Applying the 80-20 Law
Becoming caught up in competing priorities, attempting too many different things and finding it difficult to make a sustained impact
The compass and the clock. What comes first, the compass or the clock? Before we can truly manage time (the clock), it is important to know where we are going, what our priorities and goals are, in which direction we are headed (the compass). Where you are headed is more important than how fast you are going. Rather than always focusing on what's urgent, learn to focus on what is really important.
Bonaparte’s law: “space we can recover, time never.” Successful people have no more time than the unsuccessful. But the successful know how to manage their time more productively. Keep a log of how you allocate your time. Review this log at the end of each week to identify the productive and unproductive use of your time. Give time the respect it deserves. Once you’ve spent it, you can’t get it back again.
Don’t spread yourself too thin by becoming involved in so many different activities that you can make little impact in any. If you’ve got ten priorities, you don’t have any priorities. Work through the range of your commitments and list out those that represent genuine priorities, activities where the ratio of effort to outcome works in your favour. Be selective in choosing those activities where you need to concentrate your efforts and direct your energies with maximum force. Don’t choose the easy stuff you enjoy but is unprofitable. And look out for those conflicting goals that pull you in opposing directions. Apart from being a highly stressful way to live, competing priorities will dissipate your energies.
Know what you should do, not what others think you should do. Write a priority list.
- what 5 things do you want to achieve before you die?
- what 5 things would improve your life right now?
- what 5 things if you complete next month will make a significant impact on your longer-term goals?
Don’t become a “to-do-lister”, generating lists of activities that are little more than squiggles on a post-it. And don’t write out a wish list of vague intentions, creating a false sense of purpose but making little impact on the challenges you face. Keep prioritising. You cannot make a personal impact on every idea, project or assignment that comes your way. Concentrate your efforts on those few things where, with sufficient attention and energy, you can excel.
Run your gains and cut your losses. Professional investors know the rules of the stock market: stay with performing shares and take the losses on those that are showing signs of falling. Don’t buck the market by sticking with “personal shares” on a downward trajectory, attempting to recover losses from failing stock. Know what is and isn’t working for you in your life. Invest heavily in those activities that are helping you advance your goals and get out of those activities, which however well established and comfortable, are no longer working for you.
Bet on the odds of success. Focus your time and effort on those activities that will pay off and ignore those with a high risk of failure. Evaluate every potential opportunity by asking:
- what is my personal involvement. The odds of success are greater when you are personally accountable for the success or failure of the project, and closely involved in the implementation process? If you are at the mercy of others’ input, the odds of success are lower?
- can I control events? What power and influence do I have in planning, decision making and coordination? Or am I a pawn in a bigger game I can’t control?
- can I manage the complexity? Highly complex projects, requiring an elaborate sequence of activities and coordination of a range of different inputs and interdependencies, have a high risk of failure. Prioritise those simple activities that you can manage.
Do the natural thing: play to your strengths. Don’t make life difficult for yourself by attempting the wrong thing in the wrong way. Know your strengths and how you can draw on them to maximum effect. It will be the deployment of your fundamental deep-seated talents, which will make the difference. Recognise also your shortcomings and limitations and how they need to be managed if they aren’t going to “trip you up”. But a life plan based on the attempt to “fix” your limitations is a strategy with a high risk of failure.
Make Parkinson’s Law work in reverse. Increase your productivity by completing work in shrinking time. If a task normally takes 2 hours, then give yourself 1 hour to complete it. Don’t be slap-dash and sloppy. Perform the task well. But set the timer to give yourself less time to force you to complete it with full concentration. You may be surprised by how much you can complete in less time.
Keep alert to organisational change. Don’t find yourself pursuing objectives which are now of little importance or value to you or your company. Review your work commitments regularly to ask: what percentage of your time are you spending on:
- activities that are irrelevant and adding little value - stop them
- activities that are important but no one else is noticing - do them but raise your profile
- activities which are progressing your goals - redouble your efforts
Manage your stakeholders proactively. Don’t assume your job description is a meaningful summary of your work priorities. Know the fundamental purpose of your job and the value your role adds to the organisation. Many people lack clarity about the fundamental rationale of their role, why it exists and how it contributes to the success of the organisation. Be very clear about the focus of your role and how it adds value to your different stakeholders, your boss, peers, team members and customers: those individuals with expectations of what they want from you. Your stakeholders have the power to influence your life. Don’t assume anything. Check out everyone’s expectations of what they want from you. Look at the political dynamic to gauge which stakeholders are more or less important and manage your priorities around their requirements.
Manage upwards. Know what is important to your boss. Typically bosses want:
- loyalty. They want the reassurance that you are on their side, batting for them, not plotting behind their back and seeking to undermine them. Don’t therefore bad-mouth your boss (even if they are incompetent) to others; it will get back.
- an easy life. Your boss does not want to spend time dealing with your cock-ups. The big problems are fine; your boss will relish the opportunity to demonstrate their importance. It is the small stuff that irritates and annoys your boss.
- no surprises. Your boss does not want their boss to ask them the awkward questions about issues you have forgotten to mention to your boss. Keep your boss aware of emerging
- the opportunity to impress their peers and boss. Keep your boss supplied with a flow of good ideas, ideas that will enhance their standing and reputation.
Manage the opportunities and risks of different meetings. There are three types of meetings:
- staff meetings for team members to “show-and-tell” and keep the boss informed. These are the meetings when you need to respond to the boss’s expectations as well as avoid alienating your peers, all anxious to please the boss. Remember this is your boss’s meeting not a platform for you to impress others. And don’t take on additional responsibilities, responsibilities you know you can’t fulfil, through the desire to be the good team member.
- “get-things-done” meetings. Here there is a practical focus. Those attending need to work together to achieve some outcome. And there is less hierarchy and more emphasis on expertise and skill to solve problems. The challenge here is to ensure that everyone pulls their weight and you’re not the one picking up the pieces for those colleagues happy to coast.
- “combat” meetings. These are the “head-to-head” encounters of organisational life, the meetings that will determine if you get the “green light”, the budget and resource and backing to advance your goals. Here you need to prepare well. Master the content of what you need to negotiate. More importantly, you need to know the players in the meeting and anticipate their likely responses. Some battles you will win, others you will lose. And lose with grace. But never agree to any “half baked” compromises that can only result in futile organisational activity on your part.
Don’t worry about being left out. Much of the time we waste time on non-productive activities, especially meetings and other social events, because we are worried about the implications of our absence. If I miss an “important” event, what will others think? Will I be seen as unimportant? Don’t disappear; maintain a positive profile. But pick your moments. Don’t run from one meeting to another, spending time on activities that can make little difference to your overall success.
Let others do the work for you; you can’t do it all by yourself. But make it easy for others to get on and do the job. Know what you personally, and only you, should concentrate on doing and what others should be doing for you. Be imaginative in identifying those who could take on more of your responsibilities. What should you delegate back up to your boss; sideways to your peers; downwards to your team? Within your household who could help you manage life priorities more effectively; your partner, your children, your friends? And know how to delegate. Delegate with skill and subtlety to engage and involve others in the task and allow them to do things their way not against your detailed prescription of “how”. Don’t interfere and meddle once you have delegated.
Avoid time wasters. These are not necessarily the idlers of life, individuals with nothing else to do but take up your time with their personal problems and grievances. These individuals are obvious but occasionally useful in keeping up-to-date with organisational gossip. The most dangerous time wasters are the superficially busy, those with an inflated sense of their own importance who burden you with pointless and non-productive activity, activity with no likelihood of meaningful outcomes. Manage the time wasters by checking:
- their level of authority to set your priorities; what power do they really have?
- the clarity of their proposals and the outcomes of their plans; do they know what they really want and why it matters?
- their efficiency levels to get things done quickly; can they make it happen?
If colleagues prevaricate when challenged by the specifics of why and what, the chances are they will waste your time. Distance yourself from them. Don’t get caught up in half-baked plans with the potential to damage your credibility and distract you from what is important. www.excitingfutures.com
Lottery winners and accident victims. Know the one thing. What one thing will make a massive difference to your life? And it isn’t winning the lottery. Big money lottery winners were found not to be happier than those paralysed following a major car accident, six months after each incident! Happiness then is not the outcome of positive “happenings; it is based on something more fundamental. Review the full range of your life commitments and take time to review your options and the implications of different decisions. What one action will make an exponential difference to your life well being?
Do what’s important but no one else is doing. This is strategic insight to find that “space in life” that you can exploit. This is the space that others are overlooking. It might be an unpopular activity, it might be a difficult task. But if it’s genuinely important and no one else is doing it, seize the opportunity to make a mark and stand out from the crowd.