How to Build a Stronger Online Presence by Working Less

by MarsDorian · 35 comments

If there was a contest for the biggest procrastinator online, I’d win it by a landslide. O – oh !

I should have used the past tense, because that doesn’t apply to me anymore.

Building a powerful online presence takes thousands of steps. Sometimes, the work load seems so ominous you just don’t know what to do next.

Don’t shoot yourself yet ! I struggled just like you, but thanks to some awesome bloggers like Everett Bogue, I made my mind become a focus minimalist.

I now get more things done, and enjoy more influence than a few months ago where I worked my soul off.

Let me show you my 3 little steps that help you build a stronger presence in less time.

Inhale with endless joy.

1 – Crystallize your Purpose

In the beginning, I didn’t have a clear purpose for my online presence. The result: people coming to my blog not knowing what the heck it was about.

Epic fail raised to the second power !

The most essential way of building a kick-ass online presence is to clarify your brand purpose. What keeps your fire inside burning, and how can you mix that with helping others ? Now translate that into a catchy story and tagline. Voila !

You have found your purpose. Two magical things happen now:

people who visit your blog know what to expect.

You have a better understanding of yourself, and know what to do to increase your digital influence.

White magic. Right there !

2 – Make Pressure your New Religion

I used to be a delusional fire bomb who wanted to explode as fast and loud as possible. Translation: I wanted to do big things as fast as possible, and I mean really big things. Needless to say, that bomb never exploded.

Thanks to some awesome bloggers online, I have come back to my senses. My new obsession: time pressure and freakish focus. I work less than 3 months ago and accomplish way more. How do I do it ?

Only do things that work like red magic:

1) Ask myself THE question : How can I spread my influence the most effective way possible ?

2) Give myself a ridiculous time limit (the countdown of a bomb ;)

I used to need hours and hours for stupid little things: Tweaking my blog, networking with peeps or writing a simple blog post. Those times are over – I shot them back to hell.

Now I give myself one hour MAX to write a post, and even less for other tasks. The pressure makes my focus super-sharp, we are talking Samurai sword-sharp here, and improves the overall quality of my (art)work.

Whatever you work on, time yourself (use the free stopwatch ) and give yourself LESS time for it. Seriously, you are going to spacerocket your productivity.

3 – Shift your Energy to your Syndicate

The internet has given us the opportunity to chat with everyone on the planet. That is more terrible than it sounds, because you may end up chit-chatting with so many peeps that you don’t get anything done.

Don’t let this happen to you.

I have a list on Twitter where I feature my Digital Crusaders – people who are moving and shaking things up in the online world. The list keeps increasing, but I’m careful with including new ones. Not everyone deserves your time.

Be ABSOLUTELY radical with your networking time. Some people just want to chat all day without really going anywhere. They are like vampires, sucking your precious mind energy. No need to stab them in the heart or purify their souls, just ignore them and move on.

If you really want move forward, you need to connect with the action-takers.

Wrap up.

Served with mint flavored mind knowledge

Whenever you get lost during your digital crusade, it’s helpful to get back to your essence.

This one question might change the way you work online:

Is this (insert action here) moving me towards my goal, or is it distracting from my focus ?

Answer this and you’ll always know what to do next !

What do you focus on every day to spread your online presence ?

And please retweet and Facebook – share the message !

Tagged as: blog, blogging, focus, Influence, mindset, personal brand, productivity, time management

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http://www.entredaddy.com/ Andy Fogarty

3 VERY powerful points here.

I've been seriously buckling down on #2 lately. I'm generally very good about being focused and getting my stuff done, but I can literally take hours and hours to write a new post. A few months ago, this wasn't a problem. Now I have more and more folks to help each day and respond that something has to give – and it's not going to be communicating with my readers.

Great points Mars.

http://www.marsdorian.com/ Mars Dorian

Andy,

my longest post took me five hours, and the result was still crap !

Lol, seriously. A lot of peeps think that your quality will suffer if you have less time, but the opposite is true.

If you really want to get powerful with it, you should put a FINAL time limit on your actions – the result can be magical !

Long live the focus !

NicktheMayor

Agreed with all points in fact I have been slowly tweaking the overall focus of my blog. These changes and the limitations of what is offered is what will differentiate it from others like it.

http://www.marsdorian.com/ Mars Dorian

Awesome Nick,

by concentrating on what you set's your online presence apart you will move even closer into that direction.
PS: I have tried to check your blog, but there's a weird loading problem. I see the blog for a few secs and then it reloads again to no avail !
You might want to check on that, because I'm curious !

NicktheMayor

I think there was a glitch with the Disqus comment plugin I am using and the Firefox browser. I believe I have fixed this. I just tested it on my system.

http://www.making-your-own-website.com NA | Create Your First Website

Hi Mars,

Excellent advice.

“The pressure makes my focus super-sharp, we talking Samurai sword-sharp here, and improves the overall quality of my (art)work.

Whatever you work on, time yourself (use the free stopwatch ) and give yourself LESS time for it. Seriously, you are going to spacerocket your productivity.”

You know this seems odd, but it works like magic! I completely agree with this one. The less time I have, the more productive I am and the more work I get done! You know there was a post over at problogger that had a similar subject (You might have read it):

How I Conquered Being Undisciplined and Started Getting Things Done

problogger.net/archives/2010/06/23/how-i-conquered-being-undisciplined-and-started-getting-things-done/

Regrading social networking, you are right. They can sometimes be distracting. The can suck a lot of time form your daily routine, so you need to be very careful and manage your social networking cautiously. I limit my time on social networks, so that I do not end up wasting a lot of time.

Kindest,
Nabeel

http://www.marsdorian.com/ Mars Dorian

Hey Nabeel,

Hope you are kicking some online ass ! Never read the article, but I will now ! This time method is freaking awesome when it comes to getting things done.

I use it everyday: What's my focus – what do I need to focus on to spread my influence. The results are awesome, especially when you know how to leverage it.

If you haven't done so already, get yourself a timer and put a limit on your tasks, Nabeel. You will be amazed at what you can accomplish !

http://www.itarsenal.com/ Rob

Love this, especially that it's in line with focus, especially with how much I pack my life with, love the changes to how intentional your blog has become…and the changes we both started making. Great stuff Mars, talk soon.

http://www.marsdorian.com/ Mars Dorian

Hey Rob,

thanx. Yeah, the better one's focus, the more vibrant the changes. Can't wait to talk digital face-to-face with you !

http://cashwithatrueconscience.com/rbblog Ryan Biddulph

Hi Mars,

Purpose carries power. By getting on purpose your focus improves, moving the attention only to things which need to be done to become successful.

I resonate with your pressure tips Mars. I am online for a set number of hours a day, then shut off the laptop and live a balanced life. This breeds effectiveness. Think of Parkinson's Law: work expands to fill the time allotted for it. Also, have an exit strategy in mind. When a billionaire you won't be tied to the computer. Plan to be a billionaire Now.

Agree again buddy. I chat with the Big Dogs these days, that's it. I don't have much time for people who aren't on purpose.

Ryan Biddulph

http://www.marsdorian.com/ Mars Dorian

Ryan,

“When a billionaire you won't be tied to the computer. Plan to be a billionaire Now.”

Jeez, and I thought I was thinking big !

I have yet to get into THAT mindset. For now, I'm busy with building an online business, kicking ass with my brand.

And yeah – I also got the principle from Parkinson's law – that's powerful magic.

I luv the way you think, Ryan – space's the limit ;)

http://twitter.com/AlwaysWellWithn Sandra Lee

Mars, This is my first visit to you blog, I love your brief intro – very energetic!

You are right – focus is the ticket. But it still takes me a long time to produce a blog post. OK, OK, I will try the stop watch. But I can't help but wonder if this idea applies more to people who write about blogging than to those who write about denser stuff. Even if I could write a post in an hour, then there's the time it takes to find the photo and format the post. I wish it could take less time, but it's hard for me to see it happening like that. Am I just stuck?

I'm with you on all the other points! Thanks for the ideas.

http://www.marsdorian.com/ Mars Dorian

Hey Sandra,

welcome to the show !

You are only stuck when you think you are stuck ;)

This form of focus applies to everything – you may think that putting more time into your work will yield better results, but that's a fallacy.

The more time you have at your disposal, the more you end up doing useless things.

In the beginning, give yourself a time limit that is 1/3 of the “original time” you put into your work. Use a stop watch and feel the pressure. Your brain will now focus only on the essentials. The quality of your work will now skyrocket !

Try it out at least once, Sandra,
and then tell me what you think ;)

kristinglasbergen

This is exactly the message I needed today. I need to streamline my online activities. I am going to start using the timer. For everything not just post writing. Excellent and thank you.

http://www.marsdorian.com/ Mars Dorian

Kristin,

the timer is an invention of heaven ;)

Seriously, since I'm timing all of my major online activities, I have become a one productivity devil.

It really helps you shifting your focus to the important stuff !

RebeccaOsberg

I think I can actually use this post to convert people to social media users. The excuse I hear the most about people resisting the movement is it takes too much time. Only if you let it! Providing us with 3 ways to take less time to do more is excellent. Thanks!

http://www.marsdorian.com/ Mars Dorian

Rebecca,

totally – if it takes too much time it means you are just not effective.
Bringing your glorious energy back to the essentials will not only boost your time spend on the networks, but it will also dramatically increase the quality of your interactions. You only say things that are worth saying !

ralphcarlson

Mars,
Do you go into the syndicate thing in more depth elsewhere on your blog? If so can you give me a link? The idea is appealing but I would like more details.

http://www.marsdorian.com/ Mars Dorian

Hey Ralph,

the post your are looking for is actually the most popular on my blog:

http://www.marsdorian.com/2010/06/rapid-blog-gr…

If the link doesn't work – check on the right sidebar “popular posts” – it's the first post you see “how to massively spread…”

It's a huge part of my success ;)

srinirao

Mars,

That concept of a twitter list sounds familiar ;). Good points here that you have shared. I think the biggest issue with us that we have too much damn time. I seriously think the 8 hour work day is nonsense. People are shocked that I schedule my life around surf conditions and get all this shi#$# done, but that's because it's important enough that I'll use time pressure.

http://www.marsdorian.com/ Mars Dorian

Hey Srini,

Yeah, I think I know one guy who's notorious for building those Twitter lists as well.

I still luv your concept about scheduling your work around surfing. That's awe-some, but like you said, you still get a lot done because you have LESS time.

I wish I'd known that earlier !

http://twitter.com/Murlu Murray Lunn

Ah, the final question is what always does it for me – does this help me?

One tip I'd give is to visualize yourself – tell yourself “I am awesome at X” – after a while you'll develop a mindset that you are. Your entire personality will change toward it and you'll build a great habit.

I've seen my friend do this recently and it's like he's a completely different person so yeah, it definitely works.

Also, take the time to go back and see how far along you are with your goals. If you seem to be straying off the path, figure out what you need to do to get back on it!

http://www.marsdorian.com/ Mars Dorian

that method works, Murray, I have tried it myself.
It's like fake it till you make it – if you behave as if you know, your brain will find a way. Yep, self-manipulation can be powerful ;)

annahaller

Mars,

Going back to my essence is something that I really need to do at this point in time in my digital crusade. It is very hard to get lost with all the things life throws at you and it's even harder to take the necessary steps to succeed even though this is something that needs to be done. It's all a learning process and as long as I stay focused and know what my purpose is at all times then I will be okay!

Anna

http://www.marsdorian.com/ Mars Dorian

Hey Anna,

I hope you are rocking the online world :)

Yeah – I can relate. Sometimes, I lose by focus and I drown in the chaotic waves of life. That's not a fun place to be in – but it's naturally to dwell there every other time !

Never beat yourself up, Anna, tell yourself that you are a human being with ups and downs, and then make it a conscious effort to bring your focus back to the stuff that matters – your purpose in (digital) life !

jeez, that sounds sou personal coaching style ;)

http://trafficcoleman.com/blog/ TrafficColeman

Yo MarsDorian,

Time is everything to me and the people I teach marketing to. I stress to people that you must us your time wisely, or you will be running around on FaceBook until yo head spin off.

If you gonna waste time doing anything online, make sure it on your own site..not FaceBook and Twitter.

Setup an schedule like I go by everyday..and it will keeps you focus and on point.

I'M Out MarsDorian

“TrafficColeman “Signing Off”

http://www.marsdorian.com/ Mars Dorian

Hey Coleman,

Damn right !
Setting up your schedule is essential, or you end up facebooking and tweeting your soul off (guilty as charged)

See you later
roger ;)

minimalistwoman

The improvement to your blog and focus is staggering, and I even liked it before the change. Very impressed and hope to effect the same sort of pow! to my own blog's focus. This post is concentrated pow! juice.

http://www.marsdorian.com/ Mars Dorian

Hey Meg,

Focus on improvement is my daily mantra – and everybody should abide by it ;)
What do you mean before the change ?
I

http://minimalistwoman.com meg

I could have sworn this site looked different and your writing style less sharp-shooting, say back in the spring? How long has it looked like this? Or am I prematurely senile? Or maybe I just wasn't ready for the MD effect ;)

http://www.jessilicious.com Jess Webb

Oooh, this is excellent!

I struggle with this stuff on a daily basis. It's so easy for me to get distracted and off focus, but I've been getting better at focusing in on ONE thing (and closing email and other distracting windows). Still a long way to go, but I guess it happens one step at a time. ;)

Thanks for the tips, Mars!

http://www.marsdorian.com/ Mars Dorian

Hey Jess,

focus is everything ! Start in little steps, and focus your entire energy to the current task. That works like magic when you give yourself a time limit for it.
Seriously, if you want to have a productive digital working life, you got to make focus you daddy ;)

http://www.2knowmyself.com Farouk

i strongly agree , thanks for your post
it feels awesome to live on a passive income :)
http://elishares.com Elisha Batuncang

Brilliant advice! I'm kinda sucker in focusing due to my multi-tasking habit which leads to procrastination, habits which I'm yet to kick-off.

I like this line:
“Is this (insert action here) moving me towards my goal, or is it distracting from my focus ?”
I'll print this out with bold lettering and stick it on the wall.

http://www.marsdorian.com/ Mars Dorian

haha, you should do that, definitely !

I tried to to multitask too, Elisha, but it wasn't productive work at all. I was scattering my precious energies – without having a clear focus on what to do in this moment.
It's tempting, especially with Facebook, Twitter and Youtube around. But I try my best to only concentrate on the task that is before me – and finish that as epic as possible !
Honestly, Elisha, set yourself a timer http://www.online-stopwatch.com and work on a single task under severe time pressure ! It works like pure magic ;)