As a marketer, you’re always looking to enhance your skills and become the best marketer you can be.
You want to find out the reasons a prospect wants your product or service. You want to make sure anything you write – a blog post, article, case study, white paper, etc. – connects with them and moves them forward to purchase what you offer.
At the same time, you’re looking for
- ways to be most productive,
- ways to complete your writing assignments more quickly without losing quality, and
- ways to analyze the results of your marketing campaigns more quickly without misinterpreting those results.
Here’s an Easy Way for You to DoThis – a Simple Change That Will Start Paying Dividends Immediately
What is this change?
Deliberately get more focused every day.
Most probably this is what your normal work day looks like.
You’re working on a project – a blog post, for example. You’re in deep thought about what you want to say and you’re getting that down. Then the phone rings. You answer it. The caller has a question which you answer. The call takes ten minutes.
After the call ends, you spend some time thinking about the person who called, their question and your response. The conversation triggered some other thoughts.
It’s 20 minutes before you get back to that blog post. However, you have forgotten much of what you planned to write. You can’t recall all of the great points you were going to make. You finish the post.
The phone call and the time spent thinking about it afterwards took 30 minutes out of your day. More importantly, it interrupted your train of thought and your post is not as good as it would have been if you had not answered the call.
Later in the day you’re working on a case study. One of your coworkers, John, pops into your office with a question about a project he’s working on. You spend 20 minutes talking to him about it.
When he leaves, you can’t get back to the case study immediately. You spend some time thinking about John and the question. You realize some other associates may have the same question. You better let them know about this. You make a note on your calendar to do that. That takes another 20 minutes.
You finally get back to what you were doing before John popped in. However, you have forgotten some of the good points you were going to make in the case study.
That interruption cost you 40 minutes. More importantly the case study you write is not as good as it would have been without the interruption.
Could it be Worse?
Yes — let’s say – John popped in with his question right after your phone call ended. You didn’t get a chance to process that call before he did. So now you end up doing that after John leaves. You also need to get the information out to the other associates. That may actually take longer – It may be 50 minutes or more.
The total time you lost in this example is about 1 hour and 20 minutes. However, you have been away from the blog post or case study so long you virtually have to start over from the beginning on it.
Interruptions Like These are Killers
Frequently the outcome of any of your projects interrupted by phone calls or people stopping in and asking questions is never as good as it would have been if you completed them without any interruption.
How Can You Avoid Interruptions Like this and Produce Higher Quality Work?
By scheduling focused periods of time into your work day.
How do you do that?
Decide in advance that you are going to spend a certain limited amount of time working totally on a project. During that time,
- you’re not going to allow anything to interrupt you.
- If your phone rings, you’re going to allow it to go into voice mail.
- You’re not going to check your emails or your computer.
- You are going to close your office door and not let anyone interrupt you.
All you are going to do is work on the project you have in front of you.
How Long Will You Do This For?
That is going to vary based on you and how long you can continue to be productive. Some people do it for 25 minutes. Others suggest 45 minutes. Some go to 50 minutes.
You might want to try these varying amounts to see which is the best for you.
How Do You Track the Time?
You can use any simple timer. Many use a kitchen timer. Others use a timer on their computer.
At the start, set the timer for the specified time you want. Then start working on your project. When the timer goes off, stop working on it.
Then take a break and do whatever you want. The break may be five minutes, 10 or 20. During that time you can get a drink, return phone calls or get with whoever wanted to ask you a question.
After the break, do it over again. Set your timer and work uninterrupted for the specified time. You can continue to work on the same project or a different one. It’s up to you.
Many self-employed people working out of their homes, including copywriters, marketing consultants and writers, do this. They find they are able to get much more accomplished during the day. They also have noticed an improvement in the quality of their work
You May Be Wondering
If this technique is so good, why not set the timer for longer periods of time, say 90 minutes or 2 hrs.
It has been found that people are more productive during short periods of time. During longer periods of time, they start to get tired, antsy or stressed out.
The Key to Productivity is . . .
. . . to remain focused for the shorter period of time and to take that break. The break rejuvenates you.
It’s unclear who came up with this:
Gene Schwartz, a great copywriter, talked about it in his book, Breakthrough Advertising. Gene was very precise on his focused time — 33 minutes and 33 seconds.
Francesco Cirillo popularized it and called it the Pomodoro Technique. Francesco limited his focus time to 25 minutes.
Try This Technique for a Week
See how it works for you. Like many others, you may be amazed at the results you get.
