The Law of Three and Key Result Areas: The Complete Guide to Brian Tracy’s Focus Method

The Law of Three is Brian Tracy’s rule that three core tasks contain most of the value you contribute at work. Key result areas are the five to seven areas of results you are fully responsible for. Together they answer the question he called one of the most important in any career: “Why am I on the payroll?”

Productivity method · Themes: focus, career, role clarity, prioritisation

Last updated: 13 November 2026

Written by Saj Ali

Reading time: about 12 minutes

How we wrote this guide: this guide was written by Saj Ali. It draws on chapters 7 and 8 of Brian Tracy’s _Eat That Frog!_ (third edition, 2017), his other books and published research on goals and role clarity. Every research claim links to its source.

The Law of Three and key result areas in brief

• The Law of Three. Three core tasks contain most of the value you contribute.
• Key result areas. The five to seven areas of results you are completely responsible for.
• The big question. “Why am I on the payroll?”
• The rule. Your weakest key result area sets the limit on how well you can use all your other skills.
• Pairs well with. The 80/20 rule and Eat That Frog.

Contents

1. What Are the Law of Three and Key Result Areas?
2. “Why Am I on the Payroll?”
3. Key Result Areas Explained
4. The Law of Three Explained
5. How to Find Your Key Result Areas and Your Three Core Tasks
6. A Worked Example
7. What the Research Says
8. Common Mistakes
9. Frequently Asked Questions
10. Key Takeaways
11. Explore More on Self Help Supermarket
12. Sources

What Are the Law of Three and Key Result Areas?

These are two linked ideas from Brian Tracy’s Eat That Frog!, where they appear as chapter 7, “Focus on Key Result Areas”, and chapter 8, “Apply the Law of Three” (Tracy, 2017; Tracy, 2017, ch. 8).

• Key result areas (KRAs) describe your job. Tracy wrote that any job “can be broken down into about five to seven key result areas, seldom more”. These are the results you “absolutely, positively have to get to fulfill your responsibilities” (Tracy, 2017).
• The Law of Three describes your best work. “Three core tasks that you perform contain most of the value that you contribute to your business or organization” (Tracy, 2017, ch. 8).

The two work at different levels. KRAs make sure nothing essential is neglected. The Law of Three tells you where to put most of your time. Both are applications of the 80/20 rule: a small number of activities produce most of your results.

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“Why Am I on the Payroll?”

Tracy opened his chapter on key result areas with a question: “Why am I on the payroll?” He called it “one of the most important questions you can ever ask and answer, over and over again, throughout your career”, and observed that most people are not sure of the answer (Tracy, 2017).

His reasoning was simple. “You have been hired to get specific results.” A salary is a payment for a quality and quantity of work that combines with the work of others to create something customers will pay for. If you are unclear about which results you were hired for, “it is very hard for you to perform at your best, get paid more, and get promoted faster” (Tracy, 2017).

The question echoes Peter Drucker, the management writer Tracy quoted throughout his books. Drucker’s work stressed managing by objectives and focusing on contribution, and his 2004 Harvard Business Review article “What Makes an Effective Executive” began with asking what needs to be done (Wikipedia; Drucker, 2004). See our Peter Drucker page for more.

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Key Result Areas Explained

Tracy defined a key result area as “something for which you are completely responsible. If you don’t do it, it doesn’t get done.” It is under your control, and it “produces an output that becomes an input or a contributing factor to the work of others” (Tracy, 2017).

He compared KRAs to the vital functions of the body, such as heart rate and breathing: if any one of them fails, the whole organism is in trouble. In the same way, failing in one critical area of your work can end your job (Tracy, 2017).

Examples from Tracy

Source: Tracy, 2017. You can read more about the sales KRAs in our sales psychology guide.

The weakest-link rule

Tracy’s most important rule about KRAs was this: “Your weakest key result area sets the height at which you can use all your other skills and abilities.” You might be excellent in six of seven areas, but poor performance in the seventh “will hold you back” (Tracy, 2017). For a manager, poor delegation alone can lead to failure, because delegation is how a manager gets results through others.

He also linked weak areas to procrastination: “people avoid jobs and activities in those areas where they have performed poorly in the past”, which makes the weakness worse (Tracy, 2017). The fix is to name the weakness, set a goal and make a plan to improve.

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The Law of Three Explained

Tracy illustrated the Law of Three with a coaching client he called Cynthia (Tracy, 2017, ch. 8). She was working ten to twelve hours a day, six days a week, at a fast-growing technology company, and felt overwhelmed.

1. He asked her to list everything she did over a week or a month. She found 17 tasks.
2. He asked: “If you could do only one thing on this list all day long, which one task would contribute the greatest value to your company?” She circled it.
3. He asked the same question for the second and third most valuable tasks.
4. He then told her that “fully 90 percent of the value that you contribute to your company is contained in those three tasks”. Everything else was a support task that could “probably be delegated, downsized, outsourced, or eliminated”.

In Tracy’s account, Cynthia took the list to her boss, who agreed to help her delegate the other tasks. She reported doubling her output over the next 30 days, doubling her income, and moving to an 8-to-5 day with evenings and weekends free (Tracy, 2017, ch. 8). This is a story Tracy told about one client, not a study, and the 90 percent figure is his estimate. The question itself is the useful part.

The Quick List method

Tracy paired the Law of Three with a fast exercise for your life as a whole: in 30 seconds, write down your three most important goals right now. He reported that in “80 percent or more of cases” people wrote a financial or career goal, a family or relationship goal, and a health or fitness goal (Tracy, 2017, ch. 8). His coaching version repeated the question for career, family, finances, health, personal development and community, plus your three biggest problems or concerns. For more on the goal side, see our goal setting guide.

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How to Find Your Key Result Areas and Your Three Core Tasks

Part 1: Define your key result areas

1. Write down every result you are responsible for. Think in outputs (“qualified leads”, “monthly accounts closed”), not activities (“emails”).
2. Group them into five to seven areas. If you have more than seven, some are probably tasks rather than areas.
3. Check each one: am I completely responsible for this? If I don’t do it, does it not get done?
4. Agree them with your manager. Tracy advised making sure “the people above you, on the same level as you, and below you are in agreement” (Tracy, 2017).
5. Grade yourself from 1 to 10 in each area. Be honest.
6. Pick your weakest area and set a goal and plan to raise it.

Part 2: Apply the Law of Three

1. List everything you do in a typical week or month.
2. Ask Tracy’s question three times: if I could do only one thing all day, which would contribute the most value? Then the second; then the third.
3. Circle those three.
4. Look at the rest. For each task, ask whether it can be delegated, reduced, outsourced or dropped.
5. Rebuild your week so that most of your best hours go to the three core tasks. Use time blocking to protect them.

Part 3: Ask the great question

Tracy called this “one of the greatest questions you will ever ask and answer”: “What one skill, if I developed and did it in an excellent fashion, would have the greatest positive impact on my career?” (Tracy, 2017). He suggested asking your boss and co-workers too.

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A Worked Example

Leila is a new team leader in customer support. She writes out her results and groups them into six key result areas:

Her weakest area is delegation: she still solves hard tickets herself, which leaves no time for coaching. That becomes her development goal.

When she applies the Law of Three, her three core tasks are coaching agents, handling the most serious escalations, and fixing the top recurring problems in the help centre. She hands routine reporting to a senior agent and blocks two mornings a week for coaching. Her list of tasks hasn’t shrunk much, but her week is now built around the three that matter.

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What the Research Says

Neither the Law of Three nor Tracy’s KRA rules have been tested as such, and the specific figures in his stories are estimates. The underlying ideas, clear responsibilities and a focus on a few high-value goals, are well supported.

The weakest-link rule also fits research on self-efficacy: people tend to avoid activities they believe they can’t do well, and confidence grows mostly through experiences of mastery (Bandura, 1977). Improving your weakest area therefore tends to make you less likely to avoid it.

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Common Mistakes

• Listing tasks instead of results. “Answer emails” isn’t a key result area. “Respond to customers within 24 hours” might be part of one.
• Picking three tasks you enjoy. The question is which tasks contribute the most value, not which you like most.
• Doing it alone. Your manager may see your value differently. Agree your KRAs and three core tasks together.
• Never revisiting the list. Roles change. Review your KRAs every quarter and whenever your job changes.
• Ignoring the weakest area. It is natural to lean on your strengths, but Tracy’s rule is that your weakest area limits everything else.

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Frequently Asked Questions

What is Brian Tracy’s Law of Three?

It is the idea that three core tasks contain most of the value you contribute at work. You find them by asking which single task would add the most value if you could do only one thing all day, then repeating the question for the second and third tasks.

What are key result areas?

Key result areas are the five to seven areas of results that you are completely responsible for in your job. If you don’t deliver them, they don’t get done.

How many key result areas should I have?

Brian Tracy wrote that most jobs break down into about five to seven key result areas, seldom more.

What does “Why am I on the payroll?” mean?

It is Tracy’s question for clarifying exactly which results you were hired to deliver. He believed that people who are clear on the answer perform better and progress faster.

What is the weakest key result area rule?

Tracy’s rule is that your weakest key result area sets the height at which you can use all your other skills. Improving it often has more effect than improving an area where you are already strong.

How is the Law of Three related to the 80/20 rule?

Both say that a small number of activities produce most results. The 80/20 rule points to the top 20 percent of your tasks; the Law of Three narrows that down to three core tasks.

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Key Takeaways

• Ask “Why am I on the payroll?” and answer it in terms of results.
• Define five to seven key result areas, agree them with your manager and grade yourself in each.
• Your weakest key result area limits how well you can use all your other skills.
• The Law of Three: identify the three tasks that contribute the most value, and give them most of your time.
• Research on role clarity, specific goals and progress monitoring supports the approach; Tracy’s percentages are estimates.

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Explore More on Self Help Supermarket

Use these pages alongside this one:

• The 80/20 Rule – the principle behind the Law of Three
• Eat That Frog – do your most valuable task first
• The ABCDE Method – rank your daily list
• Goal Setting: The Complete Guide – set goals for each area of life
• Sales Psychology – the seven key result areas of selling
• Brian Tracy: His Life, Philosophy, Techniques and Legacy – the full system
• Peter Drucker – the management thinker Tracy quoted most
• Productivity – more ways to focus on what matters
• Browse all self-help techniques – compare every method on Self Help Supermarket.

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Sources

1. Tracy, B. Eat That Frog! 21 Great Ways to Stop Procrastinating and Get More Done in Less Time, 3rd edition. Berrett-Koehler, 2017. O’Reilly listing. https://www.oreilly.com/library/view/eat-that-frog/9781626569430/
2. Tracy, B. Eat That Frog!, 3rd edition, chapter 8, “Apply the Law of Three”. O’Reilly. https://www.oreilly.com/library/view/eat-that-frog/9781626569430/xhtml/ch08.html
3. Self Help Supermarket. “Brian Tracy (1944–2026): His Life, Philosophy, Techniques and Legacy”. https://www.selfhelpsupermarket.com/brian-tracy-tribute/
4. Wikipedia. “Peter Drucker”, accessed 13 November 2026. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Drucker
5. Drucker, P. F. “What Makes an Effective Executive”, Harvard Business Review, June 2004. https://hbr.org/2004/06/what-makes-an-effective-executive
6. Verbeke, W., Dietz, B., & Verwaal, E. (2011). Drivers of sales performance: A contemporary meta-analysis. Have salespeople become knowledge brokers? Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 39(3), 407–428. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11747-010-0211-8
7. Locke, E. A., & Latham, G. P. (2002). Building a practically useful theory of goal setting and task motivation: A 35-year odyssey. American Psychologist, 57(9), 705–717. https://doi.org/10.1037/0003-066X.57.9.705
8. Newman, M. E. J. (2005). Power laws, Pareto distributions and Zipf’s law. Contemporary Physics, 46(5), 323–351. https://doi.org/10.1080/00107510500052444
9. Steel, P. (2007). The nature of procrastination: A meta-analytic and theoretical review of quintessential self-regulatory failure. Psychological Bulletin, 133(1), 65–94. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.133.1.65
10. Harkin, B., Webb, T. L., Chang, B. P. I., Prestwich, A., et al. (2016). Does monitoring goal progress promote goal attainment? A meta-analysis of the experimental evidence. Psychological Bulletin, 142(2), 198–229. https://doi.org/10.1037/bul0000025
11. Bandura, A. (1977). Self-efficacy: Toward a unifying theory of behavioral change. Psychological Review, 84(2), 191–215. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-295X.84.2.191