Don’t Get Lazy - Get Stuff Done with RescueTime
Working as internet marketers, we spend most of our day on a computer in front of the screen.
But although it’s easy to sit in front of the computer for several hours in a row doesn’t mean those hours are spent efficiently. There are way too many distractions that keep us from what really should be doing - work and make more money!
Blogs (yeah you really should get off your butt instead of reading this blog post!), forums, Twitter, chatting with friends, reading and writing email, Youtube videos, news, some funny article your buddy sent you….the list is endless.
And it is WAY too easy to get sidetracked. “Oh just one quick refresh of that thread..” or “let me just check if someone responded to my blog comment…“. Just one minute here and another minute there. It adds up way fast.
Before you know it, you have wasted an hour and a half on really accomplishing nothing! I had this problem but found a great solution. Best of all - it’s FREE and easy to use. 
The solution is called RescueTime (not an affiliate link. Duh…it’s free).
Here’s a screenshot of my RescueTime dashboard showing how efficient and productive I have forced myself to become (click to zoom):
When I first began using it some months ago, my Efficiency and Productivity scores were pretty low. I would work scattered hours throughout the day, but still spend a lot of it on non-productive tasks - sometimes without even realizing how much time got wasted away. It’s way too easy to end the day by thinking “Oh well…tomorrow is the day when I will get to it”. 
Anyway - RescueTime is awesome. It forces you to see really what you’re spending your time on.
- You can set yourself minimum productive goals, such as shooting for at least 3 hours work daily
- You can set yourself maximum non-productive goals, such as shooting for less than 30 minutes daily on forums, blogs and chat
- It’s up to you to define what programs, websites, apps, will be measured as work or leisure
- You can get daily or weekly reports on how you’re performing
- Whenever you check the RescueTime Dashboard, you can get a visual overview of how well you have done for the day, the week, the last 10 days, or the month.
What really got me going was that I constantly try to beat my own record for productivity and efficiency. The pure time I have spent working on a new affiliate campaign is right there in black and white. The next day I tell myself I will beat my own score and work even harder.
This really works wonders - and as a result, I have gotten a LOT done the last few months. I would venture to say that I am now probably four times as productive as I used to be.
That means:
- More time to test new offers and research new niches
- I can set up a new landing site in short time
- I can launch several campaigns in the same time I used to launch just one
Of course, it is still important to network and stay current in this business. So I do set aside some time every day to check up on a few forums and read a few select blogs. When I’m done with my todo-list for the day, I also take time to jump into the chat window to talk with my fellow marketers and friends.
All in all - RescueTime will truly change the way you work. If you’re a procrastinator who can never really get a campaign off the ground - then I highly recommend you start using this tool.
Good review and Ryan is awesome.... 
hmmph... thought you'd look more like Hagar the Horrible.
That's the first time I read anything from Jonathan Volk. His ...
wow.. This is pure gold..
thanks for the eye opening post!
I'm so excited that you are moving to washington!
I Hope to ...
I've been saying this all along on wickedfire. Noone seems to know what I'm talking about. Anyhow, hit me up ...
Thanks for the great guide. 
Great. And very motivate to stop reading, and start doing and practice something. 
I try to be conservative and not put more than 25% of the previous months profit into the business. That ...
@ProfitAddiction / @Ryan; I agree that borrowing from friends and family can be a sensitive matter, and one to be ...
Thanks for the plug Eskil! :)
Comment by Affiliate Marketing on 27 July 2008:
Wow. That’s pretty interesting software.
Thanks,
Jonathan Volk
Comment by Eric B on 27 July 2008:
I’d like to get some work done, but that picture of the young lady in the water is distracting me to a great degree.
Comment by Riddarhusetgal on 31 July 2008:
Well, it also helps to “schedule” your nonproductive/free time (I actually got this from Amit of SuperAffiliateMindset.com). Like give yourself say 30-1hr each day to read forums, chat, surf the web, etc. That way you don’t have to go through “withdrawal” because of going cold turkey but you productivity will still go up because your work won’t be interrupted all the time. By the way, have you read the “4 Hour Work Week”? check it out!
Actually I heard that the average American worker only does about 4 hours a day of real, productive work per 8 hour work day (heard that personal development author Brian Tracy).
I find a list also helps and I got that from John Assaraf (another personal performance guru). Each day make a list of your highest income producing/productivity producing activities (from highest to lowest) and always start with the most important ones (the 80/20 rule says that 80% of ones productivity/profit/success etc. comes from just 20% of your acitivities). That way if you make sure you always get that all important 20% done each day, even if you miss the other 80% of your work, the 20% you still did will give you 80% profits.
As an example my mantra is (borrowed it from someone) - “build pages. bet links”. So, whenever I find myself tied up doing something that isn’t directly related to one of those things, I switch my attention. As an example yesterday I found myself fiddling with some blog themes. After about 30 minutes I said “with those 30 minutes I could have gotten 1 or two more links which would have meant alot more to my bottom line than a green vs. blue background”.
I’ve by no means mastered this kind of disciplined thinking but even having the framework could help. I only recently started looking at which activities, pound for pound contributed most to my bottom line.
Anyway, I’m about half way through my list so it’s time to get back to work.
Just a though
Comment by Morphy on 4 August 2008:
Finally a new post
Comment by ImagesAndWords on 5 August 2008:
I appreciate the responses everyone.
@Eric B; Sorry about that. I can replace it with an old nekkid man if you like
@riddarhusetgal; Those are some nice ideas too. I do actually make myself lists on pieces of paper that I check off every day when I get things done. I also have a spreadsheet for managing the workload on each new campaign I launch. It’s kinda like a checklist grouped into main tasks and subtasks that remain to be done. I mark them off as I go and can quickly get an overview of how much exactly is left to do. This has helped me a LOT.
@morphy; Hey buddy - yeah I’ve been so busy building campaigns that I haven’t had time for new posts lately. But I promise: more good posts are coming!
Comment by Edison Thomaz on 12 November 2008:
Hi - We’ve recently introduced a new version of our time and activity analytics solution, Slife v2.0. It’s now available for Mac/Windows and you can extend it to multiple users with Slife Teams.
http://www.slifelabs.com
http://www.slifeteams.com
It’s similar to RescueTime in some ways. Give it a try - the Slife client is free. We would love to know what you think.
Comment by l___K on 3 March 2009:
ty.
Comment by jknj on 18 June 2009:
You said its free… I dont think so.. It has only a 14 day trial.
Comment by ImagesAndWords on 19 June 2009:
@jknj; It still is free, but their website has made it harder to find the free version.
Go here: http://www.rescuetime.com/tour/solo