The Pareto Principle

Not a reading person? No problem!
Just click play and i’ll read it to you..

I am sure most of you would have come across the Pareto principle or the 80/20 rule. For those of you who haven’t, Vilfredo Pareto observed that 80 percent of the land in Italy was owned by only 20 percent of the population. This principle is not a hard and fast rule. It is merely an observation that certain small causes have big consequences.

This principle can be applied to almost everything in life. For this post, we will look at how we can use this principle as a productivity hack.

Here are a few ways you can implement this rule in your life.

1. Learning an instrument: The Axis of Awesome posted this amazing video on YouTube where they use just 4 chords to play over 30 pop songs! This is more than sufficient for most people who just want to pick up the guitar and sing along at the occasional social gathering.
2. Stress Management: Most of your stress is probably caused by just one (or a few) aspects of your life. If you single out and work on just this one aspect, there will be a significant decrease in your stress levels.
3. Habits: If you want to change a habit, start with a habit that makes the most impact. Write down all the habits you want to practice and start working on the one that reaps the most benefit first.
4. Everyday Tasks: Pick the top 3 tasks for your day and start working on it. Don’t even think about the other tasks until you complete the top 3. Just be mindful and check if your task is contributing a good percentage towards your goals. Also, be aware that by doing less it does not make it easier in any way. It will be a lot harder to start with the important tasks first.

Conclusion

Being busy has become the norm. The only problem is we are all busy working on tasks that do not have a big impact on our goals. It is only natural for us to work on things that are easy and push the harder things for later. This principle will help us be mindful of our activities and take the right action! Does it mean you should not work on the rest 80 percent? No, It just means that you should start with the important tasks first. This will not only guarantee a good result, but it will also help you get the snowball rolling.

Let us achieve more by doing less!