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Why You Need To Create Action Items

When it comes to productivity hacks, I’ve tried most of them, and read about even more. There are somewhere in the neighbourhood of 1,329,487 of them out there. Business coaches and mentors have made entire careers out of teaching all of these various hacks.

Some of them work better than others, but there’s one in particular that’s better than most.

Action Items

take-actionWhen I’m working with a coaching client, the last part of our session is always a reminder to create Action Items.

All the information in the world, regardless of how valuable it may seem on the surface, is utterly useless if it’s not put to use. In oder to do that, you need to create action items.

Learning new information is useless if you’re not creating action items. Click to Tweet

When I was attending WoVoCon 2, I spent most of my time taking notes in sessions. On Sunday, after the conference ended, I went back to my room, sat at the desk, and began turning those notes into action items.

How was I going to apply the information I learned? How was I going to put it to work? What practical steps was I going to take?

I created a list of Action Items.

Put It To Use

If you’re working with a coach, attending a conference, participating in a webinar, or taking online course for the purposes of self and professional development, well done! You’re already ahead of the crowd and making sound investments towards to your success.

Just don’t let it end with attendance or participation.

Take what you’ve learned, create a list of action items, and start scheduling time in your calendar to get them done. While you’re at it, don’t forget to throw in accountability!

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15 Things To Do When You Have Nothing To Do

Yesterday I posted the following status on my Facebook page:

Ever feel like every client you’ve ever worked with all went on vacation at the same time but didn’t invite you?

In other words… this week, I haven’t had much in the way of voice over work. Welcome to summer vacation season!

So what is one to do when all your clients are apparently on vacation and there’s no work to be found? Some panic. Freak right out. Assume the end is near. Start searching for change in the sofa cushions. You can do that, I suppose. But I do have some better suggestions.

15 Things To Do When You Have Nothing To Do

1) Read A Book: Something on marketing. Sales. Web design. Social media. Read a book that will make your business better.

2) Make A Demo: When’s the last time you cut together a new demo? Are you due?

3) Update Your Profiles: Have you checked your Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and Google+ profiles lately? Are they current?

4) Update Your Client List: Do you list your clients on your website? Are all your latest ones included?

5) Update Your About Page: When’s the last time you updated your bio page on your site? Is it current?

6) Connect On Social Media: Do you sometimes feel like you don’t have enough time to devote to social media? Now you do!

7) Send Postcards: Every time I send handwritten postcards to clients I get thank you notes and often new work!

8) Create Something: Paint. Draw. Write. Cook. Get the creative juices flowing just for fun. You might surprise yourself.

9) Do Paperwork: A necessary evil of business… and it’s ok to admit you’re behind on your books. Catch up.

10) Dream A Little: Take a walk or a drive and spend some time dreaming up new goals for your business and life.

11) Give Back: Volunteer for a local charity or church. Someone is always looking for a helping hand.

12) Make A Video Demo: Find out more about these great tools by clicking here.

13) Guest Blog: Got something to say? Offer to write a guest blog for your favourite VO site.

14) Un-procrastinate: We’ve all got at least one thing on our to do list we aren’t doing. Git ‘er done!

15) Take A Vacation: If you can’t beat ’em… join ’em! Maybe you need a vacation too!

Slow days and weeks in the summer is no surprise to those of us who have been in this business a while. People vacation. It happens. There’s no need to panic. But there’s also no need to entirely give up on all productivity.

Consider the spare time a gift and make the most of it!

Thanks for sharing this post from Marc Scott's Voice Over Blog.