Working harder won’t cut it, and breaking the Effort to Outcome Myth starts with understanding that it’s not going to be a 1 to 1 thing. You’re not going to put in more effort and just immediately generate a corresponding amount of result. That’s why it’s necessary to look for points of leverage — in the form of systems, technology, and delegation.
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David: Hi, and welcome back. In today’s episode, co host Jay McFarland and I will be discussing the Effort to Outcome Myth. Welcome back, Jay.
Jay: Hey, thank you so much, David. I’ve got this figured out. All I have to do is spend so much time on something and that guarantees me that I’m going to have the exact outcome that I want, right?
David: Cool. This is going to be the shortest episode ever. Yeah. Yeah, you know, it kind of falls along the line of what people always say about “you get out out of life what you put into it.” And I like the sound of the expression, but what I found personally in my life is that it’s just not true. It’s not accurate.
It’s never really a direct correlation. You never really get out of life exactly what you put in. You never get out of business exactly what you put in. You get out some sort of multiple, at least that’s been my experience. Now, if your multiple is one to one, okay, then you’re getting out what you’re putting in.
But I’m sure you’ve had the experience as well, where you put a whole lot of work in on something, and it didn’t create the return that you wanted. You’ve had other things that maybe you didn’t have to put a lot of work in on, but they happened to work out well and created great results.
So I think sometimes when we make that connection in our mind saying, I have to push harder. I have to work more. I have to do more things in order to get what I need out of it. We may be missing some elements there.
Jay: Yeah, I totally agree with you. As you know, I’ve studied a lot of these billionaire types. I think a lot of people do, and I was looking for some commonality. And I do see commonality in how they think about things, how they look at things, but I don’t see commonality in scheduling and how hard they work.
Some people like Bill Gates, his schedule, I mean, I get exhausted just reading it. But other people are like, no, I work smarter, not harder. And I work because I want time off. I want to enjoy my life. So I don’t see a correlation between how much they work compared to what their results are.
David: Yeah, definitely not a one to one correlation. Now, some of it also is common sense. If you think in terms of people engaging in busy work, as opposed to impactful actions, things that actually move the needle. There’s an example of where you can start to create some leverage for yourself.
If you look at your day to day actions. And you recognize that many of the things that we might be doing are not actually moving the needle for us, then it’s easy to say, Okay, well, what can I eliminate? And what can I focus more attention on so that I can get the results that I’m looking for?
Jay: Yeah, and I think it’s really difficult. We talk about this a lot. Squeaky wheel gets the grease, right?
Especially as a small business owner, the idea of working smarter sometimes is the hardest thing that you can do. Because you’re putting out fires and those fires need to be dealt with. That’s why they’re called fires, right?
So finding a way to do that but still move the needle forward can be a very difficult process.
David: Yeah, and I think when we look at things in terms of applying a brute force solution to what could be a strategic or a planning problem, that’s also where we kind of run into trouble. Thinking, okay, well, I have to do more. I have to push more. I have to push harder. And what that doesn’t take into consideration is the law of diminishing returns, right?
There are more hours that we’re working, but that can often lead to burnout. It can lead to a lack of focus. So that’s not ideal either. I think trying to figure out where that balance is between the things that we really need to do, the things that we’re best at, the things that create the best results for us, focusing hard on those and trying to eliminate the things that are taking us in a different direction.
Jay: Yeah, I totally agree with you. I also have the tendency to think that because it works for somebody else, it’s going to work for me, right? Especially on the internet, you know, use time blocking, use bullet journaling, use this, use that. And I’ve tried so many of those things and I really think the key is to know yourself well enough to know what is going to work for you because we’re all different, right?
David: Yeah, and it is a trial and error kind of thing. So the fact that you and I both, we’ve both looked into all of those types of things. We say, okay, well, which of these could potentially work for me, which seem to actually help.
When we’re able to do that, it’s great. But. I think the trouble we run into is when we try to do all of the things. And you can’t, you literally can’t do all the things.
You can’t take action on all the recommendations that you’re likely to get from a hundred different sources.
Jay: Yeah. And you’re also not going to find the exact answer for you immediately. For me, it’s a constant process. I’m always looking for a way to improve a little bit here and there.
I hate friction, right? I hate having to go to one screen to pull something up that I’m constantly looking at. So I’d rather buy another screen and have it there. So I won’t tell you how many screens I have in my office, but for me, it’s down to that level of minutia to learn how I operate and what systems are going to work best for me.
David: Yeah, and if multiple screens is helpful for you, then you definitely want to do it. Other people. I think if I had multiple screens here, I would use all of them. But for my particular style, I don’t think that would be good. I’ve got that sort of entrepreneurial ADD that a lot of people seem to struggle with.
But you also raised a great point, which is that we each need to sort of understand what type of systems are going to help us. And when we turn our productivity problems into systems problems or systems issues, then we can start looking for systematic solutions to our problem, as opposed to just working harder.
Jay: Yeah, I agree. One of the things that I’ve found is. It’s really hard for me to time block because if my head is not in it, in that particular thing, then like you said, it’s probably not a good idea to push that through just like if you’re tired.
So for me, I have a list of all of my different projects. Obviously, there are time based projects. I don’t have a choice. I have to do those. But everything else is a list. And so when it comes time to do those things, I look at it and I say, what do I feel like doing?
What is my mind space right now? That is something that I’ve learned about just how my mind works.
David: Yeah. And even a little behind the scenes, when you and I get together to do these podcasts, we have to coordinate it in advance. We have to coordinate our schedules and then we both have to summon up the will to get together and do it.
And we’ve been doing that for a while now. So, pats on the back to us for that, but for some people, the struggle is real. Trying to identify what are the things I’m going to do?
What do I really have to almost force myself to do, on any given day, and what are the things that could potentially be excluded so that I can focus on something else that will be more beneficial.
Jay: Yeah. It’s interesting. A lot of phones. They’re coming out with focus modes.
For exactly what you’re talking about, you can actually set your computer to say, right now I’m working on podcasts. And so I only want to get notifications from my wife, for example, because that might be an emergency.
So you can let through certain types of contact. I can limit what I see on my seven different screens, right?
And I find, David, that I’m using those more and more, which surprises me because I’ve always considered myself the king of multitasking. But nowadays, when I see an email, I want that email out of my box. I want it gone.
There’s very few things in there that have to be done right away. And so I do find I’m leaning more towards that direction.
David: It’s nice when the technology can help us. As you were saying that, I realized I had not silenced my phone when we started this discussion. So with my left hand, as I was looking at you on this screen, I was using my left hand to make sure that the silencer was on my phone so we don’t get interrupted in the middle of this.
But yeah, you’re exactly right. A technological solution for that. And this technological solution there would be to have me turn it off before we jump on the call rather than during. But like you were describing, if the device itself has a focus mode, which I imagine they probably all do now. I haven’t really taken advantage of that much.
But it’s another great point because you’ve got your system solution. You’ve got your technology solutions. And then, I would say, you can also start to look at delegation solutions.
Who can I delegate this to? How well can I delegate this? How fast can I delegate this?
Jay: Yeah, and I think that there are obviously manual ways to do this. You don’t have to rely on software.
Make a list of those things that are potential distractions. Make a list of things that you have to get done in the day. Time block those if you need to.
But I think also scheduling a time, whether it’s you close your door, during that time. If you have a staff, letting them know that during this time of day, I’m In that focus mode, where I’m going to be working on things where I really don’t want to be distracted.
So, unless it’s an emergency… really, a self awareness about the things that distract you, about the things you have to get done.
And you talk about delegation. Are you spending a lot of time on things that you shouldn’t be doing? And can you clear up your schedule through delegation?
David: Right, or elimination. Eliminating the things that don’t even have to be delegated. Because we get so used to doing things in a certain way, that very often we can fall into that trap where we’re doing things that don’t have to be done at all and instead of delegating it or doing it ourselves, if we can eliminate it, it’s even better.
When I think of the idea of effort versus outcome, how much effort do I need to put in versus the outcome that I’m getting? It all also sort of boils back down to the 80 20 rule, the Pareto principle, right? 20 percent of activities generate 80 percent of the results and vice versa. That’s been done to death.
Everybody knows it. Everybody understands it. But I think it is also definitive proof of this concept, which is that it’s not going to be a 1 to 1 thing. You’re not going to put in more effort and just immediately generate a corresponding amount of result.
And that’s where I think the necessity to look for those points of leverage, in the form of systems and technology and delegation, is really at least part of the solution.
Jay: Yeah, I agree. And working backwards. Right? So, yes, we just closed somebody. What was that process? And then, what about the last 10 people that we were able to sell? What are the commonalities there?
This is something again, we’re constantly doing in our business. Because we pay a substantial amount of money per lead.
How do we maximize that? We listen back to our phone calls, and then we compare those to the actual close rate. And we found that there’s a lot of times when we’re spending too much focus and time on something that is not effective.
And so that’s been such a great tool for us, constantly tweaking, constantly refining.
David: Yes, that makes so much sense. I think there’s also a tendency in some businesses to really focus on the glorification aspect of work, glorifying hard work and indicating that it’s always necessary in order to achieve the results.
But that also just sort of goes to the idea of working harder versus working smarter, ideally, if you’re doing both, that’s great, but the smarter we can work, ideally, the better it gets, because we can come up with ways of accomplishing the things that need to get done in better, more efficient ways.
Jay: Yeah, I agree. And, you know, a lot of times it’s just talking to somebody else, getting outside of your own bubble. That’s one of the things that you’re here for.
How do people find out more?
David: You can go to TopSecrets.com/call, schedule a call with myself or my team. If you’re in a situation where you feel like you’re pedaling as fast as you can, you’re shifting gears, you’re pedaling harder, and you’re not getting to where you want to be in terms of visibility or sales or profits, go to that website.
TopSecrets.com/call, check out the video on that page. And if it makes sense, we’d love to have a conversation with you.
Jay: David, I love this conversation. Thank you so much.
David: Thank you, Jay.
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