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few years into my technology sales career, I discovered how to apply the concept of procrastination to the Pareto Principle, also known as The 80/20 rule. If you are not familiar with the 80/20, it is a premise that sometimes applies to many areas of your life; such as:
• 80 percent of the clothes that I wear come from only 20 percent of the clothes that I own
• 80 percent of my financial reward stems from only 20 percent of my activities
• 80 percent of the time I spend socializing is done with only 20 percent of the people I know

The idea around applying procrastination to this principle is that I discovered how to procrastinate the 80 percent of my activities that we only attributing to 20 percent of my earnings. Thus, I became much more productive and achieved my income objectives. By procrastinating the 80 percent, I was prioritizing the 20 percent which provided tremendous leverage to my efforts.

Food and Activities
You will be surprised by how many areas of your life can be equated to the Pareto Principle – also known as the 80/20 Rule. Think about your food and activities. Do you eat at specific places a certain percentage of the time or number of days per week? On a scale of one to ten, how well does your experience with that particular establishment serve your weight loss goal? If you rate it highly, then this is a place that you should lend more priority toward. If you rate it poorly, you should eliminate it from your list of options.

Look at your activities. Do you have routines that directly impact your weight loss journey? Perhaps you participate in a walking group or other activity. Obviously that is a positive element and should be prioritized. Now what about the other social activities or routines you engage in? Does going to the movies cause you to snack a week’s worth of fat calories? If so, maybe you can develop the habit of taking a fresh bag of lettuce. Trust me, it won’t look any worse that gorging down the bucket of popcorn; and you’ll feel better – before, during and after. Or, perhaps you need to eliminate the movie theatre from your list of options, at least in the short term.

Every area of your life has its own 80/20 rules. Identify them and you will discover leverage to make progress on your weight loss journey. Leverage is a beautiful thing and this is another area where you have control.

Let the Pareto Principle empower you!