How I Use the 80/20 Rule to Get Better Results in Less Time

I know a lot of you know that I’m not a big fan of Trading Hours for Dollars and like to work as little as possible while still getting the results I want.

This wasn’t always the case and going back 18-24 months ago I was working 12 hours a day juggling all the different tasks I had to get through.

But I didn’t like this because to me  I was just after trading one Job for another. Even though it was my own business I was doing a lot of stuff that I didn’t like and basically I had traded a 40-50 hour work week for a 60-70 week with a lot more stress! Hardly the Internet Lifestyle I was after 😛

Obviously I couldn’t let this continue so some things had to change.

What did I do?

I started to apply the 80/20 rule to everything I did online.

I analyzed all the different tasks that filled up my day and started to segregate them into “Productive Tasks” and “Busy Tasks”

Busy Tasks were just general things that took a lot of time but didn’t contribute any results to the business so gradually I removed these tasks and either outsourced them or just got rid of them completely.

I then focused on the Productive Tasks – these are things that I know when I do them they bring in the money.

And once you start doing this you start to identify what 20% of your Tasks bring in 80% of your Cash.

These then become The Priority.

If you can spend time each day on these tasks you know your business will always be making money.

And not only will you be making money but you’ll only be working a lot less hours.

That’s how I cut my work day down from 12 hours a day to 4 hours per day.
I spend a couple of hours on my Productive Tasks and the rest of the time checking things and looking at any ad-hoc tasks that need my attention.

The end result?

A happier, less stressed Noel who gets things done but has a lot more free time than he had before.

So if you are finding you’re putting in a lot of man hours but not seeing the results I recommend you take a step back and see exactly what you are putting that time into.

Then find what 20% of your tasks that bring in the results and focus on them. All the other stuff can be outsourced or forgotten about altogether.

And this is something I do every so often.

If I’m not happy with how results are going I take time out, look at what I did that month and apply the 80/20 rule.

I find it’s a great way to refocus and get things moving again in the right direction.

None of us are perfect and I definitely am not but I find this simple exercise that you can do with a pen & paper over a coffee has added huge value to my business and I hope it will help you to do the same too.

If you have any questions, comments or something you do to help better your results that you’d like to share then leave them below and I’ll respond to all comments personally.

Thanks for reading!

Noel.

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