For example, let’s say
you allocate 2 hours (which we’ll represent as 20% of your time) to clean
a room, a basement, or a garage. Let’s say that will you will be able to
get it to be 80% clean. It won’t be
perfect, but it will be acceptable
and a job well done. However, to
squeeze out an additional 20%
of results, to make it “perfectly clean”, will require an additional 80%
of your time, or 8 hours. The additional results are sixteen times more
costly than the initial results from 20% of the effort, not to mention
that while you’re trying to squeeze out those additional results, you are
kept from doing a lot of other more productive things.
This rule has a lot of application
to you as a time manager. Ever
notice if you’re in sales how
20% of your customers give you 80% of your sales and the other 80% of your
customers give you the remaining 20% of your business? Where then should
you be spending 80% of your time? With the 20% of the customers who are
giving you 80% of your business.
Ever notice how 20% of your relatives
give your 80% of your headaches?
It may not always work with exact
mathematical precision, but,
typically, the small chunk of
input yields the biggest chuck of output
or results.
Most of us benefit from this
rule intuitively. When you and I approach a task (clean a room, prepare
a term paper, write up a project, etc.) we decide to put in a reasonable
amount of time and effort to achieve a reasonable result. The result may
not be perfect but it will be acceptable and this will free us to devote
our time to tackling other endeavors.
We put in a reasonable amount
of time and produce a pretty decent report. It may not be perfect, but
putting in a whole lot more time to make it a little better is not cost-effective
and therefore not worth
the effort.
Those who suffer from the Curse
of Perfectionism do not understand this principle. Their goal is always
perfection, which, realistically, is unattainable. For example, you cannot
clean a room perfectly. As you clean it, it’s getting dirty as dust settles.
Any written report can be polished and improved upon with more time and
effort. Striving for perfection is then always stressful and frustrating.
Their overall productivity suffers
as they spend an inordinate amount of time on a few things, trying to make
them perfect, rather than a lesser amount of time on a lot of things that
will multiply their results.
The curse is cured when they
abandon the need to do their tasks
perfectly, when they understand
that excellence in performance is
attaining a degree of perfection,
not absolute perfection. This does
not compromise one’s standard
of excellence in performance. It enhances excellent performance with increased
results.
For a humorous break for you
and to share with others, get your free copy now of my short article, “You
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