The 80/20 Principle

[Matthew Sherborne]

Are you getting stuff done or finding more excuses to delay the uncomfortable tasks that really produce results. If you've ever heard of Vilfredo Pareto you probably have heard of the 80/20 principle.

In a nutshell, Pareto's 80/20 principle states that 80 percent of your results come from 20 percent of your actions. It can also be applied to wealth and income with 80 percent of all wealth being made and amassed by 20 percent of the population.

Do you believe that 80 percent of your results come from 20 percent of your actions? Those uncomfortable actions that make up the 80 percent of your results, just so happen to be the actions that make all of your money and pay all of the bills...

[NoTrouble]

That was a great video... "I need to wake up early tomorrow so I can get my stuff done"

It is so true that i how many people look at getting stuff done, me included. I'm working on it though!

[2BFree]

This video was great - I couldn't stop laughing. You're not alone NoTrouble. I've had days when all I do is think about what I need to do becuase "other" things keep coming up.

I have to add:
So I watched the video over and over and over to make sure I would know what getting my stuff done looked like.

[Alexis Froehlich]

Someone once told me "if you feel like you're taking one step forward and two steps back, it's time to pull out the 80/20 rule."

Seriously good advice. On those days I feel like I'm doing the one-person, two-step chacha, I grab a piece of paper and start thinking. First I re-read and then re-evaluate my goals. Then I look at my actions now and weed out the important stuff from the time wasters. Then I get to work on the important stuff.

When I first quit my "j-o-b" and started working for myself, I felt like everything I did had equal importance, and I justified all my actions by saying "I've gotta do my time when starting a business."

Using the 80/20 rule, I re-assessed my situation. I was spending WAY too much time returing client's phone calls. Not just returning them, but chatting with them. You know, creating and molding a relationship. Then I realized that if all my clients thought I was available all the time, they would call me whenever worked for them. So I set up specific phone hours and learned how to answer the phone like I wasn't just lounging in my pajamas all day.

The hardest thing I've done (at the time - in retrospect, I love it) was actaully dismiss two clients. Following the 80/20 rule, I realized two of my clients were seriously pains in the butt. Between the two of them they were completely indecisive, changed their minds all the time, one was ALWAYS very late (and with some excuse) and the other was at least 30 minutes early and impatient when I couldn't meet with her "right now."

Having them as clients was creating more stress than joy. I put up with it for several months, having to vent to my mom or boyfriend after each dealing. I was afraid to let them go because I thought I needed that money. After figuring out how much time I wasted preparing, stressing, and dealing with them, I realized they weren't even paying me enough to keep them as clients.

So I let them go. It was a really powerful feeling, very cool. The 80/20 rule is great for weeding out the stuff you don't really need in your life.

It's like the TV - you realize you actually can survive without it.

[Archbob]

I actually find that 5% of my actions usually account for almost all my results. The 80/20 principle is almost always true. We, as people as not always as productive or as efficient as we would like to be.