As a business owner, you’ll never have enough time to get to everything done. Since you can’t create more time, the real challenge lies in the ability to think ahead, and to have the discipline to do things in order of importance. Using the power of priorities makes the difference between a successful business and just surviving. And the same is true for all areas of our lives.
Leadership trainer and author John Maxwell says, “Thinking ahead and prioritizing responsibilities marks the major differences between a leader and a follower.”
Most people have heard of the Pareto Principle, more commonly known as the 80/20 Principle. Roughly stated, that in most businesses 80% of your business comes from 20 % of your customers.
Other examples of the Pareto Principle are:
Tasks 20 percent of your tasks will bring in 80 percent of your results.
Reading 20 percent of the book contains 80 percent of the content.
Job 20 percent of our work gives us 80 percent of our satisfaction.
Products 20 percent of the products bring in 80 percent of the profits.
So… when it comes to your priorities, 20 percent of your priorities will give you 80 percent of your production, IF you spend your time, energy, money and personnel on the top 20 percent of your priorities. When you do this you are getting a 400% or fourfold return in productivity. Think what this would mean in your business! That’s the power of priorities.
Every business person needs to understand the Pareto Principle as it applies to their personal productivity.
So if you have 10 tasks on your list (you do have them written down on a list right?), 2 of them will produce 5 to 10 times the value of the others. Interestingly, they probably all take roughly the same amount of time to complete. So doesn’t it make sense to find the 2, and focus on them first?
This is the area where most people fall down. You look at your list (you do have a written list right?) and you see 10 things. You see 2 that look easy and fast and you want to feel like you’ve accomplished something, so you say to yourself, OK, lets just bang those out and then I can focus on the harder activities. Hours later, you still haven’t gotten to those top priority projects, it’s now afternoon and your energy is waning, and you don’t have a large enough block of time left to do them, so you vow to tackle them first thing tomorrow. But hey, you cleared out all that clutter from your inbox! Lather, rinse, repeat.
As a business owner, you can decide whether you will be reactive or proactive when it comes to the use of your time. The question is not, “Will I be busy?” but “How will I invest my time?” It’s not “Will my calendar be full?,” but “What will fill my calendar?” Focus on your top 2 priorities that will deliver the highest value first thing in the morning, leave the administrivia for later in the day when you are more tired, and watch your productivity and personal satisfaction rise to new heights!
For more tools on prioritizing your day, go read Brian Tracy, “Eat That Frog“.