Stop Constantly Checking Your Analytics!

He's staring into your soul! Don't check the analytics!

We all do it.
You're bored and there's nothing you want to do.  So what do you do? Check the analytics of your website, YouTube channel, or whatever other account you have.

Most of us know it's pointless to obsess over our statistics, and checking them more than once a day can actually hurt you and whatever you're analyzing. However many of us still check then constantly, in the hope that you earned one more subscriber, one more dollar, or one more view. 

Why is this so bad, and how can we do ourselves from doing it?

Read on to find out!

Why It's Bad
First of all, let's talk about why we check the analytics.
For most, it's this constant desire to see how we're doing at the moment and what happened while we didn't check the analytics.
It's this paranoid feeling that if you don't check the statistics now, it would be as if they didn't exist, or they'll disappear forever, and that all the work you've done will have been for naught.

You might cover it up by saying that you want to figure out how to improve the performance of your website or channel, or you might say that you want to see how it's doing after that one tiny change you made to it a while ago, but most of the time it'll be because of the italicized reason above.

Believe it or not, there is such a thing as over-analyzing, especially if you have a small website or YouTube channel because then your time should definitely be spent elsewhere (hint, hint, content creation).

Also, many people check the statistics without a purpose, thus not improving anything except possibly giving them a short warm and fuzzy feeling because they got a couple more visitors/subscribers.

We live in a culture of instant gratification, and checking the stats and being happy about about your performance is much easier (and feels much better) than banging out amazing content that will get you much more views.

If you haven't heard about the 80/20 rule, it basically means that 80 percent of your results will come from 20 percent of your effort /actions.

In most people's cases, the 20 percent they should focus on is creating amazing, in-depth content that people will want to share.

Easier said than done, right?

However the above idea is basically the Holy grail of Internet success.

You create better content than anyone else. 

You draw people in using that content, and you get then to share it, or subscribe to you so to get viewers that come back.

The 20 percent that you need to focus on is hard. But it'll yield much greater results than simply checking your analytics will do in the long run.

Now that we've figured out why it's so bad, let's work on changing it!

How To Stop Checking Analytics Constantly
Checking your statistics when you're bored is a habit, and like any habit it can be changed.

There are 3 steps to a habit :

1. Cue: I'm bored, let's check my analytics 
2. Routine: pull out phone/laptop, check statistics 
3. Reward: warm and fuzzy feeling because I got viewers.

Now to change this, you will need to know what your cues are. Whenever you notice yourself checking your analytics try to figure out how you felt and what you were doing before you loaded it up.
Write it down.
Over a week or so, a pattern should emerge.

Once you know what causes you to do it, you can work on changing your routine. 

Set up a routine to do when you're bored, so instead of checking your statistics you can read a blog about SEO or YouTube channel improvement (like this blog!), or something else you would consider useful.

It could be :

• Brainstorming ideas for videos, blog posts, etc... 
• Wiring a part of a cog blog post 
• Reading a blog 
• Checking the news 
• Learning a new language
• And many more.

After that, you will get to enjoy a warm and fuzzy feeling of learning something new, and/or improving your online business in the process.

Thank you for reading!