How To Stay Focused As A Blogger So You Can Get The Most Important Stuff Done

We live in a world where there’s Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Email, iPhones, iPads and computers. We have access to the Internet which contains billions of pages of information.

Yet even though we have all this great information and tools at our disposal, we still struggle to get the most important stuff done when building your blogging business. Aren’t these tools supposed to help us be more productive?

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Another thing that shows up MAJORLY in my surveys is that the leading problem bloggers are dealing with isn’t traffic, SEO or writing…. it is lack of time and staying focused. This is the reason I created Time Master Formula.

So, today’s post by Khoa Bui is right on point. Don’t read this and then fall back into Facebook again. Take it to heart and DO something about it.
– David

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“Successful people don’t try to do everything, but instead focus on the most important tasks.” – Brian Tracy

We live in a world where there’s Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Email, iPhones, iPads and computers. We have access to the Internet which contains billions of pages of information.

Yet even though we have all this great information and tools at our disposal, we still struggle to get the most important stuff done when building your blogging business. Aren’t these tools supposed to help us be more productive?

I was looking at the amount of time I used to spend on Facebook. It worked out to be around 1 hour per day. That’s 5 hours per week which is 20 hours per month which equates to 260 hours per year! If I reduced my Facebook time to 50% so it’s only 130 hours, I have 130 hours extra I can use to build my business, go to the gym, spend time with my family, writing books etc.

I believe the rate of information is growing exponentially. Today’s information such as SEO practices is going to be outdated in the next 12 months, maybe 6. Software used today will be replaced with better software tomorrow. New technologies will enter the market which will change the entire playing field.

Keeping up with the Jones is more like keeping up with the Apps. Don’t do that!

It’s time to take back control of your time and refocus on what is most important and critical to your blogging success.

Let’s not get distracted with the latest social media tool, application or magic technique, let’s continue focusing on our customers and the activities that serve them.

No matter which new software, application or tool enters the market, the fundamentals of building a blogging business never changes. Here are some of the activities that keeps you focused on serving your customers.

  • Writing content rich articles for your customers
  • Submitting guest posts to build your brand and finding more customers
  • Creating videos that give value
  • Creating audios that give value
  • Build relationships with your subscribers by looking after them

Of course, a mechanic requires the right tools for the job, just like bloggers need the right tools for the job also. However, sometimes if you focus on JUST the latest tools, you can get sucked into the craziness of it and lose valuable time serving your customers.

Social Media Tools VS Email Marketing

One of my marketing campaigns I did with my blog site was to setup a Facebook like page and to generate as many likes as I could on it. I really did not have any idea what I was doing except most people said that you should get as many likes as you can so you can communicate with your subscribers.

It worked! I followed the plan and generated over 1,000 likes on Facebook in 3 days.

However, after several weeks of testing and measuring, I discovered that someone liking your Facebook page is not as powerful as someone reading your blog post and subscribing to you.

A Facebook like does not stay on their news feed that long as well, you have to continually advertise your story and also get them to interact with your messages so that they see your status updates.

I also used Twitter to advertise my blog, once again, a Twitter follower is similar to a Facebook Like, but it’s not as effective as someone subscribing to your list.

I also launched a brand new blog site where I grew my tiny list of 1 (my dog) to 90 subscribers in just 24 days. I did 1 product launch on that list of 90 people and the response was amazing. The income generated paid for all my startup costs, autoresponder service for several years and more.

90 Subscribers VS 1,000 likes on Facebook

After this social media experiment, I concluded that blog subscribers are far better than social media followers.

The fundamentals never change.

A blog subscriber is extremely valuable and should be served at all costs.

Email marketing which has been around for decades is still the most powerful media you can use to talk to your customers.

Therefore, it’s extremely important to continue focusing on the ball and serving your customers in any way you can through your blog content, email list and the value you create for them.

5 Action Steps To Keep You Focused And Frosty

“Stay Frosty” – Gaz from Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2

After many years of being an entrepreneur, writing 5 books, being an international speaker and traveling the world, I’ve discovered 5 key fundamentals to help you stay focused on your goals.

Here they are:

Action Step 1. Create a goal. Nothing happens until you draw the line in the sand and make a goal of what you want to achieve. Your goal must be something meaningful to you and something you’re really passionate about. Write down a specific and measurable goal you want to achieve within your blogging business. How many subscribers do you want and when? How many blog posts do you want to write by the end of X months? How many guest posts do you want to contribute to your community by the end of the year? Have a goal and make sure it’s achievable.

Action Step 2. Create a plan and work it baby. Once you’ve set your goal, write down a list of steps in order to achieve your goal. If you want to generate more subscribers to your email list, you could write down 10 ideas that will help you achieve that goal.

Action Step 3. Follow the Pareto Principle. Also known as the 80/20 rule. You know this principle, it’s about doing the small things that make the biggest difference in your life compared to the other things. When we start off in life, we are not given an instruction manual and we learn things by doing. Therefore, as you are building your business, keep learning and find the things that will make the biggest difference to your business.

Action Step 4. Spend every day focusing on that key activity. This is the key to success. Everything requires time and commitment. You can’t lose weight over night or get those six pack abs you’ve dreamed of by simply doing 100 ab crunches only once, it’s consistent action every single day that will compound into massive results. By having a goal and a list of steps, you are now equipped to begin working towards your goals every single day. You don’t have to do 100 different steps every day, just one step per day towards your goal. When you work every single day towards your goals, you create a life long habit of success. Remember, how do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.

Action Step 5. Eat that frog. Not a real one of course 😉 One of my favorite productivity books of all time is by Brian Tracy “Eat That Frog”. The concept of this book is absolutely amazing and I’ve applied this to my life with incredible success. What normally happens is whenever you write down a list of things you need to achieve for the day, there’s usually one thing on that list which is the most important and the thing that you’ll usually procrastinate on. Eat That Frog is all about working on that one thing the first thing in the morning before you do anything else so that nothing bad will really happen for the rest of the day since you’ve already eaten your frog. Is there an activity that you procrastinate on and know you should do it? Just eat that frog first thing in the morning 🙂

Remember To Stay Focused and Just Do It

“The fundamentals never change” – Og Mandino

No matter what happens in life, there will always be new changes, new technologies and new ways of doing business. Embrace those changes however never lose sight of the key fundamentals that contribute the most to your online success.

The ability to stay focused and work every single day towards your goals.

Good journey.

Khoa Bui is a best selling author, international speaker, corporate trainer and entrepreneur. He has a passion for writing, training, traveling the world, building online businesses and more. He has a blog site  SecretsEntrepreneur.com that helps Entrepreneurs create wealth in their businesses.

42 Comments

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  9. We always wanna be focused. Yeah Facebook is becoming crazy these days, I’m starting to notice that
    they are implementing some serious emotional addictions to us. Thanks for a good article.

  14. hey!! I know how it is difficult to staying focused on. I think your writing will be focus our mind to stay on… 

  17. I have been thinking the past two or three days about just what I want
    to focus on in my blogging, and making a daily schedule of when I want
    to do each activity in my blogging and business (sort of making an
    executive calendar of sorts).  You have encouraged me even more. Thanks
    for giving us your “action steps”, they will help me even further.  And
    thanks for letting me know the best way to get leads (email marketing).

  19. I’m starting to notice that they are implementing some serious emotional
    addictions to us. For example, I notice that the timeline front cover,
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    (gets you emotionally involved), also you have friends and family
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  24. Being a newbie in blogging field your points are very important and
    effective to be a successful blogger and get popularity on the web. Your shared points are important and useful for every blogger.

  25. An interesting discussion is worth comment. I think that you
    should write more on this topic, it might not be a taboo subject but generally
    people are not enough to speak on such topics. To the next. Cheers
     

  27. Well subscribers vs Facebook followers actually depends on niche. If you have entertainment blog then it’s better to have Facebook followers but if it’s business, marketing, “blogging” blog then subscribers will work better. So it still depends 

    1. Thanks Steven! Sure of course, I haven’t tested the entertainment business yet but if you find in your tests that Facebook followers are responding and purchasing better than email, then by all means go for it! 🙂 Good luck!

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  32. Thanks for the great post Khoa!  I have definitely been thinking lately that the one thing I need to do better is focus. I have been thinking the past two or three days about just what I want to focus on in my blogging, and making a daily schedule of when I want to do each activity in my blogging and business (sort of making an executive calendar of sorts).  You have encouraged me even more. Thanks for giving us your “action steps”, they will help me even further.  And thanks for letting me know the best way to get leads (email marketing).  I appreciate your post!  And by the way, I’ll definitely be reading your blog from now on!  Good ideas.

    1. Thanks Krissy! 🙂 Just take it one bite at a time and eventually you’ll get massive results from your focused actions 🙂 Take care, stay awesome and good luck! 

  33. Great post Khoa!  Staying focused is such an important step to becoming successful, but such a hard one to stick to.  You’re right that in today’s world with things like Facebook and Twitter easily catching our attention, we often take our eye off the ball when we should be knuckling down and working.  I’ll have to check out that ‘Eat That Frog’ book, sounds like it helped you a lot.

    Nice quote from CoD as well!   

    1. Cheers Matt! 🙂 Yeah Facebook is becoming crazy these days, I’m starting to notice that they are implementing some serious emotional addictions to us. For example, I notice that the timeline front cover, they encourage you to put a personal picture that means a lot to you (gets you emotionally involved), also you have friends and family commenting on your wall (social connection), you also have business associates as well talking to you (business connection), you also have games galore (leisure connection), it’s no wonder why we struggle disconnecting from Facebook! 🙁 yes, please check out Eat That Frog, highly recommend that book, it’s basic fundamentals but fundamentals are usually forgotten in this day in age. Good luck and stay frosty 😉 Call of Duty Modern Warfare Rules 😉

  34. Thanks Khoa! I have to admit, staying focused is one of my biggest problems. I have to turn off everything, have a to-do list ready, and a timer ticking otherwise I’m off sifting through things that usually puts me into information overload. Anyway, great post and wish you well!

    1. Cheers for the response JayT! Yeah it’s definitely tough staying focused! Just recently I did what you did and turned off the internet completely while I was blogging, it was the only way I could stop myself from going into a “clicking fest” on Facebook lol. Anyway, even though it’s really tough staying focused, I believe it’s one of those qualities that contribute to success in all areas of our lives and is worth working hard for. I also really like David’s time master formula course which also helps us build our focus. Good luck and keep up the great work JayT! 🙂

  35. Thanks Cheri for the feedback 🙂 yes staying focused is EXTREMELY tough at the beginning especially when we are used to facebook, mobile phones, emails getting our attention but the rewards are worth it. It requires constant practice and repetition, I struggle as well but I found that after about 30 days of constant practice, you install a good habit and you end up coasting and build a success habit. Good luck Cheri 🙂

  36. This is a totally awesome post – so helpful. But I’m a little embarrassed to admit that I haven’t even read the whole thing (I started to like 4 hours ago), because I kept losing focus! Ugh.

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