Keeping on track can be difficult.

When we’re young, most likely our parents helped us to keep on track – making sure we were ready for school, taking us to and from all the various extra curricular activities and generally keeping a watchful eye over us.

Now we’re older and supposedly wiser, there’s probably no-one who’s taken on that role in our lives.

Which most likely leaves one person to the job: ourselves.

Time management is a myth – time marches forwards and (to the best of our current understanding) there’s nothing you or I or anyone else can do that will affect it.

Maybe you can distort time slightly with a bit of practice. But that’s pretty much it.

Which means all those missed deadlines, broken promises (to ourselves or others) and the annual “this year’s going to be different” promise are down to ourselves.

So how can you keep yourself on track more often?

Well, the cliche says that what gets measured gets done and that’s often true.

The thing is to not measure too many things because our minds can’t keep track of them.

Some research says we can only remember 4 things at any given time and gut feel says that’s probably about right.

In turn, that means if you’re trying to keep track of tens or even hundreds of things you’re in for an uphill struggle even with a bunch of apps on your phone to collaborate with.

Let’s stick with a maximum of 4 main things at any given time, even if they’re broken down into component parts.

For internet marketing that could be something like:

• A regular email to your list
• Regular new content on your website – whether you create it yourself or get it for free
• Attracting new subscribers to your list
• Expanding your knowledge by reading relevant books or websites

How can you keep yourself on track?

Personally, I like to keep this kind of thing simple.

I print out a page – usually created in Excel – with dates in the left hand column and then blank boxes (you can change the cell borders to do that) under (maybe) headed columns.

Then each time I do that item today, I tick the relevant box.

It’s low tech but it works.

The piece of paper is always near my computer.

It doesn’t get time to get buried or – if it does – it surfaces again when I tick the next box.

It’s an at a glance nagging system – empty boxes mean I’m not as on track as I’d like to be.

Personally I think that’s more efficient than a spreadsheet or database which would take time to open and wouldn’t be either staring me in the face or watching me out of the corner of an eye.

Try it.

I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised at how easily it helps you keep more on track.

If you’re disciplined enough…

… you can coach yourself.

That’s not as difficult as it first sounds.

This simple system helps you do just that.

It forces you to think about where you want to reach and how you’re going to get from where you are now to where you want to be.

Another thing you can do…

… is to get hold of a pre-written coaching system like this one and then follow it as though you’d spent a hundred times the price on it.

Because one of our problems is that we tend to use price as a shortcut.

So if something is free or cheap we don’t value it as much as something that’s more expensive.

A Rolls Royce won’t get you to your destination any faster than a cheaper car – it doesn’t have a lane of it’s own on the road, so it still has to stop for red lights and still gets stuck in traffic jams.

But if you own one, you’re treat it with more respect than a cheaper option.

The same goes for your internet training.

Make the leap in your mind and treat cheap training systems the same way as if you’d spent a small fortune on them.

Maybe do a time cost calculation – however many hours you’ve spent hunting for a solution multiplied by the hourly rate you’d like to be earning.

Whatever it takes to make the transition from running on the spot to gradually moving in the right direction.

And if you’ve got any tips you’d like to share, feel free to put them in the comments box below.