简单有效提高效率：用80/20法则优化任务清单

Many time management systems encourage you to waste time. Here's a simple way to spend time more wisely.
许多时间管理系统在鼓励你浪费时间。在这里要告诉你一个更明智地管理时间的简单方法。

Rethink Your 'To Do' List
重新思考你的任务清单

Unfortunately, most time management is involves "to do" lists, which tend to treat the 20% of your work that really matters as equal to the 80% of things that don't.  Having a simple list of things to do almost forces you to waste time doing stuff that doesn't really count.
很不幸，大部分时间管理都包含了任务清单，而这种方式把占你20%光阴的重要工作和那些占据你80%时间的无关紧要的工作都一视同仁。非常简单地列一个任务清单几乎相当于强迫你在那些不值得的东西上浪费时间。

That's true even if you prioritize according to importance. Plenty of important things take so much effort that, in the end, they're not worth actually doing.
即使你按照重要性划分了优先级也还会如此。那些重要的工作占用了如此多的精力，以至于到最后它们变得根本不值一做。

Here's how to use the Pareto Principle to manage your time more effectively.
以下是如何使用帕累托原则来更高效地管理你的时间。

When you make a "to do" list, prioritize each item by the amount of effort required (1 to 10, with 1 being the least amount of effort) and the potential positive results (1 to 10, with 10 being the highest impact.)
当你制作任务清单时，把每个项目按照所需的精力和潜在收益划分成10个优先级（1到10，1为最少）。

Now divide the potential results by the amount of effort to get a "priority" ranking.  Do the items with the lowest resulting priority number first.  Here's a simple example:
现在，用潜在收益除以需耗费的精力来获得一个“优先度”排名。优先做哪些优先度数字最低的工作。如下例：

Task 1: Write report on trip meeting.
任务一：就旅行会议写一份报告。

Effort=10, Result=2, Priority=5
精力=10，收益=2，优先度=5

Task 2: Prepare presentation for marketing.
任务二：准备营销陈述。

Effort=4, Result=4, Priority=1
精力=4，收益=4，优先度=1

Task 3: Call current customer about referral.
任务三：和当前客户通电话讨论推荐人问题。

Effort=1, Result=10, Priority=0.1
精力=1，收益=10，优先度=0.1

See your new priority-based order? You do Task 3 first, Task 2 second, and Task 1 last–if at all.
看出你新的优先度排名了吗？你要先做任务三，其次是任务二，最后做任务一。

This simple method ensures that the 20% of your effort that really makes a difference always gets done first.  As for the 80% that doesn't really matter, it's automatically postponed, and possibly tabled forever.
这个简单的方法能确保你20%的精力花在那些确实能创造些变化的事情上。至于那80%不重要的工作，它们会被自动推迟，可能被永远搁置。

I know this all sounds pretty simple; even simplistic.  However, I can tell you from my personal experience that there has been nothing–and I mean nothing–that has added to my personal productivity than this kind of prioritization.
我知道这听上去相当简单，甚至有些过于简单了。但是，我能用我的个人经验告诉你，没有任何其他调整优先级的办法比这个办法更好地提高了我的个人工作效率。