Some people find it hard to believe that they can double



their income in just 1 year. After all most people are

lucky to get a 5 to 10% annual increase in their income. In

the last year that I worked as an employee I earned almost

5 times my best previous year and I did it by applying 5

simple strategies. In this article I'm going to share one

of those strategies with you.

Have you heard of the 80/20 rule? It states that you get

80% of your desired results from only 20% of the time you

put in. That of course means that the other 80% of your

time only produces a mere 20% of your desired results.

The interesting thing is that the 80/20 rule seems to

apply to just about everything you do and that includes the

money you earn.

Many people have heard of the 80/20 rule but they have

never stopped to think how to apply it to their own

advantage. The secret to doing this is being able to

identify which of the things you do fall into the 20%

category and which fall into the 80% category, and then do

more of the 20% type activities and less of the 80%. By

shifting this balance you can greatly increase your

positive results, and in this case that means your income.

Step 1 in this strategy is to keep good records.

If you know exactly what you do and exactly what the

results of those actions are then you have all the raw data

you need to get this strategy up and running. Be very

honest with your record keeping and be prepared to put your

ego to one side because you will discover that even though

you think you are busy and productive you are actually

wasting an enormous amount of your day on non productive

activities.

Step 2 is to analysis those records regularly.

Once you have the records of what you are doing and what

results those specific activities are producing, then you

will need to sort your activities into three categories.

Firstly, the activities that produce high yield (the 20%),

then the categories that produce low yield (the 80%) and

then the final category, time wasting. Yes the 80/20 rule

is a division of activities that actually produce results,

but most people find that they waste the majority of their

time on activities that produce no result at all. These

activities include coffee breaks, idle conversation, and

daydreaming, just to name a few.

Step 3 is to stay focused on the 20%, high yield activities.

Now your task is to increase the percentage of your time

that you spend on the high yield activities. Initially this

is very easy as all you have to do is stop the time wasting

activities and replace them with high yield activities. If

you can do this then you should be able to more than double

your current income.

Step 4 is to have the courage to not do the 80%, low yield

activities, even though that means losing some business.

Replacing time wasting activities with high yield

activities is a great results enhancer, but adding this

fourth step can further increase your positive results.

This can be achieved either by delegating this low yield

work to a lower paid assistant or by simply not doing it at

all. You may be shocked at the idea stopping the low yield

work that results in 20% of your income, but the truth is

that if you are spending a large amount of time on a

clients who spend only small amounts of money with you then

perhaps you are better to lose those clients altogether and

spent the time replacing them with high yield clients.

So now you have it. Those are the four steps that make up

this income increasing strategy. If you are in your own

business then this strategy will directly increase your net

profit. If you are an employee who earns commissions then

this strategy will directly increase those commissions. And

finally, if you are an employee on salary then this

strategy will increase your value to an employer which, in

turn, will allow you to negotiate a higher salary, either

with your current employer or with a new one. You have the

strategy, now all you have to do now is put it into action.