A couple of weeks ago I was visiting a bookstore and saw this message stone on the ground, “Patience takes a long time”. Great saying for the crappy week I was having – it was crappy because I was totally out of patience and annoyed with everything I was doing.
What was I doing? Setting up accounts for social media, web servers, domains, WordPress, email, etc. and ALL of it was taking A LOT longer than I expected – which pissed me off to no end.
One reason for my frustration is that with all other aspects of my life, I over estimate the time, then when I get it done early I walk away happy and proud. This is not the case when I set up accounts, servers, domains, email accounts, etc.
I say to myself every time, “this won’t take long, it’s just filling in the blanks with information I know by heart.”
WRONG! Oh, how could I be so wrong with this.
Invariably, I am asked for information I swore I had (but don’t seem to have), bios of the correct word count, avatars saved in a folder marked avatars, tax id numbers, email accounts for the correct domains … you get the point, I thought I had everything I needed and now I realize I do NOT.
Apparently, I am not alone with how long it takes to do things, especially setting up accounts. At least one client a week will call to tell me how frustrated they are with setting up their PayPal account, their Linked in account, or whatever account it may be that week and want to know if they are doing it wrong, and does it take me this long. They start blaming themselves, “I’m just not good on the computer” “I must not understand what they want.”
The truth is, it takes time and patience to set up social media accounts, WordPress, domains, web servers, hosting, and email accounts. It just does!
I decided to take a minute and think about why I don’t give myself enough time, why I hate setting up these accounts, and why I give up frustrated when I don’t have a couple of answers I need.
What I realized was, I don’t apply the same rules of getting things done I use in all other aspects of my life to setting up accounts.
The next day I set myself up for success by applying these rules.
1. Set a goal, and block off time for setting up accounts. 1 hour, 2 hours, 6 hours, whatever … set the time.
2. Set up one account at a time. Do not leave the account until it is completely set up, even if this means you have to write or find a profile, hunt for a picture, set up an email account you thought you already had etc. Do not stop setting up the account until you are completely finished.
3. Organize all info used to set up the account. If you don’t already have it, it should be something like this:
- Folder named Facebook or whatever
- Folder named Avatar
- Folder named bio or profile
- Usernames and Passwords set up in the place you keep them (I keep them in my intranet)
4. Reward. Yes, I said reward! Give yourself one after setting up an account. If that is taking the dog for a walk, getting a coffee, jumping on the treadmill, shopping, lunch, something that will take no more than an hour.
5. Rinse and Repeat – Once you have one done, sit down and repeat the steps above on the remaining accounts until you have worked through your “time block” and then stop.
It took me 1 week to set up all my accounts using this method – my patience was tried only once – a huge accomplishment for someone who loses patience many times while setting up accounts.
Bottom line, you CAN set up your accounts, you DO have time to do it, you are SMART enough to figure it out AND you will find that you will build your patience muscle if you set yourself up to succeed by following the steps above.
