THE 20/80 RULE

I just recently had my book club meeting. It was great to see my friends who are part of it, as we all share the same passion for reading and sharing our thoughts on the latest books that we recently have read.  We love meeting every month and this time we would love to increase our monthly meetings to twice a month, more of that later on.

Phone rings: Hello is this Jennifer? I am Chris from PIC? how are you?

Me on the other line: Sorry I am in the middle of something, is there anything I can do for you?

Chris: Oh if it’s not the right time to call, I will call back again later.

Me: No I’ve got a minute, what is it?

   

(this forces the other person on the other line to stop beating around the bush and get to the point of why he is calling)

Chris: I would like to sell you some insurance.

SECOND SCENARIO: MEETING

Chris arrives at my front door: Hi Jenny, I am here for our meeting to present to you an investment.

Me: Yes Chris, come in. I only have 30 minutes for this as I have an appointment afterwards. Lets see what you have.

(This cuts the dilly dollying conversations and gets to the core of his purpose of being there. I gave a momentum of 30 minutes for the other person to cut the chase and use of the time given wisely)

Why is this important for me? Because other more important things get compromised when you continue to waste time. It is like a domino effect where one priority can affect the other if not managed wisely.

I have been recently been unloading my activities lately to free up more of my time. This helps me to become more focused on things that really matter. I have been absolutely picky on activities that I do for the day, people that I go to and even talk to and have limited the use of browsing any social media that usually consumes most of my down time. I have recently applied the 20/80 rule in my life and it has been so effective to me so far.

What is the 20/80 principle?

The 20/80 principle is the law of income distribution called the Pareto’s Law. It is used in economics and states that 80 percent of wealth and income was produced by only 20 percent of the population.

80 percent of consequences flow from 20 percent of the causes.

80 percent of the results comes from the 20 percent of the effort and time.

80 percent of all stock market gains are only realized by 20 percent of investors.

But the 20/80 principle can be applied to our personal life as well. Its for people like me who have a problem with saying NO to everyone.  This principle I have learned to apply in my business and personal life especially in time management. When I have identified my 20 percent action that is giving me 80 percent results both negative and positive, it became very easy for me to get things done.

1.     Which 20 percent of my actions that causes 80 percent of my problems, stress and unhappiness?

2.     Which 20 percent of my actions are resulting in 80 percent of my desired outcomes in life and happiness?

It’s only that 20 percent that we do in a day that gives us 80 percent of our income. It’s only that 20 percent of what we do that makes our family and friends love us even more. It’s only those 20 percent that we do that will really matter, that will make us get picked for that job that we really want. That is why small things are really big things.

 Lets not fill our days with activities that don’t really matter and we wonder at the end of the day why we feeling exhausted and wish that we have more time in a day. Lets not confuse Activity vs Productivity.  Lack of time is actually just lack of priorities.

The key to getting what we really want in life is focus, and to be able to have more is really to concentrate on less. Stop the obsession on results by volume approach, I don’t think we’d get anywhere with that.  Remember what gets measured gets managed according to Peter Drucker, management theorist. The key is to really just FOCUS.