Muslim Mommy Motivation Tip: At Least Use the 80-20 Rule

Ponn Sabra | January 22, 2013 | Comments (4)

In keeping with “Keeping Things Simple”, it’s important that we exert at the very least the 80-20 rule in everything we do. Why? Because truth lies in the facts. 80-20 works in almost every situation in life, like 80% of the work gets done by 20% of the workers. 80% of our time is wasted, while 20% of our time is productive.

But, in our economy less than 1% makes the majority of money (the millionaires) so in that case it’s <99-1 rule.

To maintain peace of mind and be productive, it’s critical that you review any quantitative data that you can objectively look at. That is why some of the best hackers in life say you should spend your some time, just documenting what you do all day. Then, evaluate where you spend and waste time…surprising results will be, at the very least 80-20 but if you can decrease the gap to 90-10, 95-5 or 98-2 you can run into a gold mine of motivation to continue to do the right things during the right times with the right people.

Am I talking gibberish!?

Well, here’s a perfect example of using stats and data to evaluate ones productivity and how to best move forward with these discoveries.

Curious as to selling, partnering, managing, keeping, American Muslim Mom we had to evaluate how important was I, Ponn Sabra, to the American Muslim Mom brand. After all, I only posted a handful of times during all of 2012.

So, this is what we discovered:

95% of our traffic came from 5% of our blogposts. Of 963 articles, 95% of the traffic came from 47 blogposts.
89% of those articles were written by me. 42 of the 47 blogposts were written by me.
96% of those articles were not written in 2012. Only 2 of the 42 blogposts were written in 2012. #6 was written in 2008 and #20 written in 2009.
100% of all 42 blogposts have a ton of linkbacks (linked to from other bloggers or websites), social media activity (facebook likes, comments, tweets, social bookmarks) and comments.

From the objective observers, the ones considering buying or partnering know they ~~want~~ need me as the preeminent American Muslim Mom voice…but, was I willing to sell and go on someone’s payroll? No way!

We further discovered that it’s how the interactions took place between me and my readers that made a critical difference…meaning, I hit a cord, I made you think, I caused you to say “hey, I’m proud to be an American Muslim Mom” and in many cases “proud to be a Muslim Mom” who search critical issues that are timeless.

So, where do we go from here?

Thanking Critical Contributors

First, I need to acknowledge the 5 articles and their contributors for making the top 47 blogposts of all time:

#7: Five Fun Tips to Teach Kids Arabic by Aya Khalil of Aya Khalil

#8: 3 Legitimate Work-at-Home Money Making Opportunities by Kimberly Ben of Muslimahs Working At Home

Yes #10-30 We’re all written by me, masha Allah.

#31: Top 7 iPhone Apps Every Muslim Should Have for Ramadan also by Aya Khalil

#45: Frugal Scarf and Pin Storage Solutions by Hanane Pollard of Common Cents Mom

#46: Tutorial: How to Create a Time Card to Track Work Hours with Google Docs by Habeeba Husein of H2 Hoops

Second, I must write at the very least 80% of the time! Do you see the circle here? Why I need Motivation too!?

Click Here To Learn More About the Year of Motivation & Why You Should Join Today!

I must continue with regular contributors because I love them all for the sake of Allah and appreciate their voices; but, I’m really curious what you think! While I may not be able to reply to every email, I do read the ones I get; so if you don’t want to make live comments, please use my Contact Page, that gets to me better than email from unexpected senders because Contact Page is marked as Priority mail.

However, one colleague reviewed his feedback and traffic sources for 2012, and experienced somewhat the same thing. So, he’s choosing to write all high-quality posts 1-2 a week himself, with no other contributors or guests which is a DRASTIC move since last year, when he had contributors and guests blogs up nearly daily! He said his traffic was best in 2012, but he received multiple emails about the difference in tone and voice and that they wanted him. Interestingly, he shared his experiment for 2013 to not have any contributors and the comments were fascinating!

So, I’m curious about what you think? My dilemma lies in my lack of time, versus 2 optional partnerships. One is all about bringing on dozenS of writers to build the American Muslim Mom brand and a huge network of writers while keeping me on to lead it all…OR, keep most of it myself and experiment with getting back to the basics, less is more.

I know I can give at least 99% (or at the very least 80%) of effort into whatever way I decide to go…because I AM Motivated. But, I’m really curious, what do you think?

Applying the 80-20 Rule To Your Life

So, what areas of your life do you need to take notes (collect some data), evaluate your effectiveness or productivity level, and make critical changes?

Is it cleaning windows? I know it’s on my list! One tip was to clean one window each day so doing 20% of work everyday to help). However, for this big job, I’m more than I’ll do 80-100% of them in 1-2 days. What kind of house cleaner are you?

What about buying, cooking, serving and eating 80% more healthy meals with your family? What are you doing now? How can you change these habits?

What about spending less? So, saving 80% more than you usually do for the next 2-months, so we can have a bigger vacation together? Or even umrah with the kids?

Share your 80-20 discoveries below, so we can keep each other motivated and accountable to getting the job done!

Comments (4)

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Asma from Haute Muslimah says:

January 23, 2013 at 4:00 pm

I like that there are other guest bloggers as well to give a more diverse feel to the site. And I think that us readers can choose what we like to read. The guest blog posts are still getting hits and I personally like the variety

[Reply]
Ponn Sabra Reply:
January 25th, 2013 at 10:46 pm
As-salamu alaykum Asma.

We’ll always host guest bloggers to give that diverse voice; there was never a doubt about that.

However, based on time, effort, management, resources to host regular contributors and have them work equally as hard; given the 80-20 rule & the data since 2010, I was very curious what our readers thought.

Thank you for expressing your opinions, we’ll always have fulfill your request.

[Reply]
Kenza says:

January 24, 2013 at 12:50 am

Assalamu Alaykoum wa Rahmatou Allahi wa barakatouh,
As numbers have shown, people like to read your posts because there is this feeling to know you and, with your bio, to expect advice from you. I must confess that I don’t automatically read contributors posts unless I know the writer already, or the article’s subject is interesting to me ( In which case, I read more about the writer). I believe it makes perfect sense, after all it is YOUR blog, and mashaallah with your experience in homeschooling and making money blogging…etc, people want to know your perspective on things. Now, after all what happenned recently in your life, and all what you have to do, I think that supervising contributors is the way to go. You will still have control over the content, and knowing that, people will remain loyal. Of course a post by you, from time to time, would help as well Wa Allahou a3lam.
Now for the 80-20 rule, I learnt it from your book.( I loved it and actually recommended it to my friends) I still have hard time with the execution, but I will be putting some motivation into it this year inchaallah. BTW, my two words for this year are: KNOWLEDGE and ACTION. May Allah guide us and help us to achieve what will make us closer to him. Amin.

[Reply]
Ponn Sabra Reply:
January 25th, 2013 at 10:49 pm
Salaam.

Your comment is exactly what many of our emails and social media comments share…and, obviously the data.

I’m here to stay, but still need to explore thoroughly all options to keep me always here, given all the milestones my hubby and girls have set for us in the upcoming months.

However, given your 2-words, You AND I need MOTIVATION to keep the Knowledge & Action rolling. So, I’m here for you!

[Reply]