Which is your Limiting Factor?

 Every task has a limiting factor that determines how fast you are able to achieve your goal. Identifying and working on it has a great impact on your time management and productivity.

In today's world, people work at their 110% - 130% of capacity, whereby; every second at your disposal is essential. The reason why both successful people and companies are characterized by understanding the factors that limit the fulfillment of their goals, and focusing on them in order to accomplish their objectives.

How to identify your limiting factor?

Identifying your limiting factor it’s all about finding your key constraints, those that set the speed on how quickly you or your company achieves its goals. Some might refer to this concept as bottlenecks. Refer to them any way you like, as long as you understand that in order to fulfill any task, there will always be people, skills, resources, and factors that influence your ability to achieve it. As per the 80-20 rule, by focusing on these factors you generate the greatest impact on the task you want to carry out while optimizing your energy usage by not wasting your energy on factors that won affect the pace at which we accomplish our tasks.

It doesn’t matter how big or small is the task, there is always a limiting factor or constraint, which determines how quickly, and well, you get it done. The process of determining your limiting factors may take your time but may be the best use of your energy. However, make no mistake generally more than 90% of our limiting factors are within us, so start by honestly looking deeply within yourself before looking at others. A good way to start is asking yourself “What is it in me that is holding me back," afterward study the task and list all the limiting skills, resources, people, and processes you find. Subsequently, narrow this list by removing factors that are not crucial until you can define the central problem. In order to do this ask yourself what if you improve this factor, how it will affect the overall process? The benefits that will be obtained, merit the time and resources needed to improve it?

Beware, there are no perfect processes; therefore, when you study its problems, you might find out many limiting factors, but not all of them are relevant to your objectives. If you solve the wrong problem, you will spend your time and energy without any payoff.

Some examples of limiting factors in a company in their task of attracting and retaining customers might be the marketing or sales force, perhaps the operating costs, liquidity of the company, and so on.

I hope you are now ready to determine your limiting factor, work on it, and make a difference.