Most of us work too hard to really get anything done.

There are many studies that demonstrate that multimillion dollar CEOs spend less than 30 minutes per day doing the work they’re actually paid to do.

Why is this?

It’s because the higher we go in our levels of responsibility (and this is especially salient for entrepreneurs) the more likely it is we will be interrupted throughout the day by concerns, people, and tasks that are urgent (needs attention from someone immediately) but not necessarily important (needs high-level attention from the entrepreneur, CEO, or manager).

This applies even if you are a freelance worker (or perhaps you started your own online business in your “spare time”).

The key to success on a massive scale is to focus on revenue-generating activities as much as possible.

Here’s how you do that…

Focus on Revenue Generation

If you were to analyze your day, you would no doubt discover that less than 20% of your daily activity produces 80% or more of your total revenue.

Another way of looking at this is to realize that 80% of what you do doesn’t really contribute to your income in a directly measurable way.

You may be familiar with this as Pareto’s Law: “80% of the results typically come from only 20% of the activity”.

Instead of expending a lot of effort trying to change that 20% number to a higher percentage-save 50 or 60%-it might be more useful to consider simply eliminating the 80%.

Sound almost impossible? In fact, you already know how to do this…

Day Before Vacation Phenomena

Have you ever experienced “the day before vacation phenomena”?

You know what I’m talking about.

You’re leaving for vacation on, let’s say, a Thursday. Have you ever noticed how that Wednesday becomes the most efficient work day you’ve had in many weeks (perhaps months)?

Have you noticed how, on the day before vacation starts, you get 10 times the work done in a single day?

You’ve probably also noticed the wonderful euphoric feeling you experience when you walk out of the office on that day… how you feel that everything is in its place, each task is handled, each responsibility delegated to a team member, or at the very least deferred until you get back.

On those days, don’t you feel more at peace, in control, and effortlessly productive then on 99% of the other days of the year?

So there it is: your proof that you’re actually capable of eliminating the 80% of normal time-wasting, revenue-depressing, stress-inducing activity that makes up most of your days.

Dan, The “No Email Man”

I have a colleague named Dan who doesn’t do e-mail.

I don’t mean that he does “very little” e-mail… I mean he doesn’t do e-mail at all. Doesn’t have an e-mail address.

Dan also doesn’t have a cell phone. If you want to talk to Dan, you have to call him at his office; his phone is answered by his assistant who deftly protects Dan from time-wasting phone calls and appointments.

In fact, Dan has very few appointments. Yet he is very productive, very receptive and open to talking with people, and runs a multimillion dollar business. He somehow manages to do it while living a sane, orderly, and peaceful life.

So what excuse do the rest of us have?

My 3-Month Experiment

Just a few weeks ago, I wrapped up a three-month experiment.

For three months, my wife and I traveled the United States in our motorhome.

We ran our business in our “spare time” from that motorhome-using laptops, WiFi Internet connections, and UPS stores.

While I will admit it was challenging at times, I can also tell you that on average for that three-month period, I worked about three hours a day (weekdays).

Normally, my work day is anywhere from 8-10 hours long.

It was startling to realize that I could maintain (actually not just maintain, but increase) my net income while working around one third fewer hours.

Now that I’m back in my “normal” environment, I am remaining very conscious of how much time I spend working-versus how much time I spend “being busy”, giving the APPEARANCE of work.

You see, I already know it’s possible to maintain my income working only three hours a day.

I should be clear: some days are 12 hour days, and some days are zero-hour days.

It only averages out to three hours per day-it’s never as neat as exactly 180 minutes each day. But that misses the point. The point is: what on earth have I been doing with those other 7-9 hours each day?

How bout you?

What could you do with an extra 7-9 hours of discretionary time every single day?

Think about that.

Going Cold Turkey

Last weekend I decided to experiment with my colleague Dan’s lifestyle.

My wife and I got in our motorhome once again, and drove about six hours to a lake in Oregon. We visited a state park… where there is no Internet service, and no cell phone signal.

That meant I wasn’t able to “sneak in” an e-mail scan, or send out “tweet” on Twitter.

Going cold turkey was interesting.

The first day I was a bit jittery. I experienced some “withdrawal” symptoms.

The second day I experienced a feeling of relaxation I haven’t felt in a very long time.

By the third day, I was ready to continue the experiment for another two or three months-however, it was time to come back home!

These “free days”, as Dan Sullivan calls them – are days where you have absolutely no contact with anything work related (cell phone, voice mail, Internet, files, business reading, etc.).

In my experience, “free days” have almost magical powers to renew and revitalize your spirit, body and mind.

Since getting back from my three-day “cold Turkey” experiment, I’ve been more productive or energetic and more efficient than I have been for a long time.

So those “free days” are now on my calendar every single week; Friday through Sunday are work-free zones.

Having this space to let my mind unwind, to let my spirit relax, allows me to bring back more creativity, energy and enthusiasm to the work I do Monday through Thursday.

I benefit, my family benefits, my clients and their customers all benefit.

Try Your Own Experiment

So what does all this mean to you?

After all, you may or may not have the luxury of spending three months puttering around the USA in your motorhome (we were very blessed by God in being allowed such a privilege).

You may also find it seemingly impossible to take three days a week “off”.

But certainly you could take a single day, couldn’t you?

After all, most of the major spiritual traditions of the world include some form of the “day of rest”. I think that is for a very important reason: we were designed to require such a day of rest each week.

So this week-just for this one week – take a single day that is totally free from any work.

For that 24-hour period put yourself on a diet or you don’t take in any e-mails, Twitter messages, voice mails, cell phone calls, meetings or work of any kind.

You’ll be forced to find other things to do.

Some suggestions that might help you:

• Take a long walk with someone you love
• Spend some time over coffee talking
• Go see a play or movie, read a good (non-work related) book
• Play a game
• Go visit an old friend or loved one

While this kind of “slowing down” might be difficult for some of us, I believe the benefits are extraordinary.

But don’t take my word for it.

Try it and see for yourself.

An Advanced Experiment

If you are “all in” for taking a single day off in the next week, perhaps you’d also like to try the advanced part of the experiment.

Two ways we fill that 80% of wasted time each week is in doing things that we either (a) don’t like to do or (b) are not good at doing.

My suggested “advanced experiment” is to choose three of those things (things you either don’t like to do, or that you are not good at) and find someone else to do them for you.

Your three items that you are going to “delegate” or “out-source” could be small and insignificant, or they could be large and important items.

They could be as simple as dusting the bookshelves, or as complex as creating the project plan for a major new initiative in your company. That’s up to you.

I’m only asking you to follow some simple directions:

1. Pick something that you’re either not good at, or that you don’t like to do. And if you want extra credit pick something that fits both of those criteria.

2. Pick something that definitely falls in the “80 percentile group”; something that is not directly revenue-producing for your company or your business.

3. Pick three such “somethings”.

4. Select someone else to take care of these three tasks on your behalf. It can be someone you know personally, who does it simply as a favor to you; it can be someone on your staff to whom you assigned the task; or you can “outsource” the task to someone in another state (or even on another continent) using the Internet. It doesn’t really matter who you get to take care of it, it simply matters that it isn’t you.

By the way, if you’ve never outsourced a task using the Internet, you might find it valuable to join Kirt Christensen and I for our one-dollar (yep, $1) webinar this week which is on the subject of outsourcing:

http://DollarWebinar.com <– Register Here

It’s no coincidence that outsourcing is the subject of this week’s webinar – this subject has been very much on my mind recently (for obvious reasons), so that’s why we’re doing the webinar.

We’ll show you some interesting ways you can outsource just about anything in your life – from getting your laundry done, to making travel arrangements, to creating crucial reports for your business, designing websites, setting up “little income streams”, and just about anything else you can dream of.

We’ll also show you our tools, websites we use to find outsourced workers, and software (much of it free) that we use to manage all this.

In the meantime, try your own experiment (as outlined above) – and let me know your thoughts below.

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Funny story.

Back in my radio days, one of the shows I was in charge of was a morning radio team.

And this particular morning team had a regular feature where a couple of psychotherapists woud come on each week.

When I say a “couple”, I mean it. They were actually a COUPLE, and they were both actually THERAPISTS (can you imagine the dinner table conversations?).

Anyhow, I knew this couple only as characters on this particular morning show. “Judith and Jim” was how I knew them. And I knew only their voices.

Fast forward a few years later.

I had left the radio business, and was at an Internet Marketing seminar.

During one of the presentations, I noticed this couple sitting near the front, and I noticed  they were asking lots of questions. And their voices sounded familiar. And their names were… Judith and Jim.

We connected for the first time in person, and we’ve been friends ever since. (Okay, so it was “funny” as in “coincidence” and not funny as in “LOL”).

To continue my story…

I discovered that Jim and Judith ventured into online marketing just four years ago. Along the way, they had to overcome their technical deficiencies and learn to make friends with their computer. Even more so, they had to, in their own words, “open our minds to an entirely new way of being in the world, a whole new and very different mindset-a marketing/business mindset”.

But there was a problem. As they attended lots of marketing conferences, they felt something was wrong.

According to Judith and Jim, “We always felt a sense of displacement, a feeling of not belonging, of somehow being outsiders.”

As they connected with people at those same  conferences they learned that others had the same complaint. And they noticed a pattern: All those who voiced this kind of discomfort were service providers, care-givers, change agents of some kind, men and women who had dedicated their lives to helping others-heart-to-heart.

“It became clear that there was a segment of the Internet marketplace that was not being served,” says Judith.

Jim chimes in, “That segment is peopled by soft sell marketers-all of us who are care-givers and life-change artists as distinct from accumulation artists whose focus is money first and foremost.”

And now these two friends of mine have written a book on the subject of soft sell marketing for service providers… and for people who don’t like hard-sell approaches. I recommend you get a copy of The Heart of Marketing.

In the Internet Marketing world, a 10% conversion rate is often considered outstanding.

But is it?

Not really.

Online retailers do much better.

Check out Futurenow’s posting on “the top 10 converting websites for December 2008“.

Here are the top five:

1. ProFlowers 31.1%
2. LL Bean 25.7%
3. Amazon 23.7%
4. VitaCost 23.0%
5. Coldwater Creek 22.4%

Hmmm.

What do they know that you don’t? Something to think about.

If you’re not already getting at least 10% conversions, I suggest reading this site.

The Question: Do I really need a guarantee on my website?

The Answer: Yes. This is the only way to remove the biggest objection your prospects have to buying from you.

Three Things To Consider When Creating Your Guarantee:

1. The length of the guarantee (the longer you can make it, the more credible your offer).

2. How you word your guarantee matters. If you can denominate your guarantee in a fresh way, it will be more effective.

3. Check with your merchant provider about the length of guarantee you’re allowed to offer!

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Should You Have A Guarantee

The Story: It’s a shame that so many copywriters struggle to get business, when it’s so easy to do. (Not to mention the fact that it’s not a great advertisement for your skill level. Would you go to a fat doctor for weight loss advice? Get your hair styled by a bald barber? Take financial advice from a broke person?)

The Point: Don’t make getting clients harder than it is. Physician, heal thyself!

The Resource:

5 Ways To Get More Clients Now:

1. Send an email.
2. Call people on the phone.
3. Go fishing in the forums.
4. Release a white paper.
5. Do a teleseminar.

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The Question: How do I take online payments?

The Answer: There are lots of options, including a very simple way to take online payments.

Three Ways To Take Online Payments:

1. Use Clickbank (for digital products).

2. Paypal works for physical products.

3. For full-fledged merchant accounts, use iPowerPay.

Click for the Podcast Audio:

How To Take Online Payments

The Question: How do I test my copy?

The Answer: It’s not that difficult – don’t over-complicate things.

How To Improve Your Sales With Better Copy:

1. Model successful copy of companies whose ads you know are working (don’t steal – model!).

2. Use multi-variate testing. Yep, sounds complicated. But when you use software, it’s pretty easy.

3. Use software like Split Test Accelerator to do your testing. (NOTE: Multi-Track Generator is now off the market…sorry!)

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Get Started Testing Your Copy

The Question: What do I do if I have all the pieces in place, but I’m not making sales with my website?

The Answer: Improve the architecture of persuasion on your website: change the words!

How To Improve Your Sales With Better Copy:

1. Have your copy reviewed by a professional (NOTE: I no longer offer free consultations at this time – sorry!).

2. Make changes and measure the results.

3. Next step: start a rigorous testing regimen (more on how to do this next time!).

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When Marketing Doesn’t Work

The Question: What’s a good shorctut for writing good headlines?

The Answer: Avoid hype and use proven structure.

How To Improve Your Headlines:

1. Strip the headline of any adjectives and adverbs.
2. Think about what the PRIMARY BENEFIT of your product is and let the reader experience that emotion in the headline.
3. Avoid superlatives in your headline.

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Headline Writing Shortcuts

This begins a series where you ask your top questions about copywriting and online marketing… and I answer via audio podcasts.

Don’t worry about the podcast thing. If you don’t have an iPod, it still works with any MP3 player. And if you just don’t understand what “podcasting” is all about, simply download the audios from right here on the website.

First Question: “What are the basics of getting started online?”

This is a great question because there are plenty of people willing to sell you stuff in order to get your online business up and running.

First you need a domain name. You need to register a domain name. A place where your website “lives”. This is your address — which might be something like YourName.com.

For instance, RayEdwards.com is a domain that I own.

The second thing you need is a hosting account. This is an account that allows you to put your website up on the Internet for other people to see.

You can get a good hosting account at HostorixOnline.com.

The third thing you need is either web-design software or a web designer / webmaster… because somebody is going to need to be able to put together the web page that you put onto your hosting account.  If you want to do it yourself you’ll need some basic software to get the job done. If you’re going to have someone else do it, that means you’ll need a designer and/or webmaster to put that all together for you.

The fourth thing you’ll need is a graphic artist or some graphics to put on your website. Now, for a lot of reasons we won’t go into on today’s training I recommend not using a lot of graphics. But you do need a professional look and feel for your website so you may need some graphic elements — and you’re either going to have to create them yourself, buy the right to use certain graphic elements, or have a graphic artist to put that all together for you.

The next thing I would recommend you get is an autoresponder account, which is an account that allows you to build a mailing list so that you can mail to your customers or prospects.  It can also do this for you on an automated sequential basis, so once someone signs up for instance they get an email from you once a week for the next seven weeks or something of that nature.   I use aWeber.com for my autoresponder and email management.

Then finally you’re going to need shopping cart software or an account with a shopping cart company and that’s what allows you to take payments online when people buy your product or service. The company I use is NewMarketingAutomation.com.

Now each of these are somewhat complex discussions that we could probably spend a one-hour teleseminar talking about each of them. We may do that later on in the series — or I may create some videos that allow you to watch over my shoulder as I go through the process of each of these steps.

Let me know your preferred deliver method for this kind of material — do you prefer audio, text, video, or static screen shots?

I’d love to hear from you. Just leave your comments below.

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