Stop Feeling Overwhelmed, Adopt a Quarterly Focus

I am easily overwhelmed when I think about all the things I should be doing to market my book and increase my platform. Grow social media following, SEO research, lead magnets, guest posts, ad split-testing, etc. (Not to mention working on my next book and dealing with the rest of life.)

I work on one thing for a day or two, then I hear I should be doing that other thing, so I switch to working on it instead. And at the end of the week I feel like a failure because I haven’t made any significant progress in any of them.

Does this sound familiar?

Then read on…

A simple strategy to avoid feelin project overwhelm

Stop trying to do it all!

Really.

It’s impossible to focus on every marketing tactic at once, anyway. Not only is is impossible, it will lead to poor results and lots of frustration. Instead, focus on one area at a time.

Big projects like marketing a book—or writing, polishing, and submitting a book—are marathons rather than sprints. The overall success is an accumulation of efforts over a long time span.

This allows us to prioritize one aspect for a period of time and then switch to another. The key is choosing a long enough time period to allow for success.

Try the quarterly approach

Break your year into three-month quarters. Assign a different marketing focus for each quarter. Plan out at least four or five quarters, so that you can cover all the important bases.

An example of using the quarterly focus strategy:

Quarter	Marketing focus
April-June:	Grow email list
July-Sept.:	Grow social media following on one or two accounts
Oct.-Dec.:	Run ads and offer a discount to boost sales
Jan. – March:	Get spots on podcasts or radio shows
April-June:	Learn how to use a new platform effectively (such as Facebook Live, or YouTube, or TikTok)

This quarterly focus strategy helps you:

• Stay focused
• Stay motivated
• Manage time wisely
• Avoid feeling overwhelmed and giving up
• Have more time to really do something well
• Assess how your area of effort affects book sales (because you aren’t trying five things at once.)

Of course, you shouldn’t completely ignore other marketing tactics in the meantime, but you can give yourself permission to do the bare minimum to maintain them while keeping the chosen area the priority.

I hope this quarterly focus strategy helps you face your next big project with more confidence and less stress.

Lisa E. Betz worked as an engineer, substitute teacher, and play director before becoming an award-winning mystery writer. She brings her analytical mind, quirky humor, and positive outlook to all she writes. She draws inspiration from thirty-five years of leading Bible studies to create entertaining mysteries set in the world of the early church, and then she fills that world with eccentric characters, independent females, and an occasional sausage-snatching cat. Her first novel, Death and a Crocodile, garnered a gold medal in the Illumination Book Awards.

In addition to writing novels, Lisa blogs about living with authenticity and purpose. Visit her at www.lisaebetz.com. Facebook LisaEBetzWriter Twitter @LisaEBetz and Pinterest Lisa E Betz Intentional Living.