Have you heard of the 80/20 rule?  Likely you have.  Also known as the Pareto Principle, it is the concept that 80% of the effect comes from 20% of the causes. This can then be applied into many areas of life.  The phenomenon was originally observed in Italy, where 20% of the people had 80% of the wealth.  Since then it has become a rule of thumb for business.  The numbers are not exact, it is not a scientific proof, but the trend is general and consistent; consistent enough that people are able to use it to guide them into making their business more effective.

Examples of where it might be used include:

• 80% of an organization’s sales will come from 20% of their salespeople
• 80% of your business will come from 20% of your customers
• 80% of your investment income will come from 20% of your investment

You can also look at things from the opposite perspective:

• 20% of your customers will cause 80% of your headaches
• you wear 20% of your clothing, 80% of the time
• 20% of patients use 80% of healthcare resources
• the final 20% of your workout will provide 80% of the results

And of course the list goes on and on.  There are lots of ways that the Pareto Principle can be used to help you be more successful.  This article will focus on one of those.

20% of your activities will produce 80% of your results!

Think about that for a moment.  Out of all of the things you do, 1/5 th of your activity is what creates 4/5 ths of your value.  That is pretty significant.  Again, you can reverse the concept.  Only 80% of your activity accomplishes only 20% of your results.  This leads to an obvious question:

How can you do more of the activities that are really producing results?

If you can take those high-result activities that you currently spend 20% of your time on, and increase the amount of time you spend on them, you can make yourself more effective and accomplish even more. Imagine if, instead of taking 20% of your time on these high results activities, you were able to increase that to 30% or even 40%.  Your results would skyrocket.  You would be getting a lot more important things accomplished.

What are your 20% activities?

The first step in doing this is to identify what your 20% activities are.  What are the activities that produce the most results in your life and business?  What are the activities that help you move more quickly towards your goals?  The list of activities will differ significantly between different goals and businesses.

For someone in sales the 20% activities might be:

• phoning new prospects
• following up with current prospects
• making sales presentations

Things that are not in the top 20% are likely:

• updating your contact list
• cleaning your office
• analyzing your competitors products

If you are a blogger the 20% activities might be:

• writing new articles
• writing guest posts
• commenting on other blogs

Things that are not in the top 20% are likely:

• making continual search engine optimization changes
• focusing on web design
• playing with fancy new online tools

You can’t completely ignore the 80% activities.

The 80% activities will never go away.  In fact, you can’t stop doing them.  Often they provide a foundation for making the 20% activities so successful. The fact that you understand your customer’s products DOES make your sales calls more effective.  The search engine optimization you have done allows your articles to reach more people.  These activities are useful and you still need to build them into your day.

You just want to REDUCE the amount of time you spend on them.

Take the time to make your list.  What are your 20% activities? Those activities that produce most of the results as you work towards your goals. The list might surprise you.  How are you at doing these activities?  Are there ways you can do more?  Even putting in a little more time into the activities that pay off the most can allow you to reap huge benefits.  On the flip side, what falls into your 80% activities?  What are the activities that, while useful, are only contributing 20% of your results?  Identifying this list will help you see patterns.  You will be able to see what you can cut back on and where you can shift time away from.
Do it today.  Make your list. It likely won’t get it exactly right the first time, but start with a list in hand.  Use that list to plan your week.  After your week review your list again.  Make any changes you need until you are sure you have your list right.  You may even want to log your time, recording what you do in each fifteen minute segment.  Know what your 20% activities are, and then do more of them!

Written by:

Danny Gamache –The Success Professor

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Down time… those numerous times throughout the day when you are not doing anything productive. These might be time spent in line, in waiting rooms, in your car etc… Usually it involves waiting of some sort. In your car you are waiting to get to your destination, in a restaurant you might be waiting for a friend, at the bank you might be waiting in line etc…

Sometimes down time occurs because you finish a product early. Perhaps you finish a project and there are only 10 minutes until your next meeting. In essence, by finishing early you are now waiting for that meeting. It might not make sense to start a new project in those ten minutes, so what do you do?

If you are like most people you’ll find your day is scattered with these sort of down times. It may be only for a minute here and a minute there, but in the end they add up to a significant part of your day. If you can capitalize on these times you can substantially increase your productivity. In fact, you’ll soon start to consider down times as bonus times!

This article will discuss three categories of bonus time:

1. Bonus Time While Driving

2. Bonus Time While Waiting in Line

3. Bonus Time in Your Office

Bonus Time While Driving

For many, the biggest daily down time is while they are driving. In  our congested cities we often spend an hour a day or more commuting. Even people who work fully from their home often have to run errands a couple of times a week and can still get stuck in traffic. If not used productively driving can be one of the biggest time wasters.

There are a number of ways to be more productive while you drive. The most obvious one is to listen to compact disks or podcasts. These can be podcasts, audio books, business training, or even sermons. Audio recordings can also help you become an expert in a subject of your choice. For example if you wanted to become an expert on team building you could get a number of different training programs and audio books and on the subject. You can also choose to learn a language or even take some college level distance learning courses while you drive.

Secondly you can listen to motivational and inspirational music. Having the radio on all the time is not productive, but there are times when you need to fire up some energetic music to get yourself pumped up. A third productive thing to do while driving is to return phone calls. The cell phone is an invention that if used properly can save you a lot of time. By batching return phone calls you can return a lot of calls while you are driving (just be sure to use a hands-free system).

Bonus Time While Waiting in Line

Another primary type of down time occurs when you are waiting for someone or in some line. You are usually standing in a line of people or sitting in a waiting room. This time can also be turned into a highly productive event.

One option for using this time is to read. Keep a paperback book in your jacket pocket or in your purse and pull it out whenever you have two or three minutes. If putting a whole book in your pocket is too big, then rip out 5-10 pages each day and take them with you. By the time you get home from your day you will likely be finished the pages you brought with you. You can often read a book every couple of weeks just in the time you are waiting in line.

Secondly you can network! Talk to the people around you. Ask questions and get to know them. The funny thing about people, even complete strangers, is that when you ask them questions they answer them. Most people are so starved for people to listen to them that they will talk your ear of. Perhaps the person you are talking with will become a valuable business contact.

Bonus Time in Your Office

A final type of down time can occur in your office when you finish a project early. You may not have time to start in on a new project, but you should do something during this time. Certainly, one good option for this kind of bonus time is to read. If you have a book, magazine or journal ready you can use this time to read. Perhaps this is also a good time for you to read your favorite blog, or go through some of your RSS feeds.

Another option is to use this time to check a few emails. If you are batching your emails then you will not have checked any emails while you have been working on your project. Using bonus time to check emails can be a good use of time. Even if you have a scheduled time later in the day to check emails, you can get started during your bonus time. This will make your job later a little easier.

Clearly there are a lot of options for how you fill your down times bonus times. Whatever you choose to do with these times, just make sure you use them for something of value. There is no reason to leave the time in unproductive waste. Remember you only have 1440 minutes in a day so use each one to their full benefit.

The Success Professor – Danny Gamache

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