Continuing the topic about the $10,000/HR Bootcamp by Khe Hy which I gave an overview last time (see my blog post), today’s blog post we dive in to the Day 1 of the bootcamp.  

The topic is all about leverage. As said in the course outline:

Day 1 – The Art Of Leverage

Learn how to identify high-leverage activities  that span all industries and professions and how you can apply leverage to fast-track your career and grow your business.

So let’s get into it.

First important thing that I learned from Day 1’s bootcamp is the work leverage framework.

 

$10K/HR Work Framework by Khe Hy

It’s a simple 2×2 matrix, something similar to the Eisenhower matrix, cashflow quadrant (if you are a fan of Robert Kiyosaki). On one axis we have high leverage, low leverage. We also have High skill and low skill work on the other side of the axis. 

For a better understanding, Khe Hy shared that people that are watching his videos at the middle of the day live, wherein people are joining for a zoom meeting in the middle of the day, were people that are highly skilled, and that people in the group are presumably knowledge workers. He assumed that we (I included myself) have a unique skill. 

The goal then now is how to take this unique skill, and how to amplify it. 

He then started to split the framework. 

By giving a high-level overview of the difference between the parts of the matrixes, Khe Hy then proceeded to break down the different kinds of work for each of the matrices.

The $10 Work

These kinds of work are necessary, but not really that important. I see these things that won’t really make or break your execution of things. Mentioned $10 work include: 
  • Getting to Inbox Zero (For GTD Fans)
  • Organising Email Inbox
  • Social Media Checking
  • Formatting of Excel sheets (column widths, decimal places, etc)
It is also important to note that as mentioned, some of the $10 work are necessary. Like for example formatting Excel sheets. Can you imagine if someone shared in a board meeting to you but it does not have the proper borders, or at least color schemes, decimal places, etc. 
 
I also like to think that some of the $10 work are for addressing someone else’s need, like for example replying to an email.

 

The $100 Work

It was mentioned that this is a “danger zone”. People in this column confuse efficiency with effectiveness. Tasks in this zone include automating your tasks, apps, systems, hacks, etc. You can be the fastest person doing the tasks or getting tasks done, but if these tasks doesn’t really matter or are low level work, then they do not matter. 
 
Some mentioned during the bootcamp are:
 

 Tools

Notion
Trello

Systems

Getting Things Done (GTD)
Zapier

The thing is, if you only implement these, will you actually get to where you want to be in life? Will you be able to achieve your goals by only implementing the using the tools and systems?

Automation is good, getting things done is good, but as mentioned, if you don’t do the right things, then you won’t get to where you want to be.

Although to be honest, there was a point in my life that I was also really focusing on these things. Personally I am implementing GTD and Trello and they help me a lot with my work, but back then I focused too much on learning the ins and outs of the tools that I lost track of the goals that I need achieve and the actual action items I need to take. 

These things can make you feel productive, but are they really helping you to go to where you want to go?

The $1k Work

Being part of the 1k workers means that you have a unique skill that the market wants. Khe Hy reiterated that the people interested in the bootcamp are people that have a unique skill, else they wouldn’t be interested in the topic.

You have the capability already to be highly paid since the market rewards people that are highly skilled knowledge workers. Examples he mentioned are lawyer, doctors, financial analyst, consultant and programmer.

But the thing is, being in this matrix still has a catch. You do get paid relatively a lot, but you get paid by the time you put in. If you exhausted your annual leaves, your income will be affected. 

The $10k Work

This kind of work is all about planting seeds for the long term. You actually have to be comfortable in delayed gratification, wherein the actions you take does not really have an immediate feedback or outcome. 
 
Another thing is that you have to know and identify how can you actually scale your work. Khe advised that the easiest way to scale your work is to be a kick-ass manager. The thing with being a manager is that you manage a number of people. And by working with a team, this is actually a great opportunity for you to scale your work. Other people will be able to do some of the work to help achieve your goals.
 
One of the suggestions Khe Hy shared to achieve this is by being a great manager. If a skilled worker becomes a manager wherein this manager is able to replicate into 5 people, then that is $10k work.
 
One other point also for doing $10k work is looking for one to many opportunities instead of 1 to 1. An example shared was making a YouTube video wherein you just need to create it once, but it can reach millions of people. 

Another thing would be a blog posts. These have the potential to also reach a lot of people.
 

One thing I intend incorporate in my productivity system is to identify under what matrix is a task I am doing. 

With that, I will be able to track how much $10, $100, $1k, $10k work I do in a day, in a week, etc.

For example if you tried tracking your daily work and you noticed that most of your work comes into the $10 category, then you aren’t doing enough impactful things.

It’s also important to identify at which point of the day you do the work. If for example you are most productive within the morning, but you do not do your 10k work during that time, then you aren’t fully utilising your plans.

What you should do then is to identify your task type, schedule them in your most productive timing, then follow the plan and execute. Do your $10k work in your most productive time.

For me moving forward, I will make sure to properly schedule my work. My most productive timings are early morning, so I will put in my 10k work in this schedule.

This concludes my entry about the Day 1 of the bootcamp. There are really a lot of things to learn so I highly recommend you to watch the video, understand the theories and whys, and of course, implement and take action.