I recently discovered the secret to time management.  This is part one.  I will post part two towards the end of the week.  This post is about how to optimise your output whilst minimising the time you spend doing it.  Time management is for suckers.  Read on to see why

There are lots of time management theories floating around on the internet. Most of them didn’t work for me though.  The rest worked but despite being able to cram a whole load of stuff into my life I was feeling less than inspired.  The secret to time management can be summed up in a simple sentence. At least 80 percent of your value is created in 20%, or less, of your time. By using this philosophy ruthlessly and at every opportunity you can liberate huge chunks of your time and free up your life to do what you love the most.  I could stop typing now because if you only read this part of the post, you’ll have gotten everything that I wanted from it.  Remember, 80% of the value, 20% of the time (or in this case, words)Work Smart, Not Hard

The subtitle to this blog? Yes, that’s right!  Work smart not hard.  You can use the 80 / 20 philosophy to optimise your life and make the best use of the finite time you have on this beautiful planet called Earth.  There are plenty of theories for optimising your life or being better at time management.  The secret to good time management is to have plenty of free time to manage.  There’s no real need to go into things like time boxing or complicated electronic to-do lists.  Time management does not have to be complicated if you’re smart about it.  If you spend much more than 5 minutes a day sorting out your time management, you’re probably doing too much.  Look for ways to optimise your tasks by using the 80 20 rule and

I used to have complicated regimes in my head.  I knew (to within 5 minutes) how long it took me to walk almost anywhere in Leeds from almost anywhere.  At least, for places that I’d been to before.  I ruthlessly scheduled my life and tried to cram in as much as was humanly possible.  The result?  I got as close as I ever do to stressing myself out.  I don’t do stressed.  It’s really not a good look for anyone.

Take a look at your average day.  What exactly do you achieve?  How much time does it take to do this?  You’d probably say 9 – 5 or whatever time you work.  I bet you could do it in much less if you tried.  Remember the 80 / 20 rule. Don’t worry about player hating managers.  They’re just going to wish they had your skills.  Feel free to point them to this post.  The more effective individuals are, the more effective humanity is as a whole. I want humanity to be the best it can be.

Improve Your Output Using 80 20

In sales, there is no point chasing bad customers.  If you spend lots of time chasing customers who don’t buy many products or frequently return them, sack them off.  They’re more trouble than they’re worth.  Concentrate on selling to your best customers.  Take the best 80% of your sales and look at the customers that are making them.  Start with your highest value order, then the second highest value and so on until you reach 80%.  Chances are, they’ll be coming from 20% or less of the total buyers.  If you can spot the pattern of what makes a good buyer, you can optimise your selling by focusing only on those types of customers.  Less effort, less time, more money coming in from your account. Excellent!

In my work, I look at what needs to be done and I do it.  I do it in the most effective way I possibly can.  I spend time looking at the problems and figuring out how to either automate or optimise the process (smart work).  If I don’t get a coffee break but get to leave early (or come in to work late) I’m happy to do it.  I don’t like spending my time in an office looking at a computer screen.  I’d rather do it from home, or from my family’s home, or from some wireless internet station on a deserted desert island somewhere as I kick back with an ice cold (non-alcoholic) drink somewhere.

Word Count – approximately 700.  Effective word count?  About 150.  If you chose to read the whole article, excellent.  I hope you found the example useful and maybe my personal anecdote inspired you to do less hours work per day.  The next part in this mini-series will look at how to set effective goals and build more on the 80 20 rule so hopefully you will soon be able to totally do away with complicated time management methods but be much more effective at your job / career because of it.

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