could spend all of my time really relaxing on the trip. Basically, my goal was to clear my desk of all pending to-do’s and PROJECTS.

During the month or so leading up to the trip, I experienced a higher level of productivity and clarity than I had in months. Suddenly, I had a much higher level of motivation and my ideas about what was important and essential to complete were crystal clear.

Also before the trip, I identified about 5 projects that were eating up my mental energy and needed to be addressed. I simply told myself that these projects would have to wait until I came back from the trip before I gave them any additional attention. This one simple step freed up tons of energy and focus. Why didn’t I think of this years ago???

To sum it all up, clear set-in-stone deadlines force action and help eliminate distractions.

How to Finish Your Projects

The simple system I am now using looks like this…

1. Get a Clear View of Your Projects
Use the project matrix tool to list out your projects and try to put them all into perspective. Be super honest about how much money it’s going to cost and how much time it’s going to take. Then you can quickly see which projects are worth your time and which are not. Spend enough time on this first step, and I think you’ll be surprised by which projects actually deserve your attention.

2. Create a Reward with a Deadline
For me, the best rewards are vacations. I think vacations work so well because they combine “fun and relaxation” with “time away from work.” To put it another way, when I’m on vacation I am simply not interested in work because I have so many other exciting and interesting things to do. Travel of any kind is great for this, especially since I work from a home office. It’s even better if you can share this deadline with someone else — a friend, spouse, significant other, business partner, whatever.

3. Choose Your Projects and Create Your Action Plan
Now that you have a clear deadline (preferably 4-8 weeks from now), you can choose the highest value projects to focus on to completion during that time period. This is also an important time to put any other pending projects to bed. It sounds obvious, but you really need to tell yourself in writing or even aloud that these projects simply have to wait until the next round.

4. Make Sure Your Project Goals are Measurable and Clear
This last point is extremely important. Let’s say you choose 3 projects to complete before you go on a cruise with your spouse two months from now. Great! Now it’s time to “redesign” those projects so they are associated with a measurable goal.

For example, let’s say you have two business projects and one personal project. The business projects are “Create a New Video Product” and “Write More Blog Posts.” The personal project is “Exercise More.” I hope you can already see how vague these projects are. Actually, as projects they’re not vague at all. The problem is they’re not yet strongly associated with any goals. This is exactly why it’s so helpful to rename projects with the actual outcome you want. Your goal is not to create a new video product — your goal is to “Sell 10 New Video Products” before you leave for the cruise. Your goal is not to “Write More Blog Posts” — that’s just a means to an end. What’s the end you’re actually looking to achieve? It’s probably something more like “Get 50 New Email Sign Ups on My Blog.” That’s MEASURABLE. Same with the personal project. Your goal isn’t really to exercise more. Again, that’s what you will likely do to achieve the goal. The goal is something clear like “Lose 5 Pounds” and to do it before that cruise!

I hope you get the idea. By first setting a deadline, your priorities become much clearer. Then, all it takes is a little rethinking of each project so you begin to see it in terms of a goal and not some silly project name that makes you feel like it’s never finished.

Trust me, when it’s time to grab your bags and head to port for that cruise, you’re going to feel great knowing that you worked really hard to achieve a clear list of goals and that you now know how to finish projects anytime you want!

At the end of the conference, Eben arranged all of us into small groups of about 6 people each. Each group was somewhat organized around industry or business niche. But the most important goal was to help us create our very own mastermind team to create some accountability after leaving the conference.

My group already held our very first mastermind phone call the first day after the conference. Fortunately, I had the opportunity to be first in the “hot seat” and present my greatest challenge and my greatest opportunity to the group. After presenting my current business scenario to the group, each of my group members made a 5 minute maximum reply with their best insights and advice. 30 minutes later I had some of the best ideas to solve my greatest challenge and to leverage my greatest opportunity that I could ever have imagined!

Amateurs See Many Options, Professionals Recognize Few

As I continue to grow my business, it has become increasingly necessary to get super focused on what I’m trying to achieve and to pick only the most promising projects and follow them to completion. As you can imagine, it doesn’t always go this way…

First, I’ve found that as my success grows, the number of opportunities available to me increases. Every time I turn around, there’s a new idea or a potential source of new revenue I could be chasing. It’s not the worst of problems to have but it can and does make it very challenging to keep singularity of focus when working on projects.

During the mastermind session, one of my cohorts made an excellent point with a simple but powerful quote…

“To amateurs there are many options, to professionals there are few.”

Suddenly I realized that I had failed to apply all of my existing success knowledge to my growing list of projects. Just because an opportunity presents itself does NOT mean it’s viable or even worth my time. For that matter, just because an option is viable doesn’t mean it’s the right or the best option for me…

The Project Matrix – Project Management for Entrepreneurs

Another suggestion from the group was to get my potential projects under control by creating a system to rate, analyze, and evaluate potential new business ideas. It’s amazing how powerful an idea becomes when it’s actually worked for other people. I’ve tried to create project evaluation or management systems in the past but nothing ever did the job. But now I had a clear system.

Before the mastermind group, I used the popular “Things” to-do time management GTD software for organizing my projects. But for some strange reason, it never occurred to me that some of my projects might not even be worth my time. I know that sounds bizarre, but when you’re coming up with ideas left-and-right you’re generally most concerned with putting them into action and getting them sorted out — the “how” somehow overshadows the “why.”

Here’s how I created a project matrix based on a spreadsheet sample sent to me by a group member…

1. Open up a new spreadsheet using Excel or Google Docs or any similar program.
2. List all of your considered projects in one column.
3. List the estimated financial cost of each project in the next column.
4. List the estimated Time cost (hours) of each project in the next column.
5. List the projected financial Return in the next column. (Note: You can use monthly or annual returns, just be consistent with all projects.)
6. Create a Return/Cost formula in the next column to calculate how many dollars you will get back for every dollar you invest.
7. Create a Return/Time formula in the next column to calculate how many dollars you will get back for every hour you invest.

And voila!

When you finish the project matrix, I think you may be very surprised. I certainly was. But be sure to spend time tweaking and playing with the numbers. Really think about how much time a project will cost. Really consider how much of a financial return you expect to get back — and be realistic!

The more honest and realistic you are with the spreadsheet, the more accurate and revealing the final picture will be.

Crack That Whip – Zeroing in On Projects

Once you’ve completed the project matrix, you’ll begin to see where you should really be investing your time. You’ll also see about how much time each project should take so you can make some educated guesses about what you could realistically complete this month, next month and so on.

Remember: the goal here is to line things up so you can take action! Don’t fall into the “paralysis by analysis” trap where you end up overanalyzing everything. Let the project matrix inspire you to unleash your energy in the right direction.

And most important of all, make this system work for you!

Download the Project Matrix

I want to share the project matrix with you, so I am making the download freely available here. The file includes some generic samples so please be sure to make changes based on your unique projects.

Click Here to Download the Projects Matrix

Let me know what you think…

On his website Matt offers two instant download guides that can help you take control of your day-to-day time management activities immediately. One of these I have downloaded and put into action myself — it’s called Where the !@#% Did My Day Go? and, as Matt describes it, this guide is the “ultimate guide to making every day a great workday.”

I did interview Matthew and tried to record it but due to some technical difficulties the audio turned out really rough. For this reason, I have transcribed our phone call below. Enjoy!

My Interview with Matthew Cornell

JC: There are so many time management philosophies and books out there. What makes your perspective unique?

MC: That’s a good question. The first focus that I start with is everybody does need a system, especially entrepreneurs who need business systems. My approach is a kind of bottom-up approach. The question is “Why are you doing this stuff?” Making sure you have a really solid workflow system and installing a system like that is a good first step for people, then looking at what goals you have.

JC: I like when you use the term system. I think systems are so important for building a business. McDonald’s is a great example of this. They don’t have great hamburgers, they have a great system. So if I can be the devil’s advocate for a minute… What about those times when the systems don’t work? What do you recommend?

MC: Yes, this is one approach I’ve been working on is treating everything in life as experiments… and it applies to systems as well. So if somebody adopts a method of managing themselves and it just falls apart, that’s REALLY useful information. This is where we ask what’s going on and look at what habits might be getting in the way. Also, we all have convergent and divergent periods. Convergent periods where everything comes together and divergent periods where everything seems to fall apart. So staying flexible is really important.

JC: That’s an excellent point. There are definitely times when everything is coming together and times when it seems like everything is falling apart.

MC: Yes, especially when you’re doing something new. It’s good to just give yourself a chance to have that time when things aren’t super clear because I think that’s when you pay your dues and learn from other people. And that reminds me of a book I really like, The War of Art. I love that book. I have found that book super encouraging for that type of thing.

JC: Great! I think that one of the topics I want to discuss with you because time management productivity is so important for people is the “P” word, procrastination. Especially for people who are in the early stages of starting a business, what do you recommend for dealing with procrastination?

MC: What I do with people is dig in and encourage people to ask, What am I doing here? Why am I procrastinating? So what I would recommend is look at those tasks and say “Where is the resistance?” So maybe the task is too big. So a classic solution is to break it down and work on it for 5 minutes. So it depends on the activity and the type of procrastination that’s going on.

JC: Right, so break it down and think about it in new ways because starting a business is such a big thing and you may never finish it.

MC: Yes, and a lot of your readers probably fall into the category of “Too Smart to Start,” have you heard of that?

JC: Yes, definitely!

MC: Right, breaking things down and making a small start is a good example of dealing with this.

JC: Right, the classic “Paralysis by Analysis.”

MC: That’s right, you just need to really break things down and look at the nature of the procrastination to understand it.

JC: Ok, so can you tell us about your guide, “Where the @!#% Did My Day Go?”

MC: Yeah, the reason I wrote this book is when you don’t have a really good system in place, you know sometimes I get to the end of the day and think what the heck happened? So the thing I’ve found is the classic idea of daily planning helps me to manage things. So I’ve updated it and I’ve added some little experiments you can do on daily planning, just to give you an example of how you can sit down early in the morning and figure out what you’re going to do in that day. I call it “getting a touchdown” when you get to the end of the and you’ve checked off the last thing, it feels really good.

JC: Right, definitely.

MC: So that’s why I wrote it. It’s just over 20 pages and it goes into great detail on how to do this practice. I find it tremendously helpful.

JC: Yes, especially if you’re working on a big project sometimes you get to the end of the day and you feel like you’ve barely taken a dent out of what you wanted to achieve. But some projects are so large, you simply can’t expect to do it all now.

MC: That’s right. It’s so easy to get to the end of the day and think “I didn’t get this done and I wanted to do that.” You know a great practice I find is for a week keep that daily list and then you can say, “Look, I’ve really done a lot.” And people do a lot, so this is a really good example.

JC: And with the nature of an Internet Business, for example, sometimes it’s just tough to get away. Do you have any advice for people on how to think more about relaxation? How do you address that in your time management philosophy?

MC: Oh, that’s a really good question. It comes down to balancing the really important work people have to do with living the rest of their lives. Making little boundaries might be useful. One approach would be to say, ok, I’m going to turn my Blackberry off at 6 o’clock and try for a couple of days to leave it off and see how that goes. And this is an approach I’m working on it’s called “Think. Try. Learn.” In other words, looking at everything as an experiment in life. This is just to see what happens when I do this. You can find out why you check the Blackberry. Maybe you’re bored or you feel like you need to keep up with things. So then you can figure out how to replace this with other activities. This is about looking at yourself as a whole person. Just playing with scheduling like exercising every day for 30 minutes. Just try it out and see what happens.

JC: So this is kind of like the idea of scheduling leisure time?

MC: Yes, there’s a book called The Now Habit that goes into that, almost like an anti-scheduling thing. Another thing you can do, if you have a spouse or a friend, is just hand them $50 and ask them to bring the Internet down.

JC: [LAUGHING] Yes, I’ve done something similar with some of my staff actually locking them out of email to discourage them from working on the weekends. It’s just so important to get away sometimes. This is like having someone else change your clocks.

MC: Yes, and that category of getting support from other people is really useful. The overall input, the number of tasks you manage, have to be less than or equal to what you’re capable of doing. Ideally, it should be less so you have plenty of space. But it’s hard for us to say no because we have so much we want to do.

JC: Yes, exactly.

MC: One thing we talked about earlier is the idea of the 80/20 principle, which I think has been made popular by the work of Tim Ferris and the Four Hour Work Week. Just asking yourself where am I spending energy that isn’t paying off? So looking carefully at what you’re spending time on and whether they pay off is very useful. It’s really important to look at what’s paying off. Or really saying, you know, I’ve been using Twitter for 2 years and I really haven’t gotten anything out of it.

JC: Imagine that. I really do think the 80/20 rule is the big take away from Tim’s book.

MC: Yes, and he makes the point also that it’s not all about how long your butt is in the chair that makes the difference. Have you ever had a day where you only worked 3 hours but you felt incredible? And have you ever had a day where you worked 10 hours and you got nothing done?

JC: Yes! Absolutely. Thank you so much for your time Matthew!

MC: Thanks, Jason.
Matthew Cornell is a Time Management and Productivity Expert who teaches people a simple time management method to manage the overwhelming volume of “stuff” inundating their lives in order to release and focus their natural talents. The result is typically a relaxed sense of control and a significant freeing up of energy and creativity.

His services include one-on-one workflow coaching, and group presentations and seminars on personal productivity. Visit www.MatthewCornell.org for more info.

It never really occurred to me, but this is going on *offline* too. The next time you’re out browsing around in a tourist town or even doing your weekly grocery shopping at your local market, take time to notice all of the “little guys” who are selling cool specialty goods. Olive oils, cheeses, hand-made chocolate pretzels, yoga trainers, book writing consultants — the sky’s the limit!

Of course, people have been doing this kind of niche work for years. It’s nothing new. These folks are called artisans. But what I’ve noticed lately is artisan goods and services are taking off like wild-fire. There’s greater demand for homegrown and handmade everything.

So what does this have to do with your passive Internet Business and creating multiple streams of income…? Everything!

Just like the pretzel maker and the wine master, you should be thinking just like an artisan in your online business. Here are some quick ideas for how to start thinking more like an artisan and less like a cookie-cutter corporate slimeball…

*Personalize Everything
People love faces and names. They want to put your face and name with the product or service they’re buying. This helps build trust and credibility between two human beings (you the seller and the buyer). Add more personality to your websites by posting your picture or the picture of your staff members in highly visible places. Be sure to keep your bio updated and interesting. People want to know you.

*Interact More With Your Audience
Once people get to know you, they want to know more about you and to stay in touch. Welcome to the wonderful world of *social media.* Get your Facebook marketing rolling! But again, try to keep it personal and real. Not corporate and boring.

*Don’t Be So Uptight
Depending on the market you’re in, it’s probably more likely that you need to be *more relaxed* and interesting and *less professional* and uptight in how you present yourself to your audience. Sure, big flashy websites are impressive but they can also be intimidating and overwhelming. Make sure your logo is interesting. Choose a website design that’s homemade but functional over one that’s sharp and sleek.

Content marketing for your niche is supposed to be fun and engaging. Try incorporating some of these tips into your current approach and see what happens. Spend less time strategizing that next “laser-targeted email campaign” and just sit down right now and hammer out something friendly, approachable, and funny. See what happens.

Remember…

Being an artisan is about being unique and standing out from the crowd.

Download the MP3 Here (right click)…

Recently I had the great pleasure to interview an author I’ve been exploring more and more lately, Dr. Neil Fiore. (There’s a bit of a sound problem at the very beginning but it gets better after the first few seconds, I promise.)

Dr. Fiore is an inspirational speaker, an executive coach, a psychologist, trainer and author has helped thousands of people and hundreds of organizations become more productive and achieve their optimal potential.

As an entrepreneur, I am constantly learning and experimenting with productivity methods to get more results in my day-to-day work. Neil Fiore’s popular book The Now Habit is a great example of the kind of book that can really help all of us think more about how we work and how we manage our daily lives.

In this interview, Neil and I talk about…

• Why entrepreneurs as courageous risk takers
• How your ego is probably holding you back
• What you can do about procrastination
• Where you can create a “third place” of CHOICE every day
• Why “Getting Things Done” should really be called Getting Things Started
• Plus much more!

I hope you enjoy the interview, and I also hope you find the time to explore Neil’s website www.NeilFiore.com and his books The Now Habit, Awaken Your Strongest Self, and coming soon The Now Habit at Work (I’m already on the Amazon pre-order list for this one).