I believe I first heard the term MED (Minimal Effective Dose), which was in one of Tim Ferris’ 4-Hour books. Drawn to the “work smarter not harder” variant. It made me think about what areas in my business were the priority for efforts and where efficiency would make improvements.

What will give the most positive outcomes:

a) Do well, do once system implementation; and/or

b) give just as good, if not better results with less input? Think multiple use content and repetition and repetition.

“Ask a lazy person to do something and they’ll come up with the easiest low-effort way to get it done.” – not a fan of the term lazy but we have all heard versions of this. This has been a driver for many inventions that have made life easier. The Search Bar, for example, has made finding information accessible. Could you imagine navigating the mass of content online without it?

So how can you apply the MED principle to your business?

1) Priorities. When you only have time and effort for one focus, focus on income. The number of people who will create beautiful offerings but won’t give effort into how people will buy from them is frankly mind-boggling. Your job as a business owner, is to make saying yes/buying from you easy. Humans don’t like having to jump through hoops (unless it’s part of a game they have chosen to play). So make buying streamlined & ideally enjoyable.

2) Spend time looking for what works. A little research effort upfront can save a huge amount down the line. For example; knowing where your target audience is means you can save money on targeted marketing whilst also not shouting into the ether.

“Aiming for the center of a target means you are more likely to hit something than not aiming at all.”

3) Ambassadors. Word of mouth is still the best marketing tool. It has been muddied by influencers and celebrity endorsements but people will still listen and seek advice/social validation when purchasing. Having people who have already bought from you, singing your praise is a great way to secure a good reputation. Just note that the effort on your part comes in, to make all who interact with you feel valued…Word of mouth spreads fast and can be negative as well as positive. Look after your clients, staff, suppliers, and others who engaged with your business. Minimal Effective Dose, learn their name and remember something personal about your last interaction. Rubbish memory? Write it down.

4) Set Alarms. Most of us walk around with supercomputers in our pockets. Give over some of the remembering burdens to the device. I personally skip the calendar app and go straight to the alarm app. As a meeting/appointment/time-sensitive or must-do To-Do comes up, it gets an alarm. I use the “name alarm” section to write and note if I set an alarm to give me time to be somewhere. Doing this means I save so much effort and save so much guilt from missing things. It has definitely made me more efficient with a very minimal dose of energy.

There are loads more ways MED can be applied not just to business but to life in general.

• 30-second hold stretching a couple of times a day is more effective in increasing flexibility than dynamic stretching and holding for longer more often.
• Putting a dirty pan on to soak just after use is easier than trying to scrub it clean 5 hours later.
• Planting garlic now (Autumn) is better than planting with most veggie planting in Spring.
• Look at how your daily life flows and see if there is anything that would benefit from a look through the lens of MED.

Any efficiencies you know now that you wish you had known earlier that you’d like to share, we’d love to hear about them in the comments. Thank you.

Until next time – Why I haven’t been doing my most profitable income stream for the last 4 years.

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