Getting stuff done: Oh how business owners and freelancers everywhere love a to-do list that is completely crossed off! I know that I always sleep way more soundly at night when I’ve actually crossed everything off my day’s to-do list!

Each day, business owners face a variety of tasks to be done. Some are fun and easy, but not all of them are! There might be boring projects or very challenging projects, or projects that seem big and unwieldy. No matter what kind of project you face, the fastest, easiest, and most efficient way to get stuff done is when you…

Achieve critical mass quickly.

Critical mass is a term used in science to describe the amount of fissile material needed to sustain a nuclear reaction. For us non-science-types, it’s basically the amount of something you need initially in order to facilitate the creation of the rest of that thing.

Every project you do has a critical mass. It’s the amount of work that you expend at the beginning to bring the project to the point where you can coast a bit – where you can do the work quickly and easily (and even enjoyably) with a lot less effort than it took at the very beginning.

Each project will be different and everyone has a different idea of when they achieve critical mass on a project. But, every project does achieve critical mass at some point! I’ve found that e-books tend to achieve critical mass at the 50% point while blogs tend to achieve critical mass after the first or second paragraph. As I work with clients, I’ve found that some businesses (like coaching and freelancing that rely on the skills of the owner) achieve critical mass much faster than those businesses that rely on a lot of up-front development (like technical or web development). Even your day will hit a point of critical mass. If you start your day at 9 in the morning, you’ll likely hit critical mass at about 10am and sustain it through to about 2pm or 3pm when you start to slow down a bit.

Here’s why it matters to you:

The faster you achieve critical mass on something, the easier it will be to get that thing done. Find your peak work time when you’re most focused and energetic and start on a whole bunch of projects. Get critical mass as quickly as possible. (Yes, you might go back and have to revise something later during editing; that’s okay. The point is to get as far as you can as fast as you can). Once you’ve achieved critical mass, the rest of the project will go very quickly. If you want, have your assistant or colleague help you achieve critical mass on a project before passing it off to you to run with it.

Think of each of the projects you work on in the day. Over the next few days, figure out what the point of critical mass is for each project and work to achieve that. Critical mass achievement is a focused, creative, intense burst of effort that will result in the core of whatever you are trying to create. Later, you’ll add more but the effort will be faster and easier.

It’s like an airplane: It takes more fuel to get off the ground than it does to fly through the sky. Likewise, your projects will require a lot of fuel to get off the ground, too, but once it gets airborne, you’ll glide smoothly.

Good luck!

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As someone who thinks about business productivity a lot, developing strategies and helping businesses take action are two key elements of what I do. Entrepreneurs often do a great job of creating strategies (after all, what entrepreneur doesn’t love to dream up new opportunities for their business!?!) but they struggle with turning those strategies into actions. If you have great ideas but you often feel like you’re plodding along doing the same old thing, you’re certainly not alone. Even some of the biggest companies in the world complain about this as a constant problem they face.

In this blog post I’m going to give you a step-by-step way to create actions from your strategies.

Step 1: Write out your strategies. (I’m assuming you can do this already; I think lots of entrepreneurs find strategic development to be the easy part!) Write down plans and ideas to take you to new levels of success.

Let’s use as an example the strategy: “Become a thought leader in my market.”

Step 2: Break it down. Most strategies are big, fuzzy ideas and not easily actionable. So you need to break down your strategy into smaller pieces. Some people call these objectives (but others consider objectives to be subsets of goals – whatever). I don’t care what you call them. Just list the elements that will make up your strategy; list the things that you feel will fully contribute to achieving your strategy.

In our example of thought leadership, the elements might be: “publish a book”, “develop a proprietary system”, “get a regular column in a periodical”, “speak regularly”, “get quoted in the media”… and there might be several more.

Step 3: Create actions for each of these objectives. Now it’s time to create step-by-step, easy-to-implement actions for each one. Get as basic and granular as you can so that all you need to do is sit down, do whatever it says, cross it off, and move on to the next step.

In our example, “Publish a book” might have actions like: “brainstorm, write chapter 1, write chapter 2, write chapter 3, write a proposal, query an agent… (etc.)”

You will have some actions that are dependent on other people and could influence the course of your plans. These are inevitable but you should try to reduce them as much as possible or put them as early as possible into your plan. That way, if other peoples’ decisions change your course, it will change your course earlier rather than later.

Step 4: Set dates. Beside each action, set a due date. This is an important step, even though it seems like a lot of work. Setting a date is not just setting a deadline, but it also helps you to get a realistic view of what your timeline to completing your strategy is going to be like. You might desire to achieve your strategy in six months until you count out all of your dates and realize that it will take two years to write and sign a deal on a book. And as you start implementing these actions, you might discover that new situations occur that speed up or slow down your timeline.

Step 6: Go! Now it’s time to start acting on these. Work toward the “due dates” on each one, but be willing to adjust all of the dates as you go. And, as circumstances and technology and opportunity changes, you might need to add or subtract objectives or actions; that’s okay.

This was a quick-and-dirty step-by-step way to turn strategies to actions and there are more subtle points to be made. But this is a good start and I’ll touch on some more ideas in the near future.

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In today’s blog post I want to talk about blog commenting.

Blog commenting is exactly what the name implies. There are a couple of reasons why I leaving blog comments are good:

• Blog comments give you a nice, happy backlink to your blog. (That’s why spammer use it). Who doesn’t love backlinks? They’re awesome.

• Blog commenting gets traffic to your own blog when people see your insightful comment and follow you to your own site. (More on this in a moment).

• Additionally – and I would say “more importantly” – blogs are conversations. They’re social. If the blogger offers comment functionality on their blog, it’s because they want to have comments.

Commenting on other people’s blogs can build traffic to your own… under certain circumstances. Here’s what I mean: There are three kinds of blog commenters and I’m going to lay them out right here (but before you get offended by what I write, be sure to read the whole post first!).

Type 1: Adders.
Type 2: Agreers.
Type 2: Spammers.

Blogs are social media conversations. The blogger starts the conversation on his or her blog with an insightful, compelling, and perhaps witty post about their subject matter. And the commenters are the other folks in the same conversation, and they’re not that different than in a real life conversation:

• The adders. You have some people who contribute to the conversation with something like: “You make some good points, Heather. Another thing to consider is…” This is Type 1 comments. They add to the conversation. These are often the people who keep a conversation going and make it an enjoyable dialogue.

• The agreers. You also have some people in a conversation who simply nod in agreement. And they appear in blog posts, too: “Great post, Heather!”. This is the Type 2 comment. They don’t necessarily add something to the conversation. (By the way: I called them “Agreers” but I am aware that “agreers” is just a made up word).

• The spammers. You know what I’m talking about. They can range from ones who pretend to be agreers (“I read with such interest” – but they link to a generic drugs site) to ones who offer “Hot Russian Wifes!” or something even less appropriate.

As a blogger, just like in real life, you want lots of Type 1 comments if you want a conversation. That’s because blogs are part of the social media realm – a big, online conversation. (Having said that, let me say that Type 2 comments – the agreers – are welcome and if you tend to be an agreer on my site, I’m not complaining. I’m just pointing out that in every conversation, whether online or offline, you’ve got the people who participate in the conversation, you’ve got those who agree, and then you’ve got one or two losers who talk about hot Russian “wifes” and generic drugs.) You can build up traffic to your site by going to other blogs and adding insightful comments there.

Here are some additional tips to help you:

• Make sure you are going to blogs that connect with a target audience who are similar to your own.
• Don’t sell! If you want to be a Type 1 commenter, add insight, experience, and ideas.
• Use Disqus, and Gravatar to help create a better experience for you as you comment, and for those who might read your comments and link to your site.

Happy Commenting!

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Car Dancing for the Greater Good – Come on! You know you wanna!  Check out the video.

How to Donate or Recycle Old Office Equipment – Don’t know where or how to recycle your old office equipment?  Kelly provides many great ideas and links.

Diagnosing Technical SEO Issues – This is just one of the great posts that Lisa has on her blog outlining the session at the (Search Marketing Expo).  Every post makes you feel like you are there.

Slow Motion Dog Treat Commercial Beguiles Internet [Randomly Viral] – Couldn’t resist sharing this one. I love dogs and this is a cool commercial.

Catch more of my favorites on HeatherVilla StumbleUpon.

Have a wonderful weekend and happy reading!

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Tweeting Dog Collar Posts Your Dog’s Movements to Twitter – I love my dogs, but really??

Wordpress SEO – The Only Guide You Need – This is a great tool for everyone who has a Wordpress Blog. I thought I knew all the SEO tricks, but after reading this, I found a few new things to implement.

The ROI of giving a damn – Social Media is such a big part of businesses today. I think we all need a reminder of why we use it and what we expect to gain from it. Some companies are looking for a quick return, but social media is about building relationships. If you focus on building the relationship the revenue will take care of itself. I love this blog for reminding us of the purpose.

Who Pushes You to Achieve More? – The drill sergeant analogy in this is spot on.  How much more productive would you be if someone was pushing you to your limits everyday?

The 7 Blog Posts You Write But Shouldn’t Publish – This one really hit home with me. At the moment I can’t think of a blog that I posted and later regretted doing so, however I know there are a ton that have ‘almost’ been published.  This post has some great guidelines to consider before hitting that ‘publish’ button.

Calculate the Cost of Wasteful Meetings With MEETorDIE – I have not checked out this application yet seeing how I just read this one today. However, I think it’s a wonderful idea and love the whimsical logo and site design.

I decided to go with a new format for my weekend reading blog.  Hope you enjoy.  Let me know your thoughts and don’t hesitate to criticize.

Of course more of my favorites are list on HeatherVilla StumbleUpon.

Have a great weekend and happy reading!

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However, late last year I started my own project, IAC-EZ, an online bookkeeping software, dedicated to Freelancers and Micro-Businesses. We are creeping up on our 1 year mark (November 1st 2009) and I am starting to get nostalgic. She is growing up! (I say growing up and not grown up, because as an SaaS we have to continue to evolve and grow to remain competitive).

Take a look at my baby when she was first born:

Now take a look at my baby a year later:

IAC-EZ has changed the way it looks, functions and added multiple integrations, with partners such as Sure Payroll, Shoeboxed and FreshBooks. I know I am probably overreacting a bit, but looking at what IAC-EZ has become has me misty eyed. There really is no satisfaction equal to seeing what you have helped grow. I love my project implementations and product launches, but by far, IAC-EZ is my baby and best success!

Do you have favorite projects? Do you feel a greater sense of accomplishment when you can be with something as it grows or do Product Launches satisfy you? Keen to hear your comments!

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Woot! Series: Things I observe that are right on target in the business sense.

I am an avid reader, I read everything and love nothing more than curling up in bed with a brand new hardback. I am a huge fan of Stephanie Meyer’s series, Twilight. I was a bit depressed with the movie, don’t get me wrong, it was excellent – but compared to the book – there was so much missing.

Anyway, today I read about Nordstrom’s new line of Twilight clothing and thought, right on. They are releasing their new line one month before the movie release of New Moon (book 2 in the series), giving teens everywhere enough time to get their gear to wear on opening night.

Why Woot!?

1. Perfect Timing

2. Product in line with today’s fashion

3. Monetizing the teen debate of who is best? Edward or Jacob?

4. Even their publicity photos have the models looking like characters from Twilight.

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We laughed, of course, because no one really loves to do that kind of stuff. But it needs to get done and we know that putting away the leftovers and loading the dishwasher will take just a few minutes and will give us the entire evening to visit. And we can envision the annoyance if we didn’t do it now… later in the evening when we’re relaxed, NOBODY is going to want to load the dishwasher.

There’s some truth to that in project management. Actually, in all aspects of business. If you need to do a project (or sell some product or prepare for a conference or build a website or generate leads) then do the hardest thing first.

Do the hardest thing first. That’s it. It’s not a pleasant way to start the project. But it gets that part out of the way and gets the ball rolling. It also generates a certain amount of critical mass which is an important element in project management.

There’s a similar concept in sales. If your conversion rate is 10%, then you have to hear nine “no’s” before you hear that tenth reply “yes”. Salespeople who adopt that mindset don’t find “no” so troubling anymore because they count it as one of their nine and move on, expecting to get through eight more “no’s” before they are statistically likely to hear “yes”. In a sense, that “no” becomes a goal. It’s similar to the concept of doing the hardest thing first because it sets up the rest of the project for enjoyable success.

Now, in the interest of full disclosure, I would warn you: Choosing to do the easy and fun part of the project first and leaving the more difficult parts to the end is one type of problem that this advice is meant to overcome. But it can cause procrastination. After all, if we’re already reluctant to start a project, we may be even more reluctant to start by doing the worst part!

So it might seem like you’re trading one challenge for another. And in some projects, it’s simply not practical to do the hardest thing first (because, for example, there might be other steps that are required prior to that hardest part). But if you can fight procrastination, do the hardest thing first and the rest of the project will feel like a dream.

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However, there are always those projects that are stimulating and exciting – and that is typically when it is all about the love.

Do you love the client?

Do you love the concept?

Do you love the ‘idea’?

Do you love the budget?

There is something there that you love. For me, I love working with great people that share my compassion and outlook. As I am sure most of you know by my ‘hire me’ page, I don’t take on all clients, because I know that I help most when the ‘L’ word is present.

Tonight I just got wind of a project that I am so excited about, and I love the client, love the idea, love the prospect and just know I will love the final result.

Not many people can say that they love what they do, but when it comes to my consulting services I am a fanatic, because I can afford to be picky and choosy and select the projects that I know I will love and thoroughly enjoy working.

I am ecstatic to be a part of www.emailautoresponderpro.com and I am a user! So stay tuned, there are just so many great things to come in the next week.

Oh – and just for fun – here is a picture of the CEO behind www.emailautoresponderpro.com:

Awesome things to come,

Heather Villa, CMA, MBA, MSM

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