One of the most powerful natural laws on the side of any successful entrepreneur and/or business person is the 80/20 rule.
Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto initially observed this in 1906, when he discovered that 80% of Italian real estate was owned by just 20% of the population. Then he went out to his garden and saw that 20% of the pea pods contained 80% of the peas…so this was clearly a larger phenomenon!
In the business world, this means that 20% of your actions will account for 80% of your results. Which means that, on the flip side, 80% of your actions will only account for only 20% of your results. These are the activities that fill up your schedule, but add little or no value.
So if you find yourself wishing you had more time in the day to get everything done, this is a critical principle to keep in mind. Because while you can’t add more hours to the day, you can make sure that you’re spending time on the most valuable activities.
Imagine the possibilities. Right now, you’re probably spending only the equivalent of one day a week on your most important items. If you doubled this to two days a week, and took the rest of the week off, you’d actually increase your productivity by 60%!
Legendary self-help author and guru Brian Tracy often encourages you to constantly ask yourself if you’re working on the single important thing that you could be doing. Get in the habit of doing this more often, and you’ll find your productivity increasing by leaps and bounds – without actually working any longer – all thanks to the magic of the 80/20 principle!
I have so wondered, at 5:00 pm, where my day went. I can actually see where it went now. I am familiar with the principle Brett writes about, but Chrometa allows me to apply it.
Mary Ryan
17 Mar 10 at 6:15 am
Thanks Mary, that’s awesome! Like you, I also am heads down doing a lot of different things during the day, it’s usually a whirlwind, glad that Chrometa is helpful in allowing you to reconstruct that time!
Brett Owens
17 Mar 10 at 8:49 am