Tags: , , , | Categories: The Science of Think by Chris on 2/11/2011 8:39 AM | Comments (0)

  Most of us have heard of the 80-20 rule. It’s this relatively documented principle that seems to re-occur in life in all kinds of ways and all kinds of situations. In fact, I would say that it has reached a sort of mystical proportion and seems to have a significant statistical success rate. Sometimes referred to as Pareto’s Principle, it is so named after an Italian economist who observed that approximately 20 percent of the people controlled 80 percent of the wealth in his country. The idea grew over time to envelop a variety of applications such as 20 percent of the problems create 80 percent of the work, 20 percent of the workforce will produce 80 percent of the products etc.

  In recent months I’ve flirted with this idea  in my own life and business. It has been more or less a personal experiment and scientific only in the sense that it is based in observation. Here is what I’ve observed so far that “seems” to have a re-occurring theme.

  • 80% of my incoming phone calls produce no viable business.
  • Only 20% of my email has any interest or viability to my time.
  • Only about 20% of my relationships are as deep and personal as I would like them to be.
  • Only about 20% of a group contains people willing and able to provide leadership.
  • 80% of the work I do is to prepare for doing what I really enjoy 20% of the time.
  • 80% of software systems developed in-house are ill-conceived, poorly designed and resist scaling.
  • 80% of people resist change in almost any situation because it takes them out of their personal comfort zone(s).
  • I spend 20% of my time meditating and praying and 80% of my time doing.

  That is an interesting list and as I look it over I realize there really is some surprising truth to it. So then how can such a concept work for us? Well, if you can focus in your own personal life I would bet you can identify a number of correlations to this idea. The end result should be better decision making as well as improved time management. Life is too short to spend on anything that is insignificant. Therefore add significance to your life by managing better.

 

Perhaps you have a list of your own? Share it in a comment below.

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