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Contributing Author: Natalie Fitzatrick
Working on long-term projects that can take years to come to fruition can have its peaks and troughs when it comes to self motivation.
Sometimes the final goal seems not achievable and other times it feels that the project will be complete in no time at all.
Either way, you need to manage yourself and your work habits to ensure an average amount of work is done on a daily, weekly and monthly basis.
I consider myself to be extremely lucky as I work in the luxury property industry and sell and market stunning properties from around the world.
Although the position brings many career highlights ,more often than not, the projects are a long term investment in time and resources. A luxury resort can take years from initial conception to final completion.
You need to manage budgets, workflow, brand and awareness throughout the project.
Carrot and stick motivation works for a lot of people and is a tried and tested method for getting things done however for longer projects the carrot can seem very far away.
Longer projects such as property marketing could be considered akin to writing a book or creating a piece of software. All need to have a clear deadline, a set of milestones and a todo list to make sure you keep on top of things.
When motivating myself I would suggest using the ‘baseline’ method of motivation. Once you have your milestones and to-do list to refer to create a baseline of average activity.
These are the jobs you do everyday and consider the average amount of work you want done. This might include emails, calling a set number of people, feeding back on internal projects, and keeping an eye on suppliers delivery dates.
In some cases you will achieve more and some days less.
For more complex projects or when the workload increases it is also useful to have a weekly to do list to ensure you have met your own targets.
Baseline motivation is also complemented by creating baseline habits where you try and do the same things at the same time everyday. It might take over a month to get the habit in place but for a project over 6 months, this is a great way to make sure you meet and excel your daily baseline.
For example; setting aside an hour or two to call potential clients, scheduling a Monday and Friday call with suppliers to check and confirm progress and allowing time to add content, information and news to social media channels. I find it useful to plan my habits with the start of every new project as I would do a set of milestones or to do lists.
With a constant baseline of activity there is no rise and fall of motivation as there is a solid grounding of what needs to be done.
This method means I work on willpower alone and I can see if I find my enthusiasm waning I can just revisit the core reasons and benefits of the project to overcome any momentary lulls in productivity.
About the Contributing Author:
Natalie Fitzpatrick has years of experience in marketing luxury properties working of many worldwide projects such as Zemi Beach luxury Caribbean Condos in Anguilla. For more information about Natalie and Cardea Consultants vist: http://www.cardeaconsultants.com/
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