Focus on the Vital Few: 80/20 Rule

STOP, stop what you are doing and get focused on completion. Stop working so hard and focus on a few tasks at a time.  Follow the 80/20 rule. Focusing on doing the 20% that will yield 80% of the results.  Less is more in this case.

The Pareto’s principle was developed by an Italian economist and most commonly known as the 80/20 Rule. Pareto observed that 80% of the wealth was owned by 20% of the population, the rule has applications in almost every area of life and business. This rule stems from the 1900’s and has helped many gurus and executives manage their businesses, their staff and their time more effectively.

This is how you can apply it
The value of the Pareto Principle is reminding us to stay focused on the “20% that matters”. That can be a task you complete, a project you are working on, a subject matter you are trying to master, (based on Pareto’s Principle) only 20% really matter.

Make decisions on allocating time, resources and effort, based on the 80/20 rule:

• Daily Activity Sheet – Do an activity sheet for an entire day. Record every activity you do and how long it takes you to do it.  Figure out at the end of the day how much time is spent on entertainment, personal happiness, work, talking on the phone, or either your productivity. This will help you determine where you need to spend more time doing the 20% that moves your forward.

• Completing Goals – Review your goals list and look at the resources required to accomplish each goal (time, money, people, energy, etc.). Some of the goals we have on our list are not valuable goals, they may just be more to do’s on your list. Scale back on the non-productive list.

• Sales – 80 percent of your sales will come from 20 percent of your customers. When you look at who you have been spending time on, are these clients in your top 20%, the ones who are repeats, raving fans…these are the ones you want to focus on, the ones who think your product or services are amazing.

• Marketing – 80 percent of your success in your online/offline marketing campaigns will come from only 20 percent of your advertising. Look at the past campaigns that you may have had, it can be a successful event, a referral to speaking engagements, the group of people who signed up for your newsletter, a new product buyer.  Whatever you did to get the attention you received, you must duplicate that 20% and repeat it again.  This can save you time and money.

Focus is a discipline.  I myself love new ideas, I love to be creative, I love gathering and dissecting new information, I love trying new things. As an entrepreneur, wife and mom that is not the most effective framework to operate from.  I had to narrow my focus and create a project map that keeps me focused only on the 20% of what I should be doing.

For the month of May my 20% will be focused on networking and list building. June, I will be focused on prospecting and funnel building.  Remind yourself of the critical 20% you need to focus on to reap 80% of the reward.

What project area are you working on?

What are you producing on a daily basis?

Comments are appreciative and they help me with my 80/20 rule for writing.