We can’t multi-task.

Try to pat your head with one hand and rub your stomach with the other and you’ll quickly find that out.

We might pretend we can multi-task but that’s about it. Various studies have shown that people who concentrate on one thing at a time get much further ahead than those who try to run in every direction at once.

Concentrating on one thing at a time gets much better results.

Deep down, you know that.

But – if you’re like most people I know – you struggle to put the theory into practice.

So how can you concentrate better? Whether that’s with your internet marketing or anything else you want to accomplish more?

Allocate your time

Time management is a myth. Life gets in the way far too often for us to effectively manage our time.

But we can allocate tasks to certain periods of time and most of us are reasonably good at doing that: we eat meals reasonably regularly, we sleep at roughly the same time each night, we turn up for work at the right time, that kind of thing.

Which means that you can allocate some of the time in your day to your internet marketing.

Don’t be too ambitious with this.

When I first came across the idea of blocking out time, I crossed off whole afternoons and evenings when I was “definitely” going to do whatever task it was I’d homed in on.

And, almost by default, when the time came I’d feel a sense of overwhelm or let another bunch of tasks take over the time I’d so enthusiastically blocked off and nothing would happen.

That’s before I came across the Pomodoro Technique.

It’s disarmingly simple.

Which is why it works.

Do whatever task it is that you’ve set yourself for 25 minutes. With as close to zero distractions as you can manage.

Then reward yourself with a 5 minute break.

Repeat that process 4 times over – a total of about 2 hours – and take a longer break (between 15 and 30 minutes).

If you haven’t got 2 hours in one block, no worries.

So long as you’ve got at least 25 minutes, you can do this.

Which means if you’re doing your internet marketing part time, you could have an hour’s lunch break and still fit in one 25 minute block and still have time to eat.

Take a step back from your diary and work out where you could allocate a realistic block of time.

You’ll be amazed how well this works.

Two 25 minute time slots is close enough to the target I suggest of an hour a day for your internet marketing.

And will put you ahead of the majority of your competition who are still in dreaming mode.

Pick one thing at a time

Our mind gets distracted easily enough without giving it extra things to focus on.

Instead of buying 5 or 10 domains because they all sound nice and are bound to make you money and are bound to get snapped up by someone else if you don’t buy them today, just buy one and work on it.

Domain names are maybe the ultimate scarcity lesson. After all, for any given combination of letters, there’s only one available.

But actually that’s not really the case – different extensions (top level domains) are available and more are being introduced. Sure, you may not be able to get the .com version but there are other options and – unless most of your visitors are typing in the domain – there’s a very high chance most visitors will just click a link and be oblivious to the domain name extension.

I’ve always had best results when I’ve picked one domain name (often by waiting until the next day and checking which seems the best once I’ve had time to get over the initial buzz) and worked on it so that it’s live, WordPress is installed and there’s something other than the default content.

The same goes for the products I create: one product at a time and, within that, one section at a time, And, before that, an outline so that I know what is going to happen.

Then it’s set aside some time to create each section – usually in the 25 minutes or so blocks suggested by the Pomodoro technique. Then a cup of tea or coffee as the “reward” and after several sections a walk somewhere to get some exercise and clear my mind.

Develop your own pattern to do something similar.

But concentrate on one thing at a time rather than having umteen windows open on your desktop and checking your emails and Facebook and Twitter and LinkedIn accounts every few minutes, “just in case” something incredibly important has happened that you need to respond to this instant.

We both know that’s highly unlikely to be the case and that – if it was – you’d probably have received a text or a phone call or an instant message to alert you.

Try it!

Go cold turkey on the multi tasking for a few days or a week.

Spend at least some of your day concentrating on just one thing at a time.

At first, chances are you’ll get distracted. So the good intention works for maybe 15 minutes rather than 25.

That’s fine.

It’s better than zero.

And you can improve on it so that you no longer have the attention span of a goldfish.

Commit to doing it

Put a quick comment below to let the world know you’re going to start concentrating on one thing at a time more often.

Then report back every now and then if you want to. It will help you focus if you can do that and will push your results further, faster.