When I was a senior in college, Tim Ferriss came out with the first edition of The 4-Hour Work Weekand I was fascinated.
As a productivity junkie since the age of 14, I couldn’t get enough. I devoured it.
One of the concepts in particular changed something in me forever.
The school system had taught me to become well-rounded. The college application process had groomed me to fill in all of the areas and how important it was to excel in academics as well as the arts, athletics, good citizenship, and any other extracurricular activities I could possibly pack into my schedule.
The pursuit of being good at all the things all the time left me feeling wrung out.
Enter Pareto’s Principle.
The concept is simple: 80% of your results will be caused by 20% of your efforts.
Wait. I didn’t have to be practically perfect in every way?
What a freaking relief!
For the first time, I had permission to go all in on only the things that I was the best at that got me results and to stop trying to be good at everything. And, if I did, I would actually get better results. This felt like the closest thing to magic I could have possibly discovered.
It wasn't until my early 30’s when I was recording a lesson on Pareto’s Principle (aka The 80/20 Rule) that I realized I’d never found a practical way to apply this theory. I wanted a list of my 20% of activities so that I could stay focused on them and not go back to my old way of being kind of good at a lot of things.
I wanted to really rock a few things to amplify my results.
Everyone else seemed to just be talking about the theory, so I came up with a simple way to get a list of the 20% of activities that I needed to zero in on to get 80% of my results (and by default a way to get a list of the 80% that I could let go of, outsource, or simply not give my all to).
If you want to achieve more by doing less, the single most important thing you can do is get clarity on what the 20% of activities is that gives you 80% of your results.
Turns out you can apply this rule to lots of other areas, too.
• 20% of your customers will bring in 80% of your revenue.
• 20% of your customers will give you 80% of your headaches.
• 20% of your revenue streams will bring in 80% of your money.
Etc.!
Want to know the simple way I came up with to figure out your 20% and all of the ways you can apply this rule to your life and business so that you can reduce the number of things you’re doing while increasing your results?
You’re in luck because that’s what this week’s episode of The Kate & Mike Show is all about!
Please don’t just listen to the episode. Do the exercise. It will take you less than 10 minutes and will give you years of your life back. I swear.
Once you’ve listened, take a screenshot of the episode and tag Mike and me on social media to let us know what your 20% is. We can’t wait to hear from you!
Get ready for some serious life-giving clarity! You can get your own copy of Do Less and still receive incredible bonuses at http://katenorthrup.com/book!
Kate wants to hear from you, and you can post about your #DoLess experiences on Instagram, DM her (@katenorthrup) or email info@katenorthrup.com.
Would you, or a company you know, be a good fit to sponsor The Kate & Mike Show? If so, let’s talk! You can email mike@mikejwatts.com regarding current sponsorship opportunities.
Show notes and links for this episode can be found at http://www.katenorthrup.com/podcast.
Plenty with Kate Northrup