Pareto Principle 80/20 Rule & Personal Development

The pareto principle 80/20 rule is typically used when bettering the efficiency of a business or company.

But can it be used with personal development too? It absolutely can!

Take the ideas from this post in conjunction with the ‘wellness wheel,’ and use the Pareto Principle to better all the different aspects of your life!

Here are some more posts on time management and procrastination that may be of interest to you 🙂

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Systems vs Goals – How To Beat Procrastination

Which Is Better? Discipline vs Motivation

Start A Good Habit Using The Habit Loop

Why We Should Focus On One Task At A Time

What is the Pareto principle 80/20 rule in simple words?

The pareto principle (80/20) rule was originally founded by an Italian economist named Vilfredo Pareto in 1906 when he realised that 80% of the land in Italy was owned by only 20% of the population. This ratio has now become known as the Pareto Principle.

In business, it is known that typically 20% of customers produce 80% of the total sales.

Similarly, when using your time efficiently, 20% of your efforts could produce 80% outcomes.

In simple words, it means that 80% of effects/ results come from 20% of causes.

What is an example of the Pareto principle in real life?

Still confused? Can’t lie, so am I.

Let’s use writing a last-minute assignment as an example.

When using 100% effort to complete the assignment, you may do unnecessary, time-wasting things that won’t really add to the final work.

During your research process, you could go down a rabbit hole and start researching topics that aren’t relevant.

Are you one of the people who writes one paragraph, edits it and then moves onto the other? This could also be a time-wasting activity as you’re constantly switching between your ‘writing’ and ‘editing’ hats.

Or, you may come to a part of your essay and realise you need to re-write a whole section again thereby, making all that time you spent on meticulously editing it completely pointless.

Instead, if you were to identify the top things you do that helped you complete assignments in the past, you could focus your time on doing those things to achieve the best results.

Instead of researching first and going down a rabbit hole, planning your research points will help you save time and find quality research.

Instead of editing as you go, writing the draft all in one go (and allowing yourself to change and delete things without getting frustrated you put so much work in the edits), saves time and and helps you put your best ideas down (as you can focus on building your argument).

This top 20% of the effort you usually put in will give you an 80% chance of doing well in the assignment, as it will give you time to write the report using the best planning/ research methods that work for you.

The example above just made me think of another place the Pareto Principle is used but we don’t realise it.

Have you noticed that when it comes to exam time, your teachers pester you to keep on doing test papers? Even if you don’t know a topic well, they keep telling you to do the test papers.

This is actually the Pareto Principle in play.

Your teachers have identified a pattern in the way questions are asked, what topics come up and what kind of things are generally asked in the papers.

By getting you to do the papers over and over again, you are learning from your mistakes and writing stronger answers for topics that are likely to come up.

Even if you memorise a few chapters word for word, chances are only a few sections of those chapters will ever be asked about so it is better to get stronger in writing answers rather than memorising every single point as that is what you will be tested on.

But what about the extra 20%? Of course, for all you high achievers out there, the goal is to get to as close to the 100%.

You should use the Pareto Principle 80/20 rule as a guide, not as a definitive rule.

By targeting the most useful information, you are getting the important work done but there is risk of missing out other relevant information that could flesh out your answers or add to your report.

I would recommend first approaching the task with the Pareto Principle 80/20 rule, and then once you’ve done that you could focus on the extra work that needs to be done.

If you would like a dedicated post on using the pareto principle for your studies, leave a comment below!

How to Apply the Pareto Principle:

As said before, the Pareto Principle 80 20 rule should be used as a guide not an absolute rule. It is an observation made by someone that seems to happen frequently in many areas of life but is not absolute fact.

Also, just because 20% of causes lead to 80% effects, it still does mean you need to be putting 100% effort in those 20% of causes. And, while 80% may be a majority of effects, you may want to be closer to 100% which means you put effort into things that are not in the 20% of causes.

Focussing too much on the 20% cause ratio may cause you to overlook other important aspects that don’t seem as important but still contribute to the overall effects.

I still do think the Pareto Principle 80/20 rule is a great hack for increasing efficiency in daily tasks but there needs to be a balance.

If you have a small business, things like emails and other admin may not seem as important as generating sales. But if you stop spending time on them, your whole business will become unorganised and cause a new set of problems.

Lastly, just like everything, you’re going to have to tweak and improve. What may initially have seemed like a cause in the top 20% may actually not be producing as much of a result.

In that case, re-assess the situation and figure out what the real cause is.

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KEY POINTS – Pareto Principle 80/20 Rule & Personal Development

The pareto principle (80/20) rule was originally founded by an Italian economist named Vilfredo Pareto in 1906 when he realised that 80% of the land in Italy was owned by only 20% of the population. This ratio has now become known as the Pareto Principle.
In simple words, it means that 80% of effects/ results come from 20% of causes.
The Pareto Principle 80 20 rule should be used as a guide not an absolute rule. It is an observation made by someone that seems to happen frequently in many areas of life but is not absolute fact.
Even though 20% of causes lead to 80% effects, it still does mean that you need to be putting 100% effort in those 20% of causes.
Focussing too much on the 20% cause ratio may cause you to overlook other important aspects that don’t seem as important but still contribute to the overall effects.
What may initially have seemed like a cause in the top 20% may actually not be producing as much of a result. In that case, re-assess the situation and figure out what the real cause is.

Pareto Principle 80/20 Rule & Personal Development