The 80/20 Rule for productivity

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The Pareto Principle, also known as the 80/20 rule states that in most scenarios, 80% of the effect is caused by 20% of the causes. Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto was the first to state this connection when he observed that 80% of the land in Italy was owned by 20% of the population.

Since then this rule has been seen to hold true in various different fields.

• In Software Programming, where it was found that 20% of the code was responsible for 80% of the bugs. Also, 20% of the feature covered 80% of the usage.
• The Richest 20% in the world have 80% of the wealth.
• In Businesses, 20% of the client bring 80% of the revenue.

Applying the Pareto principle to improve your productivity

Although this principle is just a rough rule of thumb, there are still lessons which we can apply in our day to day life.

The rule tells us that 20% of the tasks you do are going to take up 80% of your time. These are generally the toughest tasks and require concentration. If you can identify these at the start of the day you can schedule them at times when you are the most productive. This leaves you with relatively easier tasks to do for times when you are perhaps less productive.

You only have so much time in the day. The key to productivity is to use it efficiently. So it’s important to identify your peak productivity hours and then assign the toughest 20% of your tasks to these hours.

This story is part of my 365 Day Project for 2019. Read about it here

Yesterday’s blog — Keep your goals to yourself