This week has been a really busy one. I have a new project to work on at my 9 to 5 job where I’m helping a client fix thier business processes. We are working through painpoints, risks and issues and seeing how we can fix them with innovative ideas. I love fixing problems and making peoples lives easier.
The second thing has been my social media work. I gave an extra push on TikTok and Instagram with video content. One video in particular where I spoke about how I went to rescue my son after his tyre burst on the motorway went viral. At the moment it is on 52,000 views which gave me 85 extra followers. A lesson I have learnt here is people like stories and anecdotes, rather than direct sales or being lectured to in some kind of way. (I can hear you say Atif you should know that, yes, you’re right I should). So look for some more stories and anecdotes on my TikTok channel.
Last time I said, I’ll talk about some books which really changed my life which I will do but for this week I’ve changed to something I’ve learnt recently which is incredibly powerful and useful. If you apply this not only to your business but to your life, it will add immense value and propel you towards your goals. That is the ‘Hundred Hour rule’.
In the world of affiliate marketing, mastering skills is crucial for success. Yet, the daunting prospect of investing large chunks of time can deter many people. Enter the ‘Hundred Hour Rule’ – a revolutionary concept advocating just 18 minutes of daily practice to transform your skill set over a hundred days.
The “100 days 18 mins per day” rule is a productivity technique where you commit to spending just 18 minutes a day on a particular task or skill for 100 consecutive days. The idea behind this rule is to make progress on a goal through consistent, manageable effort over a sustained period.
For example, if you want to learn a new language, you would dedicate 18 minutes each day to studying vocabulary, grammar, or practicing speaking. Over the course of 100 days, these small increments of time add up to significant progress. If you continue over a year you will be better than 95% of the world at this skill.
How can you apply this in Affiliate Marketing, here are some examples:
Content Creation:
– Spend your daily 18 minutes brainstorming content ideas, outlining blog posts, or crafting engaging social media captions tailored to your affiliate niche.
– Example: Day 1-18: Research and outline content ideas for blog posts focusing on “Top 10 Product Reviews” within your niche.
SEO Optimisation:
Dedicate your time to keyword research, optimising website meta tags, or analysing competitors’ SEO strategies to improve your website’s visibility.
– Example: Day 19-36: Conduct keyword research using tools like SEMrush or Ahrefs to identify high-ranking keywords related to your niche.
Email Marketing:
Utilise your daily 18 minutes to craft compelling email campaigns, segment your subscriber list, or analyse email performance metrics for refinement.
– Example: Day 37-54: Design and draft a series of automated email sequences targeting different stages of the customer journey.
Learning:
Invest time in studying affiliate marketing trends, attending webinars, or reading industry blogs to stay updated on the latest developments.
– Example: Day 55-72: Enroll in an online course or attend a webinar focused on advanced affiliate marketing strategies.
Networking:
Allocate your daily time to connect with fellow affiliate marketers, join online communities, or participate in industry forums to exchange insights.
– Example: Day 73-90: Actively engage in discussions within affiliate marketing Facebook groups or LinkedIn communities.
I’m sure you can appreciate after doing this for 100 days you will be significantly more knowledgeable and skillful than most people in the world. Remember though, you must be consistent, it’s not going to happen if you skip a day or don’t make the effort to ensure that you do this. Remember, the mindset stuff I’ve talked about already must be applied here and used to allow you to thrive in this area. It’s only you stopping yourself learning and getting better.
Benefits of the 100 days 18 mins per day rule include
- Consistency breeds habit formation, ensuring sustained progress. By breaking down your goal into small, manageable daily tasks, you’re more likely to stick with it consistently over time.
- Reduced Procrastination: Knowing that you only have to invest a short amount of time each day can help overcome procrastination and make the task feel more achievable.
- Daily practice fosters adaptability and agility in response to market changes.
- Skill Improvement: Regular practice over an extended period leads to noticeable improvement and mastery of the skill or completion of the task. Incremental improvements accumulate over time, leading to skill mastery.
- Integration into daily routines promotes long-term success and growth.
- Building Habits: Over the 100 days, you’re not just making progress on your goal but also forming a habit of daily practice, which can be applied to other areas of your life as well.
- Motivation: Celebrating small wins each day can boost motivation and keep you inspired to continue working towards your goal. Celebrating small wins boosts motivation and perseverance.
Challenge:
Now, it’s time for your challenge:
Choose one aspect of affiliate marketing you wish to improve and outline your hundred-hour journey. Set specific goals, allocate tasks for each 18-minute session, and track your progress diligently over the next hundred days. Remember, consistency is key to unlocking your affiliate marketing potential!
Let me know in the comments what your plan is. We can talk through this consistently over the hundred days via email if you sign up to the free newsletter. I’ll be happy to support you as you do.
NOTE: remember, this can apply to anything in your life, not just the business or work. It might be a habit you’re trying to break, it might be trying to control emotion, it can be adapted to anything where you need to create a habit. I think the only place it wouldn’t apply is food! because I’d end up putting on even more weight!
Next time I will, I promise talk to you about some books that really changed my life and lead me to where I am today (on the right path (in more ways than one)).
Thank you for reading, I hope it helped you in some way. Is this what you are thinking of doing? Let me know your thoughts. You are only a few steps behind me!
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You can follow me on social media here using this links page. It will be great to see you there.
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Until next time, take care.
Hi Atif. love this 18 minutes a day strategy that could fit many areas of people’s lifestyles. I’m sure anyone can find 18 minutes a day to improve themselves. Done consistently over a period of time it’ll become a habit and may I say not a bad one to face.
Steve, yes it’s a great strategy give it a go. Make it a list of the things you want to learn and you may be able to do several of them throughout the day with different slots. Just an idea. Thanks, Atif
My next 100 days is probably going to take more than 18 minutes a day for mastery, but I intend to start a You Tube show on my channel. This will help to get more subscribers and posts to qualify for you tube monetization. The show itself is what I need to flesh out- from dreams to reality.
Kate, absolutely, but I think this is more for people that need to start but find it difficult. It’s worth a try and I’m sure it will benefit in someway. Keep up the great work. Thanks, Atif
Interesting thought but why 18? Why not 15 or 20? Is there any science behind the figure ? Is 18 minutes the optimum activity time for most people, or has it been chosen to make you stop and think, where as say 20 you might not stop to look?
Tony, I think they’ve taken 100 hours converted it to minutes and then divided it by the number of days in a year. That’s approximately 16-18-ish. They probably rounded it up. Also reading about it. A lot of psychologist say 18 minutes is about the time where most people tend to remember something. So there’s probably various reasons. Either way it’s just a small amount of time each day you can use to work on stuff. Take care thanks for the comment. Regards Atif
I accept your challenge and absolutely love it! 18 minutes a day is nothing, but it brings up that word again: consistency. In affiliate marketing and in any endeavor, consistency is key, and this challenge is perfect! 18 minutes is short, but doing it daily is the challenge.
I did something similar, intuitively, a few years back before COVID and all my recent injuries and health issues. I was trying to learn how to breakdance. I was in my 30s at the time, and I was dedicated. I allotted 15 minutes a day of warm-up and 15 minutes a day of practice, and I would set my alarm to do drills for 15 minutes. I did this for an entire year and documented it in a physical journal, writing down which moves I practiced and drills I did. It is true that over time, I got much better, but trying to learn how to break dance in your 30s is not the best idea, and after much wear and tear and injuries in my body, I have been forced to take a break. But that year of work is in my muscle memory forever 🙂
Alison, I’m glad you accepted the challenge. The question is are you going to do this in affiliate marketing or in Break dancing?. The rest of the group will expect to see videos of you breakdancing. LOL thanks, Atif
Atif, That is a great tip to burn into my memory…”people like stories and anecdotes, rather than direct sales or being lectured to in some kind of way”.
You give lots of examples on where to apply this 100 days 18 mins per day rule in affiliate marketing. And your listed benefits of doing so make sense.
Maybe the stipulation to practice this in one area for “minimally” 18 minutes would be better for me. I’m afraid that if it’s something I truly want to master – I am not going to limit myself to only 18 minutes per day. And for me – the aspect I need to work on is with documenting my progress with Facebook Lead Ads.
Robert, of course you can adapt this, how you like to suit you. You might be able to give more time to it. You might wanna do less time. But I think the point is just being consistent every day just do a little bit you can master anything. hope you’re well. Talk soon thanks, Atif
Hi Atif,
Great post you have here… I love the 18 min. a day for 100 day idea. It’s definitely a way to stay focused, and on track with your business. The idea is consistency and using your 18 min. wisely, or else it’s no good for you. That’s the hardest part I think. Thank you for letting me know about TikTok, and how anecdotes is what people are more interested in seeing. I haven’t started on TikTok yet, so this was great information to know. Thank you! I look forward to your next post.
Meredith
Meredith, you are welcome give it a go and I’m sure it will help you. Regarding TikTok I tried being I suppose a bit like the videos I see on affiliate marketing. If you want to do this then do that type of thing but people don’t go for that. They want to hear something that either entertains them, makes them laugh or makes them want to give an opinion. Once you do that they will like and comment. Thanks, Atif.
Hi Atif,
That’s sounds like a great idea. But for me who has anxiety issues, I don’t think I could commit. Or if I did the stress of not completing the challenge a day or 2 would probably set me over the edge. (ha ha ha)
But I said I like the idea and challenge and hope you get a bunch of people to do it as well.
Have you found other companies who don’t charge you or give you a test time for key words optimization?
So excited you are moving along quite well.. And I was on the call Wednesday when it was only 32k haha Keep up the great work..
Sandy
Sandy, I think in your situation, don’t take it that it has to be so strict. Firstly decide on something that you want to do or learn. Break it down into chunks of work. Then take each one of those and spend some time on it. Just trying to do every day. In fact you could use that time as working on anxiety. I.e. by giving you anxiety just start doing it. I get quite a lot of anxiety and the best way to get over it is to just do the thing I’m worried about. Thanks, Atif
Hey Atif, I’m a big fan of that book as well. When someone asks why 18 minutes, I believe it’s because the time frame is short enough to fit into your schedule yet still allows for consistent practice. The real challenge lies in sustaining it for 100 days, which isn’t easy.
Thanks for sharing your TikTok experience. Short-form social media platforms like TikTok remain somewhat mysterious to me too. Sometimes it feels like my videos succeed randomly, and I struggle to identify a consistent pattern.
Sasha, I haven’t read the book, but I intend to. I love real techniques like this that actually help people. I’ve learnt quite a lot about TikTok in the last couple of weeks. Ultimately people just want to be entertained. Thanks, Atif
18 mins is a funny time…. Why 18? Is it to do with concentrations?
Either way, a fantastic blog post. This is brilliant and I hope lots of people take up the challenge. A brilliant way to break things up and not feel overwhelmed. Incredible way to tackle tasks.
I follow your TikTok videos. They are brilliant and I would encourage everyone to follow along. You bring so much value to your content. Not surprised at all you went viral. Well done!
Sarah, I think it’s 18 because psychologists worked out that it’s the best or optimum time for an average adult to take something in and retain it. Also if you take 100 hours and divide it over the year it’s approximately 16 to 18 minutes. I guess the amount doesn’t matter so much is more the consistency of doing a little bit every day. Give it a go let me know how you get on. Thanks, Atif
Hi Atif,
Wow, I like this concept. It’s so challenging to manage time in general, and when you have something you want to accomplish, it just eats into more of your time. I struggle with “time” because of my day job and responsibilities in the evening, but I am doing my best. I admit that I sometimes don’t do an excellent job and that time is wasted. The only thing I promised myself was to spend at least 1 hour a day on my business, but I found that if I don’t specifically identify the “what” for that hour, I end up doing things like website design, which I enjoy. There are many more important things to do. I need to outline the critical aspects to continue moving forward and pinpoint a specific detail to do every day for 18 minutes. I don’t know how you do all the videos, reading, blogging, and hopping you do and work a regular job. Kudos to you!
Vanessa, It’s one thing putting 18 minutes aside, but you’re right you have to have something planned to do in that time. I would start with a list of the things you want to learn. What skills do you want to know? And then break each one down into sub tasks. And then spend time on those sub tasks individually. In terms of me there’s a lot to do with my own 9 to 5 job my kids, my wife looking after my dad and as well as starting this business. It’s a lot to do, but you just have to make time in the day for each one of those things otherwise nothing happens . Thanks, Atif.
Hi Atif,
Great entry and yet, I find myself at odds with this notion of 18 minutes. As a business consultant myself, I’ve yet to find someone – or a business for that matter – that can accomplish all of what they want without first committing to – at minimum – 1 hour per day.
I think we both are from old schools having different thought patterns but are looking for the same outcome! Success is definitely the “mot d’ordre” here!
So let me say this: I’ve already committed to 1 hour a day – but I’ll add the 100 days to my plan – that should bring us to the same long term success.
All the best!
Marc, I think whether it’s 18 minutes or an hour at the end of the day it doesn’t matter. 18 minutes came from a study of psychologists I think, on people that can retain information in that amount of time. If you wanna do an hour to an hour it’s okay. Point being be consistent under it every day thanks, Atif
This 100 day 18 18-minute challenge is an interesting idea. I’ve got a book I’ve been working on for quite a while, in part because I hardly ever take time to work on it. But I can definitely take 18 minutes per day in the morning or at night to work on it. I’m sure I’d be done with it in 100 days.
Nathan, exact, you can use this technique just to spend 18 minutes working on your book. Imagine in a week in a month how much you would have progressed. I think too many people are getting caught up on the number rather than the concept of being consistent. I love your videos by the way and it be great to meet you one day and learn from you. Thanks, Atif
Hi Atif,
Congratulations on your viral TikTok video. How awesome!
How does it feel to have produced such an amazing outcome?
Perhaps you will put together something so that you can teach how you were able to get 52,000 views!!
I like the 100 Hundred Hour Rule it is a great way to manage your days, particularly in this business as there are so many moving parts.
I like the examples used ie. content creation, SEO, email marketing, networking, and learning as well as the benefits of 100 days, 18-minute rule.
I have an idea for this challenge as have been working on it for about three weeks but not in 18 minute daily rule so I may come up with something else so that I can monitor it.
All the best.
Eleanor, I’ve just been following what Dean has said and tried not to deviate. I see many people doing extra things or thinking they know better and are doing their own thing. I’ve got a coach for a reason and that was to learn from him so I’m just going to do what he says. I hope you give this 18 minute rule an go and see how it can help you. I’m really liking your videos that you started to do. I look forward to seeing more of them. Thanks, Atif
Great post Atif, I think I’m going to give this a try! I often feel like I am getting behind with things so I’m looking forward to this.
Ken, go for it my friend I wish you all the best. You’re not behind your just working at your own pace. This technique may help you plan your work out and being consistent on it on a daily basis. What’s your traffic strategy? what are your primary secondary traffic sources. It be good to hear, thanks, Atif
Atif,
Your posts always teach me something new! I’m really loving the idea of the 100-hour challenge—it sounds totally doable. I mean, 18 minutes a day? Who doesn’t have that? I’m confident I can carve out time for this. Consistency truly is the key, and I’m ready to dive in!
Sherri
Sherri, I’m glad some of my posts are helping people. It be great if you try the 18 minutes a day let’s see how it helps you. Let me know. Go for it. Thanks, Atif
Atif,
I absolutely love your 18 minutes a day challenge! think we can all make 18 minutes each day!
Thanks for the inspiration!
Kelli
Kelli, you’re welcome so can I assume that you’re gonna take the challenge? give it a go you’ve got nothing to lose thanks, Atif
Hi Atif,
Thank you for sharing this excellent post. The 18-minute goal seems achievable, but reaching 100 days is much more challenging, at least for me. I get tired easily and tend to switch from one thing to another frequently, which has kept me stuck in the same place. However, I understand that I need to focus and be consistent. Thank you for highlighting this.
Ezequiel, hundred days does seem like a lot, but if you don’t look at that and just do 18 minutes every day you won’t even notice the hundred days. Either way you just need to be consistent. I hope you’re doing well. Thanks, Atif
My wife is complaining that I’m taking too long working on my business already so adding another 18 minutes a day would likely send her over the edge. LOL
Congratulations on your viral video and by the way I just noticed it’s not there any more. What happened?
Please ignore my comment about your video disappearing. I must be going blind in my old age. lol
Andy, unfortunately we won’t get a business without doing any work on it. I find a lot of family don’t understand and because of that they don’t get what we need to do. At first I tried to explain everything but it’s too complicated. Now I just get on with it in my own time, and ultimately they will benefit so I just carry on. The video is there I think it’s just lower down also by now there’s four that I’ve gone viral. And it’s funny because I’m not talking about affiliate marketing in any of them really it’s more about problems people have and the cost of things , thanks, Atif. PS I’m liking your videos carry on
Atif,
Thanks for posting 100 day 18 min challenge. It is very helpful. I am in the process of having to cut back on my computer time due to doctor’s orders. Time on the computer is effecting my brain functions and thus the healing process for my brain.
This will definitely be in my thoughts as I layout my schedule and take on the challenges of navigating the landscape ahead.
Thanks again.
CJ
CJ, I pray that your health improves and you’re able to get on with building your business. Take your time don’t rush. Maybe this 18 minutes may help you reduce the amount of time you in front of the screen. Give it a go you got nothing to lose. Thanks, Atif.
Hey Atif! Unbelievably awesome blog post! Definately one of the best I have ever read. I love the 18 minutes a day for 100 days plan. That sounds great and very doable. I loved all the specific catagories you listed to use for the daily routines.Really amazing Atif. And it is totally awesome you have gotten 52,000 views and 85 extra followers now. You are in Dean Holland space now! Keep up the great work and I look forward to your continued blog posts, and to following you on social media also.
Jim
Jim, thank you for the compliment I appreciate it. Let me know how you get on? What is your traffic strategy? What are your primary and secondary platforms.? It will be good to hear. Thanks, Atif
Hi Atif!
This is a wonderful post that is full of momentum to get and stick with a routine! Whether it is for health, wealth, or overall joy in life, 18 minutes is a drop in the bucket, but with consistent time and effort can create a beautiful waterfall effect!
I also want to give a shout-out to your TikTok videos! I really enjoy watching them!
All the best!
Milissa Neirotti
Milissa, I I’ve been watching your videos on TikTok and really enjoying them. You’re doing really well and congratulations on your recent success. I look forward to seeing more thanks, Atif
Sorry Atif, that’s all far too regimented for me. Does having an 18-minute nap after 3 hours work before breakfast, count?
Cheers
Phil
Phil, of course, this doesn’t suit everybody’s style, but I don’t see how doing a little bit consistently every day wouldn’t benefit you or anyone else. I’m sure having an 18 minute nap after 3 hours work is completely welcome as well. Enjoy your 40 winks. I’m looking forward to seeing your first video content on social media. I hope you don’t mind me asking. You’ll be great, thanks, Atif
Atif, this is just brilliant!I know I say this after I read all of your posts, but you bring such value to your blog, I truly look forward to reading your post each week. This article is a great reminder that anyone who accomplished great successes did so through consistency and dedication. The 100-hour rule is putting that habit into place. Truth be told, I struggle with this. Although I’m getting better, and the Affiliate System training has helped tremendously, this is not one of my strong suits. This is very good words to live by and something that I plan on applying more intention to, especially after reading this. I appreciate that you provide practical action steps for how to do this. You checked all the boxes on this post, THANK YOU!
Lauren, firstly, I want to say thank you to you over the last few weeks you’ve given me so much help and guidance and put me back in my box when I needed to. You’re very generous with your time and your ideas and your help. I really appreciate it. I hope you give this ago you’ve got nothing to lose. You might want to adjust the time you might find half an hour is better or 10 minutes. Either way it’s about consistency. Take care talk to you soon thanks, Atif