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Time Management Strategies | The 80/20 Principle | Productivity

The problem that we have in life is how to manage our time, there are many things to do, there are many things to know, there are many things to learn, there are many things to experience. How should you manage your time? 


Every person has a way to manage it. But then comes a principle that’s called the “80/20 principle or Pareto Principle. The word Pareto named after economist Vilfredo Pareto.


The Pareto Principle or the “80/20 Principle” asserts that – 80 percent of consequences come from 20 percent of the causes.

Differently, we can say that a minority of causes, inputs, or efforts usually lead to a majority of the results, outputs or rewards.


This is contrary to what people expect in most of the scenarios. You can do a lot of work but if you are not doing it correctly that is your 20 percent, then you are not going to get maximum results. Your 20 percent of time spent are deciding 80 percent of the consequences you are going to face. 80 percent of results come from 20 percent of effort. A few things are important; most are not. A small minority has a major and dominant impact on our life, business, or anything we do.


One question we should ask if we want to use this principle: What is the 20 percent that is leading to 80 percent? You need to use your creative thinking to know the answer to it. It requires your time and creativity. If you apply this principle, believe me, things become so much easy for you. You can understand and solve things in a way that is amazing to you. Most of the time we exhaust ourselves. Using this principle, you become selective and your thinking will be in order.


Henry Ford said that “My effort is in the direction of simplicity. People in general have so little and it costs so much to buy even the barest necessities (let alone the luxuries to which I think everyone is entitled) because nearly everything we make is much more complex than it needs to be. Our clothing, our food, our household furnishings – all could be much simpler than they now are and at the same time be better-looking.”


We need to make everything simple. Because simple is beautiful. And there are ways to simplify everything. It could be your life, it could be your business, it could be your relationship, it could be anything.


Your time management is nothing but self-management, which is also connected to many things that you don’t see now. In your life, In your workplace, In your business, etc. 


Vital Few- Few things are much more important than most things are. Let’s call it “Vital Few.” You need to analyze yourself or anything you are doing or going to do, what are those ‘Vital Few’ that will give you most of the results. If this is clear to you, Go all in. You don’t need to do trivial things to get major results. It’s the ‘Vital Few’ that matters.


Make yourself a shadow of the 80/20 principle. Just be with it always. Make yourself a lover of it. Just be with it always. You need to think like that. You need to default your mind, your thinking like that, then you’ll get desirable results.


Thinking is a very effective part of ourselves. Gautama Buddha said, “what we think, we become.” This quote is enlightening as well as very profound. This quote defines the magnitude of thinking. The situation you are dealing with today is also a part of thinking. And if you change that thinking and apply the 80/20 principle then everything could be changed. If you are unhappy then find out 20 percent of things or people that give you 80 percent happiness and just enjoy your life. We have the power to make our life happy and productive by just recognizing this game of thinking and decisions that make us happy. Aristotle said that “The goal of all human activity should be happiness.”


How I manage my time-


Elimination-

For productivity and time management, the elimination of things is very much essential. I’ve eliminated many things that don’t add value to my personal or professional life. 

Bruce Lee said that “One does not accumulate but eliminate. It is not daily increase but daily decrease. The height of cultivation always runs to simplicity.”

When I’ve understood the power of elimination, it becomes very easy for me to be selective in things that I wanted to pursue.

I’ve applied the 80/20 principle in elimination and got maximum returns.

Antoine De Saint-Exupery said that “Perfection is not when there is no more to add, but no more to take away.”

The goal is to find out where you are not good at and eliminate or outsource that task and focus on where you are good at and put all your efforts and time. Just eliminate those things that you think are wasting your time.


The Role of to-Do List- 

Maximum things I do with the help of my smartphone and laptop. I add every major thing in notes that I need to complete so that I can focus on those things (Important ones). 

The important or what is not important, this is what you need to select. You can take the help of the 80/20 principle, apply it and work on it.

I add reminders so that I can get notifications on my smartphone. Keep off your notifications. Only on it for the apps when you think it is very essential for you to see it. 

I maintain lists so that I can understand better what I’ve scheduled.

You can also add reminders like that or you can write a note or schedule notification in google calendar.

The human tendency is to forget things. You can’t remember everything, that’s why you take help from these tools.


Last thing to say-

So, apply what you think could be helpful to you. Do connect with me if you’ve anything to share with me.


#AjaySinghTalk


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