Normally I use this space to write about the mundane experiences I have, but the other day I read a very interesting article and thought it might be useful to EIL readers. It was about something called “the 25/5 Rule.” Here’s the story behind the rule and how it can benefit you.
According to the story, Mike Flint was Warren Buffett’s personal airplane pilot for a decade. Once, when Flint was discussing career priorities with his boss, Buffett walked him through a simple exercise. First, Buffett told Flint to make a list of his top 25 career goals. Then he directed Flint to circle the top five goals. At that point, Buffett advised Flint to remain focused on accomplishing goals 1 through 5 and to stay completely away from working on goals 6 through 25. What’s the lesson? It’s all about focus.
Let’s be realistic. You’re probably not going to accomplish 25 BIG things in your life. If you really focus long-term, you can reach three to five BIG goals, maybe. And the cause of your lack of focus is numbers 6 through 25. Those are other things you’re interested in, and are your biggest potential distractions. It’s easy to come up with five things you really want to do. But it’s even easier to get distracted from actually making progress on those 5 goals because you get caught up in the excitement, joy, or temporary pleasure of things that simply aren’t as important.
In the story, Buffett was advising on how to reach your biggest career or life goals. But you can
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also use this rule to help you with your daily, weekly, or monthly priorities. For example, every morning, you might make a list of 5 to 10 things you’d really like to accomplish for the day. Then, circle only the top task. Don’t work on any of the other tasks until you’ve knocked out the top priority. Do the same thing for the week. Identify 10 things you’d like to get done, but circle only the top two. Make those top tasks your ultimate priority, and don’t let the others get in the way.
I just made my list for the week. I wrote down 10 things I want to accomplish this week. Out of my list of 10, unfortunately, I had to circle the 10th on my list rather than the 1st. Number 10 on my list was doing laundry. Well, I can’t do ANYTHING without clean underwear!
