Let me share with you a few points about time management that could change your life.

1) Doing something unimportant well does not make it important.

There is a constant flow of things coming our way, and it will always be that way. But that does not mean that these things are important or that you can’t delegate them. Be clear about what’s important to you before you start the week or the day. Stick to it.

You will be amazed to see how many things you can just ignore without consequences. All the successful people that I have studied have learned to ignore a lot of unimportant things even though they might appear urgent at the time. They just go back to focus on what they feel is important in the long run.

Most things make no real difference in your life. But these things will take up 90% of your time and energy if you allow it.  It might be painful, but it’s true. Look back at the last few months or years of your life, and you will see that many of the things that you did, worried about, spent time on, etc. didn’t really matter.

2) Pareto’s law: 80% of the results come from 20% of the effort and time. Do you know which 20% of your activities bring you the 80% results?  We have all heard about Pareto’s law, the question is, “Do we know how it applies to our daily lives?”

There are a lot of different ways how you can use this law to improve your life, here are a few examples:

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  • 80% of your income will come from 20% of your clients. Find out who those 20% are and fire the rest. This will give you more time to focus and increase the top 20% highest quality clients.
  • 80% of your time is spent on 20% of your clients. This 20% group is most often from the 80% in the previous example. Generally speaking the higher-end client takes up very little time compared to the lower-end client. The question is, why would you spend 80% of your time on people that have very little impact on your bottom line?
  • 80% of the sales are made by 20% of the sales people… which group are you?
  • 80% of real estate is owned by 20% of people.
  • 80% of the money is controlled by 20% of the people.
  • 80% of your support will come from 20% of your friends.
  • 80% of people visiting your website will read the same 20% of its contents.
  • 80% of computer crashes are caused by 20% of the bugs.

The list goes on and on. The point is, that you should constantly analyze which 20% of  your activities give you 80% of your results, and then ask yourself, “How do I get rid of the other 80%? Can I ignore or delegate them?”
 
3) Keep asking yourself, “Am I being productive or just active?” Just by paying attention to this question during the day, you are guaranteed to be more productive.

4) Ask yourself, “Am I inventing things to do in order to avoid the important?” This question is only for people who do this. You might not be one of them. If you think you are not one of them then ask yourself, “Just assuming that I do this, what would be a few things that I might invent to avoid the important?” Hey, you never know.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK.
Learning to ignore things is one of the great paths to inner peace. Robert J. Sawyer.

A man is rich in proportion to the number of things he can afford to let alone. Henry David Thoreau.

QUESTION OF THE WEEK.
“If this is the only thing that I accomplish today will I be satisfied with my day?”

© 2008 – 2011, Keren Peters-Atkinson. All rights reserved.