If you're like me then there are days when you just want to throw in the towel and walk away. Who needs this online junk anyway? Can ya feel me?

When I have days like these then I make myself do one thing and call it a day.

Yep, just. one. thing.

Typically, it's something like sending you an email or some other back end item that falls in our “money making tasks”.

The reason I do the one thing and check it off my list is because I have learned that consistency creates momentum and momentum leads to success.

Often, the act of doing the one thing leaves me feeling accomplished and allows me to enjoy the rest of my day without the stress “of it all” looming over me.

If you are feeling overwhelmed – in either life or business – just remember the power of one.

The fact is, multitasking is overrated. Studies show that people really can’t multitask at all. When they try, productivity goes down and stress goes up.

Being in business likely means you have a To Do List as long as your arm (you ARE my people!) and there are times when just creating that list for a project is enough to overload my brain and throw me into overwhelm. Susanne and I have done this enough times that we've done a decent job of finding our limit of things to focus on and we encourage you to do the same.

The list can be long but only focus on…

One Goal at a Time

If you have many goals, that’s great. But, you don’t have to do them all at once. For example, let’s say you want to grow your list and send more emails. You don’t have to wake up tomorrow and be perfect. Instead, you can focus on one small goal at a time. Starting tomorrow, write an email to your list. Next month, set up a new opt-in and share it far and wide. One goal at a time.

Remember when I said that crossing that one thing off my list allowed me to feel some freedom? Sometimes…

Small Steps Offer Big Rewards

When you take one small step at a time toward a goal, even if it seems like you’ll never finish, time will pass and you will finish. For example, if you were to start today on a quest to build your list…start with a goal of adding 5 people per week. Even if you just add a small number of people each week to your daily total until you reach your goal your list is growing and you have the opportunity to make each person on your list a raving fan. When you get to the point that you're adding more people each week, you’ll be at, or even over, your goal. What’s more is you’ll do it rather painlessly. This works for any type of goal you have – whether it’s growing your list, writing a book or getting your house tidy.

I've mentioned that we have a list of money making tasks that I choose from first but when you just start out…

Tackling Small Goals: How Do You Choose?

It can be harder to choose which goals to tackle in business than in your personal life. So, it’s important to ask yourself – What one thing can I can do first that will make the most impact now?

Let’s say you have a product and a website, but you don’t have a good mailing list. Work on your mailing list.

That means you may need to create an opt-in – you can create the list, put in some auto-responder emails, and then after you’re done with that, create an opt-in. Or you can create an opt-in, then the auto-responder emails.

Either way you choose to do it, only worry about the one thing you’re doing first. Nothing more. Go to the next thing only when you’re done.

but what if you aren't sure where to even start? When you're in high spirits and raring to go…

Map it Out

You might want to create a map of the things you need to do and put them in order of first to last. Then simply go through the list, one thing at a time, until you’re done. It’s okay if it takes a while to get things done. As long as you're taking small steps you're making progress and things are getting done. Just be realistic. If you want to write a 10,000 word book, it starts with just one word.

Regardless of how you work best, just getting started on something is better than doing nothing. Whether you work on an outline for your book, and then start writing, or you simply start writing is up to you.

What you choose to focus on is totally dependent on your goals, and your own timeline – not someone else’s.

No one else is living your life with your responsibilities, so don’t let anyone else set the pace. But do set a pace, and do move forward, one thing at a time.