How I became an expert in productivity
I remember, when I was younger and started my journey as an entrepreneur.
Looking around at how others were doing it, I realized two things:
- A lot of people weren’t getting a lot of results
- A lot of experts told me “You must work hard!”
And so, I saw my way into the business market.
I’ll become an expert in productivity and help people get shit done!
Should you work 80 hours pr week?
I had realized, I didn’t enjoy measuring every minute of my day to be more productive and I didn’t want to work myself to death.
I wanted to do what I was passionate about: building businesses, inspiring others, doing creative work and most importantly…
Having fun!
Eventually it led me to the realization that the path to success looks very different from person to person and it depends on a lot of factors!
For example, some people really enjoy doing something non stop and just can’t sit still. And others, enjoy reflecting on what they are going to do for a long time, before they actually do it. For the ladder type of person, it obviously doesn’t work to try to work 80 hours a week, because it just doesn’t fit to who they are.
But does that mean, they can’t be successful? Does that mean they can’t make it work?
Of course not.
However, they will need to find out what works for them in order to get the results AND they will also need to recognize that their journey will have to be different – and maybe require more patience and time from them.
So how do we use this in our businesses?
How you can become successful by being effective
We follow the Pareto Principle of 80-20, which is the idea that 80% of our results come from 20% of our work.
Now if we imagine that the baseline for massive success is 80 hours of work pr week (at least according to Elon Musk), then 20% of that is just 16 hours of doing the exact work, which brings about the biggest results.
Not so bad! And of course Tim Ferriss would tell us that it can actually be done in only 4 hours.
Now, that seems a lot more easy to manage, right?
It does, however, if it was that easy then everyone would do it, and so we know that in reality, it’s not that easy.
The main thing you need to find out, is what those 16 hours of work pr week is going to be in order for you to end up in a place, where you only need to spend 16 hours a week working to be successful.
And that is the tricky part!
What I suggest you do to get there, is the following:
- Become an expert on yourself, your psychology and your physiology!
- Become an expert in how business, finances, marketing, leadership and sales work!
Active Work vs Investing Work
Finally, I want to introduce you to another idea of mine to help guide you in the day to day running of your business.
I’ve seen many new entrepreneurs get stuck in the “I must acquire knowledge” trap: doing courses after courses, reading books upon books and never actually getting anything done.
On the other hand side, you have those who are only focused on gettings things done to bring in more money, and their business quickly ends up looking like just another job, where they are trading their time for money.
So what you want to be doing is separating the two into
Active Work:
- Activities, which bring in money now
Investing Work:
- Activities, which will bring in more money in the future
And that you become very aware of where you are spending your time and why!
You don’t want to be stuck doing only one of them, but rather split your time, so that you are doing both.
Rather spend put your effort towards both…
Investing into the future, while building it in the present!
How I became an expert in productivity
I remember, when I was younger and started my journey as an entrepreneur.
Looking around at how others were doing it, I realized two things:
- A lot of people weren’t getting a lot of results
- A lot of experts told me “You must work hard!”
And so, I saw my way into the business market.
I’ll become an expert in productivity and help people get shit done!
Should you work 80 hours pr week?
I had realized, I didn’t enjoy measuring every minute of my day to be more productive and I didn’t want to work myself to death.
I wanted to do what I was passionate about: building businesses, inspiring others, doing creative work and most importantly…
Having fun!
Eventually it led me to the realization that the path to success looks very different from person to person and it depends on a lot of factors!
For example, some people really enjoy doing something non stop and just can’t sit still. And others, enjoy reflecting on what they are going to do for a long time, before they actually do it. For the ladder type of person, it obviously doesn’t work to try to work 80 hours a week, because it just doesn’t fit to who they are.
But does that mean, they can’t be successful? Does that mean they can’t make it work?
Of course not.
However, they will need to find out what works for them in order to get the results AND they will also need to recognize that their journey will have to be different – and maybe require more patience and time from them.
So how do we use this in our businesses?
How you can become successful by being effective
We follow the Pareto Principle of 80-20, which is the idea that 80% of our results come from 20% of our work.
Now if we imagine that the baseline for massive success is 80 hours of work pr week (at least according to Elon Musk), then 20% of that is just 16 hours of doing the exact work, which brings about the biggest results.
Not so bad! And of course Tim Ferriss would tell us that it can actually be done in only 4 hours.
Now, that seems a lot more easy to manage, right?
It does, however, if it was that easy then everyone would do it, and so we know that in reality, it’s not that easy.
The main thing you need to find out, is what those 16 hours of work pr week is going to be in order for you to end up in a place, where you only need to spend 16 hours a week working to be successful.
And that is the tricky part!
What I suggest you do to get there, is the following:
- Become an expert on yourself, your psychology and your physiology!
- Become an expert in how business, finances, marketing, leadership and sales work!
Active Work vs Investing Work
Finally, I want to introduce you to another idea of mine to help guide you in the day to day running of your business.
I’ve seen many new entrepreneurs get stuck in the “I must acquire knowledge” trap: doing courses after courses, reading books upon books and never actually getting anything done.
On the other hand side, you have those who are only focused on gettings things done to bring in more money, and their business quickly ends up looking like just another job, where they are trading their time for money.
So what you want to be doing is separating the two into
Active Work:
- Activities, which bring in money now
Investing Work:
- Activities, which will bring in more money in the future
And that you become very aware of where you are spending your time and why!
You don’t want to be stuck doing only one of them, but rather split your time, so that you are doing both.
Rather spend put your effort towards both…
Investing into the future, while building it in the present!
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