3 Deadlines for Internet Independence

Last Tuesday morning, at about 7:45am, just a couple days after Christmas, I had to rush my mom to the hospital.

She had been having chest pain for a couple of days, she later told me, and things were getting worse.

Luckily, it turned out to be nothing more than a pulled muscle.

But it shook me up a bit, and as I waited in the ER, I thought about all of the things – both personal and professional – I wanted to achieve while my mom was still around to see them.

Fortunately, I expect her to be around for many, many more years.

But I couldn’t get the nagging “what if” out of my head all week…

I know it’s a terrible thing to think about, but it made me get my butt in gear on some major life goals. And now that I’ve set a deadline for these – both personal and professional – I’m already making much more progress than when they were vague “want to do’s”.

One of my goals has always been to write a daily business building email newsletter, and so starting today, I’ll be writing and sending you a daily issue of “Internet Independence”, dedicated to helping YOU achieve financial independence through your online business. Expect that in your inbox before 9am (EST), Monday through Friday.

More about that new venture in a second…but first, here are 3 ways you can use deadlines to boost your business.

#1 – Set a deadline for product creation

If you’ve read the 4-Hour Work Week, you’ll remember the term, “Parkinson’s Law”, which says that “Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion.”

That means if you don’t have a deadline for project completion, then you’ll keep on finding new stuff to add or edit and the work will drag on forever.

I was experiencing this last year with my TT Certification. My preparation work dragged on and on, until I finally paid for a conference room and videographer, and booked a filming date.

By setting the filming deadline, it MADE me get the work done.

So if you have a project that is lingering, set a deadline – one that comes with monetary consequences for missing it – and get it DONE.

#2 – Use deadlines in your offers to get clients to take action

No matter how great your offer, there will always be a large number of your prospects who procrastinate and put off “taking action” until later.

Without the urgency of a price-increase deadline, or a limit on the number of units sold, people will continue to procrastinate.

Legendary copywriter John Carlton once called the deadline the “world’s greatest invention”. And that is certainly true with sales.

Always include a legitimate deadline in your product launches and promotions to get your clients to act.

#3 – Set a deadline for daily activities

Parkinson’s law applied, again. We’ve looked at it from a long-term approach with product creation, but I also want you to apply a deadline to every daily task.

For example, every morning I’m giving myself 30 minutes to write the daily Internet Independence email. When that 30 minutes is up, I have to send what I’ve written.

By doing this, it will focus me on the task, and I’ll “learn” how to get my email done quickly. There is no other option.

If I left the task open-ended, I could be refining and editing the email for over an hour, and that will cut in to the time I should be spending on other parts of my business.

So set your long-term and short-term deadlines and use deadlines in your offer, and you’ll get more done and make more money.

Getting more done in less time is one of the most important skills you can acquire on your way to developing what I call, “Internet Independence”.

And so I look forward to providing helpful information every day so that you can achieve financial independence through your internet business, plus all of the other freedoms that goes along with it.

Tomorrow I’ll explain why I’ve created InternetIndependence.com and why I’m combining my passion (teaching you about how to make money on the Internet) with a “movement & mission” in order to help you.

In fact, I believe “building a movement with a mission” will be one of the most powerful business building methods in the next several years. More about that tomorrow.

To your best year ever,

Craig Ballantyne

“I am willing to do whatever is necessary to succeed.” – Ted Nicholas