Procrastination in the shape of research

Tell me this doesn't happen to you. You are reading an article or blog or whatever, and there is a link to another article or youtube video and you click on it. An hour later, you are 2000 miles away from your original topic OR you are 2000 miles deeper into the same topic because you kept following the same thread but from a dozen different people. Such was a recent experience of mine. I read an article on better writing productivity which involved writing on a daily basis rather than sporadically. I'm guilty of the latter, but realize I have to make a shift in the way I write.
The narrator was Joanna Penn of the Creative Penn blog complete with videos. Joanna has the most infectious laugh (by the way) but hearing her laugh should not be the primary reason for listening to any of her interviews. I digress. Sticking to my chosen topic of ways to shake off procrastination and write every day led me to a video by Jeff Goins. Here is the link:-

3 Tips for Forming a Daily Writing Routine
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VDEDgUIHA-g&list=PLftaFG1OJGsO5woCBMRxrZ6H4wz030CbK&index=1

As one does, one checks out other youtube videos from the same narrator. I am about to start my journey as far as building a writer platform, so I watched the following video:-

Starting from Scratch: How to Build a Platform with Words, Passion, and People
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1TbFlskJgZ4

My biggest takeaway from this video? (and it is a HUGE one) My blog is not about me. I read that again and again until it sank in. My blog is not about me. It is about my readers and how what I write can help or entertain them.

Realizing as we all do, that if I didn't curb my inclination to hop from video to video, I'd never get around to my priority of writing (actually it was not so much writing, but rewriting a section of my work in progress where a different scenario felt like a better fit for one of my 'work in progress' books) I promised myself that I would watch one more of Jeff's videos before kicking my own butt into gear. Here is the URL for that video.

How to find your purpose or calling in life with Jeff Goins
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tRXWx-3uBkU

Can you tell I'm now a fan of Jeff's? The way in which he presents his material resonated with me, and that is what I believe that we should all search for and find. A message that resonates with us in such a powerful way that causes inaction to make way for action. Nothing changes without action. Either yours or someone else's. Both would be better.

Am I going to join his 'Tribe Writers 2.0' for around $49/month to $99/month for the upgrade? No. I have learned through trial and much error to seek out reviews for any course that I have an itch to buy. I can't tell you how often I have been burned by courses that were not necessarily bad (although some were dreadful) but often because the course did not fully cover certain aspects that were the real reason behind my purchasing decision. I am one of those people who can read a bullet point list of say ten reasons you might want to purchase a product and if only one of those bullet points 'speaks' to me... I'm in. I fully understand that the possibility exists that nine out of the ten bullet points may be rehashed crap but. the one bullet point that intrigued me might just be the diamond in the rough that will make all the difference. So, for now I will content myself with the superb free videos that Jeff has online and wait for the course that has my name written all over it and the reviews to back it up.

One more thing. When my interest was Internet Marketing based, Jason Fladlien once wrote that his learning ratio to action ratio was (I think) about 1 to 4. For every one hour of learning, he took about four hours of massive action based on that learning. 99.9% of people have the ratio backwards, spending as much as 10 hours of learning followed by 1 hour of action, if that. Often, being busy can be confused with being productive but there is a big difference between the two. Knowledge without action is 'being busy' and has little use other than keeping ourselves better informed. Google's constant algorithm changes is what ultimately made me look for a better business model. Amazon and writing for kindle (creating the possibility of passive income) was where I decided to invest my time and effort.

I would love it if you came and joined me in this exciting journey. After all, the journey is not about me and not necessarily all about you. It's about us. You, the reader and me, the writer. My hope is that with you reading my work and providing useful feedback, I can better tailor my efforts to entertain you. That would be a win-win situation. If you could tell me why you did or didn't like a story, why you did or didn't like a character (bearing in mind that some characters are meant to be disliked) we could both benefit.

                                                                                           Alex Bahscot