This excellent video from Brian Tracy is only 6 minutes long but has some great ideas on setting and achieving goals by using the 80/20 rule.
The 80/20 Rule (also called The Pareto Principle) states that 20% of your activities will account for 80% of your results.
How to apply the 80/20 rule to your goal setting:
1/ Write down 10 goals
If you could only achieve one of the goals, which would make the most dramatic impact on your life? In other words, which is your most improtant goal right now?
Also, which is your second most important goal?
These are then the 20% of your goals that you should work towards all the time. So…
2/ Work at those goals all the time
Do less work on tasks that don’t make a difference to your life and more time on the 20% you have identified.
The tasks you need to do may be tricky ones but…
3/ Resist the temptation to clear up small things first
85% of rich people have 1 big goal that they work on all of the time
Only 3% of poorer people have a big goal, and they also don’t work towards that one goal.
In summary, pick one big goal, and work on it all of the time… It will change your life!