There is no shortage of time. In fact, we are positively awash with it. We only make good use of 20 per cent of our time.... The 80/20 principle says that if we doubled our time on the top 20% of activities, we could work a two-day week and achieve 60 per cent more than now.

I make it a personal rule never to do anything that I don't really care about. It is surprising how much this cuts out.

80% of the results come from 20% of the causes. A few things are important; most are not.

There is no rush. If we think intelligently about what we can achieve with our time, we can be relaxed, even lazy. In fact, being lazy - having plenty of time to think - may actually be a precondition for achieving a great deal.

The key is to work out the few things that are really important, and the few methods that will give us what we really want.

Conventional wisdom is not to put all of your eggs in one basket. 80/20 wisdom is to choose a basket carefully, load all your eggs into it, and then watch it like a hawk.

Where a chunk of business is simple, the chances are that it is.