#20. Get the tasks that you can delegate or outsource at a cost that is a fraction of your hourly value off your plate. Delegating something that takes one hour a week that you can pay someone $15 per hour to do gives you 52 hours a year to spend your time on high value work time in your zone of genius (because hopefully your zone of genius is at least worth 10X the cost of paying someone $15 per hour)
How many hours per week are you doing $15 per hour labor???
#21. Do the difficult jobs (or the jobs you hate to do) first. This not only gets them out of the way sooner, but everything after seems like a breeze.
#22. Work with a rhythm. I just moved. I started with the office and put things away with a rhythm until I found i needed pegs for my bookcase. I made a note and went to the kitchen, until I needed the cabinet that has yet to be built. Then I went on to another room. Now I have a list of what I need and can get them tomorrow morning before my next round.
Having spent my entire career in sales and sales leadership, your #4 ("Don't waste time with "low-profit, high-maintenance customers.") is my favorite on this list. For as long as I can remember, we would refer to these types of clients as "Pitas," or Pain In The Ass customers.
#20 Always prioritize your mental and physical health. Without that, none of the other priorities matter anymore. It's like giving yourself oxygen before helping others... without it, you can't help. Don't defer it -- it adds up and then you can lose your health, sometimes very quickly.
#13 or a great one for me to keep reminding myself. Typically, I lose myself in “no-deadline tasks” to the degree of interest I find in them. Need to make a 5-minute wording change to my website? Yeah…two hours later I’m still having fun there. Oops.
Bill, I am with you all the way especially on #3, #6 and #7. I definitely need to work on keeping Tom much paper. As my wife says, “make a right fist and then let it go!”
#20 In every situation have empathy usually the other side feels as strongly as you do. Try to put yourself in the other’s shoes. Not that they are right but you’ll understand their position better.
This is all good advice in business and entrepreneurship. When it comes to parenting and raising children well though, I would argue some of these principles need to be flipped on their heads!
#20. Get the tasks that you can delegate or outsource at a cost that is a fraction of your hourly value off your plate. Delegating something that takes one hour a week that you can pay someone $15 per hour to do gives you 52 hours a year to spend your time on high value work time in your zone of genius (because hopefully your zone of genius is at least worth 10X the cost of paying someone $15 per hour)
How many hours per week are you doing $15 per hour labor???
So true. I had a boss who would always ask me, “Is this truly worth your time? If not, then dish it off to someone else.”
I guess I could forward this to people but then I would be assuming those people didn't have common sense...🙄
#21. Do the difficult jobs (or the jobs you hate to do) first. This not only gets them out of the way sooner, but everything after seems like a breeze.
#22. Work with a rhythm. I just moved. I started with the office and put things away with a rhythm until I found i needed pegs for my bookcase. I made a note and went to the kitchen, until I needed the cabinet that has yet to be built. Then I went on to another room. Now I have a list of what I need and can get them tomorrow morning before my next round.
Awesome additions. Thank you!
Excellent insight
#14 is my favorite! Life is too short to put up with BS from A-hole bosses who are self-centered.
Recession or no recession, we are a consumer nation...we love spending and live for the day...isn't this the American way?
Having spent my entire career in sales and sales leadership, your #4 ("Don't waste time with "low-profit, high-maintenance customers.") is my favorite on this list. For as long as I can remember, we would refer to these types of clients as "Pitas," or Pain In The Ass customers.
#20 Always prioritize your mental and physical health. Without that, none of the other priorities matter anymore. It's like giving yourself oxygen before helping others... without it, you can't help. Don't defer it -- it adds up and then you can lose your health, sometimes very quickly.
Don’t need something to be perfect before completing it. Like your list of 19 and not an even 20! Thanks for this great list, Bill!
#13 or a great one for me to keep reminding myself. Typically, I lose myself in “no-deadline tasks” to the degree of interest I find in them. Need to make a 5-minute wording change to my website? Yeah…two hours later I’m still having fun there. Oops.
Yup…set the mental egg timer and stick to it.
Bill, I am with you all the way especially on #3, #6 and #7. I definitely need to work on keeping Tom much paper. As my wife says, “make a right fist and then let it go!”
#20 In every situation have empathy usually the other side feels as strongly as you do. Try to put yourself in the other’s shoes. Not that they are right but you’ll understand their position better.
This is all good advice in business and entrepreneurship. When it comes to parenting and raising children well though, I would argue some of these principles need to be flipped on their heads!
Since I’m retired(for now at least)I’m sharing this with Son #1.