The Secret to Doing More Isn't What You Think

Many entrepreneurs have a low attention span and suffer from boredom with long unending tasks. Don’t worry, it’s all too common in the entrepreneurial community is nothing to be ashamed of.

Hey, it’s the main reason why you quit that boring 9-5.

For a lot of us, attention comes naturally but for many it’s a chore to get things going after a while. Procrastination sets in when you have a lot of work to do and the mind simply shuts down and doesn’t want to participate in the tasks ahead of you.

A couple of main questions entrepreneurs ask themselves are –

1. What can we get rid of?

2. Do we increase prices or simply work longer hours?

That’s where the discussion takes a steep left turn and goes off on a tangent. Coming straight to the point – it’s not about how long you take to do something, it’s about how you do it.

Do you take a lot of breaks?

Are you really engaged and connected with your workplace?

Do you receive a sense of pride in your work?

These are the questions that you must ask yourself to be able to gain from the advantages of increased productivity.

The secret isn’t to do more, it’s to do more of the things that count.

The 20% that gives 80% returns – is what you should be focusing on and not going away from that rule frequently enough. You end up spending more time doing the things that really matter in your businesses, and don’t focus on arbitrary things that take up too much of your time.

It’s even more important to do so when you have a lot of projects that pique your interest.

That’s when we don’t really know which one to do first, and we end up doing a little of everything. We dabble around and try to find the motivation to do one task and one project.

This is a science and an art, and it requires a shift of how you view your businesses and work.

If you take your work seriously, then you’re more likely to take the shedding principle to heart. This allows you to truly focus on creating something remarkable and getting more done in less time.

It may seem counterintuitive, especially to those who strive to enhance their work ethic, but it’s an important concept that needs to be explored. It’s not about showing off about how much work you do, it’s about actually doing the relevant tasks that produce the most results.

Outsourcing the rest, seems to be the logical conclusion to this principle.

When you feel like you’re being dragged around, and work isn’t fun anymore it’s time to outsource more work than you thought of before. This frees up mental cognition and time taken to perform tasks significantly, leading to new roles, jobs and prospects.

When you’re CEO of your own business, you should be delegating and outsourcing a lot of the things that aren’t in your direct vision. Delegation and habit formation help out a lot here, as you being to shed your excess workload and find a new meaning in balance and work.

To start things off, think about your time and your money.

You want to spend an effective amount of time doing a task that takes X hours to complete.

Next you need to create a long-term financial goal of where you want to be in the next 2-3 years. Work backwards to that and find out your effective hourly rate.

If the project you’re doing right now doesn’t fit into your hourly rate, then it may be time to delegate it to someone else for a cheaper cost. This helps in increasing the value of your business and helps you to grow your venture to new heights.

It also clears up a lot of headspace when you think about what tasks just aren’t in your vision and financial structure.

So, how do you know which tasks to keep and which to delegate or outsource?

The answer is simpler than you think.

It’s about taking a daily inventory of the tasks that you engage in, and then figuring out its long-term benefits. If your task has a long-term impact on your goals, then keep doing it and in face you can reinvest capital into it.

When you have a clearer to-do list, you’re more active and happier about your tasks – which you’ll perform with more concentration and effort.

When you find out that 1 single thing that adds the most amount of value to your business, you need to specialize and focus on that.

Since that is your particular gift, you need to hone it further to the point of gaining much more in return. For some accountants, it could be networking.

For some managers, it could be delegation.

It depends on your personality, background and an objective measurement of your skillset.

You can look at it like it’s a concept surrounding wearing different hats.

If you keep switching from on hat to another, you don’t actually fit-into any of them. You’re just shuffling around to find the best fit and fighting fires all the time.

Instead, you need to trust your gut instinct and go ahead with formulating an action plan that helps you shed some of the tasks that you shouldn’t be engaging in.

Sometimes it’s about fear as well.

We fear the unknown and find satisfaction in doing the smaller things that drag us on.

That’s the impact of a truly reformed change, where we change our outlook towards life and make simple efforts to change the way we think about “uncertainty”. When we’re comfortable with being uncomfortable, we can really start to see some positive changes in our life.

Conclusion

It’s important to balance everything in life.

You can’t have a stronger focus on one arena and a weaker one on another.

If you’re a business leader and haven’t yet focused your attention solely on long-term vision, then you might get disrupted by another player who does.