Rick Torrison applies the 80/20 rule to productivity: identify your top 20% of tasks and do them first, manage your priorities so one advances the others, and calendar-block everything to protect focus. A study found 41% of to-do items never get done.
41%
Welcome back to part two of you can't manage time. Today, we'll begin by sharing practical ways to implement the 8020 rule. So let's take a quick look at some ways we can implement this Pareto principle or the 8020 rule. First thing I would suggest is trade your to do list for a to done list. I know that sounds weird. It's a priority list. You need to daily identify the 20% and do that first. To do lists quickly become distractions and we become driven by how many things we can check off the list. Right? Some of us love to see all those boxes checked. Success is the number of boxes checked. But is it really to do? Lists are more often task lists for most of us. You know, a study done by IDUNthis shows that 41% of items on a to do list never get accomplished. Second thing I'd suggest is you need to manage your priorities and not your tasks or your time. To manage your priorities, you need to know what they are. Priorities are those things that have the greatest immediate impact on achieving your vision or the objective that you're working on. Priorities are those things that move the needle of productivity forward. Once you list your priorities, then are you ready? Prioritize your priorities. I know that sounds crazy. In other words, pick one of those priorities that if you complete it first, it will advance all of the other things you're doing or have the greatest impact. Often these priorities, when engaged, they affect other priorities. It's kind of like that domino effect. And remember, we cannot manage time or tasks. The reality is, time spent can never be reclaimed. We bought the lie that says we can manage time. We can't. We all have the same amount of time. No matter how hard we try to find more time or to make more time, the time that we have is all we have. Since we can't manage time, we've got to block our time. Which leads to the third way that we can operate in the 8020 rule. Make your calendar your friend. I know some of you are already getting nervous. The way you manage your time is how you manage your calendar. Think about it. Most everything and everyone we deal with measures success based on time. Deadlines, due dates, travel time, meetings. But as we've already said, managing time does not equal success, productivity, or greater movement. So here's the catch. We can't ignore time. Our lives are almost entirely dictated by time. So calendars allow us to block time, which will allow us to become more effective and efficient when we use it. Embracing our calendar and blocking time will allow us to manage our priorities and to put our energy to those things that matter the most. I would suggest you put everything on your calendar. I mean everything. Work, social, family, friends, personal. It's much better to block all the time than to leave holes in your calendar that other people will quickly fill. Now that means you block down time, you block self time, you block me time, or meeting time, or study time, or devotional time. It's so much easier to change the block time than to try to drop a block in in the middle of the workday. One last thought when it comes to embracing your calendar and blocking your time, when an event is consistently scheduled on our calendars, it's much more likely to transform.
