If you’re a writer, every Friday you should spend some time looking back over the marketing plan and writing schedule you created on Sunday or Monday to evaluate how you’ve spent your work week.
If you follow your marketing plan during the week, on Friday you should feel pretty good about the progress you’ve made the last few days. And, you should have marked off several items on your “to do” list each day.
But every Friday, as you’re evaluating what you’ve done during the last 5 days, also be on the lookout for behaviors and actions that you’ve taken that were not on your marketing plan – actions that really didn’t move you any closer to your major career goals for the year.
For example, how much time did you spend on Facebook or Twitter during the week, just sharing cute pictures, interesting quotes, or silly sayings?
Social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter are great for writers like you. But only when used strategically. Otherwise, they can rob you of valuable writing time.
Were there actions on the week’s marketing plan that you KNOW would help move you closer to your goals, yet you didn’t take these actions because you felt a little “uncomfortable” about them?
For example, did you plan to query a magazine with an article idea, yet you didn’t get the query written for fear it would be rejected?
OR – did you plan to contact some local businesses with proposals for writing services you could offer them, but then you “chickened out” and didn’t get this done?
Obviously, the first thing to evaluate each Friday is whether you even had a marketing plan and work schedule in place for the week. If you didn’t have these things in place, then your first task for the coming week is to get your marketing plan and work schedule created.
Think of this – The life you are living and the success you are experiencing right now are a direct result of the actions you’ve been taking day after day, week after week.
If you aren’t happy with your life and/or your business right now, then you need to get tough on yourself and start taking the actions that will ultimately lead to the life and business you really want.
Evaluating how you spend your time each week will help you realize what you need to do differently the following week if you are finally going to get serious about reaching your goals.
Try it!
