Boost Your Productivity By Applying The Warren Buffett’s 25/5 Rule

Applying this rule takes only 10 minutes but it will maximize your productivity as never before.

Warren Buffett

Productivity is an essential issue for everyone. Indeed, everyone wants to be able to achieve great things professionally while keeping enough free time to enjoy their personal lives. People who cannot be productive enough will tend to work too hard, which will affect their personal lives. Thus, they will not have enough time to devote to their personal lives.

This problem can go very far since the lack of rest and personal activities can simply lead to burnout!

To avoid these problems, I suggest you discover how to boost your productivity by applying the method followed by Warren Buffett in person. The fact that Warren Buffett is one of the richest men on the planet and at the same time one of the greatest investors of all time should be enough to convince you to try this method.

The Warren Buffett’s 25/5 Rule

Warren Buffett’s method is called the 25/5 Rule. History says that she became famous after a discussion between Warren Buffett and his personal airplane pilot, a Mike Flint.

Before taking the plane, Warren Buffett stepped forward and told Mike Flint:

“The fact that you’re still working for me, tells me I’m not doing my job. You should be out, going after more of your goals and dreams.”

Faced with Mike Flint’s astonishment, Warren Buffett then explained to him that he had to properly prioritize his dreams in order to achieve higher goals in life. It was then that Warren Buffett revealed a 3-step process that was easy to follow : it was the now famous 25/5 Rule.

In turn, I will present it to you in detail.

Applying The 25/5 Rule In 3 Steps

Step 1: Write down on paper your top 25 goals

The first step of Warren Buffett’s 25/5 Rule will be to write down on paper the list of the 25 most important goals you want to achieve during your lifetime. Your goals may change during your life, so this list represents a vision at a moment T.

Step 2: Pick your 5 most important goals

Once you have this list on paper, you will be able to proceed to the second step. This consists of going through your list and surrounding the 5 goals that are most important to you among the 25 previously written.

It is possible that you will spend some time on this second step because you will have difficulty to identify 5 goals among these 25. Indeed, you will be in the same situation as Mike Flint who told Warren Buffett that all these goals were important to him.

Nevertheless, you will have to do it conscientiously. Once this step is completed, Warren Buffett asks Mike Flint:

“Are you sure these are the absolute highest priority for you.”

Mike Flint simply replied: “Yes”.

Step 3: Focus your efforts on your top 5 goals and say no to the others

Now sure of his choice, Mike Flint told Warren Buffett that he would focus all his efforts on his 5 most important goals right away. Warren Buffett decided to test Mike Flint’s real motivation to limit himself to these 5 goals only.

Warren Buffett then said to him:

“Mike, what about the other 20 goals you’ve set aside? What is your plan to reach them?”

Mike Flint immediately fell into the trap and replied:

“The 5 goals I have surrounded are the most important. Nevertheless, I will continue to work on the others intermittently since they are still important.”

After a brief moment of silence, Warren Buffett looked Mike Flint in the eyes seriously and said to him:

“No. It would be a mistake, Mike, to do so. Everything you’ve surrounded is on the list of things you must avoid at all costs. And this, whatever the goal. Until you really reach the first 5, you should not devote any attention to it.”

This last lesson that Warren Buffett gave Mike Flint is essential. Indeed, it must make you aware that focusing your efforts on your first 5 goals is not enough. You must also drop the other 20 so as not to waste time.

Boost Your Productivity With The 25/5 Rule

You can already apply Warren Buffett’s 25/5 Rule to take stock of your life goals and properly refocus your efforts on those that are most important to you.

Photo by Andreas Klassen on Unsplash

However, there is more to it than that. You can apply the 25/5 Rule in your daily life to drastically boost your productivity. Indeed, the great lesson behind the 25/5 Rule is that you have to learn to say no to anything that is not essential to you.

You will therefore be able to resume the first step by making a list of the 25 tasks you have to do today, during the week or during the month. Then, you will surround the 5 most important ones, i.e. those that are priorities, wisely.

Finally, you will need to focus all your efforts on achieving these 5 priority tasks at all costs. Anything that is non-priority has been set aside and should only be started if you have time left after the 5 priority tasks have been completed entirely.

By doing so, you will maximize the successful completion of your essential tasks, which will allow you to maximize your productivity. Sorting out what is a priority and what is not will also give you more time to focus on your personal life.