Optimizing Your Efforts
– Hans Hoffman
The ability to simplify means to eliminate the unnecessary so that the necessary may speak.
I was never a very organized one. I never had a plan or, a structure for anything that I did.
So “optimization” was miles away from me!
I always wanted to be a doctor and studied for it all through my school. In fact, I even dropped out one year after school to prepare for the entrance exams.
But I couldn’t crack the entrance. I was on the waiting list but never got confirmed. So that dream was lost.
Years later when I discovered more about planning, organizing, and structuring, I was able to figure out the reason why I couldn’t crack my entrance exams.
I was spending so much of my energy on things that weren’t important, that the things that needed my attention somehow dropped through the cracks.
And funnily enough, I found that a lot of us are like that.
In fact, we are never taught the technique of optimizing our efforts.
The Pareto principle, otherwise called the 80-20 principle is something that you learn long after you have done schooling, college and even a few years of work!
Why?
Shouldn’t it be the first thing to be taught at school?
80% of the results come from 20% of the things that you are doing. So shouldn’t you be taught to optimize that 20% and spend more time on them to get better results?
But sadly, it isn’t so.
This single learning has helped me so much in my content creation journey that I am able to save a few hours from every single day of mine.
And also saved me a few thousand every month!
For example, I clean my email list every quarter. I send out an email to the people who are not opening my emails and then I take them off my list.
Autoresponders charge you for the number of people you are carrying on your list. And the better the open rates the better it is for the emails you send.
Why pay for carrying a few names on my subscriber when they are not responsive?
So I eliminate the unnecessary and optimize my cost and efforts.
Similarly in podcasting too.
When I started I used to spend multiple hours ideating, scripting, writing, recording, editing, and publishing.
But a little thought helped me eliminate a lot of unnecessary!
The Lotus framework for ideating (I will discuss more about it in another edition of this Newsletter) helped me save a few hours on ideating. Templating helped me improve my scripting and writing speed.
Similarly in editing too. I was spending hours removing those filler words and dead air, adding intros, outros etc. I was trying to perfect editing.
But that wasn’t required.
I realized that only editing as much as required was enough!
And I put a process in place.
Which then helped me save a few hours of my editing process.
So, if you are overwhelmed and feel like you had 48 hours in a day, then you are probably spending a bit too much time on “unnecessary things” that you are probably not able to see.
Here are a few things you can do –
- For everything you do, spend a few hours jotting down every single step involved in the process.
- Then look at how you can shave off a few minutes of every single one of those steps.
- Once done, look at how many repetitive tasks go into the process.
- Look at ways you can club them. This will help you accomplish more at the same time.
- Finally, it is time to automate some of the activities. Explore ways you can do that. Automation helps tremendously with reducing overwhelm and saving hours.
PS: Do you know the simple art of not correcting errors when writing helps you save 1/3rd of your writing time?
That right!
When writing, simply write. Don’t correct or, proof read. Once you are done writing, go ahead with using auto-correct to correct the mistakes.
I used to spend about 150 minutes writing this newsletter.
Now I spend about 70 minutes!
That’s the power of eliminating the unnecessary so that the necessary may speak!
And my newsletter readers who have been following me would know what I mean.
(If you did, then do write to me and let me know the one thing I did to this newsletter that follows this principle)
If you enjoyed reading this Newsletter, then do recommend it to others. You can send them to https://theloudspeakeronline.com to join for FREE!
Found on the internet
Here’s what I found on the internet this week.
Marketing is all about positioning yourself. If you learn the art to position yourself in a crowded market, then you have won half the battle.
After that, it is just a matter of providing value.
This tweet was an interesting one that gave me a different perspective on positioning.
This one was a LinkedIn post from a creator that I have been following for some time. She also has a very interesting Newsletter on marketing.
And this addresses a common problem in the world of the internet!
Everything is made to look easy though it is not.
The truth is that there is nothing easy in the world!
This post puts it nicely. I am linking to it so that you can read some of the comments there which is as valuable as the post.
What am I reading?
I have significantly dropped my reading speed. Thanks to a few of the projects I am working on.
I still have a couple of chapters to complete on my last week’s read – Thinking Fast and Slow.
But I will tell you about the next book on my list.
This is the second book that I will be re-reading this year as part of my reading plan.
It is “Essentialism”!
Since we spoke about “eliminating the unnecessary” this week, the book fits perfectly into the discussion!
Pick it up today and give it a read if you want to optimize your day!
That’s it for this week!
Do let me know your thoughts, feedback, and opinion about this newsletter.
