The current times are turbulent to say the least. World is changing in ever increasing speeds and more productivity is required to stay on the top of our game.
There are two old laws that I have distilled into this blog post which have now morphed into a more suitable versions of themselves and so fit better into our current Lifestyle.
Even if you are not a High Achiever or interested of Peak Performance like many of the people I help with my Coaching, these fundamental truths about our behavior will help you to become a better version of yourself.
Interested? If yes, please carry on reading…
Pareto‘s Productivity Law, Advanced Model
The common understanding of this law dictates that,
“In many events, roughly 80% of the effects come from the 20% of the causes “.
This widely accepted law, since its birth 1896 by the Italian Economist Wilfredo Pareto, has been used in time management classes for a long time now.
The Life we are living today is a lot more active and distracting than back in the beginning of the Last Century, so this law needs upgrading.
The more advanced version that suits better for the current times and the 21st Century lifestyle.
It is the 20 of the 20 or the 4% Rule. I have written about this previously here.
As a basic example, if you have 20 items on your To Do List, the common Pareto‘s Principle would ask you to Focus on the 20% of that list which would be 4 Tasks. The most important Needle Movers that will provide you the results you are after.
The Advanced model would be 20% of those Four, which Essentially leaves you with one single Task out of the 20!
Now, that sounds Scary for many and downright impossible. But, what if you could start your next 90 Days, Focusing for the first 90 Min of your workday on a ONE single Item/Task or To Do that has the biggest potential to move you forward?
This is also the Robin Sharma‘s Famous 90/90/1 Rule.
And only after that you tackle the rest of the Three that are on the list. Could you do that?
Then By 11 am you would have completed the advanced and the common models of the Pareto ‘s Law.
Say hello to Clarity, Productivity and Forward Momentum! 😉
Parkinson’s Law and FLOW
The second and now also quite famous law that helps us to Move forward with more Clear understanding is this:
“Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion”
I have realized that if I don’t assign a date for my to do‘s they tend to hang on the list for extended amount of time. And once I put a time frame for those actions, they suddenly started to disappear from the list.
In other words,
If you do not give a time and date for your actions, they more than likely will be replaced by the elements that have a designated time frame and a completion date.
Also, I trust that we all know that if we give a task one week, it will more than likely take those seven days to be completed.
Whereas if we give the same task three or five days, we magically pull some extra resources and complete the same To Do in half the time. And more than often end up with the same results than in a week.
This might sound a little counter intuitive, but the answer can be found it this now famous State called FLOW.
Once we are pushed on to our edges and required to turn down the distractions to find Focus, we often enter these states of Flow where we feel our best and perform at our best.
According to 10-year McKinsey Study, the flow State increases Productivity by 500%! Your Focus, problem solving, lateral thinking and Creativity are all significantly increased.
To make this happen there are some elements and prerequisites that are needed, which I talked about in this Video.
In short
For every High Achiever and Performer these two Laws and their understanding as well as obviously implementation is a MUST.
As said in the beginning, we are living in the times of high demand for our level of Performance. These two fundamental laws will definitely help you to raise your productivity and become a better version of yourself as a byproduct.
Think of your workday and its structure. Where is your focus and what are the actions that you are taking the first thing in the morning as you enter the workspace?
Could the 90/90/1 Rule offer some unfair advantage? What if you sliced your next project deadline half and entered the high Focus and Productive FLOW state?
Could the 4% rule give you the edge and Clarity you have been looking for?
I would love to know in the comments on how this will benefit you in the near future.
As always,
All green Lights and Clear Skies.
