The 80/20 Rule and Time Management

Do you find that you spend a lot of time on the more mundane side of business? Administrative tasks and answering routine enquiries do need attention, but are ultimately stopping you from addressing more lucrative tasks. There is a way to focus on the 20% of tasks that will take your business to the next level.

The trick is to apply to the 80/20 rule to your work life. The 80/20 rule is that 80 percent of your results come from 20 percent of your efforts. This has been applied to everything from the business world, to dating, to finding happiness. Let’s look at some examples:

• 20 percent of your workouts lead to 80 percent of your physical gains (think of the types of exercise that are most productive)
• 80 percent of your business comes from 20 percent of your customers
• 20 percent of your time produces 80 percent of your results

The common thread is productivity. By considering how you are spending your time and the outcomes from your efforts, you can work out what is worth spending time on and what you should outsource.

Let’s look at a typical morning’s activities:

Switch computer on – Answer urgent and routine emails – Answer phone call – Put together proposal to interested customer – Answer phone call – More routine emails – Fix printer – Marketing task – Urgent email – Book car service – Reconcile bank statements – Strategising – Lunch

A significant proportion of those activities could be classed as important, but the rest are a hindrance to growing your business (no matter how necessary they are to its day-to-day running). Here’s how to focus on the important stuff and still make sure the other work is completed:

Hire a Team

A VA could be your new best friend. One of the most vital jobs they can do is to triage your emails so you deal with the correspondence that grows your business, while they deal with the routine responses.

Outsource

Social media and blogging are vital to growing any business, but are time consuming. There are plenty of companies – boutique and agency – who have the expertise to handle this side of marketing.

Tax doesn’t have to be taxing, but it often is. An accountant will take that pile of paperwork and work their magic, they might even save you money. A good accountant is worth their weight in gold.

Give Up

Persistence is key to growing business and getting excellent results, but sometimes you’ve got to know when to quit. If a project isn’t going anywhere and is sucking up a significant amount of your time, step back from it.

Invest in Good Equipment

If you’re making do with an ancient computer or a printer that spends more time being repaired than printing, it’s time to replace them. Equipment that wastes time that you could be spending winning new business needs to go.

Administration

There are some administrative tasks that a PA or VA can’t take off your hands. This is where platforms like HubSpot are invaluable. Try calculating how much time you spend on resetting passwords, logging in or out of multiple accounts, finding the best tools for a particular task, or explaining technical issues to tech support. These efforts are certainly important for running your business, but not growing it.

HubSpot is the solution used by marketers who have realised they need to stop spending time on the 80 percent of tasks that don’t get big results. All the tools that are needed to run successful marketing and sales campaigns are under one roof. That means one password, one phone number to ring for tech support, and a lot more time spent on productive tasks.

Beacon eBooks have integrated with HubSpot as an essential marketing tool that not only saves time, but also achieves results through impressive lead generation. By recycling blog content into professional-quality eBooks, Beacon helps marketers to connect with customers and start building a relationship.

We have designed special settings that allow professional marketers who use the Beacon HubSpot integration to easily manage multiple accounts. Watch this video for step-by-step instructions on how to create beautiful eBooks for every client:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LKOwnSMa_ZA

If you’re struggling to make an impact despite working day and night, it could be time to consider your time management. Apply the 80/20 rule and look for tools like Beacon that have been designed specifically to maximise your time and results.

If you have any questions about Beacon and how you can make eBooks work for you, we’d love to talk to you @Beacon_By or on Facebook.