#067: 60 Minutes Per Day Is All It Needs

Read Time: 4 Minutes

Earlier this week, I spent 5 hours tweaking Lori's new book covers, uploading them onto Amazon, and updating the A+ Content on the product pages.

If you'd like a peek of the covers, here they are:

Spending 5 hours on Lori's author business over the course of a couple of days is rare.

Very rare.

95% of the time, I work on the marketing, advertising and business side of things for Lori's business for 30-60 minutes per day (4-5 days per week).

Could I do more? Sure. Do I need to? No.

The reason being, that I know where to spend my time. I've identified the 20% of tasks that drive 80% of the results.

Most of the things we think we need to do don't really need to be done.

It's busy work, that makes us feel good in the moment, but when we look back at what we've achieved at the end of the day, we feel like we've not made any progress.

Ever had that feeling?

That used to be me. All the time.

Today though, I can put on my headphones, play some focus music (I use Brain.fm) and get more done in an hour than I could in 4-6+ hours just a few years ago when we first started in the self-publishing world.

I'm not perfect at this, by any means, but I am now aware when I'm procrastinating, putting off the important tasks in favor of doing something easy.

And as with most situations in life, awareness is the first stage.

So, how can you do this for yourself? Here's what I did:

Step #1: Keep A Timesheet

Make a log of every single little task you do in your author business for a full week (yes, even those moments you catch yourself refreshing your KDP Reports Dashboard).

Step #2: Analyze The Data

At the end of the week, look at everything you've spent your time on, and identify what you've spent the most time on (I think you'll be surprised by the results).

Step #3: Identify Which Tasks Moved The Needle

This can be hard because you might feel that everything you've done over the week was critical to your success.

But if you really think about it and look in detail at your timesheet, you'll see plenty of tasks in there that have done nothing for your bottom line.

All of these non-tasks, or busy-work tasks, are simply distractions disguised as opportunities.

If your results from this process are anything like mine, 80% of the "tasks" on your timesheet are a waste of time. Harsh but true.

I know that might be difficult to believe when you haven't been through this yet.

But trust me, the majority of what you're working on in your business will be a distraction and is just you procrastinating from getting to work on the lever-moving tasks that will move your author business forward.

Doing the hard stuff, is, well, hard. It can be easy to fall back to doing what we're comfortable with, rather than tackling something new, daunting and overwhelming.

But once you've identified the 20% (or thereabouts) of tasks that move the needle for you (that's the important thing here, for YOU), that's what you spend your time on.

And you can Eliminate, Automate or Delegate (as Tim Ferris famously said) the 80% of tasks that either don't move the needle or don't need to be done by you personally.

Wrapping Up...

Am I saying you should never work more than 60 minutes per day on your author business (excluding writing)?

No.

There will naturally be seasons during your week, month or year that require you to put in more than an hour per day.

This week has been a prime example of putting in more than 60 minutes per day working on Lori's business; I spent 5 hours over 2 days finessing the new book covers and updating the A+ Content on Amazon.

But from a maintenance perspective, 60 minutes per day is ample. Any more, and you might find, like me, that you're overcomplicating everything.

Simplicity scales. Complexity fails.

And if you're just getting started in your author business, things are going to be exciting with so many new opportunities hitting you from all directions...

I speak from personal experience when I say it can be hard to resist doing a little bit of everything.

But if you really want your author business to thrive and grow, without burning yourself out in the process or sacrificing precious family time, less is always more.

Need Some Help With This?

I get it... it can be hard to shut out all the distractions online and really knuckle down on what moves the needle in your business.

This is why I'm currently working on a long overdue update to 60 Minute Author.

I first created this course in 2023 and welcomed 170+ authors inside (all existing members of the course will receive the update for free).

But, I've learned a lot since I first created that course, finessed and tweaked by workflow, and become much more efficient with how I spend my time working on Lori's author business.

So, I've opened up the doors for 60 Minute Author once again and am working on brand new content. It's going to be a self-paced video course that walks you through step-by-step exactly what I work on inside Lori's author business.

The content isn't ready yet, but you can Pre-Order the course for 50% off here:

>> Pre-Order 60 Minute Author <<

I'm planning on completing the course by October 4th 2024, which is when you'll get access to the full content.

But, there's one more little something I'm including when you sign up for the pre-order...

You'll have immediate access to the full curriculum I'm planning for the course and have the opportunity to provide feedback on it, letting me know what you'd like to see inside the course and what you really need help with when it comes to the business side of well, your author business.

You can find all the details about 60 Minute Author and sign up for the Pre-Order here.

That's it for this week.

Thanks for reading and enjoy the rest of your weekend.

To Your Success
– Matt