Small Things Can Still Eat You

October 25, 2008

Ants are pretty harmless little critters aren’t they? Ok – they bite but a little ant isn’t going to cause you many problems. Thousands of the bloody things could eat you though.

When I first moved to the place I live now, it was infested with ants. After a couple of days, I went swimming, plonked my bag on the changing room floor and a whole army of the little buggers crawled out. They had temporarily taken over my life.

Small things are like that aren’t they? At first they seem harmless, but they have the ability to drown you, if you don’t keep them under control.

Email is a bit like that. When you first get it, you just love getting those little messages – even the spam. Then you reach the point where replying to them becomes a full-time job.

Blogs are the same. I love reading what my friends have to say – but you get to the point where you just can’t keep up with reading every single post. But I read so many things on how to improve my life, that it’s become all reading and no improving. And it just isn’t do-able anymore.

So, I’ve started laying out some longer posts differently, to benefit time starved readers, beginning with this one: You Can Overcome Lack Of Self Confidence. The idea is, that if you’re in a rush – you still get the main points of the article from each headline.

More Ways You Can Stop The Little Things From Eating You

Cut down on reading blog posts and stick to the posts that benefit you most.

Set up a draft email message to acknowledge messages that you don’t need to comment on.

Time every task you do in a day, to identify the trivial time suckers.

Set up a daily “to do” list and stick to it. If you do it the night before, you’ll feel less stressed in the morning.

Switch off things like Instant Messaging and Twitter while you’re working.

If you’re struggling, get expert help, or advice. If you’re starting a business, check out the Business Discovery Group. And if you’re a new blogger, or thinking of launching a blog, I recommend the 8 Week Power Blog Launch.

What do you do to stop the small things eating you? Please share in the comments section.

Related Reading On Other Websites

At Least I Don’t Have Zits – A guest post by Rita, comparing blog commenting to High School.
Is There Such A Thing As A Commenters Burnout: Or Why I Sometimes Close Comments – Vered of MomGrind discusses commenting burnout.
Time Management For Creative People – Free e-book by Mark McGuinness
Not Productive Enough? Turn Off The Internet – Robert Scoble

Posted by cathlawson | Filed Under Running a Business

Comments

20 Responses to “Small Things Can Still Eat You”

Joanna Young on October 25th, 2008 12:37 pm

Nice analogy Cath.

It’s no good if blog reading becomes a chore not a pleasure. I’ve been reading a lot of ‘too much to read’ and ‘no time to comment’ posts recently. It’s partly because there’s so much interesting stuff out there I guess.

But we all need to work out how to fit our reading, writing, commenting, tweeting into the other things we do. If that means reading 200 blogs because you enjoy it and it stimulates your mind: fine. If it means reading 6 and commenting on them because you get a huge amount of enjoyment from it: equallyy fine.

Ther’es no one way to do it – only the way that works for us.

Joanna Young’s last blog post..Captivating Words: Results from My Ideal Writing Weekend Competition
Mike Goad on October 25th, 2008 1:45 pm

First of all, I try to keep from adding new things that take away available time, like twitter.

I limit the blogs I subscribe to and drop the ones that stop being interesting, don’t respond to any comments, or just don’t work for me for various reasons.

I look for posts where I have something to contribute, for the most part, rather than trying to comment on every post.

Mike Goad’s last blog post..On the Shore of Jenny Lake
Brad Shorr on October 25th, 2008 3:36 pm

Cath, Time management is a tough issue online and offline. When I started working as a freelancer, I assumed there would be fewer distractions than in a large office. Wrong! Twitter and such replaced water cooler chatter. I guess all you can do is stay relentlessly focused on work and engage in these social activities as time permits.

Brad Shorr’s last blog post..What Can the Stock Market Crash Teach Us about Marketing?
cathlawson on October 25th, 2008 6:06 pm

Hi Joanne – I have cut down heaps and like you, I read more than I speak. As you say – there’s so much great stuff. There’s just so little time.

Hi Mike – that sounds like a smart way to do it. I try not to add too much new stuff. I added Entrecard and it totally sucks. I’m just waiting til Ari’s ad has run and I’m going to get shot of it.

Hi Brad – That’s so true – working on your own can be harder sometimes. I’m reasonably disciplined – but I have to knock off Twitter as it’s too tempting to look when something interesting pops up.
Vered - MomGrind on October 25th, 2008 6:13 pm

I’ve become better at not checking my email constantly. I now check it 3 times per day. It’s made a big difference.

Vered – MomGrind’s last blog post..Advertising Sucks
cathlawson on October 25th, 2008 6:48 pm

Hi Vered – Huge hand slap for you. You’re not supposed to be reading blogs on a weekend anymore. At least you cut down on the email though.
John Hoff - eVentureBiz on October 25th, 2008 6:51 pm

Time management has always plagued me because I have big aspirations and there’s just no possible way that I can find where I can read and comment on so many blogs, let alone find time just to draft up a good article for my blog, and over take Donald Trump LOL.

It’s tough.

What I try to do is do the things I need to do as efficient as possible. For example, I use RoboForm whenever I need to login to a site. One click and it takes me there, fills in my login info, and submits. If I do that 10 times every day 7 days a week, I can shave a little off the “little stuff” tasks.
cathlawson on October 25th, 2008 7:29 pm

Hi John – I know what you mean. Speaking of Donald Trump – I don’t know how he manages to do so much. And he gets a whole shedload of blog traffic.

That RoboForm sounds handy. Did you get the Greasemonkey attachment for Firefox yet? You don’t need to leave Google Reader to read and comment on the whole blog. Saves a whole heap of time.
John Hoff - eVentureBiz on October 25th, 2008 8:05 pm

I did get the FireFox addon, however, I don’t use a 3rd party feed reader regularly. I use the FireFox Live Bookmarks feature and have a tab on my toolbar labeled “RSS Feeds” with all of them in there.

Reading through a reader is a little to boring for me. I like to actually go to the website.

I’ve been subscribed to Trump’s blog since about the time it was born hehe. If there’s one person who does not reply to comments it is Trump. I highly doubt too that he actually writes his articles and hits the “publish” button. He doesn’t even have a computer on his desk.

I’ve noticed the major author on that blog seems to be a guy named Brett. I think a huge part of their traffic comes from their marketing efforts for Trump University and many people subscribe to the blog from there.
Kathy @ virtual Impax on October 25th, 2008 10:38 pm

One thing about life in Florida – it’s all about the bugs. Big bugs, little bugs – to the point where you welcome the large and poisonous Bufo Toads because of their voracious appetite for bugs of ALL sizes!

I really DIG the iGoogle to manage my RSS subscriptions because I can glance over all the posts and see which ones “catch” my attention.

That means, you’d better write a compelling title to get my attention on a page FILLED with titles – something YOU do quite regularly!!!

This blog is literally “buried” because I’ve been subscribed for so long and yet, I still seem to “find” your blog titles in that sea of drivel!!! Your titles are the best and they “draw” me in to read more!

In a sea of mediocrity, you are an island of inspiration!

Kathy @ virtual Impax’s last blog post..Achieve Success While Maintaining a Healthy Work Life Balance
Natural on October 26th, 2008 12:05 am

What do you do to stop the small things eating you? Please share in the comments section.

I get discouraged first because I can’t keep up and then I ask myself why am I trying to keep up. I let whatever I can go and I work with a list or a schedule, I try to put the important things up top and the rest I get to when I can. Not easy, sometimes I “fail”, but Valerie never stops trying.

Natural’s last blog post..breaking up is hard to do
Davina on October 26th, 2008 3:21 am

Hi Cath. I’ve cut way back on commenting on blogs. I write to-do lists (they are a magnet for attracting other to-dos but at least the thoughts are out of my head).

Recently I did a schedule and worked backward with the 24-hr clock. I started with how many hours I “need” for sleep. Then I reviewed my list of daily activities and allotted the required amount of time needed for each of them. Of course I ran out of hours but that’s when I had to make decisions about which activity could use less time or even be crossed off the list. This exercise really helps to give you the Big Picture.

Valerie’s comment about not giving up is right on too! Breaking old habits takes time but so does making new ones.

One thing I want to focus on in the future is “trying” to write shorter posts. I anticipate having a lot of trouble with that though!

Davina’s last blog post..Awakening To A Balanced Life
Shaan on October 26th, 2008 12:11 pm

Hi,
I am a new blogger and found this post really interesting and informative. . . Hope that these tips will benefit my blog and blogging.

Shaan’s last blog post..Happy Birthday To GAURAV ( J2IMU)
cathlawson on October 26th, 2008 3:24 pm

Hi John – that’s true – few of the articles are marked with Trump’s name. I like reading the blog, but they treat the commenters a bit impersonally. Did you ever notice they all have numbers instead of names? A lot of them seem to be members of the Trump University.

Hi Kathy – you do have some really big bugs over there. And you have those huge ant eaters. I’m rubbish at golf anyway, but they put me off even more, as I was scared I’d hit them with the ball.

Thanks for the compliments on the titles. I’ve had to tone them down a bit, cos I wasn’t optimizing them so well. I was on the front page of Google for ages for “sex on a plane”, which attracted a lot of irrelevant searches – luckily I’m off it now.

Hi Valerie – that seems like a smart way to do it. I love your new avatar by the way. I remember you using that pic in a post recently.

Hi Davina – Good for you. You seem to be getting really organised since you started Kathy’s course. I keep thinking of things you could do with doing but I know you’re dead busy already.

That’s a good way of working it out. Especially when you realise how little sleep you’ll have left if you do all those things – it helps you prioritize. I used to sleep 4 hours a night. Had read Margaret Thatcher did it – so thought it would be ok. But, now she’s losing her marbles, I have to wonder how much good it did her.

Hi Shaan – Glad you enjoyed them. If you’re a new blogger you might also want to check out bloggingwithoutablog.com
John Hoff - eVentureBiz on October 26th, 2008 4:18 pm

Hi Cath. You know what that is (the members with numbers names), it’s a name their blog assigns you if you haven’t created a profile name.

You have to sign in to leave a comment on their blog. When you create an account, you can create your profile name which will be shown.

It’s a screwy system which I’ve told Brett should be updated for easier chat among blog readers. I guess they really want you to get involved in their site.
Barbara Swafford on October 27th, 2008 6:34 am

Hi Catherine – I’m agree with Joanna. There’s so much good stuff out there, I want to read it all. That is one reason I haven’t joined Twitter. I don’t need another distraction.

Barbara Swafford’s last blog post..A.S.K. Darren Rowse of Problogger – When Do We Know Our Blog Is A ?Winner?
cathlawson on October 27th, 2008 10:14 am

Hi John – I tried to create a profile but it still ust gave me a number. As you say, they’d be doing themselves a huge favour if they fixed it.

Hi Barbara – It’s difficult to get it all done isn’t it? I must admit, I read more on Twitter than I actually speak. It’s interesting to watch the different interactions.
Robin on October 28th, 2008 5:16 am

Hi Cath – it’s interesting how so many bloggers in my circle are writing about how to manage their time on the computer, lately. As if we are all finding things are becoming overwhelming – I know I am.

My approach to changing things at the moment is to become physically fitter – getting out more for walks and so on, and by being more self-disciplined about what I am doing. (if I’ve just written a comment I don’t need to re-read it 3 times)

Robin’s last blog post..How A Lot Of Wind Changed My Plans
Jeremy Day on November 4th, 2008 5:53 am

Hi Cath,

I agree. I LOVE reading as many blogs as I can, but like Rita said over at Writer Dad, commenting can just be ridiculous when it has no worth and it feels like high school.
Yes, Ive been following this conversation thread around the blogosphere. Personally, I would rather have my blog just read rather than commented on if people didnt have anything worth commenting. Sure the kudos are great, but like you said, it cant be all about reading and no doing. Thank you so much for this post.

Cheers,
Jeremy

Jeremy Day’s last blog post..21 Reasons Why This Election Makes Americans Sick to Their Stomachs
cathlawson on November 4th, 2008 12:13 pm

Hi Robin – that’s true. I think a lot of folk are feeling the pressure and really thinking about how they’re using their time.

Hi Jeremy

Rita had a really good point with that post. If folk are ust commenting for the sake of it, it’s a waste of time.

Like you, I would prefer people actually reading my stuff than commenting without reading.