60-20-20 rule. One of the key planning principles. Time management & productivity. Video.

Transcription in English:

When planning your time and prioritizing tasks, remember the 60/20/20 rule. This is an extended version of the „pareto principle” that you may know. It’s a rule that says that 80% of your activities give you 20% results and vice versa. 20% of these highly profitable tasks translate into 80% of your results.

The 60/20/20 rule says that when planning your time, you should plan only 60% of the time available to you. Why 60%? This 60% of your time is intended for tasks that you can predict, which are important to you, which are tasks that you plan for example the night before or at the beginning of the week. However, you cannot predict and plan everything.

That’s why you reserve the first 20% for tasks that come to you from outside, from other people. Tasks that someone brings to you. Since there are tasks you will do, assume in advance that you will simply need 20% of your time to do them. The other 20% is for spontaneous tasks, i.e. those that will come to your mind during the day. These are tasks that you didn’t plan but which will appear as spontaneous ideas and solutions during the day. These are tasks that you will do because you think they are important, but you could not plan them in advance. It gives you a sense of freedom and spontaneity, which is especially important for people with a more spontaneous and less orderly temperament like a sanguine. It is worth leaving yourself some time to be able to do unplanned things, spontaneously.

It is worth applying the 60/20/20 rule, which is an extensive pareto principle. We plan 60% of the time „rigidly”, 20% we leave to do things that other people ask for or commission us to do. We leave the next 20% on tasks that we will come up with during the day.

The film is part of the Quick Time Management & Productivity Course available here.