How I Plan to Double My Income By Working 30% Less

One of my goals for 2006 is to double my income working only 4 days a week, as opposed to 5-6 days a week in 2005.

In theory, this is easily possible. But will it work in practice? Here’s how I plan to do it…

80 / 20 Insights

The 80 / 20 Principle is one of my favourite rules of thumb. That’s because it’s widely applicable and relatively easy to apply in one’s daily life.

In case you’re not familiar with the 80 / 20 Principle, it says that in any system, roughly 20% of causes will be responsible for 80% of effects.

One application of the 80 / 20 Principle says that 20% of your time is responsible for 80% of your productivity.

What this represents is a great opportunity for productivity growth. If you work a 40 hour week to produce 100 units of productivity, then roughly 80% of those units are produced in only 8 hours (you may need some convincing that this is so. For conclusive proof, read Richard Koch’s excellent book, The 80 / 20 Principle)

My plan is to identify what my 20% of highly-productive activities are, then concentrate my efforts on them at the expense of my low-productivity 80%.

Theoretically, I could produce 240% percent of my current output working only 3 days a week by focussing on my most productive 20% of activities. I hope to get there eventually, but for the time being I’ve decided to aim to double my productivity working 4 days a week.

I’ve started by keeping closer track of my time and identifying what my high-value and low-value tasks are. At the moment my list looks something like this…

Very High Value Activities (the top 20%)

• Selling to interested prospects
• Online marketing strategy consulting

Medium Value Activities (the next 30%)

• Sales lead generation activities for my own business
• Quality assurance of web, sales copy and online advertising work
• Project management liaison with clients

Very Low Value Activities (the bottom 50%)

• Integrating web content
• Invoicing and Accounts Receivable
• Over-checking email
• Commuting (1.5 - 2 hours per day)
• Multi-tasking *
• Distracting work environment **
• Procrastinating

Notes:

• Multi-tasking is a real productivity killer. Time Management experts recommend that you work on tasks in larger time blocks, rather than jumping from task to task.

** A recent study revealed that poor workspace design causes the average office worker to waste an astonishing 1.5 hours a day looking for misplaced items and being distracted by desktop clutter.

Looking at how I’m currently spending my time, all of a sudden a 100% improvement looks not only realistic, but almost easy

The Plan

Cull Productivity Black Holes

1. Redesign my workspace: Clear away unneeded files and get rid of non-essential items on my desk.
2. Move to a home office: Eliminate commuting time (will have to watch being distracted by midday Oprah though)
3. Check email and blog comments no more than 3 times a day: No compulsive clicking the Send / Receive button. Writing and checking emails in one block instead of doing it many times a day.

Systematize and Delegate More Tasks

Many tasks such as integrating web content, project management of websites and invoicing etc. still need to get done. It’s just that I shouldn’t be the one performing those tasks when there are much more productive things that I could be doing. So I plan to…

1. Re-organise my project management systems: our current systems are not nearly as productive as they could be. By organising tasks differently I can free up time.
2. Training, systems and procedures: to make website and integration work easier to delegate while maintaining high standards.
3. Delegate project management: My new web designer Phill starts on Monday. He’ll become the key contact point for project management issues. This one thing will free up a LOT of my time.

Beter Time Management Practices

1. Keep a desktop “to do” list: to help keep track of tasks and priorities.
2. Less multi-tasking: structure work in longer, more focussed blocks.

Results to Come

I’ve started keeping a diary of my activities and results and I’ll report back a month from now on initial progress. If you have any great time management or productivity-boosting tips, I’d love to hear them. I welcome your comments and ideas.

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