THE PARETO PRINCIPLE

The Pareto Principle is a philosophy regarding cause and effect; it's also known as the 80/20 rule. It simply states that very often, 80% of the effect comes from 20% of the causes.

As an example of how this principle may work in different circumstances, suppose a person is overweight. Chances are the majority of their problem stems from a few small bad habits they have. In other words, some 80% of their excess body weight is probably there because of 20% of their food choices. Those extra desserts they have or fried foods may make up only

20% of their daily diet, but they can probably account for the majority of their excess weight.

As another example, suppose a family or individual faces financial problems even though they make enough money to support themselves. It may very well be that only a few bad habits when it comes to spending are responsible for the majority of their financial concerns. So, 20% of the things they do with their money are causing some 80% of the problems they have with it.

Let's consider how this principle may apply to time management. No doubt there are many things you must do throughout the day over which you have very little say, and there are many time wasters that are just part of today's world. Standing in line, waiting at red lights, sitting through yet another meeting that your boss conducts just to hear himself talk; these are time wasters but they're a part of today's life. To get where we want to go, to buy the food and other things we need, to have a job and earn money, we must simply suffer through these things.

However, when it comes to choices you make about your own time, no doubt it's just a small handful of bad habits or a slight bit of mismanagement that accounts for the majority of the wasted time in your life.

Consider how this might be true. Just two hours of television every night adds up to 14 hours every week that's wasted. That's almost the same amount of hours you spend during two days at work! One afternoon of running all over time to take care of errands that you haven't organized into a quick trip can mean just about your entire day wasted, as you may then be too tired to do anything else at the end of the day.

Very often small habits and small time wasters can add up to hours, days, weeks, and then years being wasted away. The key is to identify those habits and then take steps to address them properly!

PROCRASTINATION

One common element when it comes to wasting time is procrastination. We put off and put off those unpleasant tasks or the work that's needed to accomplish our goals for as long as possible. In some cases this might mean that eventually a situation takes care of itself but rarely is that the case. More often than not we create more problems for ourselves when we put off work or whatever else is necessary in our circumstances.

One reason that procrastination is such a time waster is that the time is sitting right there in front of us, but we do nothing with it. Rather than use it to accomplish our goals we just let it slip away. As said, once it's gone, it's gone for good. Additionally, procrastinating doesn't always make the problem go away. We still need to balance the checkbook and get ourselves on track financially, get that education, find a new job, clean out the attic, and so on. Just because we refuse to do these things, that doesn't mean they don't need to get done! Procrastinating does nothing more than delay the inevitable.

INTERRUPTIONS

You would think that interruptions would do little to cause you to waste time. After all, when the interruption is over you can simply go back to what you were doing, right?

In reality, interruptions can interfere with time management in a few ways. One is that we lose our train of thought. When we're interrupted and then return to our work, we often need to review where we were and what we were thinking at the time. We need to remind ourselves of the direction in which we were headed. Sometimes we even forget what we were trying to accomplish altogether!

Interruptions can also mean losing interest in the task at hand and this can mean putting it off. What we thought we would accomplish today gets put on the back burner because something else has come up, and soon we just don't care to continue at all.