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If you were to add up exactly how much time you spend doing each activity throughout your day, what would it say about you? What would it say about your goals for the future? I can easily predict that my future would be filled with lots of eating, little sleeping, and enormous amounts of Facebook stalking. When it comes to growth, and especially the accomplishment of goals, every single day is extremely important. One of the most effective strategies to create the life you want is to acquire only the essential knowledge, the most vital information, and nothing more. It doesn’t matter what you are trying to do. If you spend 8 hours a day preparing for a piano concert by watching historical documentaries about President Lincoln, needless to say, the information may be fascinating but it is completely useless in this situation. This example may sound extreme but every time you do something that doesn’t bring you one step closer to your goals, you are wasting precious time.

How to Learn What Matters (and ignore what doesn’t)

The Pareto Principle - Otherwise known as the 80/20 Rule, Pareto’s Law, law of the vital few, and the principle of factor sparsity – the Pareto Principle states that 80% of the results come from 20% of the actions. It can also be said that 80% of the effects come from 20% of the causes, or 80% of the salesmen bring in 20% of the sales, or most people wear 20% of their clothes 80% of the time. The 80/20 Rule is perhaps the most shocking and the most obvious observation about life. We waste a lot of time (about 80% of it in fact). The key is not to focus on how much time you are wasting, but instead to focus on that 20%. What are you doing well? More importantly, how could you increase the amount of time you spend doing those productive and transformative tasks? Doing what matters is not an objective science so it will take some analysis to identify what constitutes “good use of time” vs. “wasting time.” However, it is probably fairly obvious that watching SVU reruns doesn’t help you train for a triathlon. Train your brain to see results and become an expert at spotting productive bursts throughout each day.The 80/20 rule could be flipped on it’s head quickly if you find yourself utilizing 80% of your time effectively.

Online Degrees and Self-Study Courses – I find it funny that 90-95% of what I learned in school was theoretical. I don’t discredit the institutions or the teachers for filling my brain with knowledge that wouldn’t make me a millionaire or teach me how to lose pounds of blubber. However, I find it amazingly opportunistic that I know have so much time on my hands to teach myself what I want. Seriously. I can locate useful knowledge just about anywhere. In order to learn only the essential knowledge, seek out the institutions that teach specific knowledge. Find the programs that teach practical strategies to survive in your ideal industry, like an online master’s degree that allows you to work full-time during school. In traditional educational programs you normally have to move at the pace of the instructor or the class. In many online programs you can move at your own pace. For me, that means I can learn an insane amount of information very quickly. The key is to isolate the schools, programs, courses, and information that is essential to moving you from point A to point B as efficiently as possible. No baggage.

Master’s in Amazon.com – I don’t have a master’s degree, officially. What I do have is a self-promoted master’s in personal development from the University of Amazon.com. It’s an online school that sends me books I want whenever I give them a few bucks. It’s incredible. I read what I want, when I want, and at my own pace. There are no overhead expenses and no tests. I can order as many books as I want and I don’t have to read the ones I buy. I can learn about any subject that interests me and I can change subjects at will. Self-education is nothing new, but a master’s in personal development sounds so intriguing that I couldn’t pass it up when I discovered it. If there is anything in the world you want to learn, just pick up a book.

TED – I can’t forget to throw out my recommendation to watch TED videos. If you haven’t watched a video on TED.com yet, check it out now (TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, and Design – it started as a conference for those topics but it has blossomed into so much more). On TED you will find 20-minute videos that will blow your mind in just about every topic imaginable. The mini-speeches are designed to “Wow” you with innovation, creativity, and breathtaking brilliance. It is fascinating stuff and you can blame me if you are not absolutely stunned. Once again, the key is to find a specific topic that directly inspires you to do something, especially something that creates progress towards your most important goals.

Recommendations from Experts – Don’t ask your friends for recommendations on your goals unless your friends are bona fide experts in what you want to learn. Find experts and explore what they recommend. I have found that the best recommendations for anything come from those who have already filtered through all the crap out there. The experts have been there and done that. What they say often comes across as obvious and even elementary, but that is usually because the obvious stuff works and no one is actually doing it! Take health food as an example. How many experts does it take to preach the benefits of vegetables before people start eating those more than cheeseburgers? Answer: about seven billion, or one personal nutritionist per person. No one is listening to the experts because the cheeseburger is too tempting. If you want to focus on the important stuff you will have to make sacrifices and listen to the experts. I’m sorry, the cheeseburgers have to go.

Befriend the Dumpster – This may be the most difficult part. When you find something that isn’t working (like the cheeseburger), you have to be willing to throw it out. Every time you find something that doesn’t make you smarter, faster, wiser, richer, prettier, or better at whatever it is you are trying to accomplish, you need to be willing to not do it anymore. Find a trashcan and make it your best friend. Delete silly emails. Unsubscribe from RSS feeds you aren’t learning anything from. Stop reading the book that isn’t getting you anywhere. All these and more are steps to eliminate chains that may be holding you back from doing what you love, what you’re great at, or what needs to get done. Learning is a conscious act of progress, or at least it should be.

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Don’t forget to check out my new revolutionary eBook for conquering life after college!

The Clueless Graduate,

Jeff & Tessa Sanders

Jeff Sanders


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