"We always have time enough, if we will but use it aright." - Wolfgang Von Goethe
The above quote is essential if were going to lead a purposeful life. We tend to spend too much time on things that don't really need to be done in the first place. The Pareto Principle says that 20% of your activities will account for 80% of the value of those activities or your results. What this means is that if you have a list of ten items to achieve, two of those items will be worth more than the other eight items altogether. You should prioritize these items.
If we dare to achieve great things in our lives, we must always be concentrating on the small number of activities that contribute the greatest value to our life and our work.
What is the Cost of an activity?
One way to prioritize what will give you the greatest value or what should be your top priority is to assess the consequences or cost of doing it or not doing it. Activities that are important will have considerable consequences to your life. And activities that are unimportant will have few or no consequences of importance to your life. So, before you begin an activity get in the habit of considering the possible consequences or cost of it.
Another way would be to continually ask yourself, "What would be the most valuable use of my time, this minute?" Whatever is the answer, then you must work on that until it's finished. This is where your discipline skills will come into play. Once you form the habit of disciplining yourself to prioritize and focus on those tasks that will make the greatest amount of difference in your life, you will form a characteristic that will make everything possible for you.
How You Can Apply This Law?
You may be asking yourself what you can do today to apply this law. Below are a few ideas that will help you get started:
You can make a list of all the activities that you do as part of your job. Then you must analyze this list and prioritize the top five things that are more important than all the other items put together.
You could also imagine that you are going to receive a huge bonus at the end of the month if you can work on your top priority items every minute of the day. Now, how would that change your behavior and what would you do differently?
Let's face it, we all don't have enough time in our day to do everything that is given to us from the outside world. However, we have a choice to determine what's most important to us. You can easily determine what items to prioritize if you have established a definite major purpose. When you have that purpose in your life, decision making is very easy because all your decisions will be tied to your purpose. In other words, just ask, will this activity serve my purpose or not?
