Vilfredo Pareto worked as an economist in 19th CenturyItaly. We can still use his theories in today’s 21stCentury Internet economy !His 80-20 law applies to many things, including TimeManagement. For example, his law says that 20% of yourcustomers provide 80% of your revenue. It says 20% of yourtime spent on a project gets it 80% towards completion.80%of people working in the computer business only do about20% of the work, and the other 80% is done by the 20% starworkers !So how does this law apply to time management ? How canyou use it to save 2 hours every day ?Think about any jobs you must do. Think about any projectsyou’re working on or about to start. We all want to do thebest possible job. But how about this ?
How would youlike to get three jobs done in the same time as one ? Howwould you like to finish one job a lot quicker, and spendthe extra time with friends or family ?Pareto’s law can help you do exactly that !First of all look at the ‘big picture’ of your project.What are you trying to achieve and why ? What mainbenefits do you want ? Make a simple schedule of work.Get started and work as quickly as possible. It could be areport on a new market. It could be a new productspecification. Maybe you’ve got to write a simple piece ofsoftware ?When you’ve done all you can, stop and take a look. It’sgood isn’t it ? Now leave it there. Yes, I said leave itthere. You’ve achieved about 80% of your target. Yetyou’ve only spent about 20% of the time you’d eventuallygive to that piece of work ! What would you normally do ?More research. Try to add in more bits. Endlessly fine-tune it. Perhaps you’d start again because you decide it’sno good ?Leave it at 80% and start with something else productive.Follow the same procedure with the next task, and then thenext task.