Living a Relaxing and Profitable Lifestyle with the 80/20 Rule

By Chris Brown
Posted Friday, September 10, 2004

Relax

In this article, you will learn some simple and effective ways to live a more relaxing and profitable home business lifestyle. Many of us started out with a picture of ourselves working less and ended up working just as much or even more than we ever imagined we would. Managing your time can become a major headache. Are you ready to see the shuffle drift away?

Family, friends, errands and fun are a few of the important factors in living a relaxing and profitable lifestyle - lets look at how you can delegate your time for a more easy going home work environment.

The 80/20 Rule - Pareto's Law

Vilfredo Pareto, an Italian economist, observed in 1906 that in his country, 80% of the wealth was owned by 20% of the population. After his observation, others took notice of the 80/20 idea in many other areas of life.

In the 1930s and 1940s, Dr. Joseph Juran observed what he called the "vital few and trivial many". Dr. Juran's principal goes something like: 20% of something is responsible for 80% of the results. This has long since been known as Pareto's Principle or the 80/20 Rule.

Find Your 'Vital Few'

The following metaphor has worked well for many people; if you have a hard time visualizing then this may throw you off; stick with us, this can be of great benefit to you.

The Metaphor

Zoom out and take a look at everything that comprises your home business. Imagine seeing all of your tasks sitting on a table - Watch as one side of the table lifts upward and your tasks begin sliding towards the edge. Pay close attention to see the tasks that slide the least - see the tasks that stay on the table - these are your 'vital few'. Pick up the 'trivial many' from the floor and see yourself putting these in a very big box.

Now, picture your self putting your 'vital few' tasks that were left on your mental table in a small box - imagine that you keep this box on your desk. Now, mentally take the big box and put it out of site…let it fade away for now.

Read on and see how we will utilize these ideas to free up some of our time.

For some of you, it will be hard to figure out what your vital tasks are from this visualization; I urge you to analyze your tasks on paper. Take a sheet of paper and make one line down the center from top to bottom and one line across the middle, side to side. Choose one of the four boxes and write your 'vital few' tasks; dedicate the other 3 boxes to your 'trivial many'. Use a pencil and eraser, sometimes the trivial stuff becomes vital.

Make Time

You probably already have some sort of daily routine that you follow to complete your tasks. Focus only on the 'vital few' in this time; your work will take less time than you are used to. Now, make some time to relax, take care of some non business chores or just hang out with your family or some friends.

Tomorrow, or will it be the next day, focus on the 'vital few' and get some work done. When you're done with your 'vital few', go over to the big box (metaphor) and get out some of your 'trivial many' - work for a while.

Switch Daily

Day 1, work on your vital tasks and then take time off. On day 2, work on your vital tasks and then accomplish some of your trivial tasks. For day 3, work on your vital tasks and then go have some fun. Day 4 - work on your vital tasks and get some of the trivial stuff done too. Repeat the process during your weekdays and take at least one whole day off on the weekend.

For all of your hard work, you deserve free time. Don't let the trivial parts of your home business take up all of your personal time; enjoy life and remember to stay relaxed.

Summary

Find the important tasks and take care of them daily; Find the not so important tasks and only work on them every other day. On the days in between the not so important tasks, spend some time doing what you enjoy (besides working) and remember, don't forget to enjoy a full day off here and there.

About the Author
Chris Brown is the owner of SuperiorIncome.com - an informative site - dedicated to those of us who work from home or really want to make money. If you are interested in *top quality* home business opportunities, tips about making money online and help from a straightforward friend that works from home, Don't Delay. Break on through to (http://www.SuperiorIncome.com )