What to do? What to do?

To do accounting work?Or to finalize a new listing? That is the question! ... Oh wait no, it's to doaccounting work? Or to finalize a new listing? Or to create a new product? Orto write a blog? Or make a Facebook ad? Or to make edit my Etsy ads? Or stockup on product? Or to clean up the office? Or..

The list continuesforever...

Guess which I one Ipicked though? 

Yesterday I read a greatnewsletter from Mike Lyons of New Blue Marketing about suchquestions & what to do when you find yourself wasting more time trying tofigure out what to do then spending time just doing something! 

I cannot even expresshow many times my fiancé has asked me what I did at work today and I just stareat him, & then at the clock behind him, and wonder "what the heck didI do all day? Surely I didn't just spend 6 hours making & finalizing 3listings?" But the truth is that WAS all I did; because for the other 4hours I was deciding what to do. 

Now I know you all arethinking, there is no way she spent 4 hours staring at her computer screengoing "hmm, what to do? What to do?" And no, it usually looks &feels like I am doing a lot more than that. Nevertheless, that really is whatit all comes down to. 

When I do it, I call itanalyzing. I stare at my stats, & the key words people are using to find mystuff, at the number of views I have & what times I got the most & theleast. I also call it networking. I'll catch myself spending twenty minuteshere & there reading posts on the Etsy forums. I also call it "needingbackground music." I have to wonder sometimes just how many minutes a dayI waste just skipping through songs on Slacker Radio.  

All these things seemlike harmless & sometimes even helpful short little tasks at the time. Butadd them all up & get a good four hours of doing nothing easy. Now thisexample is an extreme I'll admit. But there has definitely not been a day whereI didn't think about what I accomplished only to be baffled by the little thatI actually did. 

In Mike's newsletter,the bottom line was to take action. You can't do anything if you aren't doinganything. But for me the problem isn't that I'm not taking action, the problemis I am taking the wrong kind of action. And I'm sure I am not the only one whohas fell into that same pit.

So I believe I havefound the answer, try it out & see if it works for you. Think of all thethings you do that feel like work, but aren't actually forwarding your businessor are just wasting time. All those things you find yourself doing when youdon't know what to do. Then, the next time you find yourself starting to do it,STOP. I mean stop everything. Just stop & don't takeaction. Deep down we all know we need to take action to get things done; but toavoid taking the wrong kind of action, just stop. Stop taking action; you willbe surprised just how quickly you make a decision when you aren't doinganything else. So (Mike said in his newsletter) make a NOT TO DO list. And whenyou find yourself doing those things just stop everything. 

(Oh! and sign up forMike's newsletter. It's awesome.)