Less Is Always More When It Comes To Work!
Okay another "crazy" statement from me - Pam! How can less be more when it comes to work? Well that statement is true, and I'm going to show you how to accomplish twice the work in half the time and reduce your stress in the process!
Boy, have I got some high-powered people and results to back up that claim! I'll start with the famous Italian dude, Vilfredo Pareto. Then, I'll move on to Parkinson's Law and finish with Star Trek and the famous "Kobayashi Maru" test.
Vilfredo Pareto (1848-1923)
Now, you may think you don't know this guy, but I'm willing to bet you do. He's the guy who came up with the "Pareto Principle;" otherwise know as the "80/20" rule.
Pareto was a controversial engineer, economist, and sociologist whose work included the then little-known Law of Income Distribution. He stated that 80% of the wealth is produced and possessed by only 20% of the population.
Now, this guy knew he was onto a good thing and applied his law to, of all things, his garden. Pareto also noticed, among other things, that 80% of his garden peas were produced by only 20% of the pea pods he'd planted!
Well, you guessed it, since Pareto's heyday, his 80/20 rule has been extended to many different areas. Other applications include:
- 80% of the outputs come from 20% of the inputs.
- 80% of the consequences flow from 20% of the causes.
- 80% of the results come from 20% of the time and effort.
- 80% of company profits come from 20% of the products and customers.
- 80% of stock market gains come from 20% of the investors and 20% of the portfolio
(In fact, in many of these cases, including real estate, it's not uncommon to see more severe ratios; e.g., 90/10, 95/5, 99/1, etc.)
So, why am I telling you this? Because the 80/20 rule applies to you as well! You can use it to become more productive and effective by asking and answering the following questions:
- Which 20% of sources are causing 80% of your problems and unhappiness?
- Which 20% of sources are resulting in 80% of your desired outcomes and happiness?
- Which 20%, 10% or 5% of your customers are causing 80%, 90% or 95% of your grief? Ask yourself honestly: Are they really worth it ...... really? How badly would it affect your income if you got rid of them?
My point is this: a large percentage of time and a maximum of heartache can be eliminated if you fire the bad 20%, ans replace it with a productive 20%! If you CAN get rid of, fire, or reassign a customer or project that has an inverted grief-to-income ratio, then.....
JUST DO IT!
JUST DO IT!
You can also apply the 80/20 rule to other areas:
- Advertising
- Affiliates
- Partners
- Personal relationships, etc.
Okay, let's move on to the next section...
Parkinson's Law
Have you ever heard someone say "I work better under a deadline?" This is Parkinson's Law in action. It states:
- A task will swell in "perceived" importance in reverse proportion to the amount of time you have to complete it.
- If something "must" be done by tomorrow, we'll put off other items to see that the task is completed.
- If it's not needed for two months, we hardly think of it for seven weeks.
Now, here's the deal - you can combine the 80/20 rule with Parkinson's Law. In other words, you can limit tasks to the important to shorten work time (80/20). And you can shorten work time to limit tasks to the important (Parkinson's Law)! Pretty cool, huh?
So, what you need to do is identify the few critical tasks that contribute most to your income and then schedule them with very short and clear deadlines!
Now, let's boldly go where no one has gone before and join Star Trek!
The Kobayashi Maru Test
In this science fiction television and movie series, Star Trek, the Kobayashi Maru was a test given to command candidates at Star Fleet Academy. It thrust the student into a no-win situation to see how they would respond.
There was no right or wrong choice, but the decision made by the student, which undesirable outcome they chose, revealed a great deal about the student's behavior in bad situations.
So, what's the point of this story and how is it relevant to you?
Well, James T. Kirk, the future daring captain of the Starship Enterprise, didn't like the fact that he was going to be put into a lose-lose situation. He believed that there were always alternatives...other ways to approach the problem...other choices besides what you're "given."
So, what did Kirk do? He secretly gained access to the simulation computer before his test and reprogrammed the Kobayashi Maru scenario so that it was no longer a no-win scenario. He changed the rules of the game to work for his benefit!
You can do the same! Too often, we follow the rules we've been given under the assumption that since they're in place, we should follow them. Instead, we should be asking ourselves the following questions:
- What is it we believe about how we should spend our days and how many hours we should put in because those are the rules we've been given?
- Are we doing work that a clerk or an assistant could be doing?
- Are we "inventing" tasks so that we can trick ourselves into thinking that we're being productive?
We need to be more like Captain Kirk and...
CHANGE THE RULES!
You don't need to accept someone else's description of what it means to be productive. Instead, you should use the 80/20 principle to determine what tasks you should be doing, with whom, and when. And then, you should overlay Parkinson's Law to optimize how to do those tasks in the most effective manner and in the shortest possible time!
And you thought old Pam was crazy! Like a fox, brother, like a fox! Come join me and starting today...
CHANGE THE RULES
