by Richard Koch
CHAPTER 2 – CREATE MORE WITH LESS
The way to make the improvement is to ask, “What will give me a much better result for much less energy?”
CHAPTER 3 – WE HAVE ALL THE TIME IN THE WORLD
Page 34
TIME REVOLUTIONARIES
“Chris” was another consultant and time revolutionary. He sold multimillion-dollar assignments. The troops loved him. He was always in the office early in the morning and late at night. Yet his reputation for long hours was undeserved. Chris routinely spent afternoons discreetly playing golf or tennis, at the racetrack, or taking long lunches. Everyone assumed that he was with clients. When i once chided him, he said he was following the 80/20 method, getting more results with much less energy. I had to agree it was true
CHAPTER 4 – FOCUS ON YOU BEST 20 PERCENT
Focus is the secret of all personal power, happiness, and success, focus means doing less; being less. Focus makes less more. Few people focus, yet focus is easy. Focus expands individuality, the essence of being human.
Happiness requires active participation in what we value.
CHAPTER 5 – ENJOY WORK AND SUCCESS
These giants weren’t chained to their desks. What they all did was to spend time on what mattered to them, on a few essentials where they exerted leadership, and little or no time on the mass of trivia occupying their hard-working contemporaries.
Make a great mental leap: dissociate effort from reward. Focus on the outcomes that you want and find the easiest way to them with least effort, least sacrifice, and most pleasure. Concentrate on what produces extraordinary results without extraordinary effort. Be efficient but relaxed. First, think results. Then get them with least energy.
- 20 percent of work, effort, and resources five over 80 percent of results. What gives us the 80 percent outcome for 20 percent effort — or the 400 percent outcome for 100 percent results? What’s the ordinary way to extraordinary results?
- 80 percent of your value to other people comes from 20 percent or less of what you do. What are these few vital activities?
- 80 percent of your success derives from 20 percent or less of your skills and knowledge. What are the really valuable things that you do so much better than other people.
- 80 percent of what you want comes from 20 percent of the tactics or behavior you adopt. What behavior has results out of all proportion to energy?
If you think you’re not so smart — and to think this, you have to be quite intelligent after all — work on your knowledge and expertise in a very narrow area, where extraordinary results are available for modest efforts.
STEP 3: TAKE 80/20 ACTION
Work out the three key 80/20 actions to get you started. Each one must take you a substantial or giant leap along your 80/20 route toward your 80/20 destination.
Write them opposite.
For every 80/20 action step, stop three or four other actions. Act less; focus more.
CHAPTER 7 – RELATIONSHIPS THE 80/20 WAY
HAPPY FAMILIES USE MORE POSITIVE THAN NEGATIVE FEEDBACK
Researchers at one school noticed that teachers praised good work and blamed bad behavior. As an experiment, teachers were trained to praise both good work and good behavior — and to ignore bad behavior, soon the bad behavior largely vanished.
At home, too, praise is more effective than blame, creating upward spirals. The 80/20 way exalts praise — praise is easy, the return over the lifetime of the child is immense. Praise is to children’s development as water is to plants: the tiniest encouragement leads to massive flowering, a capable, well-intentioned child will have a terrific positive impact on other people throughout life. A little praise for a child today has enormous lasting benefits.
CHAPTER 9 – THE POWER OF PARSIMONIOUS POSITIVE ACTION
Emotion should be accepted, not crushed. We should use our deliberate, thinking capacity to “Talk to” our emotions and reason with them. Treat emotions like people with whom we disagree. Instead of interrupting them, “have a cup of tea” with them, let them have their say, admit your feelings — and yet resolve to act positively.
Viktor Frankl didn’t deny his emotions. His book is bleak and realistic about the horrors of camp life. Still, he asked himself, “What can I do that might possibly work, that will give me a reason to continue living?” And then he acted — even though most of the time he felt depressed, hungry, and physically tormented.
It’s easier to change a few of the things we do than the things we habitually think and feel. Take the few right actions and your feelings will take care of themselves.
CHAPTER 10 – YOUR 80/20 HAPPINESS PLAN
If speeding up takes us nowhere, slowing down can take us everywhere. Contrary to common opinion, less is more. Only by concentrating on the few important and vital things, and refusing to worry over the mass of trivial ones, can we find happiness. Only by doing less can we do more. Only by insisting on more with less can we fulfill our individual destiny.