The environment we spend our time in is crucial to our success.

I spent this past afternoon with 8 other colleagues from the John Maxwell Team in a quarterly mastermind session. We’re a group of individuals living in and around San Francisco with similar values but different thoughts and ideas.

Once again the topic of the 80/20 rule, or Pareto Principle, came up. We made it very practical and worked through 3 different questions:

1. What are the 20% of my activities/to do list that account for 80% of my results? List the 10 main items you did last week. Now choose the 2 that gave you the highest return.
2. Who are the 20% of your customers that account for 80% of your sales? Once again, list 10 customers and pick your top 2 that generate the most amount of revenue.
3. Which 20% of my products or services account for 80% of my profits? You must know what is making you money. Again, which are your “Golden 2”?

I have and continue to spend a lot of time thinking into these questions, because I know that successfully answering them will revolutionize the productivity, growth and profitability of my business.

But here is the rub…

If you’re like me, even when you find the “20%ers” and are trying to execute them on a daily basis, you run up against the following problem…

You spend too much time on someone else’s agenda and ignore your own.

What’s your agenda versus someone else’s agenda? Rather, what’s your money making agenda versus someone else’s money making agenda? And whose are you prioritizing?

If it’s not yours then you will not schedule the time to execute on those activities that generate 80% of your results and your success will be significantly hampered.

You must be in charge of your calendar. Customers must mold to your schedule; you must never mold to theirs!

Start with the end in mind. Know your vision, goals and prioritized activities. Then set your calendar for the week ahead before you allow anything else to creep onto it.

Your time is your most precious asset. Take charge of it before someone else does.