Stop Losing Time

Andre' Hartslief: "Hi. It’s Andre'and I’m back to read you a great tip from a South African blogger and freelance writing success story Phila Soquashe." He writes, ‘I can really relate to this quote by Dale Carnegie which I recently discovered. "Inaction breeds doubt and fear, action breeds confidence and courage. If you want to conquer fear do not sit home and think about it. Go out and get busy." He says, ‘For months I watched my freelance writing career struggle and I could do nothing. 

At the end of the day I find myself doing the same thing, watching TV, playing tennis, wasting away most of my day. I realized this was due to a fear I had. I become overwhelmed with everything I had to do to ensure my freelance writing career is successful. 

Once I realized this I came up with this step process I’ve successfully used to overcome my fears and get me started:

 Step one: imagine the results. For me to kick out my fear it’s important that I motivated up my work. I want to imagine the results as a powerful motivator. Sometimes that’s my income goal for a particular month or some other result, and that drives me and motivates me to do the work it takes. 

Step two: is to break down the tasks. The key part of my process is to break down tasks. Instead of saying make five figures this month I break down my work into the number of clients I have to work for, individual articles I have to do for them, and how many and which of these I have to do on a particular day.’ And he says he uses the Pomodoro app, which if you don’t know, sets a timer for 30 minutes or a time you set to keep you focused on a task for a set amount of time. ‘This has been immensely helpful in helping me focus on completing tasks instead of being overwhelmed by them.’ Step three: is develop a routine. He says: ‘Every day I make sure I go to my home office at a certain time, get to my computer and work. My routine is both about the time I work and the place I work at, and I found this to be helpful and the work I do becomes easier every day.’