[00:00] Welcome back to the Focus B show. This is Katie Sudddart here aka the focus b. And on this show I interview high performers and leaders around the world to discover their secrets on peak performance, productivity, mindfulness and leadership. So if you want to take your performance and your leadership to the next level, then you're in the right place. Listen up and connect with the magic. Welcome to a brand new episode of The Focus B show.
[00:40] Very interesting topic for you today, how you can get more work done in less time. I feel it is one of the fundamental pillars to lead a balanced life.
[00:52] Is to manage your work in such.
[00:54] A way that it doesn't extend and takes up more of your personal or private life. Two key principles that I will be discussing today that can help you to manage your workload in an efficient way. First of all, the Pareto principle and then Parkinson's Law. So let's see how you can use both of these to really help you to work less or work more, but work at less time. So essentially you'll still be working less but achieving better results or more outcomes. Of course, there are many other ways that you can do this. Other resources would include managing your energy levels and not just time. So looking at when you're most efficient during the day and doing your hardest work, then starting with your most important task. And there are a lot of other resources and ways to do this. Today I really want to focus on Pareto's Principle and Parkinson's Law. Pareto Principle is the famous 80 20 rule. The concept is that 80% of the work you do basically isn't as relevant as the 20% left. Another way of formulating it, which is more common, is the 20% of the work you do delivers 80% of the results you get. This means that if you look at your entire week and you analyze it, you'll be able to see that of this entire week there's only maybe 20% that really had an impact. Now this can be challenging, this can be hard to accept. You might want to believe that all of the work you do is crucial, but really look at it. So this is one of the ways you can use the Pareto principle is by analyzing that week or those weeks. If you want to analyze an entire month. So look at it time track everything you do and then see out of all of these activities, which ones made the biggest difference? And this is why you need to allow time for thinking and for self reflection. Because you'll only be able to figure out what these activities are if you pause and reflect, maybe journal, maybe discuss it with your coach or mentor and look at what are the activities that had the biggest impact. Another way to go about it is to look even further back and think in the last six months or the last year, what really stands out? What had the biggest impact financially, or in terms of contribution, or in terms of any impact you want in your business or business growth? Look at what made the biggest difference. And once you're clear on this, you can also look at what could you have just eliminated, what could you have skipped, what, although it felt important, didn't actually make any difference? Again, this means being brutally honest with yourself. This is a self reflection exercise, no one else is involved unless you want them to be. And it's really about you getting really clear on what activities make the biggest difference. And this is how you can use the Pareto Principle and you can use it in so many different ways, but it's keeping in mind that 80 20 and always looking for that 20%, always looking at what is worth your time, what is worth your energy. Now moving on to Parkinson's law. Parkinson's Law states that work fills up the allotted time. This means that if you decide to dedicate 2 hours to a work task, it'll probably take you 2 hours or even more. But if you only have 1 hour to do it, and it has to be done within that hour, somehow you will find a way to do it in that hour. This can be very useful if you're a perfectionist and therefore you want to spend hours and hours redoing and rechecking and rereading. Now, it's good to be thorough, but you don't want to waste all your time on energy, on perfectionism. There's a big difference between thorough and perfect. So this is one way it can help you, but also if you're procrastinating having this, Parkinson's Law can help you. I know that I use it a lot in terms of checking my emails and LinkedIn messages, because I do not want to allocate too much time on this. I literally leave myself twice 15 minutes during the day, just before my lunch break and just before leaving, and then it has to fit in within those 15 minutes. This then makes me answer a bit faster, think through quite quickly and not spend an hour reading messages, answering, checking, because you want to be very mindful about how you spend your time. But this is just one example with the emails, but you can use it for anything you're working on. The concept is always to look at how much time do you want to allocate to this and then what can you do so that it fits in that time slot. It's interesting how once we become familiar with Parkinson's Law, we'll see that it shows up time and time again in our work, in our life, where suddenly, because we only have that window of time, we manage to make it work. Our energy picks up, we think differently, we use shortcuts, and it still works. Again, it's still important to have high quality the idea isn't to totally neglect quality to do it quickly. The idea is simply to have that extra boost, have that deadline and timeline to allow you to work on a more efficient level. So let's recap the two main tools. First of all, Pareto's principle the 80 20. And this can be visible in so many areas. So think what's the 80 20 of your well being and self care? What's the 80 20 in your relationships? What's the 80 20 in your work? And all of these things can help you to really eliminate a lot of the fluff, a lot of the unnecessary tasks and activities that you do not need to do, and help you focus on the important tangible outcomes that are the most important for you. And Parkinson's Law, which is focused on deadlines, timelines and only allocating time that you want to spend on certain tasks. And this can again make you think more quickly. Eliminate, use shortcuts, think outside the box to achieve it in a certain amount of time. These are two very powerful tools, especially if you use them combined and if you add to them a bunch of other ways to manage your time efficiently, to work less hours, and to achieve more. Thank you so much for tuning in today. I hope that this has been useful and valuable for you. Please share in the comments. Comments if you're on my YouTube channel, what was most insightful for you? And if you're listening to the podcast, please write a review and say what you enjoy about this podcast about the Focus B Show and also feel free to share it with a friend or a family member if it has inspired you and if you think it can help someone in your life. Thank you for tuning in today. Subscribe to my YouTube channel and wishing you a wonderful day.
[09:19] Thank you so much for tuning in today to the Focus Bee show. I would absolutely love to hear your feedback. So let me know in an Apple review or YouTube comment what was most valuable for you and feel free to share this episode with a friend or a family member. Wishing you a wonderful, magical and focused day ahead.