Kill Your Time Wasters and Start an IT Business Today

Starting an IT business takes both time and dedication.  However, instead of taking the time to sit down and work on your IT business, maybe you are constantly distracted by other things that really aren’t that important.  If this sounds like you then I’m here to help.  I want to show you how to remove distractions by killing time wasters and focus completely on starting an IT business today.

What Are Time Wasters?

According to the Collins English Dictionary, a time-waster is something that causes “you to spend a lot of time doing something that is unnecessary or does not produce any benefit.”  With that being said, how does this apply to you?  What are the things that you find yourself being distracted by instead of focusing on starting your IT business?

What Are Your Time Wasters?

Maybe you are spending hours on Facebook, Twitter, news sites, blogs, Pinterest, Tumblr or other sites.  Maybe it’s a smartphone app that continually draws you in or you just can’t stop constantly checking your email all throughout the day.  Or maybe you are simply wasting several hours a day playing games.

This is exactly what I was doing years ago.  I would spend hours on end playing computer games when, instead, I could have been focusing my efforts on something constructive like starting my own business.

Don’t get me wrong, some of these things can be fun or feel like a stress relief.  But you need to ask yourself what is more important to you: spending countless hours on these things that, in the end, may have no real tangible benefit or time spent building a profitable business that you may even be able to hand down to your children one day?

Many smartphones, such as the iPhone, track your usage week to week.

You can’t ‘make time’. Just assign it differently. This may give you reason to focus on the time usage report right now.

Shifting Your Priorities

Let me ask you this.  What would happen if you took all the time and energy that you spend on time wasters and shifted it towards starting a business?  Think about all that you could achieve.

I’m not saying that your life has to be all work and no play.  I’m simply saying that, instead of spending countless hours on things that are distracting you from getting things done, you should spend that time and energy on starting your business.

Getting Rid of Time Wasters and Focusing on Your Business

So, you may be asking yourself, where do I even begin?  How do I rid myself of these distractions so I can focus on starting my business.  To help you with this, just follow the steps below.

Step 1:  Identifying Time Wasters

The first thing you need to do is go through and list out on a piece of paper all of the things you would consider time wasters that are distracting you from building an IT business.

Remember, this could be something as small as jumping on Facebook for 5 minutes, constantly checking email, or something as big as spending 4 hours playing flappy bird every evening.

Time wasting is not only about non-work distractions.

Remember that a time-waster is something that causes “you to spend a lot of time doing something that is unnecessary or does not produce any benefit.” Or low benefit for your time resource.

When you start your business, remember you can start small without employees. An advantage of outsourcing customer service early on (once you have learned typical needs) is more time to focus on your business.

Step 2:  Killing Time Wasters

Now that you’ve identified the time wasters, let’s come up with a plan on how to get rid of them.

If the time waster is a game or an app and you are having a hard time avoiding it then it may be necessary to completely remove it from your computer or phone.  This may seem extreme but if this the only way you can stop yourself then this may be what you need to do.

If you are being distracted by a specific website, web browsing or email then there are several tools you can install to block these sites from your computer for a predetermined amount of time.

ColdTurkey
ColdTurkey is a Windows application that will not only help you block distracting websites but also block applications (like games) that may be distracting you from getting things done.

SelfControl
SelfControl is a free Mac application that can help you block certain websites or email for a predetermined amount of time while you focus on your goals.

Freedom
Freedom is a cross-platform (including Android) application that completely locks you out of the internet for a predetermined amount of time.  If you need to get back on the internet before that time period is up, you have to reboot your computer.

Anti-Social
Anti-Social is another cross-platform application that only focuses on blocking social media sites instead of everything.  This is good if you are only having trouble staying off of these types of sites.

Web Browser Plugins
If you want to focus solely on blocking websites in a specific browser, there are also these free browser plugins available that will do just that.
LeechBlock for Firefox
StayFocused for Chrome

Remember, the key here is to remove access to these distractions if having access to them is too much of a temptation for you to waste time on them.

Step 3:  Starting Your IT Business

Now that you have gotten rid of your time wasters, you should use this new freed up time to focus on building your IT business.  If you are not sure where to begin, then I highly recommend downloading my free guide on How to Make Your First $1000 as an IT Consultant. (Pats self on back!)

Step 4:  Getting Help

And finally, if you ever get to a point where you feel stuck when trying to start your IT business, post a comment below or contact me through my contact form and I’ll be more than happy to help.

Click the following link if you want to attract more customers to buy your product, be it a service business or hardware products.

I realize that there may be better tools or techniques out there for getting things done.  If you have any advice on what helps you stay focused, please share it below.