Dien, I have heard many techniques for making the best use of "To Do lists". I must admit that yours is excellently stated :-) (stated in a way that anyone can make effective use of it I might add :-)... Josh

> Hi Brenda and Rick!

> Brenda, that's a great question -- almost
> everyone has this kind of problem.... It's
> so easy to spend too much time on doing
> things which aren't worthwhile.

> There's something called the "Pareto
> Principle," also known as the
> "80/20 Rule" or the "80/20
> Principle." You can apply it many
> places.... For example....

> 80% of your results come from 20% of your
> efforts.

> 80% of your income comes from 20% of your
> customers.

> 80% of advertising results come from 20% of
> your campaign.

> 80% of the outfits we wear come from 20% of
> the clothes in our closets and drawers.

> 80% of our personal telephone calls are to
> 20% of the people in our address book.

> While the real numbers may not be precisely
> 80% and 20% (they could be higher or lower),
> the general principle is true.... It's
> almost always true that a disproportionate
> amount of your success comes from only a
> small percentage of your activities.... As
> Rick pointed out, the key is to identify
> these activities.

> Here's one method I've used.... I'd make up
> a "To Do" list, of things to do.
> I'd list next to each item how long I
> expected this task to take. Then next to
> that, I'd write down the benefit I'd get
> from each activity. And lastly, I'd rank how
> good this benefit is....

> For example, I'd put "A" if I got
> a lot of benefit from this activity,
> "B" if I only got a medium amount
> of benefit, and "C" if I only got
> a little bit of benefit.

> Then, once you have a list of things
> "To Do" and rankings by benefits
> to you, you can prioritize. Make the
> "A" items your highest priority,
> and the "C" items your lowest
> priority. Often, you will find that you can
> skip many of the "C" items
> altogether and it will make little
> difference in your life.... That's one
> approach.

> If you apply this, you could find that you
> have MORE free time than before, and you're
> producing more results as well, because
> you've eliminated the
> "time-wasting" activities. :)

> However.... I'm human too. I must admit I do
> this, then after a while I lapse into my bad
> habits again (and my free time disappears).
> But thanks for your posts Brenda and Rick --
> I'm going to make up my prioritized list
> again and get back to a more efficient
> lifestyle (and claim back some of this
> time!).... :)

> One thing about time is that we are only
> given so much of it, so it's good to use it
> wisely!

> - Dien Rice




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