I encourage you after reading this commentary to take few moments Googling the phrase “Pareto Principle” and find all the different ways that this principle has been applied.

Sometimes it’s referred to as the “80-20 Rule” — 20% of our customers account for 80% of our sales.

Times have proven this to be true.

80% of the profit is achieved with 20% of the customers and not necessarily the same 20% as the ones who achieve 80% of the sales. You may have to read that a couple of times.

20% of the marketing yields 80% of your campaign’s results. 80% of customer complaints are about the same 20% of your services. 20% of your time accounts for 80% of your productivity.

Let’s focus on the one regarding time management.

20% of your time accounts for 80% of your productivity. So, a key component in time management is figuring out what 20% of your time is accounting for 80% of your productivity.

Oftentimes, it’s getting comfortable with only 80% of productivity on many tasks – realizing that the amount of time it would take to close the gap between 80% and 100% on any task will require 80% of my effort.

So, for me to not get comfortable with 80% of productivity means I’m going to be putting in a lot of time to close that last 20% -seeking to achieve that perfection.

That time might more productively be used in my family, exercise, maintaining balance in my life.  Think about all the different places you could apply “The Pareto Principle” to your own life. Again I encourage you to Google it and find out all the different ways others are using “The Pareto Principle.”

I believe you’ll find it to be an indispensable tool/principle/concept in your own time management toolkit.

You may read HERE about the archenemy of the PARETO principle: PERFECTIONISM

Categories: Detail Orientation, Planning, Task Completion, Time Competency

Tags: structure