IttyBiz

Productivity tips are generally things that make me want to poke my eye out with a spoon. “Start early!” “Have all your notes in one place!” “Set SMART goals!” Thank you, productivity gurus, the world is slapping their foreheads saying “Oh gosh! How could I have missed that one!”

Obvious advice, like “Eat less and exercise”, does not help the majority of us who are frazzled, ADD, and not looking forward to major life or habit change. If we know what we should be doing and we’re not doing it, there’s a reason. One that a therapist, rather than a productivity coach, is more qualified to help with.

Therefore, for your reading pleasure, I submit to you a baker’s dozen of truly useful productivity tips that don’t require major lifestyle/personality transformations. Do the ones that look easiest to you, and I promise you that good things will happen…

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So you think your marketing idea might be silly.

I had a delightful conversation with a woman from Zurich today. She had an idea for the launch of her business – just a little idea, one small tactic for a fun promotional opportunity.

She asked me, “Is that a good idea? Or do you think it’s silly?”

That’s a good question.

One of the most difficult parts of running a business – and in particular starting a business – is having no idea if you’re out of your mind. This applies to everything from domain names to product lines to stationery to the t-shirt you wear to the trade show.

On every conceivable front, you could be totally insane, and you wouldn’t even know it. It’s nice to have somebody to ask the simplest of questions – is this silly?

So I asked her what I always ask in response to this question…

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You want ways to celebrate? We’ve got ways to celebrate.

Whatever it is that you’re celebrating probably took a lot out of you and might have been a long time coming. Even if all you did was decide on a domain name, that decision was birthed after a long labor.

Here are fifty ways to celebrate success…

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Are you familiar with the upper limit problem? It’s a term coined by Gay and Kathlyn Hendricks in their book, The Big Leap. It’s a delightfully destructive form of self-sabotage that kicks in riiiiiight around when things are getting good.

Here’s how Hendricks puts it:

“The ULP is the human tendency to put the brakes on our positive energy when we’ve exceeded our unconscious thermostat setting for how good we can feel, how successful we can be, and how much love we can feel.”

Think maybe, possibly, perhaps that might be you? Here are 11 warning signs to look for…

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A big concern for a lot of bloggers is “giving away the farm”.

It’s an understandable concern.

All of the content marketing rules say we have to blog our very best stuff, but isn’t that supposed to be what goes in our products? Or our coaching? Or our services?

While this paradox can cause feelings of confusion and overwhelm (not to mention hangovers!) it’s most damaging consequence is paralysis. We don’t know what to do, so we do nothing, with predictable results.

Today, I’ll give you four options – how to create targeted, compelling content without hurting your bottom line. In fact, if you follow this content strategy, you’ll almost definitely make more sales, not fewer.

Here are the four strategies – mix and match for best results.

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