How The Promise Of £50 – And The Fear Of Losing £250 – Has Transformed The Way I Work

What a fantastic week I’ve had.

On paper at least it shouldn’t have been that great because I’ve had more than my fair share of problems – from hosting (again), a “next day” delivery finally turning up four dates late (and waiting in every day for it) to a couple of domain name sales falling through.

But in terms of work done, things couldn’t have gone any better.

The inspiration for my fantastic week came from a post on Webmasterworld in the supporters forum.  The gist of the thread was how to motivate yourself when you find yourself in a rut and since the Summer break that’s exactly where I’ve found myself.

I just haven’t been able to build up a head of steam, which is unusual for me after a long break.  I’m full of ideas and raring to go, but for some reason I’ve been dragging my feet and making little progress.  I think the crux of the problem was that I have so much to do, so much that I want to achieve, but just didn’t know where to start.

The suggestion of how to beat this came from one of the moderators, ergophobe, who makes weekly lists of things to do on a Sunday night – just like I do – but with a twist.

If he get his tasks done, he puts $50 in a fun money kitty for buying frivolous things. If he fails to complete his to do list he takes $250 out of that kitty.

It’s completely changed how ergophobe works.  And I think it could do the same for me.

I started the week knowing that I have a handful of sites that need to be completely overhauled so last Sunday I picked one, added it to my to do list, and gave myself a week get it into shape.

Come Monday morning, I went to work on it, knowing that if I completed the overhaul within a week I would have £50 to spend as I please.  As ergophobe says, $50 or £50 might not do it for you.  $500 or £500 might be more appropriate.  But since I rarely spend £50 on myself (excluding books), the idea of having that money in my pocket to blow on anything I want really struck a chord with me.

By Wednesday I had achieved a great deal, but it was beginning to dawn on me that I might have bitten off far too much for just a week’s work.  I wasn’t even half way through the stuff that I needed to do to transform the website and was already writing off Monday, Tuesday and even Wednesday of next week to complete it.

But the idea of starting this new game £250 down after week one wasn’t ever going to happen.

I upped my workload.  Stealing half an hour here and half an hour there to keep pushing forward.  Instead of an hour for dinner, I grabbed a sandwich and was back on the frontline within 15 minutes.  Instead of watching an entire football match, I settled for the highlights later that evening and put in another 90 minutes to completing my to do list.

Come Friday and I could see light at the end of the tunnel, and late on Saturday night I had actually completed the overhaul.  A job that I’d been putting off and putting off has now been completed in just one week.  And everything else on my to do list (including cutting the grass and washing the car) has been done too.

Even better, I can see ways to earn much more from my  website after working on it all week.  Indeed, I’ve set myself a target of doubling my income from it by this time next year and have already set some of the wheels in motion to doing just that.  Best of all it won’t involve that much more work on my part either.  So this past week’s worth will literally be worth thousands of pounds to me in the months to come.  In fact even as I was working on the site I saw revenues increase.

And that’s me just finished my to do list for this coming week.  As well as all the other jobs I want to do, I’ve picked another site and plan to have it in tip top condition by next Sunday.  Again a big ask, but I’ve got that fire in my belly again, and when that happens, anything is possible as any entrepreneur will tell you.

So thanks ergophobe for a fantastic week.  I’m already looking forward to depositing another £50 in my fun fund come next Sunday.