The 80/20 Rule

Learning to use our time wisely can be one of the most critical habits we develop in order to obtain success and happiness in life. It has been said that 80% or our results in life are attributed to only 20% of what we do. In other words, 80% of our time is essentially wasted or not fully capitalized to achieve success. So what are we doing that is hindering us from producing greater results in life? What do we do with the 80% of our time that is not producing results? Finding this out and then changing what we do with it will help us achieve much greater results in life.

Time is an interesting commodity. Each of us has the same amount of it in a day regardless of our background, wealth, education level, social status, etc. Because of this, time can be a great equalizer. Time can be wasted or invested; it can be savored or squandered. Once time is spent, it can never be taken back or reused. How we spend our time determines our outcomes in life. Thus, it is a shame how many of us willfully waste it. Treating time as a precious gift—for that is exactly what it is—will lead us to greater success.

On the radio we hear songs that encourage us to “live like we were dying.” In other words, the singer of the song is prompting us to fully utilize our time as we don’t really know how much of it we have left. Would you spend your time differently if you only had one year to live? What about one month, or week, or day? With this knowledge, I bet just about each of us would spend our time differently than we do today. Thus, this is good advice. If each of us could spend our time with a sense of urgency, realizing at any moment that our time may be up, we would be much better off.

One simple yet important step to take in order to better use our time is to identify how we spend it. Many of us hardly realize how much time we commit to different
things. Literally keeping a log or writing down or tracking how we spend our time for even a few days can reveal some important clues as to how we can more effectively utilize this valuable gift. As we participate in this exercise, we may be surprised to learn what we are in actuality dedicating our time to is different than what we thought or assumed. Having this knowledge will then help us to change and focus on those things that will help us improve our performance and on those things that matter most.

As a simple side note, I’ve observed that more and more often many of us are distracted by the shimmer of today’s entertainment , media, and technology that we waste countless time on things that produce no results or provide any sense of accomplishment or satisfaction in life. Learning to cut out such distractions and eliminating wasted time, though difficult, will only result in better success in life.

Besides identifying the time we are wasting we also need to learn the “20%” that is accomplishing 80% of our results. What are the most effective ways we spend our time? Once we figure out this secret, which hopefully is fairly easy to recognize once we start paying attention, we must start spending more time doing those things. For those who learn to utilize their precious time effectively eventually will come out on top.

So how do you spend your time? Do you truly know? Is 20% of what you are doing really producing 80% of your results? Finding ways to more effectively use your time will produce greater success and satisfaction in life.