Working Smarter

“There’s just never enough time to do all the things that need to be done,” David, a sole practitioner atto
ey client, told me during one recent workshop.

“Is it possible,” I asked David, “that you’re focusing on the trivial many instead of the vital few—and that’s why you don’t have enough time?”

I explained to the group how the Pareto Principle—the 80-20 rule—applies to most businesses and professional practices:

”Roughly 20% of the things you do to grow your business or improve your career—the vital few—produce roughly 80% of your results,” I told them. “If you want to work ‘smarter’ instead of ‘harder,’ your goal should be to do more of that 20% work—the work on the vital few—and less of the 80% of your work that doesn't get results—the trivial many.”

“The first thing you need to figure out, is what you want to accomplish,” I continued. “If this isn't crystal clear to you, you've found the most important work you need to do now. All of the vital few activities have to be designed to get you to your goals for your business.”

Once you know where you're going, I told them, you can figure out which activities are helping you get there directly and which ones are only peripheral. This is an area where coaching can definitely help.

Then, every time you’re doing something in your business, ask yourself whether what you’re doing at this moment is directly aimed at the result you want--whether it’s vital to your success. If it’s not, delegate it to someone else. Do the work that only you can do, that you're best at, and you like the most. Delegate the rest.

“The first thing you eliminate is the work you hate most,” I suggested. “What do you hate the most?”

“The bookkeeping,” David answered before anyone else could respond. “But delegating that is expensive and I really can’t afford it,” he complained.

“How much do you charge per hour?” I asked him. With some embarrassment David volunteered that he charged about $200 per hour.
“How much would a bookkeeper cost?” I continued.

“About $40 an hour where I’m located,” came the indignant reply.

“That means,” I pressed on, “that if you billed just one more hour this week, you could hire a bookkeeper for five hours, right?”

David nodded, along with several of the attendees who were following the discussion closely.
“If I freed up five hours for you, could someone with the appropriate training get all of your bookkeeping done in that amount of time?” I asked.

“Yes,” he responded.

“If I freed up five hours, could you find an hour’s worth of billable work somewhere?”

David’s eyes lit up. I knew he--and a few other workshop attendees--would be freeing up some time for themselves soon.

If you measure the cost of having someone else do work you hate against the energy drain and erosion of your effectiveness in doing it yourself, the cost of having someone else do it is a small price to pay. Your focus should be on the work you do the best and like. Everything else should be done by someone else.
This week, list all of the things that need to be done in your business or practice and ask yourself which ones nobody in the world can do but you. You won’t find many. Pick one of the ones you hate the most, and arrange to have someone else do it. You’ll be amazed at how much time you’ll free up.