Robert Craven on the 80/20 rule
VIDEO: 2:49 mins
AUTHOR: Robert Craven
Listen to Robert talking about the all important 80/20 rule!
Transcription:
Robert Craven 00:07
So we know all about the 80/20 rule 80% of outputs generated by 20% of inputs. 80% of outputs generated by 20% of inputs. It is true. It is a truism, whether you look at wealth or income distribution was you look at the effectiveness of your salespeople whether you look at your own time 20% of inputs generate 80% of output. So, here's the question, if you're currently doing a 50 hour week that suppose that 10 hours will generate 80% of your output.
Robert Craven 00:44
That suggests, if I said 10 hours will generate 80% of your output. And that essentially is true. I made one call yesterday, which was half an hour, which is worth probably the whole of the rest of the week in terms of output and results. The week before, I had one interview with one person was probably more important than anything else I did and probably generated more sales and profit than anything else that I did at all. So that kind of brings us on to this more fundamental question, which is, why do we work so hard? If the 80/20 rule is true, and it is, surely by taking off Friday as an example, all you're doing is you're reducing your inefficient work, so to speak, you're reducing the work when you're not producing high levels of output.
Robert Craven 01:35
But more importantly, what you're doing is you're stepping out you're swimming, walking, thinking running, painting the wall, or whatever it is, and you're coming up with really great ideas. So surely, actually, by taking the Friday off, you will be more effective because you'll be using your effective time Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, you have off. And the incremental benefit of day five is small. If and this is the big if, if you understand what your high value, adding activities are, if you understand what it is you do, that can add so much value, what those things are. So look at what you do in a week, you're 5-6 days a week. recognise that certain things you do are of incredible value, incredible outputs, and recognise that certain things you do add next to nothing. I know you're gonna say oh, it's sprach catch macro and we're going to say oh, you never know what are the things are going to actually work. But in all honesty, you need to identify the high performing activities that you do.