What do I mean when I say, concentrating on high value activities?  Entrepreneurs have some bad habits.  They know that they have to work hard. Yet sometimes they find themselves working hard but not necessarily working smart.  They do the things they enjoy but not necessarily the things that need to be done to move the needle forward.
“Efficiency is doing things right and effectiveness is doing the right things”. – Peter Drucker.  Effectiveness trumps efficiency. The ideal case is when you’re doing the right things right, but if you have to make a compromise, always do the right things, no matter how inefficient you might be at doing them.  Or delegate them to someone who will get it done.  I have a client who hates social media.  But she knows it is important to use social media to market her brand.  In her case the solution is to find an intern to concentrate on this activity.
High value activities are the activities that produce your most important outcomes. These activities produce the results your business is measured on, and they are the difference between success and failure.
Sales is an example of a high value activity. Sales is either on the phone or in front of someone talking to them about what you do and asking them to buy it from you. It isn’t anything else. How many HOURS did you spend yesterday physically talking to a potential new buyer about what you sell? If you are like most small business owners, the answer is none. You should dedicate a minimum number of minutes or activities EVERY day to sales meetings.  When they say sales is a numbers game they aren’t kidding.  The more buyers you reach the more opportunity you have to sell.  To say that sales is a high value activity is pretty obvious.
Simply putting in the time is not enough… You must identify what activities generate the highest returns, and then focus relentlessly on these behaviors to the exclusion of most other distractions… You have to put in a lot of hours, but of equal importance, these hours have to be dedicated to the right type of work.