The 80/20 rule
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I am here to tell you about a very important learning rule today. It is all about
• Learning to learn and,
• Learning to unlearn
80/20 percent rule is there in almost every human activity. 20 % is what we do or happens, producing 80% of the out come. Another name of this rule is
The law of the vital few v/s the trivial many
This simply means we should focus on those vital few things that bring us maximum outcome success. Well this is great news for children. Now you do not need to know every thing to be successful in life. In fact it is counter productive to know, memorize and do absolutely everything. This is what is known as “trivial many” where we have loads of information in our brain and we actually lose trace and sight of those things and ideas which we actually are trying to achieve.
Have you ever found your self engulfed in a situation where your exams or some other important task is about to reach and you instead of preparing for them start thinking that cleaning the house should be done first or you need to cook something before that. This is what actually wastes huge amount of our time and energy on “trivial many” and we always end up thinking what is it actually where we are going wrong?
We need to identify the “vital few” and focus our attention and effort on those. Among many of the advantages that 80/20 rule gives; is that it saves a huge sum of your time and energy and you can avoid becoming over whelmed. And it is said by the author of “Irrational exuberance”, “the ability to focus attention on important things is a defining characteristic of intelligence”. Which means we must realize that what is it actually that has engaged us or what is making us busy most of the time? We must realize and understand that we actually do not need to do thousand of things in life to succeed but only the vital few.
3 Comments on this post
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Masood Butt said:
The value of the Pareto Principle for a manager is that it reminds you to focus on the 20 percent that matters. Of the things you do during your day, only 20 percent really matter. Those 20 percent produce 80 percent of your results. Identify and focus on those things. When the fire drills of the day begin to sap your time, remind yourself of the 20 percent you need to focus on. If something in the schedule has to slip, if something isn’t going to get done, make sure it’s not part of that 20 percent.
There is a management theory floating around at the moment that proposes to interpret Pareto’s Principle in such a way as to produce what is called Superstar Management. The theory’s supporters claim that since 20 percent of your people produce 80 percent of your results you should focus your limited time on managing only that 20 percent, the superstars. The theory is flawed, as we are discussing here because it overlooks the fact that 80 percent of your time should be spent doing what is really important. Helping the good become better is a better use of your time than helping the great become terrific. Apply the Pareto Principle to all you do, but use it wisely.My Advice!
Pareto’s Principle, the 80/20 Rule, should serve as a daily reminder to focus 80 percent of your time and energy on the 20 percent of you work that is really important. Don’t just “work smart”, work smart on the right things.
August 13th, 2009 at 12:29 am -
Azy said:
Masood, thanks for your advice…
August 16th, 2009 at 2:01 pm -
Merlin Calo said:
Not very familiar with the Pareto Principle, yet it sounds like common sense.
Its good advice, I think we are all guilty of this at some point..
I think managing our time effectively is something we all work on, and strive to do better..
August 19th, 2009 at 1:54 am
