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80/20 Rule
September 27th, 2009 by Gary Hipworth
In the late 1800's, Italian economist Vilfredo
Pareto, discovered that a small number of people accounted for a large majority of the
wealth of any country. It now appears that this rule of 'the vital few' or the 80/20
rule or Pareto's law, applies across all areas of life and nature.
(The 80/20 figure is not meant to be taken literally, it could be 90/10 or 75/25 etc):
From this wonderful rule comes some vital insights for getting the most out of your life - and avoiding the nasty stuff too!:
- In business, 20% customers provide 80%
profits
- 20% citizens produce 80% of accidents and crime
- 20% of employees account for 80% of wealth created by firms
- You only wear 20% of the clothes in your wardrobe, so you might as well give the
rest away
- 20% of traffic spots cause 80% congestion
- 20% of your talents and passions produce 80% of your happiness
- 20% of your friends are true friends that will be there in the trenches
- 80% of your time/ life!! is wasted on trivial pursuits and distractions
So keep things simple and don't allow the trivial stuff to get in the way of the few
important things in your life. At the start of every day, make an '80/20' list of your most important things to do
and do them!
At first you may struggle with your conditioning which tries to treat every situation
equally but gradually you will become more disciplined and learn to say 'no' more often to trivial distractions,
and 'yes' to the people, things, and life enhancing experiences that you value the
most.
