In his fantastic book, Essentialism, Greg McKeown talks about obstacles in an interesting way — as the “slowest hiker” of a group traveling to their campsite.

What he suggests is that instead of trying to improve every aspect of a business, take the time to clearly identify the slowest hiker — which is a metaphor for “the part of the process that is slower relative to every other part.”

What he’s talking about is obstacles. What’s the one thing — if removed — that would make everything (or many things) more efficient? This might take time to determine, or it might be incredibly obvious, but it’s got to be thought through so you’re not making changes “in a reactive, haphazard” manner.

In other words, before you begin removing an obstacle, you have to identify the exact goal you are trying to accomplish. And then you can determine the biggest obstacle standing in your way.

This essentialist approach looks to remove the obstacle, and in doing so other facets of your business benefit.

Let’s examine some of the questions Greg suggests you answer to find your slowest hiker …

• What are all the obstacles standing between me and getting this done?
• What is keeping me from completing this? (Make a list all of the obstacles which could include energy level, another person, not having the proper information you need, etc.)
• What is the obstacle that, if removed, would make the majority of other obstacles disappear?

I’ve worked through this process for my business and it’s helped me identify some great insights and opportunities. Yes, it took time to work through the questions to identify the #1 obstacle in the way of my most important goal. But it was worth every minute because I’ve clarified the obstacle — and the solution to remove it!

I hope this information does the same for you.

Related Articles

• Running a Small Business & the Art of Discovering Goals
• Running a Small Business & the Art of Balance
• Running a Small Business & the Art of Discovering Goals
  
• Running a Small Business & the Art of Setting Goals
• Running a Small Business & the Art of Overcoming Obstacles
• Running a Small Business & the Art of Setting a Date on Your Goals

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Eliminating distraction is part of the essentialism philosophy. The less distraction we experience, the better chance we have of focusing on what’s really important.

In order to eliminate distraction, we must first identify what’s essential and what’s non-essential. Then, we then have to cut out the non-essential distractions.

According to Greg McKeown, author of Essentialism, “the Latin root of the word decision — cis or cid — literally means to cut … Since, ultimately, having fewer options actually makes a decision ‘easier on the eye and the brain,’ we must summon the discipline to get rid of options or activities that may be good, or even really good, but that get in the way.”

This is true in life, and on your website.

Contemplating the art of cutting out distraction made me think of the user experience (UX). Specifically, making things “easier on the eye and brain” is a cornerstone of the UX philosophy. Good UX makes it so a website visitor doesn’t have to think because we’ve removed the distraction.

If you’ve ever been on a website that had three navigations, half-a-dozen calls-to-action, and a slide show, you know what I mean.

I’m talking about something like this …

Think about the user experience on your website. Do you have opportunity to “get rid of options or activities that may be good, or even really good, but that get in the way?” Do you have more than 1-3 calls-to-action muddying the user experience? How about a slide show, or multiple navigations?

These are only a few of the ways distraction can creep into your website. But if you take a look, and talk with your team about what’s really essential, you’ll be able to cut out the distraction and improve the UX of your website.

As you may have guessed, this strategy has a way of improving your website conversion, as well.

Need help with the UX and conversion strategies on your website?
Feel free to contact Cuppa SEO anytime to schedule your complimentary consultation.

For more tips and insights from Cuppa SEO …

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The other day, I started thinking about how I interact with my email — and I quickly realized I’d been using it in a very non-essentialist way. In other words, I give it too much attention early on in the day, when my brain power is at its height.

I also noticed that email alerts were acting as  interruptions when I was focused on important tasks, like my book or client work.It made me wonder: what happens if I restructure ALL email correspondence to 3pm or after?

In general this sounded like a good idea, but there were two caveats … if a potential new client got in touch via email, or filled out one of my forms, I don’t want them waiting until 3pm (or later) to hear back from me. Scanning for (actual) client emergencies is also something I need to be on the lookout for. So, I devised that before my mid-day lunch break I would scan my email for these types of items so I could respond right away. 

But everything else that isn’t as time sensitive will be addressed at 3pm.So far, this test has proven to be successful in helping me stay focused on the essential, without getting sucked into non-essential tasks the can wait a bit before I address them.

How about you? Does your email have you leading a non-essential day?

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We all face trade-offs in our professional and personal lives.

When we choose to stop working and spend time with family or friends, it’s a trade-off. When we decide to stay up an extra two hours to get that work done, instead of going to sleep, it’s a trade off.

In each instance, we’re choosing one thing over another, which is why figuring out which is most essential in life, and in business, is so important. If we trade-off something really important for something that’s less important — but begging for our attention — that can have long-lasting repercussions.

In his book, Essentialism, Greg McKeown talks about the “reality of trade-offs: we can’t have it all or do it all. If we could, there would be no reason to evaluate or eliminate options.” I agree.

Greg goes on to say, “Once we accept the reality of trade-offs we stop asking how can I make it all work, and start asking the more honest question which problem do I want to solve?’”

What this Has to Do with Your Website

How about EVERYTHING?

Your website is a lot like your personal and professional life — it can’t do everything. And yet, many businesses and web design firms try and make it do just that with strategies like:

• Multiple navigations
• Social media buttons front-and-center on the homepage
• An egregious amount of calls-to-action
• Pop Ups
• Carousels (Sliders)
• A website that’s over designed, as opposed to designed for a stellar user experience (UX)

I’m not saying every website possesses all of these attributes, but a high percentage of sites contain one or more of them.

Why? Because not enough trade-offs were made — or more specifically, trade-offs were made (intentionally or unintentionally) in favor of the non-essential. Bad for your website, and bad for your business.

The most successful trade-offs are deliberate and well thought out.

Let’s evaluate each of the four web design strategies mentioned above and how we can make more essential trade-offs for each …

MULTIPLE NAVIGATIONS

Typically, multiple navigation bars, or primary and secondary navigation bars can be tricky and difficult for the user to navigate — which means a bad user experience.
Let’s take a look at a site with multi-navigation hierarchies that can create a poor UX for a visitor …

Navigation #1 & 2
In the above example, #1 is the primary navigation. Then you’ve got a secondary nav above it.
Already, the user’s focus is split in two — at least for a few seconds, which can be enough to confuse or distract someone. Not the desired effect.

Navigation #3
But this website isn’t done yet. The third navigation (#3) sits above the secondary nav. This is the search box and social buttons. We’ll talk about this next in the Social Media Icons section.

Navigation #4
Nav #4 is an advertisement for Advil. And although it’s not technically part of the navigation (it’s a call-to-action), I’m counting it here because it is taking up prime real estate where your primary navigation should be!

Navigation #5
This navigation sits mid-page, disjointed from the primary navigation. Nav #5 contains news-centric information. Something that could easily be communicated through adding “News” to the primary nav, along with a dropdown menu to accommodate each tab.

At this point, the visitor’s focus has potentially been split five times — and that’s not even counting the slider they use for multiple hero images (bad for UX) and the other links and call-to-actions on the page.

SOCIAL MEDIA ICONS (NAVIGATION #3)

It’s typically a bad idea to place social buttons at the top of a web page like this for two reasons:

• Social buttons add another layer of navigation to the site. Now the user’s focus is split into three. What is the purpose of those social buttons? To bring someone to one of your social media platforms, right? As we’ll see in Part 4 of this book, social media — very often — is a tool that helps drive people TO YOUR WEBSITE.
  
• When you place your social buttons right up at the top of your page, in addition to competing with your primary navigation — it also runs the risk of directing someone AWAY from your website.
  When this happens, you’re directing traffic the wrong way! Once we’ve got someone on our website, the last thing we want to do is have them leave! More on this in Part 4, but I wanted to address, albeit briefly here, too.

MULTIPLE CALLS-TO-ACTION

To achieve high conversion on your website, your call-to-action needs to be clear. Notice that I said “call-to-action,” not “calls-to-action.” Too often, websites offer way too many calls-to-action to customers (bad for UX), when they should only be providing one or two. Lucky’s menu is the perfect metaphorical example of a successful call to action. It’s clear, easy to understand and it wasn’t 16 pages long like the menus we’ve all had to fumble through at a diner.

When we offer only one or two calls-to-action, we wind up providing a better user experience, and in turn have a greater chance of having the customer take action.

In other words, avoid this …

POP UPS

Pop ups are poor for UX because they’re an interruption from what people came to your site for. Plus, they make a visitor have to stop and think about what the pop up says, and if it’s relevant or not to them. In other words, it adds another layer of thinking and decision making to the process — which breaks the “don’t make me think” rule.

And they’re annoying.

Yes, pop ups provoke visitors to feel annoyed. Why would you want to intentionally annoy visitors when you’re trying to convert them into customers? There are better ways to engage.

CAROUSELS (SLIDE SHOWS)

Website carousels, also referred to as slideshows or rotating offers, are something we find on a lot of websites. But they’re a bad user experience and they’re bad for conversion.

As an organization, it’s always tempting to give MORE information on one’s website. But more information can often have the opposite effect of what was intended.

Carousels make your visitor think harder. Every new rotating banner is new information that makes the viewer have to think, and even if that’s for only a few seconds, that’s a few seconds too many.

Yes, you should assume your customers are intelligent, and yes — you should also acknowledge they’re overwhelmed and super busy. As every new offer slides into view, you’re giving them more work to do. They’ve got to digest it, then decide if it’s more important to them than the previous offer(s). And then, after four slides, they’re asking “what was the first one again,” and possibly wondering how they get back to a previous offer.

Instead of carousels, use a single image for better UX. Then, figure out the top one to three (maximum) things your visitor needs (address those pain points) and make them easy to find calls-to-action.

OVERDESIGN

The following type of site is often a lot of fun for a designer to build, as it provides opportunity to be really creative. But it’s bad for UX because it’s really hard for the visitor to easily locate the exact information they need. The type of site in our example is called a parallax site, but there are many over-designed sites that aren’t parallax that still have moving backgrounds, and animations that pop onto the screen from out of no where.

Sites like this can be very unsettling for the viewer who’s looking for “solid footing” as soon as they arrive on your site. What I mean by this is that website visitors, mostly unconsciously, have a need to understand the lay of the land when they arrive on a website. They want to feel grounded, and be able to quickly understand where they are without having to think about it.

I hope these examples help you trade-off non-essentials for essentials on your website!

Need some help?
If you’re looking to make improvements like this on your site, but need some assistance, feel free to contact Cuppa SEO anytime. We’d be happy to discuss how we can help improve your web design.

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It’s a theory that states 20% of our efforts produce 80% of our results.

I was recently reminded of the Pareto Principle, which led me to thinking about how I could identify and remove low-performing efforts to make way for high-performing efforts.

In other words …

• What 20% of my efforts account for 80% of the results?
• What 80% of my efforts account for 20% of my results?

In contemplating these questions, I wondered how to most accurately answer them. Which led to another question — do I even need to be this specific?

Maybe a better way to look at this is …

• What is my highest performing effort (most essential) and what is my lowest (least essential)?
• And if I let go of the least essential, and replace it with more of the most essential, how much additional impact does that make?

This line of questioning felt more manageable, so I began analyzing.

The first step for our team was to examine which client-attainment efforts were most successful, and which were least. This might be a good place for you to start, too, but it doesn’t have to be. It really comes down to what part of your business (or your life) you want to examine and improve upon. Is it your product production process? Workflow improvement? Quality control? Hiring, training, or some other item that you’d like to make a positive impact on?

At the end of the day, the Pareto Principle is an excellent guideline to eliminating the nonessential, and embracing the essential.

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Of course, he was referring to design (we’ll save that discussion for another blog post), but what about our businesses — and our lives? How much of it is just noise (nonessential), and how the heck to we quiet things down a bit?

According to Greg McKeown, Essentialism is about “how to get the right things done … it’s about making the wisest possible investment of your time and energy in order to operate at our highest point of contribution by doing only what is essential.”

Based on this definition, I’ve been asking myself the following two questions:

1. What are some of the nonessential things in my business that I can easily identify? Once identified, if it’s important enough to keep can I pass it on to a team member to handle — or even better automate? For it to be deemed “not important enough” to keep in play, it’s got to have low or no ramifications.

2. What are some essential things I can pass on to someone else or automate? Although this is a similar question to the first, there’s more at stake here. The essentials have to get done — but they all don’t need to be done by me.

And don’t forget, essentials in your home life (like cleaning, cooking, etc.) that are time sucks take you away from your business AND your family. Hiring someone to clean so you can work or have more energy/time for family is an excellent investment.

Is there one nonessential thing you can easily get rid of, delegate, or automate?

Is there one essential thing you can delegate or automate? Even if it involves some upfront work to free up your time down the road — so you can tackle things that can only be accomplished you?

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