December passed quickly with lots of writing for clients and none for me. Finally today I had time to climb back up the slippery slope. Seeing how muddy it is here, that was almost literal walking in the woods this morning, but I’m talking about the slippery slope in my mind.

I was thinking about that old maxim: works expands to fill the time allotted. Last year I spent quite a bit of time on business development, thanks to my brilliant business coach, Mary Jane Pioli. As a result, Q4 last year I really spent time thinking about how to be more efficient and spend more time on the projects I enjoy and are most profitable and steer away from the things I enjoy less or make less money.

My pal Jan told me the other day I desperately needed to update my status on Facebook to something more generic so it didn’t like I had posted it last fall (my bad….). I decided that the phrase “working hard at working less” summed it up. I actually love my work, but I love doing lots of other things too. Therefore, the more efficient I am, the more I can do more things I enjoy – work-related and not.

It’s not easy to be careful with time – there are so many things pulling for some of it. Spending time chronicling what I was doing every hour – actually writing it down – was a bit painful but a real eye-opener and it became immediately apparent where I could make some changes.

Less time on email – checking it less frequently and responding only a few times a day was a big one for me. Finding out what activities take what kind of energy and brain power and scheduling those for my most productive time – usually in the morning enables me to get more done more quickly. Saving the more mundane tasks for late afternoon when my brain isn’t as sharp makes those things less onerous and they don’t feel as pressing when I know there’s time allotted to do them.

Finally, I’ve learned how and when to outsource. I learned from my great friend Jillian at Savvy Sponsoring how to delegate and outsource. It’s a great use of resources (financial on my side and skills and talent on someone elses) and effort and it makes me more efficient, happier and more productive. 2011 feels like it’s off to a good start.

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Some business people have no idea what it costs to get a customer or what the lifetime value of that customer is. Knowing these two things helps you understand what you can spend on marketing and how much you stand to profit when people choose your business. It’s a fairly straightforward, simple equation.

First look at the price of your product or service. People often think it’s easier to sell something less expensive. Not necessarily true. Depends on your target audience and the value of your product/service.

If you’ve got something of great value and it costs $500 and I really need it or want it, I’ll buy it. If you sell something for $29 and I maybe need it and don’t have compelling enough evidence that it’ll do me any good, I may decide to spend the money at a restaurant instead.

So, the question is: how much business do you need to do to make a great profit? 200 items at $500 each month? 1000 items that cost $29?

Can great marketing help you move that many or that many more? If I could write a campaign that would sell 1000 of your $29 items, which would bring you $29,000, could you afford to pay me $5000 to create it? It’s a no-brainer when you work out the numbers. I’d trade $5000 for $29,000 all day long. Damn, I’d trade $5000 for $5500 all day long.

If you’re wondering if professional writing and marketing really gets those kind of results, the answer is YES – it absolutely can. Working with someone experienced is more likely to get your results. Why? Because a good marketing writer knows how to motivate your audience, knows how to get them to take action. Increasing the percentage of your response translates into more sales and a bigger bank account. That’s a true story, in any economy.

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How much of your work day is engineered and carefully planned and how much of your day just happens. Do you find most days that you feel productive and accomplished? Or do you more often feel frustrated and overwhelmed, like there are a million things on your plate you haven’t gotten to.

Have you learned when to say YES and when to say NO? A while back I related a story about a woman I know who has had several opportunities to meet in person with the Dalai Lama. She got to sit and drink tea with him one day while he was going about his morning routine.

Over tea he would review his mail and all the requests that were made of him – and apparently there are plenty. What impressed her was how quickly he sorted through all of it. He’d look through each piece and say YES, NO, NO, YES, YES – as he sorted each item into the yes or no stack. What she learned was that he was able to do that very easily because he knows EXACTLY what his agenda is and so he knows what fits and what doesn’t, and he told he never feels bad about saying no. Just like that.

I’m including that story again because I think it’s something to aspire to. Learning when to say yes and when to say no. Like everyone else, I get a lot of different ideas coming through all the time and in the past year I’ve had a good number of offers for business partnerships and joint ventures.

I’ve started to pay close attention to how these things make me feel after learning just a little bit about them. Some make me feel instantly tired and overwhelmed. Those go in the NO pile. Others make me feel energized and/or curious. Those go in the YES or future ideas pile.

I don’t have complete finesse yet – I think I objected a little too strenuously to a friend and client the other day and I felt really bad about it. I was certain I knew what was right in the situation and it was time to say no. There are ways to do that ‘correctly’.  I cleared it up and so I’m learning moderation too.

It’s the same though, for daily activities. Knowing what activities move you toward you goals and which don’t. Hint: obsessive email checking and playing Farmville don’t. If you’re able to periodically turn off (or away from) email and IM and even the phone if that rings a lot, you’re on the right track.

Try making a list of what you want to get done and sort it out by priorities for the day or week. Then write down what you actually do on a given day – do that for a week if you can stand it. This exercise was eye-opening for me because I learned that there were a good number of things on my to-do list that I spent way more time thinking about then they actually took me to do. I sort those smaller tasks and do them all in a couple of hours and feel really accomplished.

There’s too much information, there’s too much to do, and it’s just not all important. When you figure out what is, and you make those things happen consistently, you’ll find the quality of your life improves, and so does your bank account.

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