80% Rule For Prioritizing
Our daily goals can be difficult to reach at times and we may make the excuse that we didn't have enough time in the day. This may be true at times, but most of the time we are focusing on the wrong tasks.
One of my mentors taught me long ago that 80% of the tasks I work on each day must move the needle in the business in the short term. Any action that can produce results now. 80% of the time, we focus on the wrong things. Creating the right sales script, perfecting emails, procrastinating, etc. Although these tasks are imperative to our overall success, we should spend time on them only 20% of the time. Taking actions that can grow your business now includes reaching out to new customers, following up with existing clients, and following up with leads. The problem isn't so much that we choose the wrong tasks on purpose, but that we gravitate towards simpler ones. Our productivity will suffer if we continue to devote 80% of our energy on the easy, light tasks and 20% to heavy, more challenging tasks. By focusing on the big jobs, we will reap the rewards.
Some of the biggest mistakes we make when beginning our day:
Reading emails first thing in the morning
Writing down the quickest tasks to do first
Writing down your entire to-do list
Brain hacks for effective prioritizing:
Make a shortlist and write down the items that can be done today
Number them according to priority
Start working on them in order. From highest priority to lowest
Make doing this a daily habit and you will begin to find yourself accomplishing more throughout the week and the results will follow!
Brian