Must Do

Every morning when you go into work there will be things you 'must do' and things you 'might do'. Then you get distracted by the post and the mails which give you another set of mixed priorities.

Never forget your 'must do' items however.  Some of these might be important, some might be urgent, a few might be both.

Unfortunately, too often we tend to address the urgent items and let the important - but not urgent - items slip by.

Then some time later, we realise we haven't done ......

Too late!

Remember Pareto

The Pareto curve (or effect) is always worth remembering ... remember it suggests that often 80% of the benefits can be achieved by applying 20% of the effort in any situation.

For example, 80% of your inventory value is probably represented by 20% of your inventory items.  If you control these 20% effectively, you have 'control'.

80% of your turnover might come from 20% of your customers.  Make sure you treat these customers well and learn from them.

Then think ... "Where else can I maximize my gains by focusing on the important 20%?"