Does managing the never-ending spiral of social media, marketing, branding, networking, and not to mention live streaming make you feel like poking your eyes out with the handiest Sharpie pen you can find? Could 5 Daily Habits actually improve your quality of life?

Me thinks, yes.

The business side of writing – marketing, social media, email lists, etc – is a lot of work, and to do it well takes time away from what you feel called to do. Write.

Habit #1: Clean Out your Email

How many emails are sitting in your inbox? 200? 1,000? 5,000? A friend has over 26,000 in her inbox. True story. My heart goes out to you, Whitney!!!

There is so much clutter and a ton of noise in this online world. I’m adding to it by writing this blog and some of you received a notification in your inbox that this post went live.

Noise.

I could go on and on about writing valuable content to set yourself apart, but today let’s focus on this: keeping your email inbox clean is like panning for gold. The majority of emails we sign up for are sand grains covering the amazing gems hidden inside. If you have too many things coming in, you’ll spend more time every day sorting through the mess to find the gold.

Let’s get to the point where only gold shines through, with a few grains of sand spilling in every once in a while.

Delete

Decreasing the amount of email in your inbox. Deleting 10 emails is just a start. If you can, set a timer for five minutes and get click-happy with the delete button. If you’re consistently deleting the same emails (Dominos, Target Cartwheel updates, etc), simply do a “Find All” within your email service and delete them all at once.

Unsubscribe

Make sure to unsubscribe from emails that you’re not even taking the time to read. If you want to stay on a list, like Pizza Hut (why all the food references?), set a “rule” that sends them to the trash automatically. When I ordered special lunch for my kids last week, I did a “Search All” for Pizza Hut. A list of emails popped up, all conveniently trashed automatically, but still valid and searchable. Simple print of the coupon, and bammo. Done-zo.

Habit #2: Target your Audience

The best piece of advice I’ve received regarding Twitter is from Social Media coach and author Edie Melson. To build a strong list, a targeted following, you need to follow people who are similar to you and who are your targeted audience. They’ll most likely follow you back.

It goes beyond simply following someone for the sake of following them. These new friends are people whose tweets you’ll be sharing and retweeting. These are future connections.

If you write about bass fishing, find someone who has a great Twitter platform about bass fishing (Mr. X). Click on their Followers tab. Scroll through and follow people who follow Mr. X. Because they already follow someone who talks about bass fishing, they’ll be interested in your content on bass fishing.

Strong.

Targeted.

Edie – you ROCK for this advice.

Habit #3: Develop your Brand Kit

Do you have a  signature color?

One of the BEST ways to determine your color palette for your brand is to find a photo that you love. My hack to find the exact hex code (6-alphanumeric digits) that indicate a specific color on the color wheel. Example: Black is 000000. White is FFFFFF.

Dribbble.com is my favorite favorite favorite place to find hex codes. Once you  find a color you love, you can find other people’s designs that use that color. BEST PART: they show you the other corresponding hex codes.

So…if you love a specific teal color, you can type in that specific teal’s hex code, and every design that uses that teal will pop up. You can scroll through, choose an image that has a yellow, navy, purple, cream, gray, whatever complimentary color you want, and that hex code will show up as well.

BetJett Hack:

1. Find an image that you LOOOOOOVE.
2. Open Pages (or any program that gives you a “color selector tool” (looks like an eye dropper)
3. Insert photo
4. Use the color selector tool to find the exact hex code of different areas of the image.
5. >>Write them down.<<
6. Go to Dribbble.com and play around with colors that coordinate with yours.

Habit #4: Batch your Work

If you don’t write it down, it’s less likely to get done.

In today’s training with NYT Bestselling author Brendon Burchard, he covered this in detail. Where on your calendar do you set aside time to develop your skills? Are you writing for an hour a day? Do you even HAVE an hour a day?

I’ve been getting up before 6 AM to enjoy the quiet morning hours, but starting tomorrow, I’ve upped my game. 5 AM beckons. If you work better at night, block off an hour…or even half an hour…to create your content.

I recommend Canva.com to create your images. Their Canva for Work feature is $12.99/month and has a beautiful “Magic Resize” feature. Create your content once, magically resize it to the perfect specifications for Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Twitter, Tumblr, and more.

Bottom line: spending time every day creating content for the next day (or for the same day – my typical habit) is a waste of time. Time is precious.

Precious.

Habit #5: Share Content Consistently

Quality content > Quantity of content.

There are a bajillion ways to connect with your readers – social media, video, email, live streaming, speaking events…don’t kill yourself with your blog.

Do you NEED to blog everyday?

Do you have enough to say?

Why not integrate your strategies? Blog once. Share with your list. Share on social media. Make a 2-3 minute YouTube video expounding on your content. Share a pdf download with extra information – tips, recipe, hacks, or bonus content. Spread it out!

[reminder]What other habits would you include?[/reminder]

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