Six months ago, the beautiful blonde who is my wife, wanted to buy a fountain for our terrace.

She went searching and within a week had found just what she was looking for.

We enjoyed the gurgling of the water during the spring and summer months. Then fall came and we stopped going onto the terrace. It got cold. The flowers started fading. We didn’t barbeque any longer.

The fountain, however, was full of water.

In late September Mitzi told me we had to empty the fountain. We didn’t do it. The reminders continued every Saturday and Sunday throughout October. November came.

It got colder. It was time to drain the fountain.

Last week the temperature dropped below freezing. The plants died. The fountain morphed into an ice skating rink.

It Was Time to Drain the Fountain.

On Sunday morning we spent 20 minutes on this long-discussed project. It was done.

Lesson Learned

Life is too short to remind yourself over and over to do a task.

How much time did we waste discussing the need to drain the fountain? How much mental energy was expended ‘thinking’ about the need to drain the fountain?

The thought of draining the fountain was a ‘drain’ on our energies. Another item on the to-do list.

And since we couldn’t put it off any longer, we drained the fountain! A task we thought about - and discussed - for eight weeks took us all of 20 minutes to complete.

Applying The 80/20 Rule

The 80/20 Rule, The Pareto Principle, basically says a little bit of one thing - leverage - generates a lot of something else.

For example:

80 percent of your sales come from 20 percent of your customers.

80 percent of your profits come from 20 percent of your products.

80 percent of your headaches come from 20 percent of your employees.

80 percent of your results come from 20 percent of your activities.

The idea is to create leverage so that a little bit of work generates huge returns.

Too Much Wasted Energy

Our fountain draining story is a perfect example of the opposite of the 80/20 Rule.

The amount of time Mitzi and I spent ‘thinking’ about the need to drain the fountain over the past two months, was geometrically greater than the 20 minutes it took to complete the task.

But what had we done. We discussed the need to complete the task, but never said, “Let’s just do it.” We put it off until it couldn’t be put off any further.

Wasted time. Wasted energy.

What’s On Your To-Do List?

As a general rule, there are only a handful of important things - work, tasks and projects - that MUST get done every day.

When you get them done on time - and do them well - you achieve superior results. Usually with minimal effort.

When these tasks get pushed aside till a ‘future’ date, they accumulate and stack up on you. Like a train wreck.

This is what we typically do with our unfinished projects:

We think about them.

We remind ourselves to do them.

We look at the item(s) on our to-do list.

We look at the pieces of paper on the top or our desk.

We resort the piles of paper on our desk.

And never get to the task, that will only take five, ten, or fifteen minutes to complete.

And we wonder why we’re working so hard.

We spend all of our time doing ’stuff’ that has no value and no payoff, while the important work, tasks and projects get pushed off until the last minute.

This is what I call negative leverage. It’s the opposite of the 80/20 Rule.

Get Maximum Leverage

Spend your time doing work, tasks and projects that have a huge payoff. Complete the activities that give you 80/20 leverage.

You’ll reduce the strain, tension and pressure in your life. Will be more successful. And have more time to spend with your family, friends, and yourself.