The 70:20:10 rule and how you can use it in 2022?

Published: Sat, 01/08/22

How to use the 70:20:10 concept in 2022

Hey , so now the euphoria of a new year has come and gone, it's time to get to business - so what exciting projects do you have planned for 2022?

Myself I have learnt to reduce the number of projects that I take on each year, which quells the overwhelm of the workload that I take on.

Last year I learnt about the 70:20:10 concept and started to use it in my creative projects.

What is the 70:20:10 concept?

It is used in many different fields from investing to training, basically I use it to split time and effort into three unequal parts

70% of your time and energy on the goal that will move your aspirations forward the most
20% of your time and energy on the goal that you also want to do, maybe it supports the 70% activity
10% on an experimental idea - go as wide as you like

So how do you do this practically?

I've experimented with timetables to get this to work. For me, juggling being a parent, a full time job as well as creative projects meant I missed most of the well-intentioned time slots that I had put in.

Instead I have found it far more flexible to use a habit tracker.

The Habit Tracker I use is this very simple one, wherein I list the items that I most important for me and then basically give myself either a green or red dot when I accomplish it.

Sometimes I game myself into it, by setting up two habits to achieve the same goal.

Last month I put in

15 mins of writing and
30 mins of writing

Finding time and energy at the end of the day to do 30 mins of writing can be quite difficult - but 15 mins is much easier.

Once I'm in the flow of doing 15 mins writing, then 30 mins of writing tends to follow very easily.

I aim to change about 2 habits each month, shifting my focus to where I need it - e.g. when I run my next Kickstarter, I'll need to shift my focus from writing to marketing.

I downloaded this from Evermore Paper Co at https://evermorepaperco.com/blog/2017/free-printable-habit-tracker, you only need to print out page 2.

I tried a few other habit trackers and explored habit tracking apps but this was the best one I have found so far.

In terms of marker pens for the green and red dots, I personally use the Art Line pens, you can find them on Amazon here - https://amzn.to/3F8lB0H

I don't always score 100%

In fact I've never scored 100%, my average for November was 77% and for December lower, at 65% - but even these numbers can and do accumulate over time.

As I have learnt in Darren Hardy's book, the Compound Effect, these small actions that compound over time.

In fact this compounding has led me to be on draft 8 of my new comic book script in just under 3 months - the big reveal to come in the next few newsletters - I want to show some art to accompany my new comic book - suffice it to say it'll be all kinds of awesome.

I'll share with you my 70:20:10 breakdown, vision board and the outcomes that have come about by this new discipline in subsequent emails - for now I want to keep the emails to a moderate reading time.

Let's keep this a two way conversation, share with me your big plans for 2022 also.

Speak again in the next newsletter.

Thanks

Farhan

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