This week’s Spark an Idea Thursday post deals with Staying Motivated this summer.
I’ve found one of the best tools to get motivated is looking ahead. Think of what kind of sales you’d like to do at the year’s end and what kind of bottom line you’d like to close out the year with. Summer time is a great time to draw up your holiday promotions and even go as far as what you will do in the beginning of the coming year.
Then use tools like Google docs, Google Calendar, Basecamp or whatever you use to organize your projects. These systems allow you to easily share your plans and assign tasks right now so that everyone has a game plan and is not working on a super tight schedule.
Take Advantage of Automation
If you use an autoresponder (and you should), review your messages. Do any of them need to be updated or moved around? Maybe you need fresh messages? Why not add the messages and promotions you have not been able to add now?
If you have drawn up your year end promotion plan you can even go ahead and schedule your time sensitive emails right now. That way you will be free to relax and enjoy your holiday or at least have less things to worry about.
Same thing with your blog. Have you any seasonal articles that you never got around publishing? Affiliate articles you have wanted to put up but not done so? Start scheduling them in and while you’re at it, add your seasonal greetings now. You can always update them later if things change.
You too can participate in ‘Spark an Idea Thursday’ . Each week we share some great ideas for a topic of interest to our readers. We invite you to grab our image and carry the tradition through to your own blog! If you do, please link back to this post so we know where you were inspired!
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Lynette enjoys discovering new ways to use technology or new technologies to use in a business and in turn help her clients apply them.
You can find also Lynette at her 
I also take some time in the summer to plan things out. Then when the school bus comes, I’m ready to rock and roll!
Brandie, The Home Office Organizers last blog post..Filter the Noise on Twitter
Your idea about seasonal articles is great but sometimes when you are in a groove you can come up with a lot of material at once. In these cases you may be able to create two or three post that you can then use on those day when you’ve got writers block or just don’t feel like writing.
Chris Johnstons last blog post..Sparking Ideas To Stay Motivated This Summer
I am a big fan of Google calendar, docs etc. They can be a great help in really developing a plan and sticking to it.
Thanks for the great info!
Hey Leigh Anne, I like the apps from Google too. A little too much I think sometimes
Autoresponders are my savior!! I find I don’t mind paying extra for a program that will help me automate as much as possible. Google docs has kept me organized as well. Thanks for the tips!
Jenns last blog post..Get Data In Real Time!
@Jenn: I can’t give up my autoresponder either.
Great tips as we approach summer. I’m going to mention your post in my weekly link love re: how to get ready for summer over at WAHM Talk Radio!
Angela Greens last blog post..Buzz A Mom – LaTara Ham-Ying
@Chris: I so agree with you about being motivated to write and tell that to people all the time. It’s OK to have ’seasons’ where you don’t want to blog or write but when you do, churn them out and use automation to help you. People won’t ever know of your low ’seasons’. To them. it’s like you just kept on chugging along.