80-20 Rule
80% of your efforts generate 20% of the results and vice-versa. Combine this law with Parkinson’s Law to maximize Productivity.
- Limit tasks to the important to shorten work time (80-20 Rule)
- Shorten work time to limit tasks to the important (Parkinson’s Law)
Set clear Deadlines.
Note
Just ask yourself this consistently at least 3 times per day at scheduled times:
- Am I being Productive or just active?
- Am I inventing things to do to avoid the important?
BE EFFECTIVE, not Efficient
This is the MOST important tip I heard for Productivity from The 4-Hour Workweek. Effectiveness is doing the things that get you closer to your goals. Efficiency is performing a given task in the most economical manner possible.
In other words:
- Doing something unimportant well does not make it important.
- Requiring a lot of time does not make a task important.
More ACTION, less Motion
Motion = planning and strategizing and learning Action = behavior that delivers an outcome
Motion makes you feel like you’re getting things done, but really, you’re just preparing to get something done.
What you really need is MORE ACTION, more DOING. Preparation is just another form of procrastination.
Similar: 90/10 Principle
I confused 80-20 with 90/10, but while I was Googling, I found that the 90/10 principle actually exists:
- Ten percent of life is made up of what happens to you. Ninety percent of life is decided by how you react.
How this rule applies to life
- Applies to investing The Psychology of Money
- To how you allocate your time The 4-Hour Workweek, Expanded and Updated
- To how to invest the majority of your time Idk what book I read that from, but knowing that, you should focus on the 20%, maybe 12 Rules for Life