Allocating time to the right things.

I’m an entrepreneur. It means I really like ideas.

New products, new brands, new platforms, new plays.

Pretty often I catch myself getting pulled towards shiny things and away from what’s already working. And if I’m honest, it feels productive. It feels like innovation.

But most of the time, it’s just a distraction dressed up as progress.

Over the last few years, it’s been something I’ve wanted to ‘fix’ so I could focus and get to bigger results. 

One simple lens has helped me stay focused on the right things instead of chasing every new idea that pops into my head:

The 70/20/10 rule.

It’s not new. I even think I’ve written about it before. 

But this time, I wanted to break down how we’ve applied it to make it more practical.

Most people think growth is about more ideas, more products, more channels.

But the best companies don’t just innovate. They optimise relentlessly.

Here’s how they allocate their effort:

70% to what’s already working

This is your core engine.

Proven products

Best customers

Top-performing channels

Processes that consistently produce results

This is where most of your team’s time and energy should go. Making your proven machine faster, smoother, and more profitable.

Then spend about:

20% on adjacent plays

Small twists on what’s working:

Repackaging and bundling

New flavours / variations / formats

Improving the experience around the core product

Selling the same thing to a new but similar segment

You’re not reinventing the wheel. You’re extracting more value from what you’ve already built.

Then hold back:

10% for bold new bets

This is the fun stuff:

New products

New markets

New business models

The long shots that might change the game in a year or three.

But what most teams actually do (including me, at times)

They run it backwards:

70% on distractions and shiny objects

20% trying to patch up what’s broken

10% (if that) doubling down on what already works

Then they wonder why it feels like pushing a square boulder up a hill.

Turns out, you rarely need more ideas in business...

You just need more discipline around the ideas that already work and do a lot more volume.

It’s not sexy.

It’s not exciting.

But if you do it consistently, your business grows.

And eventually, it can grow to a point where you’re free to spend your time however you like while it runs.

Here’s how we’ve used the 70/20/10 rule inside Three Mills.

First, we had to get brutally honest about a few things:

Processes: What are the handful of processes that give us outsized results? 

Products: Which products are genuinely profitable and bought over and over? 

People: Who are the small group of like-minded clients who buy way more than others and actually value what we do?

Once we knew those, it became obvious where the 70% of our effort should go.

We could:

Serve our best customers even better.

Put more energy into the products with real pull.

Tighten the processes that actually move the needle.

When we doubled down on those “boring” winners, everything got easier.

I was pretty shitty work sometimes, but having a business that finally works?

That’s very fun I can tell you.

If you want to apply this, here’s a simple exercise:

Map your current effort.

 (A rough guess is fine)

What % of your time/energy is on proven winners?

What % is on fixing broken things?

What % is on new, shiny stuff?

Write down your real 70/20/10 right now. You might not like what you see.

Then, reassign your focus if you need.

• 70%: Doubling down on what’s already working.
• 20%: Repurposing and tweaking the winners.
• 10%: On micro experiments and future bets.

That’s it. No drama, no 40-page strategy deck.

Just a clearer way to allocate your attention towards the right things. 

I hope it helps.