This post is based on an email I got from
Christoph Nauer:
This is an excellent article
by Brian Tracy and I hope it'll be helpful in your business.
The
80/20 rule is one of the most helpful concepts for life and time
management.
According to this principle: 20 percent of your activities will
account for 80 percent of your results. It can change the way
you set goals forever.
The 80/20 rule is also called
the “Pareto Principle”
named after it’s founder, the Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto from 1895. He
noticed that people in society seemed to divide naturally into what he called
the “vital few,” or
the top 20 percent in terms of money and influence, and the “trivial many,” or
the bottom 80 percent.
Later, he discovered that
virtually all economic activity was subject to this principle, in that 80
percent of the wealth of Italy during that time was controlled by 20 percent of
the population.
We can take Pareto’s 80/20
rule and apply it to almost any situation. In particular, we can apply it to
goal setting and productivity.
80/20
Rule In Action
If you have a list of ten
items to accomplish, two of those items will turn out to be worth more than the
other eight items put together.
The sad fact is that most
people procrastinate on the top 10 or 20 percent of items that are the most
valuable and important, the “vital
few,” and busy themselves instead with the least important 80
percent, the “trivial
many,” that contribute very little to their success.
How
To Apply The 80/20 Rule
Here’s what you should do in
order to effectively apply the 80/20 rule to goal setting and to your overall
productivity.
First, take a piece of paper
and write down ten goals. Then ask yourself: If
you could only accomplish one of the goals on that list today, which one goal
would have the greatest positive impact on your life?
Then pick the second most
important goal. What you’ll find is, after you complete this exercise, you will
have determined the most important 20 percent of your goals that will help you
more than anything else.
You should continue to work
at those goals that you’ve chosen as the most valuable all the time.
Eat
The Biggest Frog First
You often see people who
appear to be busy all day long but seem to accomplish very little. This is almost
always because they are busy working on tasks that are of low value while they
are procrastinating on the one or two activities that could make a real
difference to their companies and to their careers.
The most valuable tasks you
can do each day are often the hardest and most complex, but the payoff and
rewards for completing them can be tremendous.
Before you begin work, always
ask yourself, “Is
this task in the top 20 percent of my activities or in the bottom 80 percent?”
The rule for this is: resist
the temptation to clear up small things first.
If you choose to start your
day working on low-value tasks, you will soon develop the habit of always
starting and working on low-value tasks.
Work Towards Your Main Goal,
All The Time
Finally, I want to tell you
about a study that has just been done about the attitudes of rich people versus
poor people in regard to goal setting. What they found is that 85% of rich
people have one big goal that they work on all the time.
So, if you want to be
wealthy, do what wealthy people do. Pick one big goal and work on it all the
time, and if you do, it will change your life.
Here is a
link to the original post by Brian Tracy, which also includes a free 14-Step Goal-Setting Guide download and a video on the 80/20 Rule for Goal Setting.
Interesting days
Tomorrow -
Belly Laugh Day,
Talk Like A Grizzled Prospector Day,
Beer Can Appreciation Day and
Peanut Butter Day
Next Monday -
Blue Monday,
Bubble Wrap Appreciation Day,
Croissant Day and
Inane Answering Message Day
February 23 -
Play Tennis Day,
Chilli Day,
International Dog Biscuit Appreciation Day,
Banana Bread Day,
Curling Is Cool Day and
Digital Learning Day
Posts
