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Welcome to Stuff I Learned Yesterday. My name is Derek Olsen, I’m never in the mood to eat a salad, and I believe if you aren’t learning, you aren’t living. In today’s episode of Stuff I Learned Yesterday I share what I have recently learned about the 80/20 principle…
But first!
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Now, let’s get to today’s show.
What I Learned Yesterday:
I didn’t learn about the 80/20 principle yesterday, I learned about it a long time ago. But I was recently reminded just how helpful and real this principle still is. It’s just as true now as it was when I first learned about it.
The 80/20 principle suggests that 80% of your output comes from only 20% of your effort. To put it in business terms, 80% of your profit comes from the top 20% of your customers. And to apply it to productivity, 80% of your output comes from 20% of your time or effort.
Let’s shift from productivity to real life for a moment and then we will link real life back to productivity. Here we go.
I have a 3 1/2 month old baby girl. My wife works full time and I am stuck in the middle you could say. More accurately, I am a stay at home dad by day and an author, podcaster, and blogger by night.
My time has never been more limited and therefore has never been more valuable. Like I said, I stay home with our baby girl during the day will my wife is away at work. Let me tell you, you haven’t lived until you are a stay at home parent. It’s only been three weeks since my wife returned to work full time and that is plenty of time to learn some pretty serious lesson in time management.
During my first week as a stay at home dad I don’t think I ate anything, showered, or even brushed my teeth before 1 P.M. It’s nearly impossible to do anything when you are home alone with a three month old. Well, it feels impossible at first, but after you realize that starving and dirty is no way to live your live you start to get creative, you adjust to the new terms of your life and find ways to get it done. Don’t worry, I eat, shower, and even manage to brush my teeth everyday now.
Well what does this baby business have to do with the 80/20 principle? Everything.
When your time is cut in half, you learn really fast what is and what is not important. Suddenly, watching cat videos on YouTube isn’t as important as eating.
With such limited time something has to give. Now I have 14 hours of stuff all fighting for about 6 hours of my time. In a situation like this, there will be winners and there will be losers.
With unlimited time, there is time for both. It’s only when your time is cut in half that the important and the unimportant have a chance to get sorted out.
The 80/20 principle is usually applied to the art of business and productivity, not so much choosing between brushing your teach and aimless and endless Facebook scrolling all while watching after a baby.
So let’s talk about business for a minute.
Right now, I’m in the middle of writing my next book. Writing a book is a task that seems to take forever even when the process is moving along rather quickly. When I wrote my first book, I had endless amounts of time to work or not work on it, and trust me, I used it all up.
It took about fourteen months to write and publish that first book. Half of that time was wasted not writing. So if half of that time was wasted, it could have taken only seven months, right?
Well, I’m about to find out how long it really takes. I’ve given myself a deadline of October for the first test print and December for the final edition.
So here’s what I learned about the 80/20 principle…
The 80/20 principle is easy to understand in theory, it makes good sense. But it can be hard to implement by choice. But when time is limited, it’s a necessity. It’s almost natural.
And final, the 80/20 principle is true, it works, and it’s a life saver. I am more productive on a per hour measure now than ever. And it’s all thanks to my sweet little girl taking up so much of my time.
How about you? You’ve heard about the 80/20 principle now. How are you applying it in your life?
I’m Derek Olsen and this has been stuff I learned yesterday.
I’d like to give you a free book. It’s call 4 ½ Conversation Starters. This little e-book is perfect if you and your partner would like to get on the same page in the finance department of your marriage.
Visit derekandcarrie.com to get your free copy of 4 ½ Conversation Starters right now. And if you just can’t get enough, check out my other podcast called Better Conversations on Money and Marriage.
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