Guest Post
Bloggers: Are You Procrastinating Right Now When You Should Be Working? This Article Will Get You Back To It
Procrastination is in many ways the blogger’s worst enemy. You haven’t uploaded a new post in a long time and have a small window to do it in, so you sit down hoping to write a few blog posts only to find yourself browsing around YouTube and watching funny videos of cats. Sure, those cats are often hilarious, but they aren’t going to make your blog any more successful, appease your impatient readers or earn you any money. This is a problem faced by many of us and it’s one of the biggest time (and therefore) money wasters that we deal with on a daily basis.
In fact, I’d say that there’ a good chance you’re procrastinating right now. Perhaps you sat down planning to write an article for your site, but then got distracted while you were browsing through the research. You maybe read a couple of unrelated articles, checked your email, then went back online to ‘close the tab’. Maybe you were just about to when you saw this article title and though ‘just this one more article’.
Well it’s time to stop, and fortunately I know just how to get you back to work. Below I’m going to share some strategies that can make it much easier to work through your to-do list, and by the end of it you should be back to work and have stopped putting it off. Then, whenever you find your eyes and mind starting to wander, you can just apply these same strategies again…
Step 1: Create a To Do List
The first thing you need to do is to outline exactly what’s required of you for today. By doing that, you will be able to better plan your day and you won’t find yourself putting things off because you’re not sure what’s best to do next. Make this detailed too so that nothing vague is on that list. For instance, don’t just write ‘write blog post’, but instead write the title and subject of that post. This way you won’t lose time deliberating on what precisely to write and you can disengage that part of your brain to just work through the tasks directly.
Step 2: Start With the Fun
You’d think that it would make more sense to start with the most boring or the largest task on your to-do list first would make sense, but in reality that’s often a mistake. Instead, try starting with the job that’s mot fun or at least most bearable. That way, you won’t dread getting started quite so much and you’ll be less likely to carry on putting it off. But then, once you’ve done the fun task, you’ll find that the whole list looks much shorter and more bearable.
And if you don’t have a fun or a bearable task on there? Well then find a way to make the jobs more interesting. If you need to do some writing for your blog, then you should try and make the posts you write relate directly to something that’s currently on your mind. Likewise, if you were putting off going to the gym, you could make it more fun by using new exercises or making a challenging routine to push yourself. However you do it, if you make the job fun and challenging then it won’t be so likely to feel like work and it will be easier to stay focussed on it. This is an example of working with your brain. There are more here.
Step 3: Don’t Check Your E-Mail… Or Anything
So you have your to-do list and you’re raring to get started with work. What do you do now? If the answer you were about to say was to ‘check your e-mail’ then that’s what you’ve been doing wrong. Checking your e-mail at the start of your ‘shift’ will mean you’re not focussing on your work right from the word go, and will create too many opportunities to get even more distracted (by thinking about what’s been written, or by writing a response). Instead then, make checking your e-mail a ‘reward’ and use the same attitude for making tea or doing anything else that distracts you from your main job (and only award yourself one at a time after you’ve done a good amount of work). That way, rather than making tea, checking your email and reading the news and finding you’ve done no work after an hour, you can do one of those things at the end of each hour and find you’ve finished most of your work by the time you’ve done all three.
Featured images:
- License: Creative Commons image source
- License: Creative Commons image source
- License: Creative Commons image source
- License: Creative Commons image source
John Miller is an expert at social media marketing. Having been in this field for over 10 years, he has sound knowledge of its working. A music lover, he likes listening to his favourite soundtracks in his spare time.
Guest Post
Is An MBA In Marketing Worth It?
Different degrees come with different benefits. Some come with pay increase advantages, some come with work schedule benefits, and some come with increased job opportunity benefits. When it comes to evaluating the worth of a MBA degree in marketing, the best thing a person can do is sit down and learn about its many advantages. This type of degree curriculum is designed specifically for individuals who want to be business leaders. While completing studies, students in a MBA marketing program will learn about different business theories, the hierarchy of business management, supervision techniques, and much more. For the most part, students taking part in this type of degree program will spend their time completing projects.
Increased Job Opportunities
With a MBA in marketing, a person is likely to have more job opportunities than a person who does not have the same degree. In fact, many employers within the United States require for their marketing personnel to hold such a degree.
More Money
People who have just graduated high school are not the only people who pursue a MBA degree in marketing. In fact, many people who have worked for years and years are choosing to obtain such a degree, and for good reasons. This type of degree can help a person earn more money. Some companies choose to promote employees who earn a MBA in marketing, while others will often simply increase a employee’s pay. No matter how the increase in pay occurs, obtaining a MBA in marketing is definitely worth it when it comes to making more money.
Expanded Network
When students take part in a MBA program, they often interact and complete projects with a number of other students; this helps students increase their contact lists. In addition to partnering with students to complete projects, many times, students will partner with local firms and organizations. The more people and organizations that students can get acquainted with, the better off they will be at getting a job once they have graduated. Being able to work with organizations and firms also helps students decide what atmospheres they prefer to work in.
New Fields of Study
The field of marketing is one that is always expanding. By taking part in a MBA marketing curriculum, students are able to expand their marketing knowledge, and also become acquainted with new marketing topics. Many students often find that they prefer to work within a certain area of marketing such as business branding. A MBA degree in marketing can provide students with the specialized knowledge that they need to enter into the area of marketing that they prefer being employed in. Other popular, specialized areas of marketing include mobile technology, e-commerce, digital signage, and much more.
Time-Efficient
Obtaining a MBA degree in marketing can be accomplished in a relatively small amount of time. In fact, many MBA marketing degrees can be earned in as little as 15 months once four years of undergraduate studies have been completed.
Featured images:
- License: Creative Commons image source
Leslie Cannon is a marketing director who contributed to the online guide to the Top MBA Programs for Marketing.
Guest Post
The 6 Worst Things About Huge Colleges And Universities
For many people, one of the most important choices they will make during their lifetime is choosing which college to earn a degree from. Even though small and large colleges each have their advantages, larger ones most definitely have their disadvantages too. Let’s take a close look below at why it is a good idea to steer clear of studying at a large college or university.
1) Classes are Too Large
When studying at a large college, students often find themselves in classes with hundreds of other students. This is much unlike a smaller college, where class sizes usually stay under 50 students. When in large classes, students do not get the opportunity to ask questions as they do in small classes. Also, professors of large classes rarely get to know their students because there are too many.
2) Teaching Done by TAs
Many large colleges have a variety of courses taught by TAs. TA’s are not ‘dumb’ in the knowledge they teach; however, they are often beginners and very inexperienced. Learning from TAs often means that students will not be provided an in-depth learning experience. For the amount of money paid to go to college, students should always seek to be taught by professors who have many years of experience under their belts; this can be found at most smaller colleges.
3) No Freedom in Degree Curriculums
Most larger colleges have strict degree curriculums that students must adhere to. In fact, students are almost never entitled to take courses that do not fall into a particular degree curriculum. At smaller colleges, students are provided flexibility in the courses that can take. Some even allow their students to design their own majors.
4) Little Communication with Professors
Because professors at large colleges teach hundreds of students, sometimes thousands, on a weekly basis, it becomes quite impossible to communicate with a professor on a regular basis. Some professors require that students only visit them during office hours, which sometimes is only one time a week. Waiting in line at the professor’s office can sometimes take hours. When going to school at a small college, students are better able to speak with their teachers on a consistent and frequent basis.
5) Little Coursework
Many large colleges limit the number of papers that students write and submit because professors simply do not have enough time to read through and grade hundreds of students’ papers every week. With little or no coursework, students’ final grades are almost completely derived from their grades on mid-term and final exams. On the other hand, at small colleges, students are able to sharpen their skills and improve their overall grades by turning in several papers during a semester.
6) No Personalized Attention
When attending a large college, even if a student is struggling with something, it is highly unlikely that he or she will be able to receive personalized attention from a professor. This can greatly cause a student to struggle with his or her grades. In fact, it can hurt so bad that it causes a student to be suspended or expelled. At a small college, students are able to receive one-on-one attention from instructors; thus, enabling them to obtain a deep understanding of the subjects they study.
Featured images:
- License: Creative Commons image source
- License: Creative Commons image source
Todd Browning is a college professor who has written an excellent and informative guide to the top online schools and degree programs.
Guest Post
The Psychological Effect Of Releasing A New Product Or Service – For Your Employees
If you provide a service or product, then the amount your business earns will always be at the mercy of the clients you are selling to. In other words, a company’s profit will always be dictated by how much its customers are willing to pay for that product, and how valuable they believe it to be.
This means that you can’t easily just ‘up’ your profits. Unlike being an employee or an individual worker, you can’t just ask for a ‘raise’ because few people are happy to start paying more for the same service they’ve always received.
The solution of course may be to release a new product or service, and by simply re-packaging your existing offerings and promoting them well, you can start to increase your profits without drastically increasing your overheads.
But this has another benefit too – which is the psychological impact it can have on your employees. Let’s look into what such a change might mean for them…
Shaking it Up
Imagine you have been doing the same thing day-in-day-out for years. You consider yourself pretty good at your job, and so good in fact that you could probably do it with your eyes closed. While you may indeed be very good at your job though, this will undoubtedly lead to your becoming at least a little complacent and perhaps also somewhat ‘stagnant’.
This is the state of play then when you’re suddenly told by your employer that you’re creating a new product that needs to be better than anything you’ve ever done before. This is your ‘premium’ product, and you’ve been chosen to work on it. What’s more, you’re going to be charging the clients more for it too.
Suddenly then, even if you previously thought you were working to the best of your abilities, you will undoubtedly improve and the quality of your work will continue to go up – particularly if the new work comes with a raise.
This is something that you can do over and again too – so potentially you can keep on improving the quality of your staff’s work and thus your end product.
Other Factors
There are some other factors to consider here though. For one, you may well find that in giving your staff a new kind of product to work on, you will end up making them try even less hard when they go back to the old product. You can avoid this by giving the new product to one or two members of staff exclusively until the demand is great enough to get more of your employees to work on it. This way you will get 100% effort from those on the new product, while also giving your other employees something to work hard towards. They’ll want to get put onto the premium product, and as a result, they’ll start creating more premium-type work at the same salary.
You should also note the psychological principles at work here and understand just what it is that’s making your staff work harder. It’s not just the product or service you see that’s making them work harder – it’s the simple fact that you are challenging them and that you’re keeping their work varied thus giving them a kind of ‘refresh’ that will help them to engage more with what they’re doing. There are plenty of other ways you can do this too, whether it means simply moving your staff around the office/work site, whether it means updating the systems and tools they’re working with, or whether it means giving feedback and actively challenging your staff to keep improving.
Featured images:
- License: Creative Commons image source
- License: Creative Commons image source
- License: Creative Commons image source
Jack Russel is a mechanical engineer and runs a business that deals with supplying railroad construction tools. He is a nature lover and frequently goes hiking with his friends and also takes time out of his busy schedule to share his thoughts on various blogging sites.
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