Do you ever wonder how much our actions really matter? Well, in 1895 Vilfredo Pareto wrote about this. According to him, 80% of what we’re doing brings us 20% of the results we have, and 20% of what we’re doing brings us 80% of the results we have.
WTF, right? I think that there is some logic behind this. On a daily basis, there are things more important than others. Why are they more important? Because the outcome from doing those things is more important. But how many important things we do on a daily basis? For me, it’s somewhere around 20% and the rest of 80% of the things I do are not as important. In the same time, I noticed that those 20% bring 80% of the results of that day. Of course, it can be just a matter of perception so think about your day. How much time you use making the most important things and how much time you spend doing “ordinary” things?
The goal is to identify those 20% of things that bring 80% of the outcome and do more of that. The more we do, the more results we’ll have with minimum effort. This can apply to everything, so 20% of the effort brings 80% of the outcome and 80% of the effort brings 20% of the outcome. If we can identify what actions we do to bring 80% of the results, we only need to do a little more of that and the outcome will exponentially increase.
What do you think about this 80/20 rule? What examples can you find in your lives?
Fantastic post! I can tell I’m going to enjoy reading your blog.
My brain came at this topic from a different perspective – thoughts & emotional expenditure vs productivity. When I expend more emotion because of my thinking, I can feel busy but achieve nothing (80/20). When I’m calm and my thoughts are positive, I achieve all I need to in that day (20/80).
I’m going to be more mindful about this in a more practical way now too. Thanks for sharing 🙂
I love the fact you found this somehow useful! Thank you for taking your time to share your thoughts. Feel free to do this at anytime! It also helps me understand more about human nature differs based on culture 😀
My pleasure and I will do 🙂 I really love finding out about human nature as well as we’re all so diverse as are our perspectives 🙂
This is really a wonderful post.
To think I was just talking to my team about the Pareto Principle.
I achieve my 80% when I do my periodic strolling to clear my mind. . . so I tend to do that in the morning as early as 6a.m. . . I gain more clarity into the day’s work
Thank you for this. . . .
Thanks! That’s exactly what Brian Tracy recommends… we should start our day with doing the most important things. 🙂
Great perspective and linked so well into all the recent psychology I’ve learnt about wellbeing and being confident about not getting roped into crap you’ve previously felt obliged to take on (PTA membershi when the kids were young and finding yourself still there when the kids left years ago type of thing!).
Clearing the physical space around you clears the mind ready for the job in hand. Then the mind can focus.
I’ve done it this week! Needed to prepare my annual accounts for my business. Been putting it off since 6 April – haha!
Cleared the desk, literally, threw loads of menus for takeaway places away, filed stuff, wiped and washed it down. Postponed meetings till Friday, in a pleasant and friendly manner (most people respond well to this and any that don’t leave via the door on the left!).
I only started yesterday and I’m 80% through them.
Just a shame I can’t transfer this approach to the ironing, or the mess upstairs!
Thanks for sharing.
Thank you for reading! I love your “Clearing the physical space around you clears the mind ready for the job in hand”! I’ll prepare a post about the influence of our surroundings! Thank you for the idea! 😀
Goodie .. I’ll look forward to reading it 👌🏼
This is mind blown indeed. Thank you for the profound post like this.
Thank you! I hope that applying rules like this into our lives can help us improve it faster 😀
This is a word problem. I gave those up in High School. 😜
But did they gave up on you? LOL
ROFL