HOW TO MAXIMIZE RESULTS WITH THE PARETO PRINCIPLE

The Pareto principle, or “80/20 principle”, asserts that most consequences (i.e. the “80%”) come from few causes (i.e. the “20%”). Hence, in most circumstances, focusing on the key 20% of causes will yield 80% of the results.

The Pareto principle is also called the “80/20 rule”, “the law of the vital few”, “the vital few and the trivial many”, or “the principle of factor sparsity”.

The specific numbers “80” and “20” are obviously a rule of thumb. They are approximations and should be considered as an illustration of the concept. Based on the situation, it could be 90/10 or 70/30, and it doesn’t have to add to 100. In your case, 99/13, 80/15, ... could be correct as well. For example, 13% of the actions might generate 99 % of the results.

In 1941, Romanian-American management consultant Joseph Juran developed the concept in the context of quality control. (1,2) He named it “Pareto principle” after the Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto because the latter observed in 1897 (3) that 80% of the wealth in Italy belonged to about 20% of the population. (4)

For instance, let’s apply the Pareto principle to learning. If you want to gain a good understanding of a topic, reading 20% of the relevant documentation would be enough to get 80% of the knowledge. Nevertheless, as with any other productivity model, it is important to understand when to use it and when NOT to use it.

Hence, if you want to become a specialist on that topic, then you will need to read the remaining 80% of relevant documentation in order to reach the optimal output of knowing 100% of the relevant knowledge, acknowledging that getting to 100% might not be possible.

Similar to the use of the Eisenhower Matrix, I hope you’ll leverage this efficient tool to be more productive by doing the actions that translate into the best yield to improve your work and your life.

To get started, ask yourself: