How the 80/20 Rule Is Changing My Life

As a work at home mom I’ve noticed over the years that I have this crazy idea ~

If I at least appear to be working I will make more money.

It really is crazy, because it’s not true at all. I was recently listening to an audio within the Blog Mastermind course about the 80/20 rule.  A rule I’ve been familiar with in association with other things, but never related it to my life or my business; until now.

What is the 80/20 rule?

The 80/20 rule goes like this; a small portion (20%) of  something creates a large portion (80%) of the results. This works in just about every area of life and business when you really think about it.

• America uses 80% or the worlds oil, but only has 20% of the world’s population.

• In a membership site 20% or your members will ask 80% of the questions.

• In network marketing 20% or your organization will produce 80% of your income.

• In my business 20% of my actions create 80% of my results.

So why on earth am I spinning my wheels, wasting time, looking busy with the other 60% of crap I am doing during the day?

It’s a good question.

It’s a question I think I need to look at because it goes way deeper than just busy work. This is where  beliefs rest, and some of those beliefs are probably not serving me, and maybe you, well.

Here’s some things that come up when I think about why I have to be “working” all day.

• If  I’m not working “hard”/”a lot”/”all day” what I’m doing isn’t valuable.

• It takes hard work to make money.

• If I don’t work I don’t make money.
• There’s always something that needs to be done.

• I have to prove that I am working hard to prove that working from home is legitimate.

WOW ~ who knew all that was in there?

What to do now?

I think some serious tapping (EFT) is in order.  I think tapping on each of those beliefs will help to clear them out and make it a little easier to apply the 80/20 rule in my life.

I will also use Zpoint when I notice I am sitting at the computer “working” but not engaging in the 20% activities.

How to implement the 80/20 rule in your WAHM life.

1. Identify the activities that bring you the most bang for your buck.

This may be difficult if you’ve been keeping busy for a long time, but this is crucial.  You may need to really strip away all the layers and get down to the very basics.

The basics of my business ~ blogging/writing ~ is content and marketing.

2.  Figure out your most productive activities

When you break things down to the basics you will see there are some specific activities that give you the most bang for your buck. For me it is writing blog posts/articles and for the marketing element I have identified 3 distinct activities I can do to market my business each day.

What activities can you do that will give you the most bang for your buck? I can almost guarantee it isn’t checking email every 5 minutes. lol (yeah, I’m guilty too)

3.  Batch process everything you can.

This comes from Timothy Ferriss’ book The 4 Hour Work Week, and when I can implement this it makes all the difference in my day.  Very quickly batch processing is about doing one thing at a time. If you have to answer email ~ wait and do it all one time a day. If you want to reply to forums, wait and do them all at one time. If you want to write articles, buckle down and do them all at one time. This focused energy will create a lot more time in your day, and a lot less “busy” work that is often times procrastination.

4. Make some plans for the rest of your day.

I find it really easy to keep sitting at the computer all day long if I don’t have something else planned to do. I’m beginning to plan craft projects in the afternoon for Hanna and I to do, so I will have something else on my schedule to help get up me up and away from the computer.

5. Be flexible.

This one is tough for me, I want my day to go in a certain order, and it rarely does, but now that I know what my 20% activities are I can finish one, and then jump into the next one when the ruckus has died down.  This flexibility also allows me room to follow my inspiration which also make the day go much smoother.

Creating Balance with the 80/20 rule

Implementing the 80/20 rule in my business is opening up more time to do other things that need to be done. It’s giving me the space to do the work that needs to be done, but let go of having to “work” all day. This is giving me the space to create a lot more balance in my life ~ at least giving me the opportunity to create the balance 😉

Do you use the 80/20 rule in your business life? I’d love to hear how it helps you create more balance in your life.