Here is an excerpt from an article written by Nate Steere for mint.com. When I stumbled upon it, I was informed that Mint “makes your life easier. At Mint, we believe money is for living. So we make everything simple and streamlined. Sign up takes less than five minutes. Then Mint automatically pulls all your financial information into one place, so you can finally get the entire picture. Set a budget, track your goals and do more with your money, for free!”
To read the complete article and/or watch a short video, please click here.
Photo Credit: andhij
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Trying to get more done at work? With distractions, emergencies and low-value busywork eating up a large part of your day, it can be a struggle. Most employees respond by working harder, which usually involves longer hours, tighter deadlines and a lot of beating yourself up for not getting more accomplished.
We’ve got nothing against hard work: often the only way to meet your goals is to knuckle down and handle things yourself. However, we all know the expression “work smarter, not harder” – yet most of us rely on “work harder” to get us through every situation. Don’t get us wrong; you can’t think your way out of every problem. Still, if you’ve been relying exclusively on working harder, there are some tricks that will help you be more efficient.
Read on to learn what the 80/20 rule at work is and the benefits of applying it.
[Here’s the first of several suggested applications.]
Pare-whato?
The key rule of thumb and mind-set to develop is something called the “Pareto principle.” The Pareto principle, also called the 80/20 rule, states that 80% of results come from 20% of inputs (and, conversely, the other 20% of results come from the other 80% of inputs). The principle was named after Vilfredo Pareto, an Italian mathematician from the turn of the last century. Pareto noted that 80% of land in his native Italy was owned by the wealthiest 20% of the population. Pareto went on to comment that 20% of his garden’s pea plants produced 80% of the peas he grew.
The Pareto principle states that a little imbalance can actually benefit us. By focusing on the things that produce the biggest results, we can get the lion’s share of the results, with the minimum amount of effort. It still involves hard work, sure, but you can achieve your goals in an efficient way, rather than the feeling you’re bashing into a wall over and over — a feeling we’ve all had when chasing our goals. We all know to apply this principle to some extent, and we all try to focus on crucial things even if it means ignoring trivial ones, but you can gain valuable insight on your work by trying to apply the principle to all aspects of your work life. Read on for ideas, both obvious and subtle, of how to make the 80/20 rule work for you.
[Note: “Applying the 80-20 Rule at Work” provided by AskMen.com]
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Nate Steere is a freelance author living in Southwest Florida, where he works in management with a collection of luxury resorts.