Shortcuts Revealed: How To Do It All (even when your brain says no)

I can’t tell you how many times someone has said to me…

Jackie, I just don’t know how you do it all?!

Well, to tell you the truth, I’d never really thought about it. Things need to be done, so you do them. 🙂 It’s just kind of the way my brain works, but since the “it wasn’t a stroke” episode I’ve really been thinking about what I do, and how I do it. (It’s been an existential couple days I tell ya). And here’s what I realized… as much as I don’t believe in “shortcuts” there are definitely tools I use to make things easier, and get things done quicker, so I can go play in the snow with my kiddo when she gets home from school.

I thought today I’d share some of them with you. If you’re struggling to keep up with your blogging efforts, you might find them helpful.

1. PLR.

Today my brain was like… oh hell no. It was not having it, didn’t want to get started, didn’t want to think, didn’t want to do anything. But… giving into lame brain doesn’t make us any money now does it?  I knew I had to START… because that’s the key to finishing.

I decided to give my brain a break (or at least let it think I did) and dug into the PLR vault.

Found an article that was relevant to the things I’ve been talking about lately. Copied it. Pasted it into my other blog. Deleted the first paragraph, and wrote my own introduction to the topic. Read through, changed some words around so it sounded more like me.

Created a quick image over at Picmonkey so I had a good pinnable image in the post.

Publish and viola. Done with one post in 10 or so minutes. (very little brain activity involved)

That’s the first step I do every day… write and publish a blog post. Content is my connection point, so I have to create it to move forward with the rest of my day.

Once I’ve got my blog post published I dig back into the PLR bag of tricks and pull out some “tips”.

I’ve purchased a couple 365 tip packages… which I absolutely LOVE! They’re great for creating a blog post around, as well as what I’m about to do next.

2. Schedule: 

I used to think I had to sit around all day and “watch” my social media outlets. Now don’t get me wrong, I still spend way too much time on social media lol… but I’ve also wised up. I now schedule posts to go out through the day. This way I don’t have that subconscious thing going on that if I’m not right there… things aren’t going to work.

I’ve used a few different products for this purpose, but have found the good old Facebook schedule feature is more than enough for me to get the job done, and heck it’s free… so bonus.

I grab my blog post url, a couple tips from the 365 tips plr, and an image or two that’s relevant to my topic (also PLR) and I schedule my fanpage posts to go out through the day.

Facebook will notify you when your scheduled posts goes out, so you can keep an eye on engagement and reply/connect when someone interacts with your scheduled posts.

If you’ve got your facebook posts going to twitter automatically… you’re one step ahead of the game, and killing two birds with one stone.

So… now I’ve got one of my blog posts done for the day, and what do you know, my brain is feeling a little more cooperative now. (maybe it was the coffee) either way… now I’ve got some ideas popping for my second blog post (this one!).

3. Just do something.

The biggest thing I’ve found that seriously gets me through the day when my brain doesn’t want to work is to just do something. Find the easiest thing you’ve got to do today, and do it. If it’s a blog post and you can use some PLR so your brain gets fooled that it’s not working… then go for it.

Once you start moving, you’ll find you have more momentum, and the harder things will magically seem easier.

So yeah, this one isn’t really a shortcut… but if I allowed myself to just sit and refresh facebook because I wasn’t feeling “motivated”, hell I’d never get anything done.

Grab your first easiest task, and get started. Use things that make it easier to finish. Finish your first thing… then move on to the next easiest thing.

Now… this is how I work on the days my brain refuses to cooperate… I highly suggest most days you tackle the “hardest” thing first… when you finish the hardest thing you have to do in the day, the rest will feel like cake and ice cream.

Be flexible. Take it easy on yourself. Take shortcuts that you feel good about… and get started.

Have questions about how I use PLR or the 1 place I buy 99% of my PLR ~ just ask. 🙂 Shoot me a message or leave a comment below! I’m happy to tell you all about it.