Time management is an essential characteristic for anyone in today’s business environment. While everyone tries to get more from less resources, it becomes a delicate ballet between time constraints and quality. Considering this balance, the Pareto Principal can be quite helpful. The Pareto Principal, or 80/20 rule, is a statistical observation that suggests 80% of your results are attributed to 20% of your overall inputs.

So how does this apply to time management, you might ask.

The simple answer: become more focused on what actually needs to be done.

One must take a step back and make some tough observations. What are you focused on and what results are you seeing from your efforts? Hopefully, you see that your efforts are actually achieving results. If not, the Pareto Principal may be able to offer insight as to what things you can do to refine daily routines and processes to be more efficient.

There are many things that can siphon your time. For some, it’s social media or unnecessary distractions such as TV. However, something as simple as taking on too much while multitasking can reduce productivity. These things dilute your ability to really focus.  If you spend 20% of your day like this, unfocused, I’m sure you’re seeing some negative results.

Understanding the Pareto Principal may make you more cognoscente of how your time is being spent.  It’s not that we need another hour in the day, we just need to choose which tasks will give us the most bang for our buck.