3 practical techniques to optimize your day

Set yourself up to succeed. Here are three straightforward techniques to do so.

  1. Pareto’s principle, also known as the 80/20 rule.  Spend your time on the vital few. Around his time, economist Vilfredo Pareto conducted a study showing that 20% of the Italian population controlled 80% of the land. Over the years, business and natural phenomena were observed to follow this pattern. 20% of the output comes from 80% of the input while 80% of the output springs from 20% of the input. For example, 80% of the sales are generated by 20% of the salespeople.
  2. Pomodoro technique. Try it for 25 minutes, even if you don’t feel like it (yet). This technique hails from the use of a timer that looks like a tomato. Hence the name pomodoro, the Italian word for tomato. The intervals chunk the task into productive work sprints, instead of dragged marathons.
  3. Three things today. Accomplish three objectives in one day and you move three steps closer towards your goal. That’s over a thousand steps closer in a year.