I recently recorded a video on ‘Stop messing about’. Take a look at the video and also my Business Growth YouTube channel, where there are many more videos are like this.

Transcript for Business Growth : Stop messing about

Hi there and welcome to this next Business Booster growth short video, I’m sat here in my home office I’m not sat in some sort of cupboard, and I’d thought I’d record you this video because this thought came to me.

A while ago I had conversation with somebody who came up with something, which I think is a really great way to decide if you think you’re spending your time wisely or messing about.

Have you ever sat in your office or your desk looked at your watch at 10 or 11 and think in these few hours I haven’t achieved very much?

Well we all get days like that but is it just the odd day like that or is it on a regular basis? If you’re having days where you don’t feel like you’re achieving a lot or you feel like your business isn’t moving forward then maybe it’s time to have a look at how you are spending your time.

If you have an iPhone, go into the clock and set an alarm to bleep every hour. You can do it on the countdown timer or the alarm, whatever it is that you want to do.

Just have it bleep every hour and then when it goes off reset it for the next hour, but then just think back on the last hour. About the time that you have spent in the last hour and record whether you think it was valuable and time well spent and you were building your business.

It’s what we would term a high paying off activity, or have you been doing a low pay off activity? Someone put a value on these and I heard them say you look back on the hour you’ve just had and you could be doing something that is a £10 an hour task or you could be doing something that is a £100 an hour task. You could be doing something that is an £1000 an hour task or an £10,000-hour task.

Well what do we mean by that? Does everyone get paid £10,000 an hour? No, they don’t but doesn’t mean that you’re not doing a £10,000 an hour task.

Let me tell you what each one of those means in turn. Well what do we by a £10 an hour task? A £10 an hour task is messing about really. These are the things we do when we can’t be bothered really, or we aren’t motivated or get distracted, not doing things that will drive our business forward.

£10 an hour tasks are doing our online banking, which we think is very important, yes, it is but do it in your downtime, do that at the end of the day not the start. Don’t get distracted in doing that. Emails in many ways is the same sort of ‘time bandit’ that will rob you of your time.

So, what are £100-hour tasks? That’s doing the job. We all have things that are part of the job for me that might be writing a report, it could be writing a presentation or blog post, it’s doing the job but it’s not driving your business forward, it’s part of the day job.

£1000-hour tasks are tasks which are driving your business forward, this could be things like networking or going out and doing some prospecting, or something similar, that’s an £1000-hour task, because that will grow your business.

So, what are a £10,000-hour tasks? This is time spent planning. But when I say planning I don’t mean, messing about with your to do list, I mean really thinking about how you will drive your business forward.

It could also be time you spend learning. You’re growing your knowledge and growing your expertise in business, to see how you can grow your business and move it forward.

It could be also building a different business model or starting a different kind of opportunity, ideally something that generates an ongoing and passive income for you. If you’re spending time doing that then you’re really spending your time on a £10,000 hour task.

So why don’t you do this exercise, do it for a week or a short number of days, just record when you’re spending your time on £10 an hour tasks or £100 an hour tasks rather than the £1000 an hour tasks or £10,000 an hour tasks. Because these are the really high paying off activities, so take a look at what you’re doing and decide whether you need to stop messing about.