The 80/20 Rule

Most people, not all, but most, do busy work, not productive work. The focus on the 80 percent that is easy, not the 20 percent that is hard. Or the 20 percent that is going to make a difference in your life.

Let me give you a typical to do list for some folks:

Shower/Shave, and get ready. Drive to work. Listen to radio.
Work 8/10 hours. Do what is urgent, not important. Boss calls, meeting, reports, answering the phone.
Grab food. Cook, and clean.
Maybe run kids to after school actives.
Perhaps, some laundry, yard work, or house cleaning
Relax, watch a little TV.
Crash. Sleep.
Start all over again.

They are doing a typical work day. Even if they are self employed, they are falling into a Comfort Zone. Doing what is typical or urgent.

One of my bosses, early in my career, shook me up a little by saying the following. Jim I want you to work for 6 hours doing tasks. And I want you to spend 2 hours a day, figuring out, new ways to do things, or money ideas, or expense cutting. THINK for 2 hours, and make things better. Kind of interesting twist. I mean who does not like a 6 hour day. BUT those 2 hours were tough. I had to think outside the box. Come up with better ways to do the business. Cut expertness. Increase revenues. Become more productive. I believe the concept serves people well.

Imagine if you planned your day a little different. Perhaps some thing like:

Shower/Shave, and get ready.
Drive to work (and listen to personal development)
OR JUST work from home and skip Drive time completely. .
Work 8/10 hours. Segment work as:
- Tasks. 6 hours.
- New Business (revenue generation). 1 hour
- Expense Cutting. 1 hour.
Deliver food or eat out. Save cooking and cleaning time.
Maybe run kids to after school actives. Ok actually enjoy watching.
Send laundry out, get someone to do the house cleaning.
Never watch TV. Read. Watch educational programs about wealth, taxes, or final strategies. Take a course 2-3 nights a week. Work out. use the time for productivity. Even if that means, mediation.
Crash. Sleep. Bet you don’t sleep as much.
Add more productive time, not urgent.

A simple idea.

You could look at it a different way. I can work in the business or work on the business.

Let give you an example. I worked for a great seminar guy, Charles J Givens. Unfortunately, he passed away. In 1996 my friend MO and I started a seminar business. We did about 900k gross, in 8 months. Both of us working in the business, pitching, selling and doing training. We had others working in the business too (coaches, telemarketers). I wanted to duplicate, Givens format, which was having speakers working for him (the company). Mo was happy with speaking/training.

I worked at getting money, to build a company, not work in the company. The end result, the next year the company, with dozens of speakers we did 12 million gross.

The most important use of my time, was LEVERAGING a system, not working in the system.

How about you, what can you do today, to profit tomorrow? What is the best use of your time? Cutting the grass every Saturday? OR every Sat looking at real estate? and paying some to cut the grass.