Are you familiar with the "Pareto Principle"? The Pareto principle is based on the idea that 20% of your tasks yield 80% of your results. By prioritizing with the 80 20 principle you develop time management skills that boost your effectiveness.
Do you live in a world in which your priorities are changing every hour?
Your boss tells you to drop everything - but you know they are going to come back and ask what happened with the project you were told to drop!
On top of this there is information overload, hundreds of emails, mergers and acquisitions.
This paints a picture of a constantly changing landscape!
It is important to navigate your way in this changing landscape.
To do this you must have a priority system which validates incoming tasks against your obligations.
In my experience there is no one "best" way! But you can build your priority system on three things:
- Know what your key result areas or goals are
- Use the Pareto principle or other techniques to prioritize your tasks
- Write down a plan or time management schedule to ensure that you get your high impact activities done.
Know and respect the Pareto principle
Named after an Italian economist, Vilfredo Pareto, the Pareto principle or the 80 20 principle means that irrespective of what you choose, 20% are vital and 80% are trivial.
For example, look at your to do list - if you have 10 tasks on there then two of those tasks will yield 80% of your results.
Alternatively, 80% of income is owned by 20% of people - it works both ways!
The Pareto principle holds across business, academia, politics, and a number of other areas.
The foundation of this time management skill is that:
20% of tasks yield 80% of results.
Graphically, the Pareto principle looks like this:
So your top priorities are those that enable you to achieve 80% of results.
By concentrating on your top priorities you boost your time management skills and get important things done.
But how do you know what your top priorities are?
Your top priorities are those that are aligned with your performance criteria, key result areas, or goals.
How To Set "SMART" Goals
Clarity of goals means that you are able to rate today's priorities more clearly.
Clear goals provide a filtering mechanism by which to assess incoming tasks that are competing for your time.
In later articles I will provide practical steps on how to set goals for your work or personal life.
Setting goals allows you to determine your priorities.
Do you have performance criteria that you need to meet for your job?
What are your job specifications?
Do you have key result areas?
While setting personal goals or doing career goal setting may make you feel uneasy - especially after January's resolutions had thawed by February - setting goals is critical to determine your priorities!
Priority tasks are those that move you toward your goals, key result areas or objectives. These tasks enable you to achieve your goals and objectives.
Join me as we continue this series with: SMART Goals - What Are They and How Do I Set Them
Think, Grow. Live!
Roland N. Gilbert
Roland works one-on-one – via phone and face-to-face – and with MasterMind Groups. Through Couples Coaching Roland helps clients communicate better, find the love they want, and create relationships of significance. Contact Roland at 800-974-3692 or rgilbert@perennialgrowth.com to determine if coaching is right for you.
