Why you should focus on the 80%
We’re back with another edition of this newsletter! I hope your week has started well and wherever you are in the world, that normal life is starting to return. Or maybe you don’t want things to go back exactly how they were. It seems like the majority of people would prefer a hybrid set-up of working both remotely and in the office. What about you? Reply to this email and let me know!
One thought: Focus on the 80% 💆♀️
You may have heard of the 80/20 rule also known as the ‘Pareto principle’ whereby approximately 80% of your results come from just 20% of your activities. When I first came across this concept in The 4-Hour Work Week it blew my mind. It’s crazy how accurate this observation is across several domains of life.
I recently heard in a YouTube video by one of my favourite creators Noah Kagan, that we should ‘focus on the 80%’ of things that really matter. Last week’s email titled ‘Maintaining Your Garden Vs. Planting Seeds’ also delved into this topic, discussing how we should make sure we have time every week to plant seeds for our long-term benefit.
Noah applied ‘focusing on the 80%’ to productivity and this intrigued me.
He pointed out that nowadays the majority of our jobs involve using a computer. Our first thought is usually to use the latest tools or software to be that tiny bit faster or more efficient. But if we zoom out for a second, what we should really be focusing on is how efficient we are at using our computers!
Now I’ve never been one to learn keyboard shortcuts, but it suddenly made sense to me why people do it. Knowing how to use my laptop without really touching the mouse is certainly a skill I should probably take the time to learn. Being faster on your computer has got to be one of the greatest productivity hacks possible?
Here are Noah’s suggestions:
Set your mouse speed to the fastest it can be
I’ve been doing this since university and I definitely agree that this is low hanging fruit. It will feel super fast at first, but trust me, within hours you’ll be used to it and wonder how you ever operated beforehand being so slow!
Learn keyboard shortcuts for your laptop
Searching on your computer with keyboard shortcuts to find files, move files and to open applications is a great starting point. Then, move on to your most frequently used apps which will all have their own shortcuts too. Noah has a whole YouTube video about using shortcuts in Gmail as he owns an 8-figure business and receives high-volumes of email. Stop to consider where you could save time in your own situation.
Consciously take time to improve your typing speed
Another huge one! You can test your typing speed out on websites like 10 Fast Fingers which actually gets quite addictive. I just did it now and my score was 99 WPM. Who knows if that’s good or not. It doesn’t matter what other people’s scores are, just try it and look to improve your own.
From testing out my own typing speed I realised that I actually type quite weirdly. I don’t ‘touch-type’, instead I mainly use my middle finger on each hand to almost prod the keys, even when keys are far away and out of reach…weird. I know that people who type the fastest touch-type, so that’s really a skill I should be looking to learn. How many hours of my life could that save me? It’s mind-blowing!
Use text expanders for frequently used links
I’d heard people recommend text expanders for a long time until I finally took the plunge and tried it myself. I had heard so many people mention that the tool Alfred (£25) was life-changing. I finally tried it and it is incredible. This has now led to me forming a principle where if anybody says something changed their life, I’ll try it without question. People don’t say that sh*t for no reason.
I’m still only brushing the surface of what Alfred can do, but very simply, it’s ‘Spotlight Search’, which comes with your Mac, on steroids plus an incredibly powerful text expander. (If you use a Mac, press CMD-Space to open Spotlight Search where you can find files fast - why did nobody tell me this…). I currently use Alfred to send people links to YouTube videos I’ve created, podcast episodes that I love, and also to share referral links for tools I use. You could save a day of your life back with Alfred and by sharing referral links with people, I’ve already made the money back in savings.
What can you eliminate?
“Capacity is a state of mind” - The Magic of Thinking Big, David Schwartz
Another way to focus on what really matters is to approach it from the other angle of identifying what you can eliminate.
As mentioned in last week’s email, Maya Grossman is a startup advisor who tried a personal experiment in her job to see what she could eliminate. After realising that 20% of the tasks she was asked to do were probably irrelevant, Maya tested this hypothesis and didn’t do them for one week. Nobody realised and she used the time saved to focus on higher-leverage tasks. Maya has received 10 promotions in 15 years. There’s something in this!
Thank you so much for reading this week’s newsletter. See if you can take just 15-minutes to ask yourself the question: “What can I eliminate this week?” And if you regularly use a computer, contemplate just how efficient you are with it. Try out 10 Fast Fingers and explore Alfred as two easy starting points.
Have a great week!
Joe
Content tip of the week 🚀
If you’re creating content on LinkedIn or any other social media platform, you need to consider subtitles because the majority of people play content without sound. Recently, I recommended Subly who are now my go-to way to subtitle videos because you can change how the subtitles look and where they appear on the video.
With Subly, you simply upload your video for it to be transcribed for subtitles. A HUGE bonus for me is that you can download a ‘.txt file’, which basically means you can get the subtitles as copy and pastable text. I then take this to write the copy for my LinkedIn content, which saves a lot of time.
Subly has been free throughout Covid, but the free plan will soon include watermarks on all of your videos as they are releasing Subly Pro. I’ve just signed up to their Founding Member offer which you might be interested in.
Article of the week ✍️
Real-World Blueprint for a $5-Million Week - Ramit Sethi guest post, Tim.blog
This article is fascinating, it focuses on how you should provide as much value as you can for free and then have premium services that you sell for the percentage of your audience who want further help in achieving the results.
This ‘free or premium’ model is something Tim Ferriss has mentioned before. I’ve recently been coming up with a pricing list and so this was super helpful to me. I also think that this model of creating is very fulfilling. Under the free branch, your objective is to try and help as many people as you can by creating incredible resources. Value-based pricing is where you price something based on the value you provide and the results they will obtain. You must charge how much something is worth.
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I’m Joe, a content marketer passionate about personal development and psychology. Every Sunday, I write an email newsletter with 1 thought, 1 content tip and 1 article I’d recommend. Usually, I go over-board and provide a little more 😁
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