“Pay yourself first” and “One thing leads to another”
I often get asked “How to you publish so much content on your blog?” or “Do you ever sleep?” Here’s some of my tips that I do.
Pay yourself first
I pay myself first. What does that mean? It means before I get bogged down in email hell, and feedreader hell, I focus my priorities on the tools that will maximize my time. A blog is a broadcast tool (with community features) that let’s me communicate to many people at once. It’s the most efficient use of my time, and it saves me time. For every email you write, you’re likely to get more in in return, and that’s not efficient. I look for efficient communication tools, and a blog is right for me, (A social network may be right for you) but that’s how I pay myself first. I hope Tim Ferris sees this.
This isn’t a new concept, many financial advisers will suggest that you invest in the future (funds, roth, 401) before paying down your debt, because in the long run, you’ll survive with debt, but to retire you’ll need quite an egg in today’s modern world.
I think about my focus area Web Strategy all the time. I want to be a resource to people that are making decisions on websites, or are responsible for what happens on the site. I keep a notepad on my (moleskine) near me most of the time, and write down ideas for posts whenever I can. These often go into my drafts area on wordpress. I currently have 131 drafts that I’m working on. Some will never make it, and that’s ok with me. If you check out my blog birthday stats, I’ve done an average of three posts a day, with a return of 4 comments per post on average.
[Every morning, for about 2 hours, I pay myself first by researching, reading, and writing blog posts…before I dive into email hell]
One things leads to another
The last thing I wanted to share is that one thing leads to another. I had a great time in Singapore, I was a speaker, met a lot of people, and blogged the hell out of the event. When I got back home, I now have three invites to go overseas to speak, one thing leads to another. So remember that even the smallest thing will lead to something bigger, and it will snowball.
Overtime, paying yourself first will add up. Whether it’s on Myspace, Facebook, a Videoblog or your blog, all kinds of interesting things will happen. As it ends up, by paying myself first on my blog, it actually pays me employer, as they reap the rewards of my network, increased knowledge, and thought leadership. I’ve done some quantification on my ROI for my employer, and it’s a positive number.
So pay yourself first, and remember that one thing leads to another.
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How wonderfully insightful; would you mind me cribbing and crediting from this at my next Business NetworkBreakfast ?
Nik
Help yourself, a simple reference to me is all I ask.
Absolutely, credit where credit is due. I have been trying to squeeze blogging and writing into my activities when clearly it should be a priority because the effort results in more paying the bill type activities. Some days it takes someone else to state the plainly obvious. Cheers
Smart strategy. My personal blog tends to suffer because I start every day jumping right into email and the things that pay the bills and never look back. I’m going to try the “pay myself first” and notepad next to desk strategy next week
Make it a sticky pad on your monitor.
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nice. i really need to think like this more often.
thanks
[…] been a bunch of conversation in the blogosphere about “Paying yourself first.” As a total devotee of time-management gurus like David Allen, I was a little surprised to […]
Hi Jeremiah,
Great, great points.
“Paying yourself first” is strategic in the most literal sense. Good tactics are often born of good strategy, but the opposite is damn hard (trying to drink from the fire hydrant of e-mail and find prioritization through that, for example).
The “one thing leads to another” is sooooo important. People often ask me how I pitched bloggers, what the secret is to pitching bloggers, etc. My answer should just be: I had a bunch of drinks with cool folks at SXSW (note: not all bloggers are cool) and “one thing led to another”…
Keep up the good fight, J,
Tim
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[…] Thanks for crediting me Mark, be sure to check out my other Industry Indexe lists for future market analysis. Friends, here’s a living example of paying yourself first, and one thing leads to another. […]
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Great post, thanks Jeremiah.
It’s too easy to get bogged down in the urgent and neglect the important. It’s a reminder for me to refresh my priority list.
Cheers,
Chris
[…] Continue to learn, and absorb everything you can, be open to feedback, and follow your passions, one thing leads to another. As a designer, you may want to expand out and start to do some user experience research projects. […]
[…] in the morning (I sleep in 2 three hour shifts at night, and am up right now at 3am to blog) as I really believe in paying myself first. Learning how to manage all the input and output time (and time spent writing reports) around […]
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