TRANSCRIPT

Another big reason why so many people spend so much time doing Admin when it's such a low impact activity is because they are perfectionists.

In other words, they really can't bear 'things they feel they think *should* be done' not being done.

They want to dot every i and cross every t.

They want everything to be done 'perfectly'.

If this is you, you have my sympathy - I too am a perfectionist. And this is a daily battle for me.

But the really important thing to get your head around is that dotting every i and crossing every t is probably HARMING your business.

Here's why...

Because when you apply that tendency to Admin, it means Admin takes up even MORE of your time. Further squeezing out your precious Focus Work time. For example...

• You feel you have to reply to every email in a timely manner.
• You feel you have to have write a long and carefully proof-read email to every person who emails you
• You feel you have to do all the different types of social media, and do them 'properly'
• You feel you have to give equal weight and attention to every piece of blogging advice you've ever read
• You feel you have to jump on every tiny thing that goes wrong immediately - even at the expense of much, much more important work

I hope it is pretty obvious how this type of perfectionism leads to FAR TOO MUCH time being spent on admin / unimportant tasks / less important tasks... while those High Impact Tasks that would truly drive your business forward, languish at the bottom of the to do list because 'You just don't have time'.

You do have time - plenty of time - you are just spending it all on the wrong things!

One of my favourite quotes on this subject is by Tim Ferris (author of the 4 hour work week), who says:

'Develop the habit of letting small bad things happen. If you don't, you'll never find time for the life-changing big things, whether important tasks or true peak experiences.'

Unless you can get comfortable with letting small bad things happen (an email you don't respond to, ignoring social media for days, a very small thing that isn't 'perfect' on your website...), you'll never find the time for the 'life-changing big things'.

In other words, unless you can get comfortable with your Admin not being 'perfect', you'll never find the time for your Focus Work.

As I mentioned above, I really struggle with this... I hate not having all my ducks in a perfect little row all of the time. But I've learnt I just CANNOT spend time messing around straightening ducks if I want to truly grow my business and 'do life-changing big things'.

I've also learnt that nothing really terrible happens if a few small bad things happen from time to time... and really rather marvellous things happen when you choose to focus on the life changing big things!

I'm still, most definitely a work in progress, though!

ASSIGNMENT

Take another look at the 'admin' that you've chosen to keep doing every day or every week. In light of this unit, is there anything you can stop doing or do less of? If so, make adjustments to further reduce the time you spend on Admin each day.