The 80/20 Rule and Your “To Do” List

In the Top 10 Organization Strategies, step 7 is to apply the 80/20 rule to your to do list.

Did you know that the 80/20 rule applies to almost every situation?  In business, we know this rule to be that 80% of the sales are generated by 20% of the people, or 20% of the sales are generated by 80% of the people.  This rule is the Pareto Principle, and we can use it with your “to do” list as well.

If you look at your list and it has 10 action items to do that day, 2 of those items (20%) will have value equal to the other 8 items (80%) combined.  This means that when you do those 2 most important high value items, you will have the same impact as if you had completed the other 8 items.

This is a must when you are prioritizing your time.  You will almost never get your entire list for the day completed, so your energy must be focused on the 20% that will give you the best result.

For more information on applying the 80/20 rule to your business and “to do” list, pick up a copy of Organization for Home-Based Business Professionals.