You may already be familiar with the Pareto Principle (also known as the 80/20 Rule), named after the 19th century Italian economist who first noticed the phenomenon that 80% of all results tend to be produced by 20% of all efforts.

So the theory goes that 20% of your clients provide 80% of your turnover. 80% of your problems come from just 20% of your experiences and so on. Have a look at your sales figures and think about your experiences, both business and personal - does this theory ring true for you?

You can also extend the rule by examining what is happening once you have identified the critical 20% - within that 20% of time, when does the 80% outcome occur? During the first 20%? The last? Or in the middle? Can you refine your use of time further?

This is a continual process of noticing what gets you results. Dont just do something and forget about it evaluate what you have done and reflect on what works.

People often ask me for examples where this might apply. A very good example is marketing. Someone I know examined which of the pages on his website were getting the most hits and discovered his portfolio page was most popular. He made that page his home page, to reduce the effort visitors had to make to reach the information they wanted, and increased the number of hits and enquiries made about his services. Simple but very effective.

If the Pareto Principle works, then having found which 20% is producing the 80% results, you may never have to worry about time management again!

Andy Britnell

Andy Britnell has worked as a professional musician, a cheesemonger and in hotels, including Claridges and the Savoy in London. He spent 15 years with BT, latterly designing and delivering international management, sales and graduate development programmes. He now lives in Cornwall, UK, where as well as enjoying the surf and the coastal footpath, he runs a training and coaching practice specialising in sales, customer service and personal development training for the private and public sectors. He is an accredited coach and trainer of the Insights Discovery System which is a model based on the pioneering personality profiling work of Carl Jung. Using colour as a common language for better understanding of self and others, it helps people operate and communicate more effectively. Andy gains great satisfaction from helping his clients to grow and learn, and from the rapid progress they make in their business and personal lives. He works constantly on his own development and practises Ki Aikido, the ancient Japanese art of working with energy.