The most productive people still have to motivate themselves every day. They spend a lot of time working out what motivates them to keep going and that's how they achieve many of the amazing things they achieve. It's been that way for hundreds of years and will be that way for hundreds more. It's human nature.

"Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful people with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan "press on" has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race" -Calvin Coolidge

Persistence is linked to motivation. If you're persistent, you'll find ways to keep yourself motivated even if you're not completely enchanted by your current work. You'll push through and find ways to keep at it at least, that is, until it guides you to something you are enchanted by - at which point motivation will come more naturally.

My point? The same as Zig Ziglar's:

"People often say that motivation doesn't last. Well, neither does bathing - that's why we recommend it daily." -Zig Ziglar

Here are some things I do that help keep me motivated, even when I'm bored with my work or feeling sickly and would much rather stay in bed.

Light Therapy
One of the more recent additions to my daily motivation routine is to use a tiny 11W energy saver light bulb as a desk lamp during the day. I also use it at night but using it during the day, I find, helps keep my spirits up and my brain awake. I discovered this little gem after reading "6 Surprisingly Effective Treatments for Depression." I wasn't depressed at the time but I was looking for some form of motivation and this did the trick. Total cost? Probably around R10 as I borrowed the desk lamp from my brother-in-law and just stuck in my own light bulb. What's important to note here is that the lamp is about half a meter away from me and to my side, not in front of or behind me. Having this light source in your peripheral vision is the key. Read that article or Google "light therapy" for more info.

Music
From heavy metal to Enya, I make sure I always have music playing while I work. If I don't, I get caught up in the feelings that what I'm doing is "too hard" or "too much" or "I don't like doing this" and so on. It can get so bad that I can get lost in thought for two hours or more, just thinking about how much I don't want to do this work. That doesn't help me get bills paid and it doesn't help me find an alternative work to do - it just keeps me paralysed, which is never good.

With some music going on, I tend to focus my emotions more on the music and less on what I'm doing. This helps me get through my work without attaching any unnecessary emotions to it. Most of us do work out of necessity, not passion, so if that's the case, I highly recommend some music to keep you going. Just be careful what you play. Sometimes Enya is great for coming up with ideas and calming down from a bad mood but sometimes you need some heavy metal to code at the speed of light. Figure out your own mojo and then adjust your listening habits accordingly.

A balanced diet, some exercise and sleep
You can try and avoid this one all you like but the truth is that a balanced diet, some exercise and enough sleep will keep you motivated, happy, energetic and sexy ;)

Food, I find, helps me stay positive but I have to be careful what I'm eating. When I stick with a balanced eating plan (note: I didn't say diet!), then I feel balanced, positive & energetic. If I eat junk food or skip my veggies, after a couple of meals I'm downright horrible to be around and my work suffers as well. This is what has worked for me lately:

Breakfast: Cooked oats plus a scoop of USN diet fuel.
A bit later: Meal replacement shake: 2 scoops of USN diet fuel + 300ml of water
Lunch: 2 chicken breasts or portions of fish, or chicken pieces, a cup of veggies or an apple and a small microwaved potato or half a cup of rice or half a cup of pasta. (Or similar)
A bit later: Another shake.
Supper: Similar to lunch.

I'm not saying you should do the same. Maybe you hate the idea of having a meal replacement shake - that's fine but find something that works for you and make sure it's balanced.

As for exercise - that's also a tricky one. Find something you'll enjoy doing. A daily walk around the block will do you more good than you think. Try A swim, a game of soccer, shooting hoops, martial arts or even de-weeding your garden. As long as you enjoy it enough to do it frequently, you'll find that your energy levels will rocket, you'll have great ideas during the exercise and you'll also find it easier to go to sleep at night and easier to wake up in the mornings. It's definitely worth it!

Try sleeping between 7-9 hours a day. Some people need a bit less while others need a bit more. You'll find that if you oversleep or undersleep by 2 hours or more, you'll be miserable the next day - so be careful of that. Even on weekends, I stick to about 8-9 hours of sleep.

I used to go to bed at about 10PM each night but found that I would only wake up at around 8 or 9 so, instead of trying to wake up earlier (which is nearly impossible in winter), I started going to bed at midnight or 1AM. Now I feel much better.

The key to food, exercise and sleep (and everything else, really) is to find the balance that works for you. It's not likely to be the same for everyone but you can start with something that works for someone else and then tailor it to suit your own needs.

Look at the cash figures
For work-related motivation, I find that this one helps a lot. It might not help people in jobs but, for us self-employed folk, it's a very helpful motivator.

I look at both the figures going out and the figures coming in.

My income motivates me to work harder and faster so that I can get paid and spend that money on something fun.

The expenses motivate me to work "or else". If I know I have to pay my medical aid and I'm short some cash this month, a quick reminder of that fact will often help kick my butt into gear and get some work done.

If you're not keeping track of your income and expenses, start now. It will make a difference to your motivation levels AND to your eventual financial independence because you'll be able to see what you're overspending on, what to do more of to make more money and so on.

Know what you're going to do before you begin
Having a list of what needs to get done for the day helps you prevent distractions from getting in the way of the important stuff. I find that, on the days that I work from such a list, I get LOADS of work done while, on the days that I don't, I sit wondering where the day went to.

It's important to have a list that you made and don't let others influence that list. It's often easier said than done and you won't always get it right, especially not in the beginning, but you'll find that you achieve amazing things when you do.

Ignore email, Facebook, Skype, your cellphone, Google Talk and all the rest of them
It's fine to check these things once or twice a day but if you spend your whole day chatting and checking email and reading statuses, you'll never get anything done and you'll never improve your life. What I do is I only check on these after I've achieved something significant and, even then, only briefly. You need to be aware that these distractions will rob you of really important experiences and achievements if you allow them to.

By all means, socialise, have fun, chat to friends, share funny emails but don't let them rule your life. When it's time to work, work. Don't work and chat or work and check emails and... and... and... I'm sure you get my drift :)

Find ways to make your work go faster
This may sound simple but if you find real, predictable ways of making your work go faster, you'll get more done in less time and have more time left to yourself. Again, this is a bit trickier for people in jobs as working faster could mean just getting more work to do. It's different from company to company.

What works for me is to copy my work down to my local computer and work from there. I find that I code faster and, because of that, I actually enjoy my work instead of dreading it. It allows me to do my best and I believe it's human nature to want to do your best. So, take control over what you can to ensure you can do your best work as quickly and efficiently as you can.

Another way I make my work go faster is by swallowing my pride and NOT re-inventing the wheel. As a programmer, I'm often tempted to rewrite code in order to make it "better". The trouble with that is that I end up working slower and taking longer to solve a problem that's been solved before. And I don't get paid extra for that time, either. So I've stopped doing that. I now copy code I've got working elsewhere and I get on with solving problems instead of trying to make everything "perfect".

Of course, I'm still a programmer so, while I'm working, a throw in a dash of genius in now and then, for my own satisfaction and without allowing it to negatively affect my deadlines.

Brain Boosters
When you're really struggling to keep focused, you can use brain boosters. One brain booster I use is an MP3 I bought here that helps me focus creatively. I got a whole bunch of other boosters with the pack but the "creative focus" MP3 is the one I find myself coming back to time and again. It's just a 20-minute sound clip that you can listen to while you work. I play music at the same time and it still works incredibly well.

It works so well that I forgot what it feels like to hit a brain-block while coding. I'm serious! One day I forgot to put the booster on and I hit a brick wall and I couldn't figure out why I couldn't solve what should have been a simple problem. Then it dawned on me and I put on my brain booster track. 5 minutes later, I solved the problem and carried on working on other things. Magic!

You see, the trouble is that we surround ourselves with so much stress and so many inputs from the world around us that we struggle, these days, to focus. So while you might feel that a "brain booster" sounds weird and unnatural, I think it's the most natural thing. If it wasn't for all the other noise in our lives, we'd be able to focus any time we wanted. That's my story and I'm sticking to it ;)

I also find that the relaxation and deep-relaxation MP3s, available in the same pack of boosters, help a lot. I doze off and wake up, 20 minutes later, ready to take on the world. I would suggest these to anyone - they really work.

Keep a list
I have a list of "Things that Work for Me". Yes, that's what it's called :)

All it is, is a list of basic ideas that help me work when I'm not really feeling up to it. I go over the list and put some of the suggestions into action and, eventually, I start working. Here's the exact list I use, every day:

- Sleep properly (8 hours, even if I go to bed late).
- Look at the cash figures - both due out and due in. They can be inspiring.
- Write down what needs to get done before switching PC on.
- Ignore email/facebook/skype/phone/gtalk.
- Copy site down to local PC. (Or a ZA host)
- MUSIC, MUSIC, MUSIC. Boring music is better than no music!
- Creative focus brain booster (better than constant concentration one)
- Copy code that's working elsewhere.

So that's it. Take what works for you, drop what doesn't and come up with your own list and you'll find that, even on the worst days, you'll be able to get something done and maintain momentum which, I believe, is incredibly important. A little bit done every day makes a big difference.

"Make measurable progress in reasonable time." -Jim Rohn

"Remember, a monthly income of R1000 from an automated knowledge product is akin to having R150K in the bank, earning interest for you. So, if you are earning about R7K a month from these sort of sales (through a variety of means, maybe), you are effectively an internet millionaire, receiving the interest on R1M in the bank, for which you do not have to work." - Frank Muller

If you do the math, keeping in mind that Capitec Bank offers savings accounts with a per annum interest rate of 8%, it works out. With that in mind, I've been an internet millionaire for a few months, then :)

Sure, I don't own the Viper RT/10, the huge flatscreen TV or any of those other things that I might normally associate with being a millionaire but I do have a lot of free time. I took yesterday off to spend with my wife to celebrate our second wedding anniversary. I generally only get in the office at 10am. I seldom spend more than 2-3 hours at a time in the office at a time because I take longish breaks for lunch, my USN shakes, and so on.

In fact, if it wasn't for my debt, I might actually stop working at the tender age of 27.

I recognise that I still have a ways to go but it feels good to know that, on some levels, I have arrived!

Having said all that good stuff, I also figured out today, thanks to my income spreadsheet, that I work too hard. This month, if I do nothing else at all, I will still earn over 50% of my required income via passive income source and yet, I have still booked up just under 100% of my time with "normal" work. It would appear that someone is having trouble letting go of the work-life! We won't mention any names but he looks, sounds and acts JUST like me. Silly rabbit.

I'm reading Richard Koch's "The 80/20 Principle: The Secret to Achieving More with Less". It's a book about how 80% of your successes / achievement / profit / etc comes from 20% of your input / effort / investment / etc.

The principle, then, is to focus on the 20% that gives us the 80% result rather than focus on the full 100%. The idea being that you can work less and achieve more when you apply this principle.

I've been applying this sort of thinking with my work with great results. This month, for example, I've doubled my income by refusing to do any new work and focusing on the 20% of work/clients that pay me the 80% of my income.

I'm less stressed, less overwhelmed and also, richer :)

Here's a cool tidbit of things to do to put the principle in practise. (From page 39 in the book)

- Celebrate exceptional productivity, rather than raise average efforts.

- Look for the short cut, rather than run the full course.

- Be selective, not exhaustive.

- Strive for excellence in few things, rather than good performance in many.

- Delegate or outsource as much as possible.

- Choose careers and employers with extra care and, if possible, employ others rather than be employed.

- Only do the thing we are best at doing and enjoy most.

- Work out where 20 percent of effort can lead to 80 percent of returns.

- Calm down, work less and target a limited number of very valuable goals where the 80/20 principle can work, rather than pursuing every available opportunity.

- Make the most of those few "lucky streaks" in life where our creativity peaks and the stars line up to guarantee success.

If you're feeling overwhelmed, over-worked and under-paid, read through this every day until you can find reasonable ways (or even drastic ways) to make these bits of advice work for you.

Buy it here:

My new catch word is WORM. Write once, read many. You do the work once and earn from it multiple times.

Like writing an article, and then tweeting about it, and then Google picks it up and you start getting a steady stream of traffic to that article and you continuously earn money from the AdSense ads (or affiliate links) on that page - it's WORM.

I don't say passive income any more because it's not actually passive - you have to work at least once for it. But it can definitely be WORM. You do the work once and earn from it many times.

Or maybe it should be WOEM - write once, earn many!

Or even DOEM - Do once, earn many. I'm DOEM'ed ;)

This post is in both "Self Development" and "Wealth Creation" and I'll tell you why. Checklists are one very powerful way to ensure you cut the crap and get on with the important stuff.

I've just created a checklist called "Site a Day". It's designed to guide me through the process of creating a very small, very effective, keyword-focused web site - every day. By reducing the steps involved to a simple 7-step checklist, I keep myself focused and the process of ticking each step off is a great motivator.

If you're a Michael Gerber fan, you will already have learned about checklists. You may even have a few checklists for important processes in your business, that you require your employees to tick off. Good on you!

If you're looking for a faster way to make printable checklists, then look no further than the awesomeness that is http://printablechecklist.org. It's intuitive, lightning-fast, doesn't require registration and, when you're done, you can just print to PDF. With your new PDF, you can print as many copies as you like as often as you like. More recent versions of Firefox support printing to PDF so this really couldn't be simpler! Enjoy :)

There was a guy called C. Northcote Parkinson who said something very useful and profound. He said:

Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion.

Which means that a task you give yourself 1 hour to do will, by virtue of the time assigned to it, be simpler to do than the SAME task, if you give yourself 1 week to do it in.

As Tim Ferriss puts it in his book, The 4-Hour Work Week, you then have 6 days of turning a molehill into a mountain.

Ferriss also says that, to be more effective in your work, you should set out to do the same work in MUCH less time.

So I decided to test this theory out this weekend and here's what happened...

On Saturday, I spent 1 hour and 15 minutes finishing some work that I thought would take at least 2-3 hours. I simply set the tight deadline and then did the work. The shorter timeframe forced me to focus on the bare essentials and I got the work done!

I spent the rest of Saturday chilling and relaxing. (I had planned to work most of Saturday)

On Sunday, I spent 1 hour and 4 minutes finishing some work that I thought would take 2-4 hours. I spent the rest of the time with my family. (Yes, I had planned to work most of the day!) Are we seeing a pattern yet?

In short: I achieved in 2 hours and 19 minutes what I would normally dedicate 4-7 hours to do.

And, in short, I had a really great weekend.

The most important part of this all is that I normally procrastinate on any task that will take more than an hour to complete. Now I don't need to because the shorter timeframe forces me to simplify and focus which means that things get done and I don't procrastinate.

Next, I'm going to try this during the week. My goal is to achieve in 2-4 hours what I would normally spend the whole day doing. And then I'm going to play guitar, watch TV and spend time with my wife.

Yes, Parkinson's Law is my new best friend!

Time to recap on my goals for 2009.

First, my business goals...

1. Get FreeArticles.co.za back over the R5,000 hump.

FreeArticles.co.za stayed earning under the R5,000 mark but I sold it for R50,000. Less than it's worth but I'm investing it and it does free up my time for other things, so I still feel like this is a win :)

2. Push GuitarForum.co.za over the R5,000 hump as well.

Not doing good in this regard. The site makes maybe R300-R500 a month. Maybe. However, I have a BIG plan in the works to transform the site into a Drupal site which will give me a lot more freedom in offering more/better/cooler features which also translates into easier monetisation.

Even though I feel off-target with this goal, I'm having fun with this site. I love it so I'm not concerned about the cash I'm not making with it ;)

3. Go under debt review and stop getting calls from banks and things ;)

Win + fail. Went under debt review, couldn't make payments. Creditors likely to be on my butt again soon.

4. Push SpotOnForex.com over the R20,000 hump.

On-target here. We've got an affiliate who is promoting us like crazy and we're about to start offering a managed-trading option where we do ALL the hard work for our clients. They seem very happy with this so far and it should boost their income in a very BIG way. So affiliate signups should skyrocket. Definitely feel on-target here :)

5. Push IconFarm.co.za over the R1,000 hump.

I've gotten the ball just barely rolling along on this one. We need to get more icons and designers on the site then I can push the SEO into top-gear and achieve this goal quite easily, I'm sure.

So far I'm getting the feeling that I should review these goals every 3 months, not 6 months. Reviewing every 3 months would probably inspire me to get back on course a lot faster. Not impressed with how I basically "forgot" about these goals! Moving on...

6. Push iThank.co.za over the 1,000 users hump.

Not even close. Haven't put any effort into this site at all. It has so much potential. Seriously off course here :/

7. Revive JogMyMemory.co.za and push it over the R1,000 hump.

Good things happening here. Got an investor involved who has funded some development in a new direction. Still lots of work to do but this one might surprise me and go over the R10,000 mark this year.

8. Develop semi-confidential projects that are potentially worth over R100,000 per month.

This is (if I recall correctly) related to JogMyMemory.co.za. Headed in the right direction but need to pay a bit more attention to this to get to R100,000 per month!

9. Get R1m funding so I can get other people to do the work necessary for some of these and so I can finally realise my vision of Maxiware CC being a solid web development and internet technology research house.

Way off-course but also not entirely convinced I still want this. The past few months have made me wonder if I would rather like to keep things very small, tight & easy. ie: Build sites over 3-24 months and then sell them. Rinse, repeat.

Having sold FreeArticles.co.za, I know what it takes to build a site I can sell and I know how to find a buyer. With bandwidth prices coming down, we should see more buyers entering the market, so there's a good chance I can make a very, very happy living out of this sort of web site flipping biz.

On to my personal goals...

1. Reach my 100 pushups goal and stay there or do better.

Fell off the wagon here. Stopped doing the pushups altogether. Not happy about this and would like to get back on track but not sure how to motivate myself to stick with the program.

2. Take at least one week-long holiday somewhere pretty. Can even be up the road, as long as it's pretty.

Took a weekend off in Mpumalanga. Was really nice but still not quite the week I was aiming for.

3. Pay everyone on time.

Rent has been on time every month. Quite a change from last year. Quite a relief. Other things have been a little less on-time :P

4. Help my mom, dad & sisters in some significant way.

No idea if I've achieved anything here. We've been doing little bits here and there for them but nothing I would label "significant".

5. Help other family as well.

Probably also a few very minor things here.

6. Build a repertoire of really awesome songs I can play on guitar. (Learn them first, duh :P)

A little bit of success here. I'm currently working on "Ten Words" by Joe Satriani and, also, a jazzy composition of my own. Not sure how many songs I need before I can call it a "repertoire" but I'm making a little headway here, which is good :)

A couple of disappointments in some areas while other things are progressing at an acceptable rate. One thing's for sure, I don't have the same energy as what I had in the beginning of the year, when I wrote this post. I need to revive that energy as it is, most likely, what is needed in order for me to achieve all these goals in the next 6 months.

One thing I've noticed is that, each time we move houses (we moved to Kempton Park in March), I lose all my motivational stuff, goals, quotes, affirmations, etc, that I had stuck around the house. That's pretty sucky as I lose focus and get beat down a whole lot faster. I'd like to pay some attention to having a more permanent way of reminding myself of my goals & aspirations.

Perhaps a wooden notice board? I'm not sure but I need to address that before I lose any more steam!

Exactly 2 months ago (29 Jan, 09), I blogged about "Finding My Three Quarters".  I was making around R5,000 a month passive income.  That is to say, I wasn't putting in any hard hours to get that R5,000.

I'm half way to R20,000 so this post is about finding the next 2 quarters.  Pretty exciting stuff!

What happened?  Two of my sites started getting the traffic they deserve.  By no accident, mind you.  The one site has undergone (and is still undergoing) a LOT of optimisation to get it to this point and the other is being actively promoted by one of our affiliates.

Groovy stuff huh?

Now I could still go ahead and try make up the remaining 2 quarters of my desired passive income by building 30-Day-Challenge sites (see my previous post) but it's obvious to me that focusing on what's already working would be a wiser investment of my time.

So keep that in mind next time you wanna make more money - figure out what's ALREADY bringing in the most significant amount of money and focus more attention on THAT. 

Also remember to work smarter not harder. 

As a web developer (or webpreneur), working harder means bookmarking your site more, commenting on more sites, submitting to more article directories, writing content, etc.  Working smarter means helping your site's visitors bookmark your site, encourage THEM to write more content, add a weekly newsletter that runs itself, automate posting GOOD content to Twitter, Facebook and the likes.  I'm hoping you're getting the picture by now :)

So I sat down a day or two ago and worked out just how much money I make each month that is, give or take a few hours of maintenance, passive income.  It turns out I'm about one quarter of the way to my R20k a month goal.  That is, I make just over R5000 a month without putting in any "hard" hours.

Well, with that in mind (and on paper), I now needed to figure out how to get the remaining three quarters and, by golly, I think I've got it :D

Using something like The 30 Day Challenge, if I could set up 15 sites that each make a little over $100 p/m each, I'll be golden :)

Is it feasible to set up 15 good sites in the next 5 months?  If I put in the hours, sure!  Will each make $100 p/m from the geto-go?  Unlikely but some of them certainly will and that will put me in a stronger position than I am in now, so it's hardly a fail.

The biggest trick in getting this right will be doing the research part.  If I develop a coupla sites around dud-keywords, I'll be wasting time, so I need to spend enough time doing research so that, when the time comes to actually do some SERIOUS work, I'll have a much greater chance of actually making money instead of wasting precious hours in my day.

Another thing that comes to mind is the possibility of using these 15 sites to help boost the traffic to some of my other sites that are already making me some money.  Cross-pollinating, if you will.  That should definitely make the exercise worthwhile.

Will it work?  Well, let's see :D

So Ally mentioned something about self-assessing once every 6 months and I think it's very wise so I'm putting my goals down in writing out in the open and, somewhere around June, I need to come back and see just how much of this I've achieved and what I haven't and what I need to change to get back on track...

Business Goals...

1. Get FreeArticles.co.za back over the R5,000 hump.


2. Push GuitarForum.co.za over the R5,000 hump as well.


3. Go under debt review and stop getting calls from banks and things ;)


4. Push SpotOnForex.com over the R20,000 hump.


5. Push IconFarm.co.za over the R1,000 hump.


6. Push iThank.co.za over the 1,000 users hump.


7. Revive JogMyMemory.co.za and push it over the R1,000 hump.


8. Develop semi-confidential projects that are potentially worth over R100,000 per month.


9. Get R1m funding so I can get other people to do the work
necessary for some of these and so I can finally realise my vision of
Maxiware CC being a solid web development and internet technology
research house.

Personal Goals...

1. Reach my 100 pushups goal and stay there or do better.

2. Take at least one week-long holiday somewhere pretty.  Can even be up the road, as long as it's pretty.

3. Pay everyone on time.

4. Help my mom, dad & sisters in some significant way.

5. Help other family as well.

6. Build a repertoire of really awesome songs I can play on guitar.  (Learn them first, duh :P)

That's it!  Let's see how I'm doing in 6 months :)