Feb 20 2009

How To Become 300% More Productive (And Profitable!) In Your Business

There are just so many distractions online, that if you are not careful, you can end up passing a whole day without doing a lot that is productive. There is Facebook, sports sites, entertainment sites, Twitter, YouTube, email etc. Before you know it, the day is over and you’re left wondering where all the hours went. How do you overcome this?

The answer is to create a plan. And then be disciplined and follow that plan. Before you sleep each night or before I start each day, create a list of activities that you have to do and label them as important and unimportant. Then make sure you focus on the important activities first each day and just get them done. Try not to check your email or be distracted by anything else until you get the job done.

Here is a killer tip – use the famous 80/20 rule to become super productive.

In a nutshell, the 80/20 rule states that roughly 80% of the effects come from 20% of the causes.

I concentrate like a lion on the 20% of tasks that bring in 80% of profits/results. I start every day by making a list of the ’20% activities’ (the vital few) and the ’80% activities’ (the trivial many), and then I decide how much time I’m going to spend on each of these tasks.

20% activities usually refer to important activities like a new project, product creation, your core marketing activities, joint ventures etc.

80% activities are more low value maintenance activities like checking your email, building a big social marketing list (though for some this will be a 20% activity, it depends on your business plan), chatting on IM etc.

This doesn’t mean you can’t spend anytime on Twitter or replying to emails. You can set up a time at the start of the day, in the middle of the day or at the end of the day for stuff like that. Typically, these are less important activities that shouldn’t take precedence over profitable activities like marketing, advertising and product creation. Those activities should have your undivided attention when you are working on them.

Focus on what matters! Right now, if you are spending more time on unprofitable activities, simply ‘flip it over’ and start spending more time on activities that will actually make some money, and you will almost immediately start making more profits.

Feel free to leave your comments/feedback in the post below…

Hope this post helps you become more productive and profitable!

- Fabian

18 Comments on this post

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  1. Shawmick said:

    I’ve been receiving emails from people offering online money making systems and tips for the last 3 years.

    Almost all of their free ebooks contains information which is typically hazy. The only thing clear in those paragraphs is that they are withholding the important information.

    On the contrary, the ebooks I’ve downloaded from Fabian are surprisingly loaded with vital information.The website too is an eye-opener.

    I used to think online marketing gurus don’t play all their cards.For receiving more information,you had to shell out some money.

    By visiting this website, I’ve been proved wrong.

    February 19th, 2009 at 7:23 am
  2. Fabian Tan said:

    Thanks Shamwick :)

    Fabian

    February 20th, 2009 at 6:46 am
  3. Charles Kirkland said:

    Fabian

    I think you hit the nail of the head with your post. Most people just get caught up in the day to day things that will never make them any money while the important things never get done.

    Thanks
    Charles Kirkland

    February 20th, 2009 at 3:02 pm
  4. Bohdan Vovk said:

    Dear Fabian,

    Thank you very much indeed for this valuable information.
    It is simple, but sometimes it takes too long to understand.

    Wishing you all the best.

    Bohdan.

    February 20th, 2009 at 4:37 pm
  5. Gary Neame said:

    You are so right Fabian. It is so easy to start something then head off in another direction.

    This has been my downfall for many a year.

    Now I know which direction I’m going I plan and stay focused on getting that job done.

    Good post, thank you…

    February 20th, 2009 at 7:14 pm
  6. Nando said:

    Hi Fabian,

    Good post. One of the major reasons I couldn’t make a dime online in my first 6 months was because I had the 80/20 rule backwards. It’s one of the main reasons so many newbies fail as well.

    Once I was willing to admit to myself that I was wasting time doing non essential activities, that’s when I started taking action on money making activities, like driving traffic and building a list.

    Now we make money.

    Thanks for the great reports and your willingness to share your expertise. Every little bit helps.

    Cheers,
    Nando

    February 20th, 2009 at 9:00 pm
  7. Alexei Zoubov said:

    All my life I was trying to do several things at the same time. Sometimes it worked, sometimes not. I got some good benefits from that, I also screwed up a lot of of opportunities.

    It is good that I came across your post at the time that I decided to change my “MO” (moduc operandi) and start beiinf more focused.

    I’d like to add also, that I subscribed to your list. Fabian, pretty recently, but already got lots of helpful information already!

    February 20th, 2009 at 9:41 pm
  8. Nigel said:

    Awesome 80/20 rule is great information. I want to apply it asap thanks heaps

    February 20th, 2009 at 10:21 pm
  9. Joshua Mintz said:

    Man- It seems like so many days are just like you said. Good advice on holding off on those emails. Once you start reading them it can be an all day job just trying to sort through ‘em.

    February 20th, 2009 at 11:00 pm
  10. Laurie Lacey (Natural Healing Talk) said:

    Hi Fabian,

    Thanks for the excellent post!

    I’m glad you commented on the 80/20 principle,
    because it’s something I often forget about.

    Now, I’m going to make a note of it, and paste
    it to my computer monitor! :)

    All the best,
    Laurie

    p.s. This is the 3rd time I’ve tried to post. My
    IE browser 7.0.6 doesn’t pick-up the question
    box. I’m making this post with Chrome. The box
    is visible now. I haven’t tried Firefox.

    February 21st, 2009 at 4:15 am
  11. Anne said:

    Thanks for the reminder Fabian, I’m always getting carried away with sorting out my emails. In a sense sorting out your emails isn’t a bad thing but what is, is losing track of time when doing it.

    Thanks again for the 80/20 rule :)

    Anne

    February 21st, 2009 at 12:04 pm
  12. Donald - smart infopreneur said:

    if you guys like this post from fabian, then check out the bestseller book the 4 hour work week from timothy ferris…

    it will blow some of your mind away! timothy also talks about the 80/20 rule in all aspects of your life in his book as well as many strategies on how to reduce information overload, such as maintaining a low calories information diet.. :)

    February 23rd, 2009 at 10:03 am
  13. roknrobn said:

    I love your use of the 80/20 rule here! It totally pertains to me.

    My additional problem is that I know – at this early stage of inexperience – that when I try to do something to try to put together
    my first real website, it’s going to be VERY freustrating and I’m going to mess it up so badly that I won’t be able to fix it myself . . .

    And it will sit like that, maybe forever, because I don’t have anybody to ask questions of. So I AVOID trying the things that seem important, hoping I will learn enough somewhere, somehow so I can be more certain when I try it for the first time.

    I also think I subconsciously AVOID doing anything that might be that frustrating and discouraging, especially when there are harmless, no-disaster, emails to read.

    But, like you’ve said, that’s why I’ve made no money in 3 years of
    trying to learn as much as I can – that’s why my desk-top is covered SOLID with ebooks I’ve downloaded.

    Maybe my new motivating theme (after Susan Jeffer’s “Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway”) should be:

    “Feel the Frustration, and Do It Anyway” and just throw away wrecked projects until I start to get it right!

    Thank you for all of your terrific advice!
    roknrobn

    February 23rd, 2009 at 11:18 pm
  14. Sekar said:

    Good point, Fabian.

    Just to add to it, thee 80/20 rule is called Pareto principle and this principle have existed since 1908…I wrote an article around this principle (with respect to software support management) 5 yrs ago in detail…

    http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/lotus/library/pareto/

    Thanks for the reminder !

    February 24th, 2009 at 9:08 am
  15. ipanks said:

    thank you for telling me this good information

    March 19th, 2009 at 6:06 pm
  16. Ken Biddle said:

    Hi Fabian, this is so true. This is a topic I get asked about a lot. Distraction, distraction, distraction. You are totally right a daily plan that you actually stick to is mandatory.

    We have all fallen into this trap and until people break out and focus on the activities that actually make money they will never succeed.

    Great post Fabian, one of the most important lessons to learn.

    April 13th, 2009 at 8:39 am
  17. Garen said:

    Hi Fabian,

    Thanks a lot for reminding me of this great 20/80 principle that I have learnt in Singapore years ago.

    God bless you.

    Garen Manuk

    May 10th, 2009 at 8:53 pm
  18. Gerard Michel Vollet said:

    I agree with your last paragraph. We tend sometime to spend more time on stuff that won’t help make money online… It is important to choose and divide tasks.

    August 17th, 2009 at 9:54 pm

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