How to overcome procrastination in affiliate marketing? If you’re an affiliate you’re probably no stranger to procrastination. Staring at your computer screen waiting for inspiration for your next post, or the next action is hardly the best idea. When these moments hit me I know it’s time to unplug. I also get stuck thinking about my affiliate business, wondering what I “should” be doing. Looking at those who are far ahead of me, it’s easy to become down hearted.
So what’s the answer when procrastination comes alone and rears its ugly head? There’s two strategies I use to escape the dreaded anxiety and frustration of doing nothing while wishing things were different! Here’s my answer:
- Write down long term goals – a good long term goal helps you focus on what you want to achieve. It focuses your mind and puts your ideas down in a tangible form, getting you out of your head.
- Focus on the tiny, inconceivably small action you can do right now, today, rather than the long list of things which you cannot. I wrote a little about this in my post controlling your state of mind.
How To Overcome Procrastination In Affiliate Marketing – Your State
It’s worth mentioning how I find myself in those states of procrastination and frustration. It’s often the result of looking at others who have better results than myself. I find successful affiliates/people and become disillusioned by my lack of success, by comparison.
I forget to celebrate my own small successes and instead focus on where I “could” be, or worse still “should” be. Attaching myself to achievements far beyond where I currently am, I immediately feel disempowered. Judging myself and condemning myself like this leads to frustration and anxiety. It’s a downward spiral which leads me to doing nothing about my situation.
The more I procrastinate and focus on the results I don’t have, the more frustrated I become and the less I do as a result. It’s almost a paralysis by over analysis.
The answer to shift this paralysis is through shifting your mind. Instead of focusing on the many things out of your control, focus on the one thing in front of you which you can achieve, now, today.
How To Overcome Procrastination In Affilaite Marketing – Shifting Your State
Shifting your state can be done in many ways and I discuss this in more detail in my article “controlling your state of mind“. Depending on where you are in the emotional guidance scale it might take many forms:
- Vigourous exercise
- Choosing a better feeling thought
- Writing in a gratitude journal
- Making a cup of tea
- Choosing a different activity
- Breaking your existing state somehow
If you’re in a state of frustration and procrastination, it’s worth noticing the things you have given your attention to preceding that particular state. For me, it’s things such as focusing on celebrities, watching the news or focusing on results I don’t have yet. When I do this, I put myself into a negative state and criticise and judge myself for not having achieved.
To shift this negative state, I focus on something I can do right now, even if it’s just to meditate for 10 minutes. Moving yourself up the emotional guidance scale (see picture above) is always going to be beneficial. It’s definitely one strategy how to overcome procrastination in affiliate marketing.
Take Small Steps – Micro Habits
It’s easy to want to jump forwards in time to where you are making a fortune with your affiliate business. You focus on your lack of results and this makes you feel lousy! “Why am I not at the top of the mountain yet” you declare! The answer is because you haven’t yet taken the first step yet.
But in your state of frustration, you’re hardly likely to take that first step, because you’ve put yourself in a negative state thinking about the peak of the mountain, rather than the first step towards basecamp!
Instead of thinking of all the things you’ll have to do in one moment, focus only on the tiny “baby” step in front of you today. Master doing that every day and pretty soon you’ll be at the basecamp! Motivation gets you going, but habit keeps you going. Once you look up to the peak, you become demoralised and become tempted to quit. Keep moving forward each day and look only to the baby step in front of you in the “now”.
Celebrate Small Wins
Most people will quit with affiliate marketing. Any endeavour which is worth achieving is going to present some difficulties. To motivate yourself forward consistently, you need to present yourself with achievable targets and celebrate them when achieved. Do this over and over again for long enough, and you’ll eventually succeed.
If you’ve haven’t seen the film Touching The Void it’s highly recommended viewing for inspiration. In 1985, Joe Simpson and Simon Yates reached the summit of Siula Grande, a major peak in the Cordillera Huayhuash in the Peruvian Andes. Simpson is injured while climbing down and takes a huge fall while Simon tries to lower him down. Simon assumes he is dead, but in fact he falls into a crevasse and survives the fall of more than 200 feet.
The film is narrated by Joe and Simon. Joe drags himself for three days without food and with almost no water. With a broken leg he crawled and hopped for five miles (8 km) back to their base camp. In the film Simpson explains how he focused on reaching a certain point on the horizon and gave himself a strict deadline to achieve it; the thought of the actual full journey was too much to contemplate. He made it back to basecamp only a few hours before Yates and Richard Hawking intended to leave the base camp and return to civilisation.
Simpson’s survival is regarded by mountaineers as amongst the most remarkable instances of survival against the odds.