Most brokers struggle to stick to eight hour days - is it possible to cut down to sixty minutes?
Most brokers struggle to stick to standard eight hour days, but one entrepreneur says it’s possible to cut right down to sixty minutes – if you’re smart about it.
Top American business author and consultant Steve Shapiro says by making a few simple changes, he’s gone from working over 100 hours per week to investing just 20 hours each month in his current business.
Most business owners ‘convince themselves’ that they need to work long hours to achieve results, says Shapiro in a recent blog.
“The reality is, however, that there is a point of diminishing returns. Although more work might produce greater results, the return on the additional effort decreases significantly.”
Shapiro offers three common reasons many people work longer hours than they need to:
- You feel like you're a slacker if you don’t work all of the time.
- You worry that if you don’t complete every task, you may lose business opportunities.
- You work nonstop because it allows you to avoid dealing with difficult issues in your life.
After nearly a year of ‘experimenting’, Shapiro feels he has finally found the amount of time he needs put in to achieve the maximum output for his effort: One hour per day.
While the point where the effort to results ratio starts to level out will vary from business to business, the key is to recognise this point, and then resist the urge to go beyond it, he says.
“Will you extract 100 per cent of the potential value? Probably not. But is squeezing out an extra 20 per cent of value really worth four or five times the effort? That’s your choice.”
By restricting the time he allows himself to work, Shapiro says he is forced to focus on only the most important tasks.
“Each morning I ask myself, what's the one thing I need to do today? What is the one thing that will create the most value? What is the one thing that only I can do?”
“And that is the activity I engage in for the day. I delete, defer or delegate everything else.”
Channelling his time in this way frees up the rest of the week for other projects, he says.
“With the extra time created, I’ve been working on a new book that targets a completely different market for me. I’m working on a TV show concept. And I'm creating new products that leverage my intellectual property.”
Shapiro concedes not all business owners will be open to the idea of the 60 minute work-day, but encourages even the most sceptical to give it a try.
“Use the ‘hour a day’ mantra as a mental exercise. Determine what you might do if you only had an hour. Even if it ends up taking you four hours, it's still better than the 10 you were previously investing. Now, what are you going to do with all that extra free time?”
