In the previous installment of this series, I talked about how I defined work and modified my e-mail habits as my first two-steps to a 9-hour workweek.
Step 3: I applied the 80-20 rule.
I’ve talked about the 80-20 rule (or Pareto Principle) in the past, so I won’t define it here. I’ll just discuss how I applied it.
I made a list of my current paying jobs (blogging) and listed them as how much each paid per hour, including notes on how much I enjoyed these jobs. Here’s what my list looked like:
- Job A - $50/hr - love this job
- Job B - $30/hr - like this job
- Job C - $10/hr - indifferent
- Job D - $8/hr - love this job
- and so on…
Of course, there’s some personal projects I do that don’t pay much (if at all), but they’re not what I was evaluating here. I was evaluating what I defined as my “paying work”.
In the end, I decided to focus on Jobs A, B, and D. Job C and the rest that paid lower, I outsourced (for some reason, my contracts for the lower paying jobs granted me to outsource them). Even if Job D paid the lowest, I loved it so much I wouldn’t trade it for the world. It’s about doing the work that pays well, of course, but don’t ignore some work tasks you love just because it won’t strictly adhere to the 80-20 rule. It’s meant to be a suggestion, not an unbreakable law.
Of course, this puts me in a relatively precarious situation. True, the blogs/companies I work for are doing well and I doubt they’re going to let me go any time soon. However, since I rely on only 3 companies for most of my income, what happens when I lose two or all of these gigs? (Hell, that’s what. Even though I do have an emergency fund tucked away.)
I found an interesting take on the 80-20 rule on The Golden Pencil. Some of the ideas I concur with (it’s hard to apply 80-20 to more creative tasks, your activities or income sources won’t be diverse, some tasks you just can’t outsource), but I disagree with the others.
The 80-20 rule isn’t meant to be a fixed proportion, it’s just a way to look at your situation and see what vital tasks you benefit the most from. Anyway, it’s an helpful read, especially for writers. So if you find that you can’t apply the 80-20 rule to what you’re doing (I can’t apply it to my comics and fiction writing, for example), don’t stress about it.
Step 4: I outsourced some tasks.
I already mentioned above that I outsourced some of my lower paying jobs. But that doesn’t make sense, does it? Contractual obligations aside, shouldn’t one outsource the higher paying tasks, pay contractors extremely low for them, and pocket the profits while laughing on the way to the bank?
Well, no, not for me, and here’s why:
- I felt indifferent about the lower paying tasks. Not because the pay was low, but because the tasks were either not challenging enough or were too repetitive for my taste. I’d gladly pay someone else to do them if it means gaining hours of my life back. Hours that I have the ability to put into writing fiction (which I haven’t done in over 3 years) and comics (which I’ve done sporadically over the past year). If I’m indifferent about something, I guess it’s not worth the time and effort I put into it.
- When I outsource, I prefer to pay a fair percentage to the contractor. This makes me sleep superior at night, and the contractors (who need the job more than I do) get paid fairly for their time.
- I really love the jobs I picked for myself (Jobs A, B, and D) and there’s no way I’m gonna let someone else have all that fun!
All in all, only 3-7% of my income comes from outsourcing work. I’ll try to make this higher over the next year as I iron out some business, but I think I got the better end of the deal, since I have more time (which is more valuable to me than money).
Apart from paying jobs, I’ve started to outsource some administrative tasks. For now, this includes 75% of client support and handling some of my business email accounts. This has cut off 2 to 3 hours from my average workday.
We’re halfway into the 9-Hour Workweek Series. On the next installment, I’ll speak about my schedule experiments and geoarbitrage.
Pic Credit: Images from Celine Roque from Blue Rabbit Media and from Steve Woods via sxc.hu
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