Introduction to 80/20 rule : Lesson by Vincent

[bbdream8]

80/20 Rule

There are only 24 hours a day in our life and what does that mean? It means that our time is finite and there is a limit on how much time we can utilize. Do you want to be able to double your productivity and and double your time off?

Yes! Of course you want. So what can you do to achieve that? This is where the 80/20 rule comes into play.

So what is the 80/20 rule?

Bill Perreto was an economist who observed that in Italy, 80% of the income was received by 20% of the Italian population and he later found that a small proportion anything was responsible for a larger proportion. The general idea is, a small portion of things are always responsible for creating the larger portion of things happening.

So the relationship is always like, 20% of the people are earning 80% of the money or 80% of the world's greenhouse gases were produced by 20% of the population. It is not the exact figures but it is the general idea of how things are according to proportion.

80/20 Rule applies in our life too.

What if you are spending 80% of your time on activities that produced 20% of value to you? Inefficient isn't it? Why would anyone want that? It is just like giving you 50 cents for 1 dollar of yours.

In order to double your productivity and double your time off, you need to focus your energy and use 20% of your time to produce 80% of value to you.

Examples of 80% activities that produce 20% of value.
- Watching television
- Spending huge amount of time on the phone.
- Hanging around with colleagues at the pantry

Examples of 20% activities that produce 80% value
- Creating a sideline income
- Writing a book
- Investing in yourself to learn a new skill

When you start to focus your energy on the 20% activities that produces 80% of value, you will find that you can double your productivity and double your time off. Most importantly, you will find your life back instead of slogging your life away.

P.S: What are the activities that contribute more value to your life and are you doing them regularly?

Cheers
Vincent
Personal Development Blogger

[Refocused Living]

I think it's an interesting concept for sure, but... how far can you break down an activity with the 80/20 rule? To me, it's one of those things that looks snazzy and helpful on the outside, but it lacks any intrinsic value - it's so much easier to ask myself "What do I want to accomplish in the long term?" and start work from there.

The general idea is, a small portion of things are always responsible for creating the larger portion of things happening.

I do agree with that, though! Persistence at carrying out small tasks always leads to something bigger and greater down the road.

[bbdream8]

Originally Posted by Refocused Living

I think it's an interesting concept for sure, but... how far can you break down an activity with the 80/20 rule? To me, it's one of those things that looks snazzy and helpful on the outside, but it lacks any intrinsic value - it's so much easier to ask myself "What do I want to accomplish in the long term?" and start work from there.

I do agree with that, though! Persistence at carrying out small tasks always leads to something bigger and greater down the road.

Hi Refocused Living,

Thanks for your opinion and it is from others opinion that we can learn to look things at different perspective.

I agree with what you stated, "What do I want to accomplish in the long term?"

Knowing what do we want in the long term is important because it get us on track but in the same time we need to do activities that will give us more value in order to get us to where we want to be.

For example, if we have a long term goal of becoming a millionaire,yet we are still doing activities such as surfing the web aimlessly, meeting up with friends for chit chat and still in a day job and not making any effort to create multiple streams of income, (These are the activities that needs 80% effort and only return 20% value) I believe becoming a millionaire will be just a dream and not attainable.

This is where the 80/20 rule will help us to sort out our priorities by finding activities that will provide more value in return of our time.

I had drew a figure that will help us to allocate our activities, so that we can choose to do more of the highest value activity rather than the lowest value activity. You can read it to find more information on finding high value activities.

11 keys to double your productivity

Cheers
Vincent
Personal Development Blogger

[javed]

Thanks bbdream for the informative post.

I also visited your site and read the article "11 keys ......".
The ideas are sound and very applicable.

However, there is one "key" with which I totally disagree. This is "Sense of Urgency", which you explain as:

"Move fast and act fast. Having a sense of urgency will help you to get more things done in lesser time. Keep on hustling!".

I'll advice exactly opposite to this. Having sense of urgency only creates unnecessary pressures and increases probability of making wrong moves. The purpose in life should never, never be "get more things done". It should be "get right things done in the right way". This is exactly what Stephen Covey advoactes, whose "urgency/importance" quadrant you have used in your article.

From my own peronal experience (and observations of about 2 decades), I have seen urgency minded people to have a short life (in terms of physical, career, promotions, growth etc.) . The sense of urgency may be a good approach for a middle level manager, an employed person etc., but to really rise and grow in life, it is a big impediment.

For real growth in life, for having a fulfilling life, one should not be hustling.

[bbdream8]

Originally Posted by javed

Thanks bbdream for the informative post.

I also visited your site and read the article "11 keys ......".
The ideas are sound and very applicable.

However, there is one "key" with which I totally disagree. This is "Sense of Urgency", which you explain as:

"Move fast and act fast. Having a sense of urgency will help you to get more things done in lesser time. Keep on hustling!".

I'll advice exactly opposite to this. Having sense of urgency only creates unnecessary pressures and increases probability of making wrong moves. The purpose in life should never, never be "get more things done". It should be "get right things done in the right way". This is exactly what Stephen Covey advoactes, whose "urgency/importance" quadrant you have used in your article.

From my own peronal experience (and observations of about 2 decades), I have seen urgency minded people to have a short life (in terms of physical, career, promotions, growth etc.) . The sense of urgency may be a good approach for a middle level manager, an employed person etc., but to really rise and grow in life, it is a big impediment.

For real growth in life, for having a fulfilling life, one should not be hustling.

Hi Javed,

I have noted your point. The reasons you gave are logical and I had personally read Stephen Covey's book (First Thing First) which stated that we should do more of the right things.

I believe that this is a question that can really roll into a debate, either having a sense of urgency is good or not. I agree with doing the right things in a right way and having a sense of urgency will help to get right things done.

Example: When we are given a deadline, we tend to be able to complete the task rather than a task that do not have a deadline.

Thanks for the reply Javed, I really appreciate it =)

Cheers
Vincent
Personal Development Blogger

[javed]

Originally Posted by bbdream8

Hi Javed,

I have noted your point. The reasons you gave are logical and I had personally read Stephen Covey's book (First Thing First) which stated that we should do more of the right things.

I believe that this is a question that can really roll into a debate, either having a sense of urgency is good or not. I agree with doing the right things in a right way and having a sense of urgency will help to get right things done.

Example: When we are given a deadline, we tend to be able to complete the task rather than a task that do not have a deadline.

Thanks for the reply Javed, I really appreciate it =)

Cheers
Vincent
Personal Development Blogger

bbdream8

Yes, it could be a good debate whther urgency mindset is good or bad.
But before we exchange our views on the subject, I need to be really clear what exactly you mean from sense of urgency.

As I understand it (generally and from your article as well), it is a mind set to do the things quickly as there are so many things to be done in a little time. So there is a pressure (mostly negative, occasionally positive).

Sorry, an interruption. I'll continue later.

Love

[tonytiger78]

Yes, you are right, 20% of the things sometimes take 80% of our efforts, just a thing, its not Bill Perreto's, its a guy called Pareto and there is an economics law named after him: Pareto's Law. =)

[bbdream8]

Originally Posted by javed

bbdream8

Yes, it could be a good debate whther urgency mindset is good or bad.
But before we exchange our views on the subject, I need to be really clear what exactly you mean from sense of urgency.

As I understand it (generally and from your article as well), it is a mind set to do the things quickly as there are so many things to be done in a little time. So there is a pressure (mostly negative, occasionally positive).

Sorry, an interruption. I'll continue later.

Love

Hi Javed,

When I say to have a sense of urgency, I meant creating a deadline to help you have a sense of urgency to get things done and another meaning would be to do the right things fast and be focus on the job instead of being distracted. Hope that helps to clarify

Cheers
Vincent
Personal Development Blogger

Originally Posted by tonytiger78

Yes, you are right, 20% of the things sometimes take 80% of our efforts, just a thing, its not Bill Perreto's, its a guy called Pareto and there is an economics law named after him: Pareto's Law. =)

Hi Tonytiger,

Thanks for pointing that out.

Cheers
Vincent
Personal Development Blogger

[javed]

Originally Posted by bbdream8

Hi Javed,

When I say to have a sense of urgency, I meant creating a deadline to help you have a sense of urgency to get things done and another meaning would be to do the right things fast and be focus on the job instead of being distracted. Hope that helps to clarify

bbdream8.

I agree with "creating deadlines" and "focus" and "eliminating distractions".
These things are generally covered in/categorised under planning, timeboxing etc.

The term "sense of urgency" generally carries a different meaning. Try googling "Type A personality", you'll find more details about "sense of urgency" mind set and the problems it creates.

But apparently, you are not using the "sense of urgency" phrase in its typical meaning.

That being the case, may I suggest to replace "sense of urgency" in your article by "Focussed approach" or "time boxing" etc. These terms reflect better what you want to say.

Just a suggestion

Love.

[bbdream8]

Hi Javed,

Thanks for the suggestion. Probably you are right. Maybe the words "Focused approach" will do better for this scenario.

Cheers
Vincent
Personal Development Blogger