“All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players,” wrote Shakespeare. If you zoom out, the history of humanity is full of countless plays, acted out by generations, from revolutions to preaching religions. And out of the countless acts that this stage has witnessed, one shines the brightest in our age, maybe because it feeds on the light of so many lives! Any guess? Let us start with a paradoxical story.

Have you been in a situation where you go through your whole day, rushing from one task to another, and multi-tasking, but at the end of the day feel clueless why you could not make as much progress at an important task as you had planned? Well, you were busy for sure. Maybe you have a whole to-do list with almost all the tasks completed. Almost.

Management guru, Peter Drucker, once said, “There is surely nothing quite so useless as doing with great efficiency what should not be done at all.”

Guessed the play yet? You know it well. In fact, all of us have been a part of it. It is called “Busyness.” The script goes like this: You see people running around, like headless chickens, ten meetings back-to-back, five important reports to make, doing the taxes, attending kids’ events, and the list goes on. Some even scream out loud, if not vocally, then at least in their heads. And each episode ends on the same note, “So much to do, so less time.”

What if we told you there is no need to do so much?

The One Who Left the Play

In the Garden of Kosma, once walked a human who knew the play too well and hated it. In fact, he used to discourage people around him from acting in “Busyness” as well. This helped him create one of the greatest companies of all time. He would walk up to employees and ask them, “What did you accomplish today.” And in response, he would not accept any completed to-do list, but only a tangible output to prove progress towards a planned goal.

Even in the yearly planning meetings, he applied the same rule. When his executives brought plans for multiple exciting projects to take the company to new heights, he would simply collect all the plans, sit alone for hours, scrutinize them, and discard most of them. The remaining handful would be the only goals to pursue for the next year, nothing more. Since the projects were so less, the teams did them well. So well that the company eventually became one of the most valuable brands ever. The leader was Steve Jobs, and this is how he built Apple.

Let us start with basic awareness, “Activity is NOT achievement!” Steve Jobs was aware of the human desire to make long lists, be it out of fickle-mindedness or simply a wish to do more. The desire for growth is inherent in us. We all want to BE more, and doing more seems the way, right? Well, if it costs you the spark of your life, it can never be right, period.

Less is More

What is the Kosmik way then? Accept that you cannot do everything. Sad? No need to be. The good news is that you do not need to do more.

In the late 1800s, sitting in his garden (all puns intended), Vilfredo Pareto, an Italian engineer, and economist, noticed that 20% of pea pods were responsible for 80% of total peas. Thanks to a curious mind, he started drawing parallels across other aspects of life. Soon he had an almost universal theory, the “Pareto Principle.” Simply put it states that “80% outcomes come from 20% efforts.” While the numbers 80 and 20 are not strict, this proportion can be roughly observed all around us. From the richest 20% owning around 80% global wealth to 15% players producing around 85% wins in baseball, and even 20% patients using 80% health care resources in the US.

The antidote to busyness? Chase the meaningful. It might be only 20% of your tasks or time, but that is all you need to make an impact. You can verify it right now. Look back at your past and try to find which choices and actions got you the biggest results. You will be surprised to see how only a few things mattered. This is the way forward as well. Pour your all into 20% and leave out the rest.