Stop Fooling Yourself – 10 “Fake Progress” Time Sinks to Avoid

There are lots of activities you can do to fool yourself into thinking you’re making progress toward success.

But if you are looking to make money online, most of these activities are a waste of time, or at least premature if you are starting a new business.

10 “Fake Progress” Time Sinks to Avoid
Here are 10 “Time Sink” activities that I recommend entrepreneurs avoid:

1. Buying things, especially training courses and ebooks you won't use
2. Researching online, especially if that includes lots of worrying about the competition
3. Reading books, especially from people who have not achieved themselves
4. Writing business plans or marketing plans
5. Designing, redesigning, and overdesigning your web site
6. Incorporating, trademark, copyright and administrative paperwork
7. Designing, redesigning, and overdesigning your logo
8. Buying domain names
9. Facebooking and Tweeting to “build a following” with only vague plans for monetization
10. Building products or services that only work at scale instead of starting with small scale, real sales today

Why should you avoid these Time Sinks?
Because they are “fake progress.” They make you feel like you’re moving forward but they’re actually draining away your most precious asset: your time and attention!

All of these activities can be important and necessary steps for success eventually, but not today.

Make it Happen!
You need to finish that keyword research and pick your niche, get the first draft of your new web site finished, polish up that PDF and turn it into an ebook you can sell through Clickbank, or publish your first blog post or newsletter. 

The importance of taking action is true in almost any work situation but especially if you work in a startup or are a solopreneur.

My advice: Get on with it!
End your "analysis paralysis" and stop being such a "tweak freak"!  You will learn more in the first week of actually running your business than in months of planning to run it.

How about you?
What kind of “fake progress” most distracts from your momentum?

Comments

[Tara Jacobsen - Marketing Artfully]

I am always shocked when I teach a class about anything internet-y like social media or blogging and the small business owners do not really know what their business focus is. I think that doing fake progress tasks makes them feel like they are productive instead of having to take a hard look at their offerings and business models.

[Wally Thornton]

Interesting!
You throw the "Prepare,Prepare,Prepare" convention right out the window and go instead with "Tora, "Tora, Tora!"
I like it! Although I'm afraid I fall into that category of people who's niche has not been defined!

[Sandra]

Did you write this for ME Scott? I'm feeling paranoid;-)
This was a VERY helpful and a wake up call. You're so Right. Thanks!

[Magda]

I agree, I got stuck in planning, planning, and planning. The more I planned the further I drove myself away from actually launching my internet biz! So now it's all about diving in and planning while I go...

[Charlotte Rains Dixon]

But planning and researching is so much fun! Just kidding, sort of. As a writer and writing coach, many of my students fall into the same trap, and end up researching a project so thoroughly they never actually write it. Now, excuse me, I have an Ebook I need to do some more research on, oops, I mean write.

[Andy]

Planning/planning/more planning has traditionally been my time sink. Between some of your blog posts and Michael Masterson's, Ready, Fire, Aim, it has become less of a problem.
The biggest temptation, which could lead to more time sinks, are the online courses or other training materials. There is too much info, too little time to use what i already have. Maybe just one more continuity program....

[Scott Fox]

Thanks everybody for dropping by to comment.

I'm glad that you all are "getting" what I'm saying here - I'm not saying DON'T plan, design, research, etc. Of course all that is important to your new business.

Just be careful and don't overdo it all!

There are only 24 hours in any day - it's those who use them best that win.

[dr. Steve]

thanks Scott

All that planning and researching made me feel safe and comfortable. After all I could not make a whole lot of mistake planning. But it sure retarded my growth and ultimate goal of starting a business. Action and making lots of mistakes will get you where you want to go faster.

[Randy]

Good points you have here, Scott. I am just starting off with my new online business and I pretty much got carried away with all the Tweeting and Facebooking trend that everyone everywhere are into. I know it's a good thing but I believe there's something else that should come first. Thanks for the informative post. -Randy

[Jim Beasley]

Sandra's comment .......... DITTO!
(Scott, I was not aware that you had daily access to my PC)
In all seriousness ....... a brilliant post.
I'm sure you will turn these comments into a Solution Product, maybe like CM?

[Scott Fox, Click Millionaire]

@Steve - Exactly right. Planning "feels" like progress but past a certain point it's avoidance of risk!

@Randy and @Jim - Social media is great but it can also deceive us into mistaking keeping busy for positive forward motion. Glad that my post helped you.

[Andrea Densley]

Scott, Those very "sinking" tendencies have been growing in clarity for me over the past few months. Thank-you for the wonderful list. As a new apparel designer, another "sink" is buying supplies and searching for the best fabric source, buying stacks of "sample" yardage for the wonderful designs that I see in my head and being so busy connecting on LinkedIn and nurturing blog relationships that I don't actually pick up my lovely, sharp scissors and cut the fabric into garment pattern pieces. I know it is fear and "business owner insecurity" (BOI)(I just made that acronym up...) I have found ways to move on. My most recent favorite is setting the kitchen timer for 1 hour and staying focused on one relivant task with no distractions until the time is up. I am a lot calmer, and things are getting done. You are awesome, thanks again.