I had a whole list of things that I needed to do in my marketing, but I wasn’t doing it. I was doing everything but that. Responding to email, meeting with clients… all important things, but not that one marketing project. 

The longer I avoided it, the worse my anxiety about it got, and the bigger that project seemed. I found myself looking in the mirror: “Are you going to get to it or not?” 

It can be tough to get ourselves to take action, even when we know it’s necessary.

From posting on social media, to writing blog posts and emails, to creating videos or lead magnets - it can be really hard to get started.

There are lots of reasons - we feel intimidated, we don’t have the energy, we don’t know what to say, we don’t feel confident about it, we have too much else to do, we’re afraid we’ll do it wrong, we think no one will like it, we don’t know where to start, it feels too big, we don’t have the time…. Lots and lots of reasons.

But none of those reasons eliminate the truth: We need to do it. We need to do our marketing if we want our businesses to thrive.

So what can we do about it? What can we do to get ourselves to start working on the things we’ve been avoiding?

How do we get ourselves out of procrastination and into action?

Here are 5 things that I’d like to suggest, because they work for me:

• Figure out at what time of day you have the most energy, and then schedule the work that you’ve been avoiding for that time. I’m super energized first thing in the morning, so that’s when I plan to do anything that takes the most brain power. That’s my creative time, and it’s also when I schedule things that I’ve been procrastinating around.
• Put it in your calendar. I have a terrible habit of just assuming that I’ll do the work in between the time that I have my clients scheduled. But then I don’t. Why? One reason is because my clients get specific time on the calendar, and I get the random blank time between their sessions. What if I schedule actual time for me and then show up just like I do for my clients? Boom!
• Break it all down into small pieces, and then focus your attention. If it’s a big project, this can be incredibly helpful! What are the first one or two steps? Or what is most interesting to you? Or (and this is my favorite) what is the easiest thing that you can do to just get it started? (I call that the LHF method: Lowest hanging fruit ). This works because the whole project might feel incredibly overwhelming, but the first, most interesting, or easiest step will feel very doable.
• Just get started. If you wait until you are in the mood, have the energy, and actually want to do the thing you are avoiding, you’ll be waiting forever. But if you just sit down and get started, the energy you’ve been looking for will show up. Seriously - try it. Set the timer for 15 minutes and start working on it. I think you’ll be surprised about how the energy and the mood show up because you leaned into it.
• Find someone to cowork with. Running your own business can be very lonely and isolating. It’s hard to work on the challenging things when you’re feeling like you’re in it all alone. I struggle with this myself, so I have some regular coworking groups that I meet with every week. And yes, that's plural - I meet with a few groups throughout the week! It makes a huge difference. In addition to getting a ton of work done, I feel less lonely. It reminds me that other people have similar challenges, and we can solve them together!
  
  I love coworking sessions so much, I offer them in my upcoming workshop, the Get it Done: 4-Week Sprint. Click here to learn more and get on the wait list.

These are just 5 ways to get ourselves moving forward on projects and tasks that we’re avoiding. I’m sure there are more! If you have an additional idea, please add it in the comments below!