The Importance of Remaining a Centered Marketer

Marketing Is Fast-Paced

The trouble with marketing is the pace it keeps because unless you’re a well-seasoned cheetah racing across the savannah, you’re not going to be able to do it alone, yet many do. How is that even remotely possible? It’s not, it’s not possible to be everywhere at once, which means choosing priorities. What we’ve all done in the past is to start something with the best of intentions only to leave it for something we deemed more important at the time, and by the time we got back to it – we had to try and figure out where we were, what we were doing, how far it had gotten and most of all – why it stopped in the first place. By then, we’ve abandoned it again and are looking for the next big thing.

Then there’s trying to be on ALL the social media platforms that are available at any given time, which is impossible to do solo.

HOW TO FIX IT

Setting priorities – is great in and of itself, but setting priorities only to leave something unfinished is largely unproductive and wastes time and money. The best thing you can do when working a very busy job which requires you to adapt on the fly, is to make that list of priorities in numerical sequence, allowing for things like 1.a and 1.b, not to exceed 5 subcategories – say if a project you’re working on has hit a snag and needs something done in addition first before you can continue. Then number everything that you deem less important along with their own subcategories until you’ve numbered all of them. Then you need to give yourself a fair timeline to see those things through, in order – until they’re finished. All of them.

By keeping yourself to a schedule and deadline, as well as having an order to the chaos, you can stay centered while you go about your workday. You can also automate your social media posts by using clever technology that will schedule your posts for you. This will save you time and strain as you go about a work week that is ever changing.

Marketing Can Be SO Frustrating!

It’s all too easy to get upset and irritated as a marketer because things frequently exceed deadlines, people aren’t carrying their weight or a huge snag develops in a product launch. There are countless things which weigh on you and cause stress and tension, which are debilitating to the human body left unchecked. The trouble is, nobody has the time to set that great weight down for even a moment to gain back their peace, because the job literally never stops. The frustration leads to poor job productivity as well as lending toward an awkward ambiance among your coworkers who are exposed to your upset state. It’s hard to even muster up the motivation to keep going every day with all the weight from responsibilities and problems that crop up.

We understand because we’ve been there – deadlines looming over our heads, and uncertainty about the future – but instead of letting it lead you to frustration and the desire to stop entirely…

HOW TO FIX IT

Let frustration BE your motivation to continue. If there is a problem or obstacle in your path, clear it. By sticking to the first pointer and keeping a schedule and timeline which is flexible and adaptable to change, you can stay on track even when things don’t go your way initially. The point is to keep trying and to work through that list to the end, no matter what comes along in the middle.

Take breaks, even if it’s no longer than getting up from your desk to get a glass of water or cup of coffee, just go somewhere away from where you always are and take some deep breaths. Nobody will know you’re doing it, and it’s a great way to relax your body even for those scant few minutes. Also, make sure to keep water and a source of small snacks near you as you work, they’ll keep you going when you start getting brain fog halfway through a long day and give you the energy to keep going.

Fear Of Missing Out

Fear of missing out is strong in marketers, we always feel like we HAVE to be everywhere at once or we’re missing out on potential clients and money. The trouble is, we can’t feasibly BE everywhere at once due to time zones, and the multitude of things needing to be done on social media and one’s own site to actually accomplish that. Unless someone has an entire marketing team behind them, this is a task which forever remains unfinished to the satisfaction of the marketer. It’s always a matter of deciding which places to be and which to discard because time is a big issue and there is never enough of it. This leads many to work long hours and too many hours in a week without enough reward.

It isn’t possible to be everywhere, but so many still try anyway and all that happens is a watered down version of what could be quality. When you split yourself in too many directions at once, you run the risk of never giving enough of your time and energy to any one thing, and them all being done poorly as a result.

HOW TO FIX IT

Don’t spread yourself thin – Devote your energy to no more than 2 projects at one time if you’re one person, and you can up that to 3 if the projects due dates are spread apart widely enough that it could never be an issue. You’ll want to give at least 4 months overlap to projects since they’re frequently derailed if not delayed. If you’re more than one person on your team, you can add to that number, but never more than 2 to a person, and spread fairly if the job requires more than another. Set yourself steady work hours as well and stick to them except during a product launch week. Make sure you take your lunches at the same time and keep to the schedule you give yourself.

This will give you ample time to recover as your body needs to be refreshed for a new day. Know that you cannot be everywhere at once, and stop trying to be. Some social media platforms are better suited than others to your niche or business, and you can easily be present on the ones you want most without feeling like you have to eat, live, and breathe your job.

Selected images created with Freepik