I hate cutesy-shmootzy jargon. Empowerment. Attraction. Potential. If you want to write for me, you may as well cross the words out because I either skip the phrases or the whole article.
One of the concepts that makes me chafe is the 80-20 rule. The proportion may vary from here to there, but the notion is that one fifth of what you usually do is all that makes you successful.
Over the years I’ve been squandering time on one project at a time, trying to make each perfect. Eventually I hit some annoying time-draining part of it and it feels like it kills me. It’s as if I have extra time left over and I have to sink it all into some minor detail. By the next day I have nothing to show for it.
A big inspiration has been the notion of the four-hour work week, but more attainably for me, the four hour work day. Practically every Internet guru I’ve dealt with either has an army of assistants, doesn’t divulge what hours and sacrifices it takes to make it, or works insane hours that I can’t emulate in my current home situation. This is yet another reason I enjoy learning from Pat Flynn: there is so much that is transparent in his workings that I can personally apply. Hearing that he made his fortune on four hours a day has inspired me to trim a lot of fat out of my day, time where I would indulge every whim drifting from one income source and its complexities to another.
Writing this article will be one of the eight half hour tasks I will complete today. When I run out of time for each task, each will still consist of a half hour’s work waiting for me to improve on or complete, and ultimately be successful with, OR show itself to be pointless and in need of permanent removal.
As the day goes on, I may remove some tasks before I start them -- are they really worthwhile? -- or keep working on projects that are already showing themselves to be doable and successful. My target will still be five tasks.
Here is what I came up with today:
- Write this article and publish it. Spend remaining time in the half saying hello @patflynnwins.
- Deal with client emails (one half hour only, because this is the profession I want to move out of).
- Edit the podcast my wife and I put together.
- Start a movie mini-review website with Amazon affiliate links. More details soon… I’m nearing 5 minutes on this task and want to put keywords in.
Just one tip: use online-stopwatch.com. The moment you get distracted, stop the timer. You’ll get into effective time use fast. As an optional way to get into good habits sooner, add five minutes of work time each time you forget to stop or restart.
Let me know how this helps. Thanks for reading!
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