4 Steps That Will Help You Earn More by Doing Less (At Least Of What You Don't Like)

• Key Takeaways

• Prioritize important, not urgent tasks to maximize income and long-term success.
• Delegate distractions and focus on high-value work only you can do
• Use the Eisenhower Matrix to take control of your time and earnings

  

The idea of earning more while doing less of what drains you seems almost too good to be true. From childhood, many of us were encouraged to believe in the power of hard work. But "hard work" was often framed as doing something dreadful — tasks we didn't enjoy, struggles that wore us down. We were told that if we endured it long enough, success would eventually follow.

But here's the truth: that mindset doesn't always lead to success. In fact, it often depletes your energy and limits your potential. Things that don't align with your strengths or passions aren't a path to the life you dream of. So, what is?Former U.S. President Eisenhower came up with a great way to achieve this. He realized that some tasks demanded immediate attention, others were crucial but could wait, and many were distractions disguised as priorities. So, he created a matrix that divided his tasks into 4 groups based on two simple criteria, importance and urgency

Urgent/important tasks.

• Urgent/not important tasks.
• Not urgent/Important tasks.
• Not urgent/not important ta

By categorizing his work into what truly mattered and what didn't, he was able to focus on what brought real results. But how can you use this idea to earn more? Let's break it down into four steps.

Examples include responding to non-essential emails, attending unnecessary meetings, or handling minor issues that others could easily take care of. Often, these are the tasks that other people ask us to do, and we can't refuse to avoid looking selfish. They can eat up your time and energy, pulling your focus away from what truly matters.

Not Urgent and Important

These tasks can make or break your long-term success. While they don't have an immediate deadline, their impact is the most significant. Things like strategic planning and personal development fall into this category. They might not demand your attention right now, but investing time and energy in them will pay off in the future.

The same goes for tasks you really enjoy. If you feel you can delegate communication with your clients, but that's what you do best, you can still put this into the Not Urgent/Important category.

Not Urgent and Not Important

These tasks are pure distractions that don't add any value to your work or business. They're time-wasters that drain your productivity without contributing to your goals. However, sometimes, all of us do them. Scrolling through social media, getting lost in irrelevant articles or videos, or other mindless activities keep you busy.

2. Pick the tasks that generate the most revenue or results

Look at your list; what tasks bring you the most money? From my experience, these often fall into the "not urgent/important" category.

These are the tasks you're good at, or that benefit your business long-term. For instance, no one can build deep relationships with your customers the way you can. No one else can strategize the future of your business. Learning — whether it's taking a course, reading or exploring new ideas — is also an "important/not urgent" task that only you can do for yourself. It's not urgent, but it needs to be done if you want to grow.

3. Do your math

Now, let the numbers speak. Take a look at the total income you earned over the past two weeks and divide that by the total number of hours you spent working on all your tasks. This gives you a rough idea of your hourly earnings — essentially, how much you're making for every hour you invest.

Next, zoom in on the tasks that directly contribute to your income — the ones that generate the revenue or results you're after. Divide the income you earned by the number of hours you spent on them.

Now, compare these two numbers: your average hourly earnings across all tasks and your hourly earnings from the income-generating tasks.

4. Create a delegating scheme

Now that you've identified the tasks that generate the most income, it's time to focus on them. Why waste your time on anything else? If someone else can handle a task at a lower cost, it makes no sense for you to spend your valuable hours doing it.

So, the best category to delegate is "Urgent/Not Important" tasks. When I speak to entrepreneurs, these are often the tasks that consume most of their time. All because they trick us: when faced with a lot of urgency, we often don't pause to evaluate if something is important or not — we just do this because it demands immediate attention.