The Pareto principle How to do more with less

The Pareto principle explains that 20% of the effort you dedicate to a specific task represents 80% of the value of that task.

Seen from another perspective: 80% of the effort you use to perform a task is only 20% of the value of that task.

This is known as the "Pareto Principle" due to the mathematician who discovered it, or more popularly as "The 80-20 rule". Wilfred Pareto concluded that the people in his society were divided between the "few of a lot" and the "many of little", that is, 20% of the population held 80% of the resources, while the 20% of the remaining resources were shared by 80% of the population.

The figures are arbitrary and can change depending on where you apply the concept. Where the principle is best fulfilled is in the areas of economics and politics.

A practical example with the Pareto Principle

Let's take an example with the effort invested in a Continuous Assessment Practice that means 1 point added to the final grade.

Assuming it took 15 hours to do the practice and that we have also obtained the full point, the Pareto principle will work as follows:

• 20% of the time spent accounts for 80% of the grade = 3 hours of work will represent 0.8 points of the total practice

• 80% of the time spent represents 20% of the grade = 12 hours of work will represent 0.2 points of the total of the practice

Surely you will be surprised that 12 hours of effort represent only 0.2 points of the final grade. This is the time we waste rambling, taking breaks, or losing focus.

On the other hand, those 3 hours that have given us 80% of the grade have been a time in which our concentration has been absolute and our productivity unbeatable.

The Pareto principle is still a mean of the entire population. And the means as such are not exactly fulfilled for individual cases.

People with different degrees of effort will obtain similar or even contradictory results. For this reason you must become one of those individual cases in which the Pareto Principle is not fulfilled..

Try to identify those parts of your life where the 80% of effort you make only brings you 20% benefits and tries to reverse the situation. Imagine that to carry out the Practice in the example you had maintained the same degree of concentration for 100% of the time. You would have needed exactly 3 hours and 36 minutes to finish it and get the point.

The following video develops these points but applied to the study:

The Pareto principle in everyday life

• 20% of people you know they report 80% of satisfaction of your life. On the other hand, the remaining 80% of people only represent 20% satisfaction. If you have any questions about it, you can take a look at the number of friends you have on Facebook.

• 20% of customers of a company generate 80% of income. This is typical when a company has about 3 or 4 large clients and a large number of small clients. In such a situation, you must prioritize where to invest your efforts without neglecting any customer. One of those small clients may one day end up recommending you to a large client..

• A teacher invest 80% of the time explaining again concepts to 20% of students.

• 20% of clouds generate 80% of the rain.

• 20% of workers of a company produce 80% of the job. (Some companies even follow the "10-90 rule"

• 20% of players of a soccer team score 80% of the goals. (See Cristiano Ronaldo and Benzemá at Real Madrid or Messi and Neymar at Barça)

• 80% of days you use 20% of the clothing what do you have in the closet.

• 80% of a conversation chat only contains 20% of useful information for the interlocutors.

• 80% of the time you are worried because something can happen, just it ends up happening 20% of the time.

• 80% of the time you smile someone, only 20% of the time they don't smile back.

• 80% of the time you surf the internet, you just find something Useful 20% of the time.

• 80% of weather duration of a meeting, it only serves to take 20% of the decisions.

Can you think of any more examples where the rule is fulfilled?