Surfer Lifestyle Design

If you want to live your dream life, there are 7 steps you can take to free up your time and make room for what really matters.

I mean, lets face it.  WORK SUCKS!!! In the old style of 9-5, we got the “work” part over during the traditional 5 day work week, so we can “live” on the weekends.  In today’s fast communicating, high speed internet age, there is no need for this, and you can design a lifestyle that lets you “live” all day, err day (That translates to “All day, Every Day” in fun street slang).

This concept was created by the pioneers who explored the territories of the “New Rich“.  The focus is to spend a minimum amount of optimized, efficient, and effective time on “work”, thus freeing up your schedule to do the things you really love.  Maybe that’s hiking, learning new languages, helping out as a volunteer, or if your like me…  Surf as much as possible, with guitar breaks in between.

The following list of 7 steps is based on the fact that you already have a method, or “muse” for creating revenue yourself.  If not, these 7 steps will help you be efficient, and effective toward your goal of being self-employed.  All while at the same time ensuring that you do not burn yourself out.  This will leave you feeling fresh, and free to enjoy every day to its fullest.  Lets get to it…

1.  What would Pareto do?

Vilfredo Pareto is the Italian Economist who discovered the 80/20 rule.  You also might recall other names for it like the law of the vital few, and the principle of factor sparsity.

All this means is that 80% of your outputs come from 20% of your inputs.  Its a law universal to nature, and although not always exactly 80/20 it is pretty damn close EVERYWHERE.  He found the law by realizing that only 80% of his harvested peas, came from only 20% of the pea-pods he had planted.  If you don’t believe me, Google it!

Go through an entire analysis of your working schedule, routine, or system.  Figure out what 20% of the work you do, gives out 80% of the successes you are seeking.  So if you run a site, look at where 80% of your traffic comes from, and forget the rest of the tactics you use.  If you have clients, figure out which client work produces 80% of your profit, and FIRE THE REST!!! It’s for a good cause…   Your Dream Life!

2.  Stop Working for Work’s Sake!!!

This one drove me absolutely nuts when I found it.  How much time do you spend working, because you just feel like you should be working?   It reminds me of being in school, or working a lame job.  I would get what I needed done, and have all this free time left over, but yet I was still “suppose” to be in “work mode”.  Needless to say, this “free time” I couldn’t use, led to trouble…

Now that you know exact what 20% of your work produces 80% of what you need, all you have to do is make sure you stick to the tasks that matter.  Have a game plan set, where you know exactly what you are trying to get done.  Otherwise, you get to work, open your computer, look at email, get an enticing message, open it up, read it, follow a link, watch a youtube video, and BAM… You just killed your first hour dilly dallying, and now that’s one less hour you have to do what really matters… remember, the hiking, the language learning, and especially, hopefully some SURFING!!!

You are on the right path...

3.  Rome was Not Built in a Day…

So neither can anything you are building!  It is going to seem overwhelming, especially when building out your first business venture, to try and tackle everything you can in one day.  I know that when I load up my “to do’s” list, all I do is feel overwhelmed, and then nothing gets done.  I go into panic mode, and start feeling lost about life…

This does not have to happen to you.  Just prioritize.  Utilizing your 80/20 analysis, what are the main tasks you can get done today to move forward with your projects?  Aside from “maintenance” type tasks (checking email, bleh) you should only choose to do 2-4 work tasks a day.  It sounds minimal, but if you feel like doing more you can, if not have a nice day, and go enjoy what you love.  This technique is what will keep you feeling fresh, and more importantly, motivated to return to work on a regular basis.  When I burn myself out working two days strait, it usually takes me a 3 day weekend to want to return back.

4.  Lay Down the (Parkinson’s) Law!

Parkinson’s Law states:  “Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion.” That means if you say, “I am going to spend 2 hours writing an article…” the work is going to swell to fit that amount of time, even if you necessarily do not even need it.  That time will be wasted to do unnecessary research, or just simple ramble.  The worse case scenario, is giving yourself no time limit.  If you say to yourself “today I will write that blog post…” then, that blog post might take the entire day to finish.

What you need to do: Set short time limits for each tasks a head of time.  The shorter the (perceived) time limit, the faster you will work, but most importantly the more efficient you will work.  Only getting done what is necessary, no more, and no less.  I like to work in 20 minute, or 10 minute intervals using http://e.ggtimer.com/.  After the timer buzzes, I finish my thought and take a short break no matter what.  It is all about staying fresh, and being efficient.  I can’t burn out, and then not be able to play guitar later… because it’s my passions that really matter, and I know you feel the same!

5.  Batch Activities Together

I love being a renaissance man like no other.  With my A.D.H.D. it is very difficult to focus on doing one thing.  Having said that, it is very crucial batch similar tasks together in order to stay optimized and efficient.  Doing this will let you feel more relieved that you know when things get done, so you don’t have to feel like a chicken with its head cut off, hoping everything is in it’s place.

Some personal examples are: I like to keep meetings or interviews to only Mondays and Fridays.  This way I know, Tuesday – Thursday is open to all sorts of other things.  During a typical “work day” I make sure to do all I have to for “Surfer Lifestyle Design” as a batch group of tasks, before I move on to other work like the marketing I do for Endagon, or the Social Media I do for Cape Surf.  You get the idea…

Ah, to feel at peace...

6.  Knock out the Fat!!!

Reading, learning, and just an overall hunger for knowledge really fuels me, as it does you (I mean your here so…).  Just be sure to practice a “Low-Information Diet,” cutting out all the fat that does not need to be listened to or read RIGHT now.

Before you get into something think to yourself “Am I reading this now, because I am just interested, or is it something that I am going to use right away“.  More than likely, it is something that you are interested in, and it even seems useful, but probably will not be until some time down the road.  Then when it comes time to use that knowledge, you will have to go back to relearn it.  That is an obvious waste.  So be sure to only learn what you can use on an immediate basis.  Everything else, save for it’s necessary date.

*Disclaimer: I hope you know I am not telling you to stop reading.  I love reading too.  Keep it to pleasure, or if it is a business/self help book (which I mostly read myself) then keep it to that.  It is pleasure to be motivated, and that is fine.  Read on…  Just don’t let something that is not necessary to know for right his moment distract you from work .

7.  Hire a Virtual Assistant

This is my favorite eye opener of them all. Stop fussing and draining your life working on the tasks you hate, and simply suck at! There are people (real people, no lie), who will work for dirt cheap, to do the tasks you hate and suck at.  For me, that is coding, and web development.  When I first started out, I wasted DAYS doing the most simple tasks in web development.  I was trying to be a web ninja, but I have NO desire too, thus making every minute seem like long drooling hours of work.

Even for this site, I have a team in India working on the redesign right now.  Even though, it might take a little longer to get done, and will most likely need a few edits to be right… I am enjoying every bit of freedom I have to surf, play guitar, and do everything I love, while I do not have to be sitting at the computer hating my life over writing some code.

If your business is just starting out, and you cannot justify this cost… SLAP YOURSELF IN THE HEAD! You can spend way more of your time working on what really matters, and let someone else handle the stuff you shouldn’t.  Tell my friend Chris Ducker at Virtual Business Lifestyle, that Sal sent you, and you are ready to stop working on the things you hate.

That’s A Wrap!!!

Take those 7 steps, and take your time.  Even if it means 7 crawls instead of steps… Return to these principles every time you feel yourself slip and need to adjust your life to free time for what really matters.  Your Passions!!!

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Photo Shout Out: Matt Catalano