They say that we all have the same twenty-four hours in a day. Some of us use them differently than others. Many of us look at the ultra-productive among us and wonder what it is that they do so differently. It can be extremely frustrating to toil away without seeing the desired results. This is why we will now explore the 80-20 rule of time management and see how it can be applied to anyone’s life.
What is the 80-20 rule in time management?
The concept behind the 80/20 rule in time management is that the inputs and outputs we exert into our daily activities rarely line up in the ways we expect them to. We put great effort into certain activities and yielded minimal results. On the other hand, we sometimes put a minimum amount of effort into other activities and achieve extremely positive results. This is the paradox that is the 80/20 rule. This is also known as the Pareto principle of time management.
The Pareto principle shows up in all sorts of ways in the real world, including:
- 80% of industrial pollution is produced by 20% of factories
- 80% of results are achieved by 20% of employees
- 80% of crimes are committed by 20% of criminals
- 80% of traffic accidents are caused by 20% of drivers
Interestingly, this principle continues to hold up repeatedly under various conditions and as a result of various factors that are often beyond our understanding.
Why is the 80-20 rule important in time management?
Eighty percent of your results will yield just 20 percent of your effort. In these high-yield/low-effort activities, we should invest our focus and energy.
When we dedicate too much time to other pursuits, it is easy to lose sight of the fact that we are putting too much effort into activities that will ultimately not reward us nearly enough.
Thus, the 80/20 rule may be used to ground us back into the type of work that truly creates value in our lives.
Ignoring the hard math right before our eyes regarding time management is a recipe for disaster. You should make sure that you keep the 80/20 rule in your mind at all times.
When you apply it to your life regularly, you can achieve much more than ever.
How does the Pareto principle work?
The Pareto principle may be applied to virtually every aspect of life, though it is most often used for business and industrial purposes. People like that they can apply something like the Pareto principle to something in their life that has hard numbers (such as business growth).
One may easily see the 80-20 time management rule at work when pouring over numbers. They can review employee performance and see where their standout superstars are.
Those are the people who are consistently churning out top-notch performances for the company regularly. They are a small minority of people, but they are getting it done. They understand what needs to be done and work diligently to make it happen. They are likely putting in extra hours and taking on additional assignments to maintain high-performance levels.
Putting the Pareto principle to work in your own life is possible. The Pareto Principle can help you put the time in your day towards the things that matter. When you start to put more of your efforts into the work that will yield more results, you can start to gain momentum on your overarching goals.
Why does the 80-20 time management rule work?
It is one thing to understand that the Pareto principle exists and works, but it is something else to know why it works. From 1906 when the Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto first discovered the principle, until now, we see this principle in action all over the world.
He first observed it in terms of the uneven wealth distribution in his home country. However, it also appears in many other places throughout the world. It seems as if this is something that exists in the fabric of human existence itself.
Humans tend to reward exceptional efforts made by various individuals (think about how much compensation professional athletes receive, for example). Thus, many of the rewards in life go to a select group of people with the talents necessary to achieve those heights in life.
The Pareto principle appears to work in many areas of life simply because that is how humans have always structured their affairs. We want some consistency in how rewards are distributed, which is why we have always stuck by a system that showers those who provide the most effort into their work with the bounties of those efforts.
Why should you use the Pareto principle for time management?
You now know that the Pareto principle is real and has existed for virtually all of human history. Why would you not take the opportunity to leverage that knowledge to make decisions about how you will structure your life going forward?
It seems obvious that you should do so to achieve optimal results.
The main reasons for using the Pareto principle for time management are:
- It will allow you to remember that certain tasks will NOT yield great results
- It can help you see which tasks are truly important to how your day unfolds
- You can suddenly achieve outsized results that were always available to you before
The Pareto principle is easy to remember once you know it, and it is hard to avoid it repeatedly appearing in life. Using this method or not is totally up to you, but many people find a lot of benefits from it.
“Those who seize the day become seriously rich” – Richard Koch (on the 80/20 rule)
Benefits of the 80/20 rule for time management
It is important to understand the benefits a person can pick up by using the 80/20 rule in their life. The more that this principle is applied in their life, the better the results they can achieve, but it is very important overall to ensure you know what those benefits are ahead of time so you can stay motivated to go after them.
Declutter Your Life
Numerous areas in your life are likely cluttered right now. This is how most of us operate all the time. Try as we might, it is not easy to declutter our life with the snap of a finger. Instead, we must focus on the aspects of our lives that truly satisfy us if we get more out of them.
Your life may be cluttered financially, emotionally, socially, etc. The point is, when you use the 80/20 principle, you can start to rid yourself of the small tasks that take up time and do not add much value to your life.
Believe it or not, those areas of life likely take away from your overall happiness. You are spending too much time on them and not getting enough in return. It is time to declutter those aspects of your life right now.
Make Time For What You Care About
Life is not just one long checklist of things to do. Living properly should also be about having fun and enjoying things you want to do. When you make it about that, you can see your happiness improve and get more things done with your day.
Therefore, you should get involved with the fun aspects of life that you enjoy.
The 80/20 rule helps you get there by knocking out some things you do not want to spend your time on right now. There is likely a lot on your plate each day, and you don’t always get to the things that bring you the most joy because you are always cycling through the other things you feel need to get done.
The 80/20 rule can give you some perspective on what you need to invest your time on and which things are merely keeping you from appreciating your life for all it has to offer.
Your Work Performance/Productivity Is Likely To Increase
Think about it. When you channel your energy into the things that bring real results to the table, you will likely increase the output and quality of work that you produce. You will bring real focus and intensity to the type of work that truly matters when you use the 80/20 rule.
This will manifest in achieving real results in getting things done on time and to the high standards you set for yourself. Those who review your work will see the higher energy levels you put into the work that truly matters. Do NOT throw out how important this can be to your ability to get things done.
3 areas where people usually use the 80-20 rule
People use the 80/20 rule in all areas of life, but we wanted to look at some specific uses of this rule as it is applied in real-world situations. Perhaps this will best illustrate how the 80/20 rule comes into play in your life.
1. Software Functionality
Let’s start by talking about one area we all experience in some way, but many of us do not realize what we are dealing with. That area is in software functionality. Did you know that about eighty percent of the software functionality you enjoy on your computer comes from just 20% of the plans software engineers put into it? In other words, software developers spend excessive time building new software products, but only about 20% of the time they spend goes into the vast majority of what you use their software for.
Software engineers are aware of this fact, which is why they try to do their best to maintain good time management practices so they can focus their efforts on creating a product you will love to use.
2. Twenty Percent Of One’s Work Day Can Get Eighty Percent Of The Work Accomplished
It is often the case that just twenty percent of one’s workday is enough to accomplish eighty percent of what truly needs to get accomplished. This is useful information because of the way the workforce functions is changing rapidly.
It may be possible to point out the time drain that the company is investing in you by forcing you to be at work for a certain number of hours. They may be able to open up some flexibility in your schedule if you show them that it makes more sense to cut you loose early from a time management perspective.
3. Traffic
The 80/20 rule applies to traffic as well. The vast majority of traffic clogs up a small minority of roads. If you know this ahead of time, you will surely react by doing something about it. Perhaps you will even change the route you take home from work to get where you need to be. This can improve your time management by ensuring you don’t get stuck in traffic that you easily could have avoided.
5 tips on using the 80-20 rule for time management
1. Listen To Your Gut
You are likely to know what you need to do in your gut. You know which tasks need to be your priority and what you can ignore. Take care of the most pressing tasks first by using the “eat the frog” method to help clear your schedule as much as possible. Pay attention to things like that, and take the time to follow the path that your gut lays out for you. You can get much more done when you try knocking out the first tasks that come to mind.
2. Put A Price Tag On Your Time
It is perfectly reasonable to say no to certain requests. If things are getting in your way, pay attention to this and note how you value your time. You deserve to let others know when you don’t have the time to help them out right now. You are applying the 80/20 principle to your life, and you have certain things that need to be done now. There is nothing wrong with valuing your time in that way.
3. Interrupt Interruptions
Don’t let interruptions get in the way of your day if you are going to accomplish everything that you need to in your day. It would be best if you stopped asking where your energy should be placed right now. It is challenging to pull this off in the world that we live in today with all of its distractions, but you can still do it. Ensure you have full confidence in yourself and your ability to accomplish big things. Put that together with knowing a bit about the 80/20 rule, and you can go far.
4. Measure All That You Can
Keep data on yourself and measure as much as you can. It would be best if you wanted to know your various stats related to your productivity and life. That is the best way to make the kind of impact that you want to make with things. If you do that, you will be in great shape.
5. Learn To Delegate
One of the biggest lessons people tend to learn when they take on the 80/20 method is that they should delegate more of their work. Don’t put everything on your shoulders all the time. You can push some of it onto other people and allow them to show you how talented they are. This will also permit you to do more of the important work that you know needs to get done and will yield more fruitful results.
The 80/20 method won’t solve all of your problems, but it can go a long way toward helping you accomplish what you need to accomplish in your day. It would be best to think about that when working on making your life more productive and managing your time better.
