Each of us is given the same 24 hours in a day to accomplish our work. Yet some of us seem to be able to accomplish much more in a day than others. Some make the most of their workday, breezing through tasks, while others seem to struggle to accomplish even a few things.

Efficient workers understand how to do the right things at the right times. They can identify their high-value activities (HVAs), as well as high and low productivity times. They work on high-value activities while they are at their peak performance levels, and save low-value activities (LVAs) for times when they feel less productive and energetic.

You can use the same principles to improve your efficiency. By identifying HVAs and LVAs, and understanding your natural productivity rhythms, you and your team can get more done -- and can achieve a zero-waste workweek.

What Are High-Value Activities?

High-value activities are those tasks that get us to our monthly, quarterly, and annual goals. They are different for everyone, depending upon the department in which they work. For salespeople, HVAs are activities that directly lead to revenue. For graphic designers, HVAs are those activities that involve only design. For HR staff, managing the needs of current employees are typically the highest priority.

Low-value activities are those that do nothing to move us toward our monthly performance goals. According to the Harvard Business Review, practically all of our daily tasks are unimportant. Most of our emails are not essential to our HVAs. Support tasks are usually not critical. Even some reports do nothing to support HVAs. Yet these LVAs often eat up most of our day. The first step toward achieving a zero-waste workweek is identifying which tasks are high value, and which tasks are low value.

The 80-20 Principle

The Pareto Principle, also known in management circles as the 80-20 Principle, says that 80 percent of your results come from 20 percent of your actions. That means that 80 percent of our days are wasted on LVAs and very few tasks contribute to your true value as an employee.

In order to get the most out of your time and efforts, you must first identify your HVAs. You can do that by:

• Tracking your daily activities over the course of a month to determine the core set of tasks for which you are responsible.
• Studying the list and asking yourself if you could only do one single thing on the list all day long, which task would add the most value to the organization.
• Identifying the second activity that adds the most value to your company.
• Determining the third most important task.

Once you've identified the three tasks that provide the most value to your company, study the longer list again. You should notice that the remaining tasks are things that support those three HVAs, or they are tasks that could be delegated, outsourced, or even eliminated.

Achieving the Zero-Waste Workweek

Once you've identified your HVAs, you can move towards achieving a zero-waste workweek. At the end of each workday, create a list of the six most important things you must do on the following day. Those six tasks should all be HVAs or work that directly supports those HVAs. Set aside the first 90 minutes of your next workday to tackle the number one HVA on your list. In order to do that, you should not open your email, check your voicemail messages, or log into social media. Come into work, settle in at your desk and dig right in to your top HVA for 90 minutes.

Focus the rest of the day on completing the remaining five tasks. You'll notice that your energy levels will ebb and flow. You may feel less productive and focused right before lunch, or somewhere during the mid-afternoon hours. Those are the best times to work on LVAs like email and voicemail.

It can be difficult to steer yourself away from LVAs throughout the day. If you stay focused on your top six list, you'll quickly realize how much time you waste on LVAs and you'll begin to approach those tasks with less fervor. You'll also begin to identify tasks that can, and should be, delegated or outsourced to others.

Outsource LVAs to Improve Efficiency

LVAs cannot be eliminated, but they can be achieved more efficiently and at a reduced cost by outsourcing. Most employees don't like working on LVAs, leading to mistakes and inefficiencies. Outsourcing can improve quality and productivity for HVAs and LVAs alike. Employees are free to concentrate on their high-value activities, and staffing firms focus their energies solely on LVAs. Customer service tasks, basic accounting and payroll tasks, and even hiring tasks can all be outsourced at a reasonable price, and almost always lead to improved quality.

For HR teams, for example, LVAs often include the tasks involved in the early stages of hiring new employees. Creating job postings, uploading the postings, fielding telephone inquiries, and conducting resume screenings all take away from core responsibilities of HR teams. These types of tasks can be outsourced to a staffing agency.

Staffing firms take on the burden and the minutia of employee searches. They develop candidate profiles, help align goals for the hiring process, recruit candidates, and screen qualified individuals. By the time candidates are lined up for in-person interviews, hiring teams are left with a pool of individuals who are well suited for the job. This not only eliminates a host of LVAs from the HR team's to-do lists, but it also increases the chances of making a strong, long-term hiring decision.

By identifying and tackling high-value activities, employees can learn to focus their attention on the work that matters and can achieve a zero-waste workweek.