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Apr

19

Play More, Work Less: The 80/20 Rule

April 19, 2007 by Steve

One thing that I’ve always been short on is time. It wasn’t until I started applying specific principles that I started getting more for less of my time.

Just a few weeks ago I ran into a friend of mine from University. As we were catching up, I mentioned to him that I recently acquired my NLP Certification from NLP Possibilities. When he heard this he said, “Steve, that’s so great! That totally fits you. I remember in school when you used to study in your room for like 14 hours straight. You were so focused.” This is true. I worked my butt off to get the best marks possible. I was focused but I still produced mediocre results. I realized that being focused and having discipline are important to get good grades; but it isn’t enough. I was missing important information.

At the time I remember studying everything because I wasn’t sure what was going to be on the exam. I even studied the stuff that wasn’t on the exam. It took a lot of time and effort. It wasn’t until my 3rd year that I found out what the smart kids were doing. They would go to the library and make copies of the older exams and use them as a study guide. When it came to exam time the tests were similar year to year, so this made things a lot easier for the finals. This was the piece I was missing. Once I started using the older exams to study, it made my life a lot easier and saved me a lot of time.

My purpose for using the old exams was to help with my studying and get more for less. It wasn’t until many years later that I had heard about the 80/20 Rule. I first read about it in Multiple Streams of Income by Robert Allen. The 80/20 Rule says:

“Only 20 percent of the things you do give you 80 percent of your results.”

When it comes to money, Robert Allen touches briefly on the 80/20 Rule and says that 20 percent of the information that we acquire will get us 80 percent of our financial results. He goes on to say that if we are not generating the income that we want then we’re probably missing some information. Until you find that information you will not be in a position to take the appropriate actions and get the financial rewards. I’m confident that if your goal is to work less and make more money then you will find the answers you need in his book.

So if 80 percent of your results are being derived from 20 percent of your efforts, then what is so special about the 20 percent? I mean really, what’s the big secret? I’m sure most people would like to know what critical elements provide those types of results. If most people are following this formula then we should all be working less and playing more, but we’re not. Why?

I believe it’s because most people don’t actually follow the 80/20 Formula. They follow a 20/80 Formula. This formula says that 80 percent of our efforts produce 20 percent of your results. The formula is reversed because we haven’t disciplined ourselves and learend specific skills. We’ve gotten a little sloppy and lost our focus on what’s important. I believe the solution is to look a little closer at the the following skills to play more and work less.

Focus

What better way to focus than by setting the direction you want to move in. Define the end result. If you don’t know what you want, then how will you know what needs to get done? It’s like going on a road trip, without a destination. It doesn’t work. It’s obvious that the Finlanders at our wedding new what they wanted. Twenty-percent of the beer drinkers drank 80 percent of the beer. No kidding. My dad had to go and get more beer near the end of the night because we were running dry.

So knowing what you want is definitely important. You need to have a target, goal or something to move towards. Once you know where you’re going then it is easy to get there. This will help with your focus. If you tend to think into the future, then this step should be pretty easy for you. Others tend to focus on the past, which inhibits them from getting what they want. You may need to have a look at your timeline to get clear on this.

Using NLP is a great way to get people unstuck. People who get stuck may need some clarity around their goals or may need to change the focus on their timeline. The timelines exercise is an excellent way to shed some light at the end of the tunnel and get people moving towards their goals.

Write things down. If you can’t see it then it doesn’t exist. This applies to short term as well as long term goals. Nothing exists until you’ve taken the time to write it down. When you write stuff down it takes it out of your head and creates more space in your brain. It clears and opens up your mind. It helps you to re-focus and provide clarity. I’m sure you already have enough to think about so just jot down your goals. I always do this when I come back from a week vacation or long trip. It clears space in my head for new ideas and creativity to surface.

Manage Your Time

Time is your most precious commodity. You can’t get back the time that you have lost. It’s not like a gym bag or a pair of shoes. These items can be replaced but time cannot. Once it’s gone it’s gone. Treat every moment as your last. Set some time aside to complete a specific task. Put it into your calendar. A little planning goes a long way. Trisha and I do this for the simplest of things. Every two weeks we set time aside to clean our condo. We do a blitz cleaning for about 2 hours to clean up our place. After 2 hours, we stop where we are. That’s it. It’s not perfect but we get the job done. Remember the goal is to work less and play more. The simple planning of this task leaves us with more time to spend with each other and do fun things with our friends. More play time equals more fun.

Remember to set some time aside for yourself. I get up every morning at 5am so that I have time to do deep breathing, create the intention for my day and write in my journal. This is the most relaxing part of my day. I ease into my day instead of jumping in running full blast. I also feel like I’m not missing out because I have taken time for myself at the beginning of the day.

Be Flexible

Be flexible to new information. If you’re not getting the results that you want, then something has to change. You may not know something important or you may be missing a piece of information that would allow things to run smoother. This is similar to my university exam story. Flexible thinking is like being an elastic. The more flexible you are, the further you’ll go.

Be flexible with your approach. There is a saying in NLP. The more flexible you are, the more influence you have over the situation. Flexibility goes hand in hand with personal development. As you grow you need to be flexible. It’s also what the Japanese refer to as Kaizen or continuous improvement. There may be a faster or more effective way to get the results that you want.

Keep it Simple

When I found out that the older University exams were stored in the library I thought it was a joke, a hoax. I thought there was no way that the school would allow the students to have access to these exams. It couldn’t be this easy! After I got through my stubbornness, I picked up the exams and my marks began to improve with noticeable less effort.

The point is that sometimes we look for the most complicated solution. We think that things need to be hard and difficult and that they need to take a lot of time. It doesn’t have to be that way. It should be easy not hard. There is a principle that describes this idea in more detail. It’s called the Occam’s Razor. In a nutshell, it states that the simplest solution is often the best. Step back and look at your plan, is it the simplest?

Stick to the things that you’re good at, and delegate the rest. I just handed my income tax over to my accountant because I can’t be bothered – I hate doing taxes and I’m not that good at it, so I gave it to someone else. It’s the easiest way to get results. Less work equals more play.

Follow Through

Perfectionism kills productivity. When I first started out my career as an engineer, everything had to be perfect. There’s a problem with this. I never got anything done. You need to get the job done and make things as good as they need to be, but not better. Remember the 80/20 Rule, 20 percent of your efforts produce 80 percent of your results.

In terms of perfectness, maybe 95% perfect will get you where you want to be. Get the task done so that you are happy with it and then move on. If it works then you’re finished. If you know that spending an additional 5 hours of effort is only going to get you another 2% better then maybe it’s time to move on. Use your logic. It’s up to you to decide what’s more important – 5 hours or 2% better.

For resources on the 80/20 Rule, check out Living The 80/20 Way by Richard Koch.


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Have an opinion? Comments welcome.

1 Comment so far

  1. HutchByrne on April 20, 2007 3:29 am

    I know it might be a bit of a cliché, but it really does come down to mindset and attitude at the end of the day.

    There are plenty of people who know the theory of multiple streams of income, work smarter not harder etc., and yet don’t do it.

    It’s not easy to get out of our groove (or rut, perhaps), but I think Bob Proctor puts it very well in an interview which I read recently.

    I’d be interested to know what other people think.

    You can get the interview at http://www.CreatesPersonalGrowth.com/InsightReport.pdf

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