A high-quality life has a lot more to do with what you remove from your life than what you add to it.
—Cheryl Richardson
If you’ve ever dreamed of finishing your work and walking away stress free, you can. The key strategy is to do less in order to accomplish more. Sound impossible? It’s not—once you know where and how to focus your time.
A wise Italian economist named Vilfredo Pareto developed a principle that leverages more accomplishment from less activity. It is called Pareto’s Principle or the 80–20 Rule. Here’s the premise: 20 percent of your tasks bring in 80 percent of the results. So identify the key 20 percent of your work that brings the desired results to improve your productivity and efficiency. Focusing on the strategic 20 percent will allow you to do less and accomplish more. Let’s look at some examples.
Define Your Role, Define Your Focus
Ann had trouble calling new customers even though she was excited about her new job. When she was a stay-at-home mom, she focused on the kids and their school, laundry, meals, and carpooling. But when she became a single mom and opened a home-based business, she had trouble using her time well.
Why? Ann’s work had changed, but her setting and self-image hadn’t. She needed to change her perception of herself from a stay-at-home mom to a business owner. Her time activities at her home office also needed to change.
I always ask new clients to describe their role and the three main activities that accomplish that role. Next, they estimate what percentage of their time goes there. Then we track their time to see if it really matches. Suddenly they are able to accomplish more in less time because they know where to spend their time.
For example, here are some general ideas:
Entrepreneur—Follow up on new business leads and clients (10%), advertise (10%), build the business (80%)
Corporate leader—Cast vision and manage direct reports (20%), run company and manage meetings (80%)
Small business owner—Fine-tune the systems (10%), train employees (10%), complete the work (80%)
Employee—Report to boss (10%), be a team player (10%), do the job well (80%)
Mother—Homework and carpooling (20%), time with children (40% depending on their ages), meals, laundry, housekeeping (40%)
Student—Attend classes (20%), study (40%), earn income (20%), socialize (20%)
Accomplish More of What?
“Millionaires don’t watch TV, or no more than an hour a day,” proclaims Dr. Denis Waitley, performance psychologist for Olympic athletes, astronauts, and Fortune 500 executives. So what are they doing less of to accomplish more and still relax? Millionaires avoid mindless TV shows and instead focus on other recreational or social events that promote their personal or professional goals.
How About You?
You may not aspire to be a millionaire, but where you do and do not spend your time speaks volumes. Following are some examples.
John considered whether to advance his career with an MBA degree, which would take two nights of class a week for seven years. At the time, he had two young children, which meant he would be tied up evenings and weekends during their kindergarten through fifth grade years. He decided to do less outside activity to accomplish better parenting. Twenty years later, he says it was the right decision.
Michelle was a single mother who worked days and nights during the holiday season to ensure her daughter a college education. But when her jobs interfered with her time with her high school daughter, she realized what was truly important—being at home with her teen. She quit her part-time positions and asked for a raise at her day job, eventually received it, and six months later earned a promotion as well.
Twenty Ways to Do Less and Accomplish More
There is only so much time in a day, so let’s look at some time savers. What exactly do you want less of and more of?
I wish for less . . .
I want more . . .
20 WAYS TO DO LESS AND ACCOMPLISH MORE
| DO LESS | ACCOMPLISH MORE |
| 1. Less e-mail time | More projects finished |
| 2. Less TV time | More time on personal hobby |
| 3. Less work hours | More free time in evenings |
| 4. Less clutter around | More beauty and peaceful surroundings |
| 5. Less driving of kids | More carpooling and friendships |
| 6. Less meal prep and cleanup | More shared meal responsibilities |
| 7. Less time for one-on-one socials | More time driving together places |
| 8. Less trivial work | More focus on priority tasks |
| 9. Less distractions | More accomplishment |
| 10. Less Starbucks | More money in pocket |
| 11. Less mail | More requests to remove name |
| 12. Less yard work | More Saturdays relaxing |
| 13. Less bill paying | More online banking |
| 14. Less laundry | More independence for children |
| 15. Less stress | More intentional activity changes |
| 16. Less household pickup | More monitoring the household |
| 17. Less paper piles | More filing and shredding |
| 18. Less responsibilities | More focused choices |
| 19. Less to do | More delegation and elimination |
| 20. Less working late | More completed actions during day |
Graphic Artist Changes Her Ways
I met Sherry at a conference where I was speaking. She was really intense—and tired. “It’s not fair,” she began. “I’m a graphic artist with my own print shop. I start at 7:30 a.m. and I’m still going strong twelve hours later. I can’t keep this up much longer. There’s nothing I can change except quit the business, yet we need the money.”
I asked Sherry how she spends her time each day, and we discovered her pattern. She felt making money was the goal of the business, so she devoted herself to responding to customers’ phone calls, drop-ins, and consulting (which she didn’t get paid for). Instead of using her expertise by focusing her time on graphics, Sherry spent 80 percent of her time on her least favorite activity––bookkeeping.
Sherry needed to accomplish 80 percent more work for income, so she adjusted her graphic design time to early in the morning, made a plan to find a bookkeeper, and opened the shop at 9:30 a.m. She gave up the busy-work of bookkeeping to accomplish more of her goals related to graphic design. It paid off and she was happier with the time reallocation.
Focus on Your “More Of” Items
Before you can focus on your “less of ” items, you need to have a mental picture of what you want more of. Is it more relaxation time daily or on the weekends? Is it more projects completed or more face-to-face time with clients or family? More time to put into your hobby?
Here are some people who found more time for a hobby, more savings, more time with family, and more closure at work.
Jerry wanted more time to restore his sports car, so he did yard work and chores Friday evening. Then he had Saturday free for his hobby.
Sarah wanted to build her bank account, so she planned meals at home and saved seventy-five dollars a month by not eating out.
Juanita was tired from working nights at the post office, so she trained her children to make lunches each morning and delegated housecleaning chores.
Bill had a desk full of customer orders, so he developed forms to simplify the system. He decreased his administrative time by 50 percent by completing them as they came in.
Accomplish More by Reducing Stressful Items
Accomplishing more is a good way to build personal satisfaction into a very busy day. The best way to accomplish more is to get right to the important tasks. Here are some examples of people who wanted to accomplish more by reducing their stress:
Wendy cut down on chauffeuring her kids to sports and band practice by forming car pools with other parents.
Josh and his wife, Katie, wanted to divide their mail duties, so she tossed the junk mail and responded to requests while he paid the bills and filed the receipts.
Joan eliminated stress at home looking for lost homework and keys by hanging a key rack at the back door and assigning the kids a place to hang their backpacks.
Mike reduced his daily job stress by spending six months outside work to update his résumé, network for a new job, and research available jobs with a goal to advance his career and job satisfaction.
When you do less of what you don’t want to do and focus on the main items that produce results, you can go home on time and less stressed. Shift your focus to result-oriented activity, and soon your time wasters will disappear.
It’s Your Time
Do Less to Accomplish More (Time Strategy #3)
To accomplish more in less time . . .
■ Decide which weekly activities are time wasters and which have high benefits.
■ Let go of one time-wasting activity and replace it with something you like.
■ Guard the time when you produce the most by scheduling it as “prime time” each day.
A successful individual typically sets his next goal some-what but not too much above his last achievement. In this way he steadily raises his level of aspiration.
—Kurt Lewin