The useful emails are great, but how do you deal with all the rest?

Here are 5 suggestions:

1. Message boards. Whenever an email is sent to a large group of people, it’s a waste of those people’s time. A better format for keeping people up-to-date on any topic would be a message board or forum or some other collaborative method of posting information to a large group. Within a company, for example, an announcement should be posted on the company’s online bulletin board. Within a working group, form a collaborative whiteboard. Within a family, have a family message board. This will eliminate a lot of email for a lot of people.

2. IM. One of Gmail’s (many) great innovations is its “Reply by chat” feature on each email … if the person is online, it can often be much better to resolve an issue immediately through IM. See How Instant Messaging Can Be More Productive. This feature can eliminate a lot of back-and-forth emails.

3. Blogs. A much better way to keep a large group informed about things than email. Similar to message boards but for many purposes, it’s just a better format. Microblogging and tumblelogs would also be good solutions for some purposes. Consider the joke emails that my relatives like to send me (they’re all on my kill file, btw) … couldn’t they have a tumblelog with all their favorite jokes and joke pictures and chain-mail prayers and joke videos on there instead? Then, if I’m interested, I can subscribe to their joke tumblelog’s feed or check it every now and then.

4. Instant-action emails. This is the real future of email, but I don’t know when it’ll happen. Here’s the rub: in many cases, an email is a request for action on your part. Unfortunately, it often takes many steps to complete that request … you might have to open a new web page, look for some info, click on a few buttons, etc … or you might have to open a new program, or go looking in a folder for something to email, or call someone, etc. And when it takes so many steps to complete a request in an email, often the email will just sit there for awhile, because you don’t have time to go do all the things required.

Imagine instead: a request comes into your email inbox, you read the request, decide to take the action … and with one click, you complete the requested action! Don’t you think that would be much easier? Say, for example, the person was requesting a file. At the bottom of your email, there appeared a button that said, “Send requested file.” You click on the button, and it’s sent! At the most, you might have to browse a dialog box to find the file.

Gmail already has a feature like this, where you can add an event in an email to Google Calendar. What I’m proposing Instant Action Emails ™ — would be to expand this concept.

It’s done in other services. For example, if I get a notice from the LinkedIn network (usually a request to add someone to my network, or a request to forward something), I can approve the request or take the action with one click.

So why can’t it be done with email? A smart email program will learn to recognize the most common requests and allow you to take the action with one click.

This will allow us to clear our inboxes much easier, and get stuff done faster.

5. RSS or social networks. A better way to keep up with what your friends are doing, or your colleagues’ latest action, is by adding them to your social network. This is a rapidly expanding field, of course, and we’ll be seeing new developments here in the next few years, but many functions of emails will be replaced by social networks or some version of the RSS feed.

So where does that leave email? Where it’s best: thoughtful correspondence, useful work, a quick note, sending information to one person, etc. If we can remove the extraneous stuff from email with these other modes of communication, email will remain vital and important.

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And you’ve still got that pile of work to do.

Holiday planning while you’ve got a busy work schedule can be tough. Let’s take a look at some ideas for getting organized this holiday season, web-worker style.

1. Use web apps for planning. We’re web workers. Consider planning things out on Gcal and using a list program (there are tons of them) for your action lists. I like to use tadalist to make Christmas wish lists for all my kids, and share them with family, so that they can check things off if they buy an item. Then my kids get what they want, no one buys duplicate gifts, and it was easy and fun to create!

2. Set aside time each day. You’ve got a busy schedule — who has time for holiday stuff? Well, if you don’t make time, you’ll put it off until the last minute, and no one likes the last-minute holiday rush. So make time now — that’s right, get out your schedule — to do what you need to do. Set aside a little planning time each day (even 10 minutes) and some errands time. Make it like a can’t-miss meeting. To make time, put off a few of your projects until after the New Year. They can wait.

3. List your next-actions. Again, use your favorite web list app, and make a list of everything you need to do, errands and shopping, decorating and cooking and baking and cleaning, party preparation and the like. What’s the first thing you have to do? Put that at the top of the list, and focus on getting that done. Then focus on the next thing you need to do, and so on, GTD style. Focus on one thing at a time so that you’re not so overwhelmed.

4. Keep it simple. The holidays can be overwhelming if we try to do too much. It’s best to avoid anything complicated, so that you don’t have too much to do. If your next-action list looks like Santa’s gift list, you’ve got a problem. Cut it in half by eliminating the unnecessary but “would be nice” items. See if you can simplify your plans — instead of having big parties with complicated menus, just keep the get-togethers small, the menus simple, and do potluck. Keep decorating to a minimum. Keep your gift list short — no one will be offended if you don’t get them a gift, unless they’re your children. Gift exchanges can help minimize gift giving. The simpler you can make your holiday plans, the better.

5. Batch process. As much as possible, do your errands and the like all at once, and get them out of the way. Can you do your gift shopping online in one fell swoop? Do it soon! Get all the supplies and materials you need in one errand trip — be sure to have a list! Get all your gift wrapping done at once (see below).

6. Organized shopping. A list is a must for gifts. Do a little research online if you’re buying in the real world, so you know what you want to get each person on your list. Then list the stores you need to go to. See if you can group them together. Plan out a route, and do it in one trip.

7. A wrapping party. Get friends together and do a big wrapping party. Everybody bring their favorite gift wrapping and supplies. Have some snacks and music and wine. Get a sitter so the kids don’t see their gifts. Then do your wrapping all at once, so you don’t have to worry about it again. Of course, you’ll have to go to the other room to wrap some presents, if their recipients are at the wrapping party.

8. A cookie party. In addition, or as an alternative, to the wrapping party, consider a cookie-baking party. This is a great way to get family and friends involved, and is a great tradition. Get all your favorite recipes together, get the ingredients ready, be sure you have plenty of mixing bowls and baking sheets and cookie cutters and cookie decorations, and have at it! Play some festive music. Turns a chore into fun.

How are you doing at scheduling the holidays into your already busy day?

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1. Read It Later. A very cool Firefox extension from the Idea Shower, Read It Later sits in Firefox’s toolbar with two simple icons: one to save your current page to a reading list, and another to serve you with a page from your reading list. You can also right-click on links that you want to read later, which is useful on social bookmarking sites such as delicious or Digg, or on your favorite blog (such as Web Worker Daily).

So how does this reduce clutter? Well, if you use a bookmarking service or just use your browser’s bookmarks, you probably have a large number of items that you’ve bookmarked that you want to read later. Read It Later simplifies all of this by keeping everything in one list, and serving things up as you want to read them. Check them off when you’re done reading, and they’re removed from the list. It’s hard to get any simpler than that.

2. Morning Coffee. We’ve mentioned this before, but the Morning Coffee extension for Firefox is a useful way to open all your daily sites in tabs with one click of the Morning Coffee icon. Sure, you could do the same thing by creating folders for your Firefox bookmarks and opening them all in tabs … but Morning Coffee puts it all in one click, and that one click can open different tabs for different days of the week or combination of days. It simplifies your bookmark folders in this way by putting everything in one button, one click.

3. Google Docs. For me, Google Docs has been a godsend when it comes to organizing my online files and keeping the clutter to a minimum. Why? Because now I do all my word processing and spreadsheet work online, all my documents are in one place, and I can access my documents from anywhere. Because now I don’t have to worry about filing documents … I just save them, and then do a quick search when I need them. Simple and easy.

4. RSS. Sure, you already use RSS to read your favorite blogs. But do you make the most of RSS’s power? If there are other sites you check regularly, using an RSS reader can greatly simplify your life … just subscribe to the RSS feed on a page, and you can get updates whenever you like.

What can you follow with RSS? You can see the latest posts on your favorite forums, keep up with sites like Digg and reddit and delicious, a Wikipedia page, your favorite magazines, a Technorati search, Amazon’s bestsellers, a shared Google Calendar, and much more.

I recommend using Google Reader, because it keeps things extremely simple, it’s fast, and easy to use. Within a few minutes, I can read all my feeds in Google Reader using super fast keyboard shortcuts.

5. Gmail. The best way to stop junk mail is at the source. Gmail has the best spam filter I’ve seen (the last time I got junk mail in my inbox was months ago), which is one reason I recommend it for getting rid of clutter. And if you set up Gmail filters to unclutter your inbox, and archive and search rather than file, email clutter is a thing of the past.

What are your favorite tools for reducing online clutter? Let us know in the comments. 

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• Work on something exciting.
• Just do a little at a time.
• Put a major project at the top of your to-do list.
• Play a game.
• Go for a walk.
• Talk to someone.
• Commit yourself to a deadline.

What is your favorite way to motivate yourself when you are feeling the blues?

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So let’s take a look at some simple ways to clear through your pile of old files — in your file cabinet, on your computer, and online.

Paper Files
The first thing to do is to look at the scope of work you’ve got in front of you: I only have a drawer’s worth of files, but if you’ve got several cabinets of files, you may want to limit your scope to the most active files or drawer. If you just have a drawer or two of files, you can do this in less than an hour (probably).

Now that you’ve figured out your scope, find an hour of free time and do the following:

1. Take all your files out and pile them. If you need to do it in 2, 3 or 5 piles, that’s OK. The key is to clear out your file drawer(s) and get everything in one area.

2. Go through the files one at a time and make quick decisions. Start with the top file, make a decision on it, and then go to the next one. Don’t put off any decision on any file. When you make the decision, you’re going to place it in one of the following piles:

• Active. If you’ve used this file any time in the last 6 months (you can set the time frame to a year if that works better for you), put it in the active file. If the file looks bloated, you can weed out any unnecessary documents to thin it down if you like.
• Archives. These are files you don’t use anymore, but you might like to keep for possible reference. But be vigilant about these files, as you don’t want to keep a bunch of files you’ll never use again. Financial documents are a good bet, as are anything else that’s not easily replaceable or that you can’t find online or somewhere else.
• Trash. Try to get rid of as many files as possible. It feels good to clear out old files you’ll never need again.

3. Clear out your drawer. Now that your file drawer is empty, clean it good. It’s nice to start with a clean drawer.

4. Put your files in order. Trash the files you won’t need, and find another place to store your archives. Then put your active files back in your file drawer. It should be much less full than before. Alphabetize your files before putting them back.

You should be all cleared out and ready for a great new year!

Computer Files
If you’ve got a ton of files on your computer, it can be useful to clear out the clutter here too. Set aside 30-60 minutes for this.

Basically, you want to repeat the same process. Take all your various folders and put them in one place, if they’re scattered. Then go through them, one at a time, and sort them into three folders:

• Active. All the projects you’re currently working on.
• Archives. Within archives, you should have subfolders (unless you’re the type to search instead of file). Don’t keep archives if you’ll never need the files again.
• Trash. Delete all the trash instead of creating a new folder.

Online
What files do you have online? Take a quick inventory, and set aside 30 minutes for each type of file. Some of my examples include:

• Email. Now is a great time to clear out those old emails, especially the ones with large files or emails before 2007.
• Google Docs. I store most of my files online instead of on my computer.
• WordPress. As I write a blog, I have a lot of files stored in WordPress. Whether it’s old image files I don’t need, old posts that are worthless, or plugins and themes that I’ll never use again, I can weed through the unnecessary stuff.
• Box.net. I store a lot of files online. Same process as above.
• Flickr or Picasa. Whatever photo service you use, you might have ones you don’t want anymore. Same thing with YouTube or other video.
• del.icio.us. Or other bookmarking services. Are you ever going to need all of those bookmarks? Weed through them if you have time.

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If readers can download books into their Kindle (or Sony Reader), what’s to stop them from cutting out the middleman and downloading directly from an author?

What’s happening to the news media (blogs vs. newspapers) and music (free downloads vs. buying a CD) and video (YouTube or downloads vs. buying a DVD) will happen with novels: the middleman will become unnecessary.

Currently, it is extremely difficult to get a novel published. A novelist might spend a few months writing a great novel, and then submit his manuscript to a bunch of publishers (or hire an agent to do it for him). He’ll most likely be rejected completely by all of them, because publishers get thousands and thousands of submissions, and can only print a handful. If a novel is accepted by a publisher, there’s a long process of editing, layout and design, marketing, and so forth, just to get the book into print, into bookstores, and into the hands of the readers.

Consider the electronic version of this process: an author writes a book (and preferably has it edited) … and sells it to you via his website. So much easier! Sure, Stephen King experimented with this unsuccessfully in the past, but there wasn’t a market then. In a few years, there might be.

So let’s take a look at Amazon’s business model with the new Kindle e-book reader: publishers will give them an electronic version of the book, and Amazon will re-sell it for $9.99. That’ll still limit most people to a few purchases a month.

But take a look at the blogging model: we give our writing and information away for free. Sure, there are millions of bloggers giving away their writing for free, because anyone can do it. Bloggers, then, have learned that to get attention and readership, they have to learn to differentiate themselves, with quality and usefulness and value. They still make money, if they can do that, but they don’t charge the reader for each post.

Will novelists eventually give their novels away for free? Only time will tell. I’m betting that those novelists who can’t get accepted by a publisher will definitely give away their content for free. I bet there are a lot of great novelists out there who don’t get published. Soon, the publishers and Amazon will be competing with free novels, and it’s only a matter of time before major authors cut out the publishers and Amazon and sell their books themselves, perhaps for half price (still getting more than they do with the current setup).

The e-book reader removes the need for a publisher and bookstore. The author, then, becomes the only important element in the business, and rightfully so.

Ultimately, the market will determine what happens, and which business model will win out, but I’m betting on the blog model: people are less likely to pay for newspapers and magazines if they can get great stuff on blogs for free.

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Seriously, IM can take up your entire day if you let it. Those who stay away from it can get a lot more done.

However, if done right, IM can be a great tool for connecting with others, networking, getting things done quickly, and being productive. I’ve been experimenting with different methods recently, and I’d like to share some of the best tips.

1. Limit your time. If you do IM all day long, it’ll be a constant interruption. If you find that people are constantly pinging you, put your status as “busy”. It’s best to have a certain time of day when you make yourself available for IM … and let your friends know this as well, so they can reach you at that time if needed. I suggest an hour a day.

2. Have a purpose. Unless you have time to kill, don’t chat just to chat. Start a chat session with someone if you have a purpose in mind (that purpose could be just to check in with a friend you haven’t talked to in awhile, but I suggest you limit these kinds of chat). If you know your purpose, you can avoid getting sidetracked and avoid idle talk.

3. Get to the point. While it may seem friendlier to start out by asking about the person’s day, and their family, and their job, and their cat … it wastes a lot of time if you do this many times a day. Instead, say hi, but then get straight to the point … ask a question, state a proposal, ask a favor, etc. To limit small talk from others, immediately ask them, “What can I do for you today?” or something along those lines that prompts them to get to the point.

4. Be concise. While it’s important to be concise in email, in IM it’s even more important. Sure, you’re in the moment, typing away, and don’t have time to edit, but if you’re verbose in chat, people will stop wanting to talk to you.

5. Know when to use IM. There are times when IM is best, when email is best, when the phone is best, etc. Get to know when IM is the best way to communicate. Most times, it’s not, but if you just need a quick response, or if there will be many back-and-forth emails (more than twice), use chat.

6. Stay with one chat service. I know people who jump from one chat service to another, going back and forth. That’s way too much trouble, and stressful. I know others who use Gaim and the like, so they can chat with many many people on multiple services. Better, but still too overloaded. If you can help it, stick with one service that your key friends are on. If not, go with an all-in-one service like Gaim (now known as Pidgin).

7. Limit your friends. Even if you can have a million friends on IM (especially if you combine services), that doesn’t mean you should. I recommend sticking to just a core group of friends you need or want to chat with on a daily basis. Trim your friends list down to those who need to be on there.

8. Block unproductive friends. This tip may sound harsh, but there are many people who just want to chat with you all the time, with no real purpose. These are not good chat friends — they might be good friends in real life, but they waste your time on chat. Block them (if you need to, send them a polite message explaining that you’re cutting back on using chat because you’re trying to get more done).

9. Respect others’ time. Conversely, you don’t want to be a chat friend who wastes your friends’ time. Realize that your friends are likely to be busy people (who isn’t?) and if you chat with them, keep it brief and show that you are considerate of their time.

10. Be friendly. On the other hand, being brief and respecting others’ time doesn’t mean you have to be rude. Chat is a particularly social medium (as opposed to email), and as such, you need to be at least a little friendly, especially if you’re friends with the person. Don’t eschew all greetings and politeness, but don’t overdo it either.

11. Say thank you or congrats. Sometimes, a great way to use chat is just to get in touch with someone to say thank you for something they’ve done for you, or to congratulate them on something that they’ve done or that has happened to them. It’s a fast way to show you care, and to stay in touch. And people appreciate a kind word now and then.

12. Bounce ideas off people. One of the best and most productive ways to use chat. Got an idea? Bounce it off a friend to get instant feedback. Much better than implementing the idea and getting the feedback afterwards.

13. Ask for quick favors. Another productive use of chat … need something real quick? Just ask.

14. Switch to email. If chat turns into a discussion that would be better if you could give it some thought, take the discussion to email. Tell the person you’d like to think about it, and that you’ll email them. Be sure to follow through!

15. Use group chat. If you need to discuss something with a group of people, where questions are asked, ideas are bounced off everyone in the group, etc … consider using a group chat instead. See tips on using group chat.

16. End it quickly. Once you’re done with what you came to do (your purpose), don’t dilly dally. Thank the person, let them know you need to go (no reason is necessary), and end it.

17. Think action. Chat can devolve into a lot of small talk if you aren’t clear on what you’re talking about. Crystallize your conversation by focusing on actions … what you need to do, what you’d like the other person to do, what actions are next, after the chat is over.

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Except that reading so many posts each day isn’t productive, in most cases … it’s busy work, it stresses you out (especially if you’re not keeping up with the hundreds of posts you need to read), and it keeps you from doing truly important work. Not always the best idea.

Instead of reading more productively, try simplifying your feed reading. Read less, spend less time reading, get more done. And stress out less.

Sound impossible? It’s simple, actually.

Three steps:

1. Cut down your feeds. I started with about 100 feeds, and through a succession of cuts, I’m now down to only the 10 most important feeds. Each time I made cuts, I unsubscribed from about a third of my feeds. The first day of cuts, I was down to sixty-something feeds. Second day, about 40. Third day, 27 feeds. Fourth day, 18. Fifth day, 12. It took me six days of cuts (spaced about 3-4 days apart) before I got down to just my top 10. But you know what? I don’t miss the other 90 feeds I cut at all. I’ve narrowed my reading down to the 10 feeds that give me the absolute most value each day … and for all the rest, I will usually hear about the best posts somehow.

2. Set Google Reader to list view. I recommend Google Reader, as it seems to me to be the fastest of the feed readers. But if you’ve got another preference, that’s fine, as long as you can switch to list view. I used to read it in full mode, and scan through each post to see whether I wanted to read the full post. However, that took a lot of time … switching to list view gave me the headlines to scan through, and nothing else. Now, I quickly scan the headlines, and wheel-click on the posts that interest me so that I can read them in a new tab. After picking the posts I want, I “Mark all as read”, close Reader, and go to read the posts in their tabs.

3. Only read 5 posts a day. When opening the posts I want to read in new tabs, I only select 5 posts. I might want to read 10, but that will take an hour. I only give myself 20 minutes or so of reading, so 5 posts is just about right. You might choose a different number, but the key point is that limiting the number of posts you read saves time, and forces you to focus on just the most important ones. Eliminate the chaff and just read the wheat.

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This comment from Thoreau’s Walden was made more than a century and a half ago, talking about telegraph communication … and yet 160 years later, with the rise of a million means of instant communication, it’s just as appropriate.

Just because we have instant communication doesn’t mean we should do it. Sometimes it makes more sense to talk less, to deliberate, and to communicate more important ideas.

Sure, being a part of a network of constant flowing information can be a thrill, and can be useful. But we are a part of dozens of such networks, and with information and communication flying all around our heads, like a thousand buzzing insects, it can be hard to catch your breath and realize that most of it means nothing.

Let’s remember the words of Macbeth, hundreds of years ago:

“it is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing”

Step back, and think about the importance of what we are doing. Is it so urgent to send off and respond to dozens of emails? Is it worth our time to participate in instant messaging, when we don’t have much to say? Will the world end if we don’t stay up-to-date on what’s going on in the blogging world, or on Digg, or on Twitter? And do we really want to know what people are doing, all the time?

What does it all mean? And is it worth saying, and listening to?

These are the kinds of questions we might ask ourselves, on a daily basis. I’m not saying that I’m perfect: I participate in these networks as much as anyone else. But I am saying that the focus these days seems to be too much on finding new ways to communicate … and not enough on finding important things to say … and making sure that what we’re saying is worth saying.

To that end, I’d like to make five suggestions:

1. Step back. It’s vital that we take a step back from what we’re doing, and what we’re communicating and participating in, every now and then. And more now than then. Without pulling our heads out of the information stream, we can’t get any kind of perspective. How far do we step back and for how long? That’s an individual question I can’t answer, but I think we should step back far enough that we can see the entirety of the network (whether that’s email, blogs, IM or whatever) … and can actually see how the networks relate to each other … and can actually see the relation between these networks of networks and the rest of the world. Only then can we see what’s important.

2. Cut back. It truly isn’t critical that we communicate so much, and participate so much. Find ways to cut back so that you’re not in such a rush anymore. Do email and the other communications in your life less, send less, and read less.

3. Communicate only the essential. What is it that we really want to communicate? What’s truly important? What should we be saying and doing, as opposed to what we have been saying and doing? When you step back and figure these things out, you can learn to communicate just the essential stuff.

4. Learn to let go of the noise. There is a lot of noise in our world. More than we’re willing to admit to ourselves. Let it drop away. Sometimes it’s difficult, because we’re so used to doing it, and when we hear noise enough it no longer sounds like noise. But noise it is, if we learn to focus on the essential. Life will go on without it!

5. Find new ways to communicate the essential, not the noise. As we find new ways to communicate (and new ways seem to pop up every day), let’s not focus on ways to communicate faster, or more, or more frenetically … let’s not find ways to connect with more people, or increase our network … instead, let’s find ways to communicate only what’s essential, to cut down on the noise, to figure out what we should be communicating and not what we can communicate, to reach only those we need to reach and no more. Let that be the focus of our new technology, and let it serve us, and not the other way around.

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It’s also becoming more and more irrelevant.

Some of you web workers are already getting along fine without a job: you work from home, or can work from anyone (you bedouin, you!). But for those of you who aren’t there yet, and are either looking for a job or have one, consider not having one.

There are so many other options out there right now, with the rise of the web worker, the entrepreneur, the telecommuter, the freelancer, the blogger, the consultant, and more.

Why should you avoid a traditional job? Well, just a few of the many reasons:

• Commuting to an office can be costly and wastes time.
• Office politics.
• Cubicles.
• Your boss looking over your shoulder.
• Meetings.
• That monotonous co-worker.
• The difficulties in getting a raise.
• Having someone else determine your work schedule.
• Having someone else determine your priorities.
• Stifling your passion.
• Those annoying co-workers.
• Expensive lunches.
• You’re making money for someone else.
• Difficulty in taking naps.

I could go on and on, but you have limited time, so let’s cut to the chase: how do you avoid getting a job?

A few suggestions:

1. Know your talents. If you’re fresh out of college, you don’t have a lot of experience … but you probably have a lot of time and energy, and perhaps a lot of ideas. You might also have a lot of skills that you can market. If you’re not fresh out of college, you may have a lot of experience and skills you’ve learned on the job (and away from the job) that you can use. Remember that you don’t need to do what you’ve been doing — if you have other interests and passions, put those on your list too.

2. Cast a wide net. Whether you have a job or not, you can start looking. There are tons of job listings on the net — start with GigaOm Jobs. At least see what’s out there, and keep your mind open. You might find a job that you weren’t even looking for. And when I say “job”, I mean something with more options than an office.

3. Prepare marketing materials. I don’t just mean a resume. A business card (if you want to be self-employed), a blog or website are great ways, a brochure (on pdf that you can email), a work proposal. If you have these materials ready, you can take advantage of opportunities that come along.

4. Network. Without looking for anything specific, start meeting more people. Have your business card ready (at this point, it might only be your name, email, IM and blog url) and start spreading a buzz about yourself. Don’t oversell, but just put the word out that you’re new, you’re good, and you’re ready to hire yourself out. It’s also a good idea to just meet people, build relationships, get to know them, without selling. You might hear from them at a later point, but for now, you just want to build your network. The network will do the work for you.

5. Don’t settle for an office job. There’s a tendency to just find something, anything, for now. But once you settle for an office job, it will suck away all of your time and energy and it will be hard to find the time to get out of it. If possible, keep your eyes out for something with the flexibility you want.

6. Come up with a plan. What is it you really want? To telecommute? To be self-employed? To be able to travel while working, and live anywhere you want? Have a clear picture of your ideal life, and then make a plan to make it a reality.

7. Take action. Once you have a plan, take action today to start the ball rolling. If you plan to start your own business, take the first step today. Come up with a business plan, or a logo, or file the necessary papers. Find people to work with you, or start looking for clients. Don’t just dream — take action today!

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