Make your work fight for its life

The Daily Drip

A new rule I've brought into my life is the idea of churning the bottom 20% of work.

Doing important work while also developing your skills goes something like this:

Fill up your plate with work.

Grade your work on it's "usefulness"

Cut out the bottom 20% of your work that's not impactful, paying you enough, or is otherwise soul-crushing.

With the time you get back, go find more impactful and meaningful work that will compete with the 80% that's left.

Make your work fight for its life to stay in your to-do list.

If you're not sure how to grade your work on its usefulness, here are some thoughts that might help.

Usefulness metrics:
1. Is it paying you enough to "buy back" your calendar?
2. Is it helping you develop professionally so you can charge more and be more effective?
3. Is it fun or fulfilling, such that it energizes you?

This isn't a perfect system. Obviously, it lends itself to contract work more than it does a full-time job, but the principles are the same.

I hope you can take some ideas from this and apply it to your work life.

My goal is to get more people to say what Derek Sivers wrote about in a recent book. When faced with an opportunity, it's great to be in a position where you can say either "hell yes!" or "no."

The rest is noise.