Pareto Principle or 80/20 rule: what is it and how useful is it?

What is the secret of people who achieve great success without lifting a finger?

On some occasion, you have probably noticed that certain people certain people manage to do things that appear to be very difficult and also in record time. 

So you may know someone who, working only a few hours a day, earns a lot of money or who obtains academic results by investing little time in studying. investing little time in the study; or that in addition to study works with a much higher performance compared to their peers and only devoting two or three hours to study (not including weekends).

The Pareto Principle: a trick to understanding success and failure

How do they do it, what's the trick? You must know one thing: you can do the same as they do, but how can you do it? Pareto Principle.

The name of this method comes from Vilfredo Pareto, 20th century economist and sociologist. In Italy, at that time, 20% of the population owned 80% of the economic capital. This same phenomenon can be extrapolated today to the rest of the world, but the pattern remains the same: the few hoard a lot while the majority have very little..

An example to understand the 80/20 rule

I am going to explain my personal experience applying this system. In the past, I spent an enormous amount of time at work and the only downside was not only the hours invested, but also the effort involved. You could say that I was the first one to arrive at the office and leave last, and I had no choice but to spend my evenings and weekends working.

Despite my great daily effort, I did not stand out in terms of merit. The merit was earned by others who apparently worked much less.. This caused me enormous frustration, I told myself that I was not trying hard enough but then even if I tried much harder, if possible, the same thing happened, just like in the myth of Sisyphus, he carried a rock to the top of the mountain so that almost when he arrived, it would roll down, having to climb it again every day one after the other.

At that moment I realized that there was something wrong.. It could not be that using all that time and effort I did not obtain the same achievements as other colleagues, even though I was just as intelligent. I thought, there is something I need to change, and so it was, I started to look at this set of people. I started to look at how they did things and compare it to the way I did things. These people did exclusively what they were supposed to do, but not only that, they did it the right way. They did things well, efficiently.

However, I was doing exactly the opposite, I was overdoing what I was supposed to do and consequently what I was supposed to do I was not doing properly.. For example, when it came to writing a report, I would add innumerable details and embellish it so that it would be pleasant to read. I noticed that this group of people did just the opposite, they stuck to writing down what was strictly necessary without embellishment or frills so that they saved effort and time.

I would like to continue with many more examples but this way I would never finish. However, I would like to add that by applying the Pareto Principle my situation changed 180 degrees.. In this way I joined this group of privileged people. The Pareto Principle is not only applicable to the work environment but also serves in studies and in many other areas of our lives.

What exactly does the Pareto Principle consist of?

This principle is also known as the "parity factor principle" or the "80/20 rule". It is not that the 80/20 rule is applied in all occasions, sometimes it can vary to 90/10 or 70/30... Anyway, we will take the 80/20 reference.

That is: 20% of what you spend generates 80% of what you get... and in the opposite direction, 80% of what you invest generates only 20%.

For example: with the guys in my neighborhood I played basketball, I took it very seriously, I wanted to be the best at it, I trained very hard and even dedicated extra hours alone. However, it was others who scored baskets and achieved success. I worked very hard, I ran non-stop, I stole balls and made masterful passes, I was not a bad player, on the contrary, you could say that my level was beyond that of a neighborhood team. But in spite of everything, it was others who received ovations and always according to the number of goals scored.

It happened that 80% of what I did in my preparation was exclusively related to ball possession, assistance to teammates and physical fitness. And what did I get? 20% of success. Why? Because I didn't make baskets..

The difference between the gregarious personality and the leader.

How did that person or pair do it to lead the team and take the laurels? They didn't run a lot and they didn't give 120% of their effort like I did when they were training. However, they made baskets and, ultimately, it was the score on the scoreboard that determined victory in a competition. I don't mean being selfish and hogging the ball even if it means missing a basket opportunity because you don't want to pass the ball. What I mean is that I was not concentrating on what was producing the results I wanted.. I almost always thought about making good passes but not about being the one to score the basket, and although making good passes is not a bad thing, I did not get what I wanted.

To finish I will say that in the last seasons I played, I had immensely more fun than in all the previous ones and I also became the player who scored more goals than any other player.. Not because I was the best of all but because I thought about making baskets and I concentrated my efforts on that. It's not that I made all of them, but I made a good number of points during each game. I didn't focus on running more than the others or making as many passes as possible, but simply looking for good positions to make a basket. If I saw an opportunity I would go for it to the maximum. And so, by running less, making fewer passes and getting much less tired, I got better results.

Everyday examples of the 80/20 principle

• You use only 20% of the functions of your smartphone, the remaining 80% is there but you don't use it.
• You spend 80% of your time surfing the Internet and get 20% of the information that interests you or that you didn't know about. Only 20% of your time spent is useful.
• You only eat sweets before training because you think it is the fastest way to ingest carbohydrates and therefore energy, but after a short time this energy is gone, you feel tired and you have to eat sweets again. According to the Pareto Principle, 80% of the pastries you eat only give you 20% of the energy you need (80/20).
• You invest 80% of your salary in buying new clothes and 20% of your closet is what you use to dress yourself.
• When you drink a beer, 20% of what you drink is used for something, the remaining 80% is discarded by your body. Surely it would be better to apply a 95/5 ratio.

Getting the most out of the Pareto Principle in your studies

• If by meeting with the professor you manage to solve doubts at the same time that you make yourself known, thus showing interest in the subject? Why not do it?
• If in class they recommend you 10 books from which you can get the necessary information to obtain the maximum grade in a subject, but you know that in two of them you will find all the information to pass the subject, concentrate only on these two and if you have time left over, use it in the others.
• If you spend 4 hours running and weight training every week, and that's enough to keep you in shape and feel agile, why not do it instead of going to the gym, going to the pool and taking vitamin complexes? Just think that in addition to the time you spend at the gym and pool, you're spending a lot of time going to and from the gym, which is 8 hours a week. This is what we mean.
• 80% of the grade of an exam depends on a written text that you must present, and 20% of the grade results from the four books recommended in the bibliography of the subject. Don't focus your efforts so much on the books and dedicate yourself more to the paper.
• If you are going to invest your money in a piece of clothing that, for whatever reason, you will almost certainly never use, why invest your money in this way?

How do you properly apply this maxim?

As we have seen, the Pareto Principle is similar to the law of least effort. It allows us to focus our efforts on what is really productive; it helps us to optimize our time and resources.

Here are three extra tips to apply this principle correctly:

• Look closely at how others do it to achieve those excellent results.
• Look inside yourself, look at what gives you a good result, focus your efforts on this point and dispense with everything else.
• Practice! Put into practice what works for others and do the same with what works for you.

Now you just have to wait for the results to come by themselves by applying this 80/20 rule!