One of the biggest challenges faced by most online marketers is simply the lack of time. I know this to be true and so do you (or at least you will). And, it doesn’t matter what the experts or gurus very often proclaim about working online. The fact is, most online marketers never seem to be in situations that allow working only 4 days a week and 30 minutes per day while generating streams of income.

In truth, most marketers often spend hours fixed to their computer or laptop screens trying endlessly to make their dreams of working online a reality. As time moves forward, a huge percentage of them will become more overwhelmed or simply burn out. The idea of an easy way to make money online ultimately draws upon an illusion that basically never materializes.

Realistically, if your plan is to be at a level of producing a passive income, you’ll basically find it challenging without first doing a lot of work. Internet marketing often requires setting in place specific systems and strategies that are somewhat automated, but more importantly, you need to layout some kind of workable plan and a schedule that you should consistently follow.

Just as important, and here’s where it gets confusing, you need to be productive. I know, many of you are probably saying or thinking, “I’m busy everyday and doing everything I can to make this work.” Unfortunately, being busy does not mean being productive. Most beginning online marketers will spend countless hours tied to their computers. The sad part is, nothing really gets done. Most of the time is simply wasted surfing online. A huge mistake is thinking that your activity online is actually work.

Ask yourself, where do I apply my time and energy? If you’re not seeing any kind of results, it’s probably because your time is focused more on things that don’t really matter. Do you spend a lot of your time learning and less time doing? Yes, it’s always good to learn new things such as strategies, tactics, and other methods of doing business online. But there has to be some forward movement where being productive matters in getting results.

Let’s take a look at some productivity tips that can help improve your efforts online. The whole idea is to manage these tips and become more productive. In the end, you’ll discover how to get things done and in less time. If your goal is to reach success online, becoming more productive in what you do is the best skill that you can master.

Letting go of social media

I know, I can already see the cringe in your face. Calm down and take a chill pill. When I say letting go of social media, I don’t mean quitting it altogether. What you need to do is setup specific times (here’s where that schedule comes in handy) where you check-in with various social media accounts such as Twitter, Facebook and others. Online marketers are constantly in front of their computers. Because of that, it’s tempting to continually check accounts or feeds and see what’s happening. The problem is how much time have you given up.

Just like any type of business, an online marketer is also pressed for time, and we all know that in the business world, time is money. Social media like Facebook or YouTube can easily become a time waster. Don’t get me wrong, it can be great for keeping in touch and even entertaining, but it can also become a huge dark well and a major time-suck in your life. If social media is something that you just can’t live without, try installing available apps that will help reduce the amount of time you spend on these sites.

Remember, if your goal is to create a source of online income, your time, energy and focus should be geared towards activities that will help generate that income. That seems logical. Your YouTube videos and Facebook feeds can wait till later.

Keep those small tasks off your to-do list

Working as an online marketer will always present a number of tasks that need to be done. Many of these tasks will often be minor and usually take less than a few minutes to accomplish. Updating certain elements on your site such as a theme or plugin for example. Maybe it’s a short reply to an email or answer to a question. If you can get the task done within several minutes, get them done. Forget about adding these small tasks to your to-do list, it just makes things more complicated and overwhelming.

I’ll be the first to admit of adding every little thing to my list of tasks. The only difference is that my tasks are separated into specific categories and each with a time to complete. In other words, those small tasks that generally require less time to get done are usually completed within the first hour. In the end, it kind of works out in the same manner. In fact, I often feel more motivated to complete the other tasks when I notice things are being checked off. Either way, the point is to reduce your overall feelings of being overwhelmed.

Take a close look at your hard drive

When was the last time you went through all your files and deleted things you really don’t need? In case you’re wondering, this is called decluttering.

It’s hard to be more productive when you spend more time trying to figure out where things are. If you’re not accessing or using certain files, get rid of them or better yet, move them to an external drive or cloud storage.

If you’ve been working online for a little while, there’s probably a good chance that your hard drive is packed with info products. (There’s probably a lot that you don’t use as well) If that’s the case, your hard drive will eventually become a grave yard for all those digital products. Spend some quality time and go through those products and organize the ones you want to keep and get rid of the rest. Keep it simple!

Stop trying to do everything at once

Once again, focus will play a crucial role in your success. Actually, focus will become everything pertaining to productivity. You don’t want to keep those social media browsers open so you can constantly keep track of what’s going on.

If you’re conducting research for an article, or formatting a page, locating images, focus on what you’re doing and get it done.

Think of it like this, if you’re end point is to generate income online, focus on those tasks that will help get you there. After that, go after the remaining tasks that actually support any of your business efforts and finally, finish all the less important tasks. Once you complete those primary tasks, allow yourself some quality time for learning new things. Try getting done one thing at a time instead of running around like a chicken with its head cut-off (I know, bad cliché). You might be surprised how you can complete all your tasks.

Don’t let interruptions get in your way

Have you ever noticed how some people can work better when they are listening to music or something else entertaining? Of course, others might prefer something a little softer, less noisy. In this situation, only you will know what’s best for working.

On a different scale, some people enjoy the atmosphere of working around others such as a restaurant, café or even a bar. How they can work with all the noise and people moving around is beyond me. You have to admit, at times it would seem a little distracting. Anyway, if you’re glued to those type of working conditions, more power to you. Although, have you visited the site coffitivity.com that actually simulates the noises in many of those public places? It’s kind of like being there but without any of the casual interruptions or distractions.

If you’re like me and work from home, dedicate a space where you can actually get work done. Working at the kitchen table or the family room is not a place to work on your business. You need a space to concentrate on getting things done and a space where family and friends cannot interrupt you. If you expect to be more productive, that’s pretty much the only way to do it.

Try chunking

Let’s say you have several small tasks that might be considered similar. You are searching or even creating images for several upcoming blog posts. Instead of doing one image for a single post, why not create, search for, or optimize all the images you’ll need at once. It not only makes things easier for you, but faster as well.

Here’s the neat part. This simple strategy can work for a lot of your other tasks as well. Researching for an article, why not do some or all of the research for several articles at the same time. Research mode can be difficult for a lot of people. So, once you’re in the mode to do research, why not include additional research for your other projects. Chunking or combining tasks can go a long way in saving time and energy.

If you can incorporate these productivity tips into your plan and schedule, you’ll soon discover how easy it can be to get things done. On top of that, you’ll also notice the extra time you’re saving, time that you can set aside for yourself. Besides the tips and ideas mentioned here, there are many more resources that can help you in being productive. Time management tools, task savers, planners, schedulers, outsourcing, virtual assistants and more. But for now, get started with these simple and easy tips.

Keep in mind, productivity can often mean a lot of things to other people, but for simplicity sake, it’s not only about doing more. In essence, you want to create more of an impact – while doing less work!

How productive were you today?