The 80/20 Rule is one of the most helpful of all concepts of time and life management. It is also called the "Pareto Principle" after its founder, the Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto.
The principle states that 20% of our tasks will account for 80% of the value of what we do. This means that if we have a list of ten items to do, two of those items will turn out to be worth five or ten times or more than the other eight items put together. Those two items turns out invariably to be the frogs we should eat first.
The sad fact is that most people tend to procrastinate on the top 10 or 20 percent of items that are the most valuable and important, the "vital few". They busy themselves instead with the least important 80 percent, the "trivial many" that contribute very little to results.
Rule: Resist the temptation to clear up small things first. The hardest part of any important task is getting started on it in the first place. Once you actually begin work on a valuable task, you will be naturally motivated to continue.
The fact is that the amount of time required to complete an important job is often the same as the time required to do an unimportant job. The difference is that you get a tremendous feeling of pride and satisfaction from the completion of something valuable and significant.
1 - Start up by making a list of all the key goals, activities, projects, and responsibilities in your life today. Which of them could be in the top 10 or 20 percent of tasks that represent 80 or 90 percent of your results?
2 - Resolve today that you are going to spend more and more of your time working in those few areas that can really make a difference in your life and less time on lower valuable activities.
This article is inspired from the book 'Eat That Frog', by Brian Tracy
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