People continue rushing to the finish line as there are so many things to get done with so little time. But the question is, is there really no time at all, or are we only focusing more of our energy on less important things? 

Mark Sieverkropp, a blogger, coach and co-founder and former director of Happen-ings at Happen To Your Career. He is also a personal friend and was my first co-host of the 24 Faithful podcast. Specifically, he joins the podcast to share more about the Pareto Principle and how to apply this principle to almost every aspect of our lives to achieve the highest efficiency. 

Pareto principle

It's a foundational idea that not everything you do is equal. And not everything you do is of equal value because people think that everything they do is equal and need to get more done. It's basically the idea that if you only have a certain amount of time, what would you do that's most valuable? However, unless you find that 20% and look for them, you'll miss out on the idea and the process. The 80/20 principle, essentially, points out, in theory, that you can work one day in a week and get this like 80% of the results that you typically do in one day or a week because that's 20% of your week and 80% of your results are going to come from that 20%.

Finding your 20

How do you find the 20%? When it comes to either products or services or the things/tasks you're doing, it's the things that directly and proportionately contribute to bottom-line revenue. So, what are the things that will make the biggest difference? Because honestly, people do many things that have no value, and the key is looking at those things. Because everything else is kind of is important, and it contributes, but it's not nearly as important. So, it's that idea of not only knowing it but then finding what those 20% things are. When you focus on that 20% and emphasize that, you're still going to find time to get those other important things done because these things will find their way in to get done anyway. 

Bottom Line

If you don't do the important things, at first, you run out of time, and you don't get to them. And many people find themselves doing that because they are not intentional with their time. We spend too much time surfing Facebook or rearranging our office space. And those things can be valuable, but if we don't leave time for connecting with people, those won't happen. Most of the time, the 20% are things that you enjoy doing, but there are times where those 20% things are the things that maybe are a little bit scarier or a little tougher. And as humans are good at saying well, doing things later and then later never comes, and doing those types of things that are easy, and make them feel like they're accomplishing something, but don't contribute to the bottom line. 

The four things

The four most important things, as far as getting those things done, are focus, accountability, encouragement, and recalibration. First is the focus, and it's a huge one, and it is this idea of focusing on the most important things. The second is accountability like you need people to keep you accountable. You need somebody that knows that you're going to do something and ask you about it and make sure we do it. The third is encouragement. Having somebody who can encourage you, support you, and keep you motivated, can remind you why you're doing those things is massively important. And the final one is being willing to recalibrate, like being willing to adjust, because if we don't have that ability to adjust, it makes it hard. And that's where you start to feel bad and get down on yourself when you mess up. Or you don't do as well as you want because you feel like all is lost. 

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