The 80/20 Rule in Action

I have a Clever-Dick Nephew Nick who lives in Roanoke USA, and 'CDN' paid me a surprise visit for my recent birthday. Apart from the fun and affection of having his giant personality bubbling around me, we had a man-to-man chat about my business and lifestyle. Now I consider myself as a reasonable manager, but thanks to his insights, I found out I had become, well, a little defocused.

See, I had loads of new projects brimming inside my fertile brain and by golly, was I working hard on several of them when he turned up. But I wasn't getting the results I was expecting.

To cut a long story short, he held a gun to my head (so to speak) and forced me to make a detailed list of all of my projects, assignments, ideas and what-have-you. My Daughter Carina was great at taking notes. Within an hour she had filled several pages of detail.

Then came the voodoo. CDN said let's make up a spreadsheet, factor in several aspects of each project, invent a prioritization formula, and press calculate...

We found the 20% of my project ideas that will give me 80% of the success. Job Done. Wish I'd have kicked my own arse first through.....