058 – The Stop Doing List – Matt Malouf

How to stop working and start succeeding

Every entrepreneur knows that the hardest thing about running a business is keeping up with all the work.  Working 70-hours a week is not uncommon for many start-ups. This week’s guest Matt Malouf has a radical solution: stop doing that work.  Matt isn’t saying that you should ignore your responsibilities.  Instead, he argues that most of your day is dominated with tasks that others could be doing for you.  In his new book The Stop Doing List Matt explains how to rid of yourself of all that time-wasting work so that you can focus on the tasks that will make you happy and wealthy.

Lessons Learned

Stop wasting time

You have to stop wasting time on menial tasks.  That mindless work is holding you back from accomplishing your goals.  Once you identify the things that are wasting your time those lessons can take root and sweep through your entire organization.  It starts with little things like hiring others to take care of yard work and cleaning.  They might sound petty but freeing up that time can be life changing.  That isn’t to say that you should avoid all labour work.  If you like mowing your lawn then you should do it!

You don’t have to be rich

In the old days having a gardener or someone to iron the clothes was for rich people.  Now thanks to the innovations of the gig economy, which relies on sites like UpWork and Task Rabbit, there are many more people available to do those jobs for much less money.  A lot of this has to do with valuing yourself. You have to figure out how much your time is worth per hour and whether doing the yard work is actually worth your time.

Busy doesn’t mean effective

Culturally within organizations being busy is tied to being successful rather being effective or profitable.  For most people there is a list of around twelve things that they need to stop doing.  Matt asks people to create a daily time log.  That time log will reveal that you are spending two-thirds of your day on work that others could be doing for you.  No one starts their own business to drown themselves in work but the majority of owners that Matt meets feels like their shackled to their own business.

Define your work genius

Matt believes that every person is really good at work that they love to do.  He calls that your genius.  You need to define your genius.  The goal is to spend all of your time in the genius zone.  When you play to your strengths you will reap big benefits.

Create your Stop Doing List

First your need to look at every task you deal with on a daily basis.  The first question you ask is whether you can replace that task or eliminate it all together.  If you can’t eliminate it the next question is can we automate this?  Then we ask can we delegate this?  The final step brings the task to you.  Everything else is your Stop Doing List.  Matt has an easy tool to help you create your list at:  www.stopdoing.com.au

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