Do you ever work from a To-Do List? It’s a great idea, but what generally happens is that most people end up beating themselves up about all the things they didn’t get accomplished on their to-do list rather than acknowledging what they did accomplish.

The 80-20 rule says that 80 percent of the benefit in our businesses comes from the top 20 percent of our activities. Rather than tracking what you didn’t do, keep a list of all the things you did do. To illustrate this point, if you had ten items on your to-do list, you could beat yourself for not accomplishing four of the items.

A better approach is to ask yourself, “Did I accomplish the top 20 percent of the items on my list?” Acknowledge yourself for what you did accomplish rather than beating yourself up for what you didn’t do.

An excellent way to accomplish more and make more time in your schedule is to identify the three most important activities you need to accomplish today to stay on track for achieving your business goals and the three personal activities you need to engage in to have a great personal life. When you have accomplished these, anything else on your list is part of the 80 percent that only contributes a small fraction to your success in both business and your personal life.

Try this 3-3 approach out for a month and watch what happens with your business. Chances are you’ll be pleasantly surprised.