Question about the 80/20 rule and delegation

By Joan Friedlander · Monday, October 13th, 2008

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M.O. – As I understand it the Pareto principle says that 20% of your efforts equals 80% off your results, so we should recognize and focus on the 20%, so doesn’t this mean that we should be creating our (Master) calendar around the 20% then delegates or eliminate the 80%

Joan. In short answer, yes. It almost seems counter intuitive, but the idea is to identify that 20% for you in your business, given your role, and strengths, and what has the greatest impact on current and future revenue. Steps 2, 3 and 4 are all about figuring out what the current 20% is.

Ideally, if you are spending 70-80% of your productive time on those activities where all three intersect you’ll do better in business, increase revenues and output, and have more fun. And, if it’s working very well and you’ve got systems and people in place to significantly reduce or eliminate those activities that don’t fit, you can also work fewer hours!

The solutions is “ideal,” and won’t happen over night. Today’s “answers” will be subject to modification, re-evaluation and adjustment as you change and your business changes. What may fit for you today, may very well not fit in a year. So, it’s not an equation that is absolute and definite for all time. I’m sure you can see that in your own business.

I don’t have an exact answer to your question about what percentage of your activities for the “departments” in your business. It depends on so many factors, which are guided by the following: your roles, your strengths, how marketing gets done, etc.

For example, if your primary role in the company is as business manager, then marketing may not be as much of a priority for you as internal training, review and staff motivation and feedback. However, if you have responsibility for just about everything in your business, including marketing and staff management, you have to figure out, based on what you determine in steps, 2, 3 and 4, how much time you need for each.

NOTE: M.O.’s question comes from the work she’s doing with The Master Calendar Solution, a workbook designed for the solo-entrepreneur, small business owner and department manager to get focused on your highest priority activities. Just click on Master Calendar to find out more.

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