How Working Moms Put the 80/20 Rule into Action

Have you ever wondered why you’re always busy, but at the end of the day, feel like you haven’t accomplished much? I used to struggle with that feeling everyday, that is, until I discovered and learned how to practically apply the Pareto Principle (more commonly known as the 80/20 rule).

The 80/20 Rule Defined
The 80/20 rule, which has long been used as a performance-improving approach in business, is defined like this: 80% of your results and rewards are derived from only 20% of your priorities and activities. Translated for time-starved working moms, it means that if you don’t have your priorities in order, then you’re probably wasting a lot of time doing things that have no real value to you. In fact, you may even have the principle reversed – you’re spending 80% of your time on activities that produce only 20% of the results or rewards you want. No wonder your work/life feels imbalanced!

Applying the 80/20 Principle
(By the way, my previous post on how you can use another classic business tool, the SWOT, is a good pre-cursor to this next explanation, so be sure to check it out.)

So, you’re time-starved, constantly busy and desperate for a solution. You want to free up your time and pursue the priorities that really matter to you. Basically, you’re committing 80% of your time on low-value priorities that produce only 20% of the rewards and results you want. The goal, in these next steps, is to shift this so that you’re spending 20% of your time on high-value priorities that produce 80% of your rewards and results.

Here’s how:

1. Get real and decide what it is you REALLY want. Often, work/life balance issues are the result of pursuing dreams and goals that don’t align with your internal compass, or mission. As a result, your day is filled with other people’s priorities and you’re left feeling completely unfulfilled at the end of the day. So ask yourself, “What am I seeking? Achievement? Happiness? What does it look like?”
2. Track your activities. For the next three days, record the activities in your day and the results or rewards you gained from them. If you’ve been honest with yourself, you’ll notice that you’ve spent a large portion of your day, close to 80%, doing things that produce low-value results and rewards. Let’s say, you don’t find any pleasure in making home-cooked meals, yet you spent the last two hours preparing a fabulous dish your girlfriend said “you’ve gotta try.” Sure, your family gets a home-cooked meal and it’ll probably be delicious. But if you had to leave work early, run to the specialty food store, rush home to cook while the kids ran amuck in the background, then you may not feel the rewards of your effort when it’s finally time to sit down to enjoy this terrific home-cooked meal.
3. Identify the 20% priorities that give you the 80% return. This is where you may get stuck, so here are some general ideas to get you started:

Low-value activities…
- usually come from other people’s priorities;
- are things you don’t enjoy doing;
- are things that don’t make use of your talents, skills and abilities.
Eliminate or reduce low-value activities.

High-value activities…
- further your mission and overall purpose in life;
- are things that excite you;
- are things that reduce the time you personally need to spend doing, but can still produce quality results.
Maximize and multiply high-value activities.

There might be some moms reading this that think, “Oh please…if I spend all my time doing things I really enjoy, how in the world will anything get done?” If this sounds like you, then your challenge is to shift your perspective from a state of wanting a difference in your work/life, to the action that goes with being willing to change. You’ll want to read up on why you’re in a work/life rut first, because when put into practice, the 80/20 principle does work. Trust me, I’ve done it.

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Tagged as: 80/20, happiness, life balance issues, pareto principle, priorities, swot