If you’ve ever read a business development book or listened to a business podcast (yes, I know many of you haven’t – that’s why I’m here), you may have heard them refer to something called the 80/20 principle or Pareto principle.
Broadly speaking, the Pareto principle tells us that in many circumstances, about 80% of results come from only 20% of causes.
For example:
- Gardening: 20% of pea pods produce 80% of the peas*
- Social Media: 80% of your engagement comes from 20% of your audience
- Book Marketing: 80% of book sales come from 20% of marketing efforts
- Drama: 20% of the people you know cause 80% of the problems.
I made that last one up. But it’s still probably right.
*The first example of 80/20 in action that Vilfredo Pareto observed in 1897. He later observed that 80% of land in Italy was owned by 20% of the population.
Why does this precept so often ring true?
Because not all things matter equally.
In order to apply the 80/20 principle to your writing career, you must prioritize.
Apply the 80/20 Principle
First, you’ll need to assess your business. (Yes, even if you are traditionally published or only intend to pursue traditional publishing – you are still an entrepreneur.)
Let’s start by assuming that you’re not currently a full time author – you’re likely working a job or you’re a stay at home parent. Either way, the time you have to work on your writing career is limited. For the sake of easy math, let’s assume we have about ten hours a week.
Now let’s make a simple list of all of the things you might need to do in any given week:
- Planning social media content
- Running a promotion
- Reaching out to libraries
- Writing or revising your next book
- Writing your newsletter
Out of these five tasks, which do you think is the most important? Which task will give you disproportionate results?
If you said writing or revising your next book, you’re right.
Now that we know the most important thing we should be doing, what’s next?
If a task will give us disproportionate results, let’s give it disproportionate time.
Out of those ten hours we have this week, let’s plan to dedicate five hours to our current manuscript. That leaves five hours for the remaining four tasks.
But what if five hours isn’t enough for those four tasks?
Well, I’ll tell you a secret. There’s never quite enough time. That’s why we have to learn to prioritize. Every time you sit down to work, you need to ask yourself: If I could only finish one of these things today, which one would be the most important?
I hope this entry has given you insight into how to manage your time more effectively. If you have any further questions about organization or time management, leave a comment or send me an email to [email protected].
ACTION STEPS:
Ask yourself the following questions:
- How are you currently managing your writing time?
- How can you use the 80/20 principle to be more effective this week?