Success comes through focusing on what’s important and getting it done.
One of the most important concepts in business is the Pareto Principle or 80/20 rule. Where 20% of your efforts will produce 80% of your results.
Write down 25 of your top short medium and long term priorities.
Use the grid below and separate them into the following four categories:
- Urgent & Important
- Important
- Urgent & Not Important
- Not Urgent & Not Important
Think in terms of what impact each priority has on your business long term.
Applying the 80/20 rule, pick the top 5 – most important priorities which will give you 80% of the best medium to long term results.
And only work on those till they’re done.
Put another way…
- 20% of our priorities typically account for 80% of our results.
- The real challenge to prioritization is saying, “NO”.
Now this is not to say that the other priorities can be ignored. But who needs to attend to them?
Conceptually, every business has the metaphorical equivalent of $10,000/hour work, $1,000/hour work and $100/hour and $10/hour work.
For example, $10,000/hour work is working on the business and being strategic. Thinking time that’s spent which will massively leverage your long term results.
$1,000/hour work could be implementing marketing, sales and delivery systems which provide leverage.
However many small business owners spend their time on $10/hour (or less) work and only a small proportion on $100/hour work (selling, delivery etc.).
Now I’m not devaluing the $10/hour work. It does need to get done. But by whom?
Are you the best person to do it or could your time be better spent doing $100/hour or $1000/hour work or $10,000/hour work (which only you can do)?
Once you’ve decided, schedule the tasks on your calendar and monitor your progress.
As you go forward revisit your main priorities at least every three months and re-evaluate. Individual priorities and tasks may change, so be flexible, but don’t lose sight of the big picture.
What’s your plan for 2020 and beyond?
As business owners it’s often difficult to step outside the business and work on strategy and planning. Setting the right priorities and determining who should do what, by when.
If this is you, we offer strategy sessions (half and full day) where we determine your short, medium and longer term goals and put in place a plan to help you achieve them.
Call Rashid on 0414 913 334 for a confidential discussion on how we can help you move forward.
