Today I was listening to an audio lesson on the 80/20 rule. You know, the 20% of the people do 80% of the work concept.
In my experience I have found this rule to be pretty much true to life. Granted the percentages may be off a little and this isn’t a math lesson or a post about absolutes. Mainly though, as a rule most people are lazy and a few people are go-getters and/or over achievers. The majority are more than happy and willing to let the over-achievers do most of the work. Oddly, the under achievers are very willing to accept the accolades for the work the over-achievers accomplished, but I digress.
The point here is not what other people are doing or not doing, it is about how to improve how you and I do our work. Are you working as efficiently as possible? Wouldn’t it be better if we did 80% of our work in 20% of our time? How you say?
It is about working smarter not harder. How many times have you started a task and then been distracted by a thought of another task that you pick up quickly, get it done, then back to your first task. You know have to ramp your thought process back up on the first task…which takes time. I don’t know about you but I will admit, many times why I get distracted on another task, besides that I have a lot on my plate, is because I am procrastinating on getting the task at hand completed.
We usually procrastinate on things we don’t want to do, or things that are overwhelming us in some way. I have also found that once I have completed the task I was procrastinating over, I look back and wonder why I didn’t get it done quicker, that it really wasn’t as bad as I made it to be in my mind.
We have to be proactive to get results. To make things happen. We have to be proactive to move forward in life.
What I found to be a great help is to get a group of tasks completed maybe in three hours and then allow myself “free time” for a period of time say 60 to 90-minutes give or take. This refreshes me enough so that I actually work more efficiently and quicker in the next two or three hours.
Let’s look at this a little deeper, is it possible that 80% of the time you use up is only giving you 20% of your overall happiness? If that is true, wouldn’t you want to strive to have a life that 20% of the time you spend provides you 80% of your overall happiness?
As an example, and again, I am not talking absolutes, but more in weights. What if you had no bills except living expenses, you spend only 10 minutes paying bills, no credit cards or other debt. That gives you the majority of your day, your month, your life, living happy and free knowing you have not debt. Sure this is a broad example, but it is the thought I am trying to get across.
What about your job? You spend eight, nine, maybe 10 or more hours a day at work, not counting travel time to and from. Is that job providing you 80% of your happiness? If you are like 80% of the population, the answer is no.
Yes, we need income to sustain life, but is there a rule somewhere that says we can’t be happy in the pursuit of that income? I say no.
I firmly believe if 80% of our life is spent on things that make us happy. Things of quality in our life such as family and friends, and 20% of our time is spent on responsibilities to maintain life and that time is used efficiently, I know I would have a much fuller and richer life.
Time to start re-organizing time. Time to work smarter not harder.
