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I have a special interest in shoe collection. One day my friend asked me the reason for buying many shoes. He was right because I wear two or three of them 80% of the time and maybe the rest of them remain unused. You might say, what does this have to do with the Pareto principle? It is interesting to know that in the 20th century, Vilfredo Pareto, the Italian philosopher, and economist, realized that 20% of the pea plants in his garden produce 80% of the healthy pea grains. With the same thinking, he realized that 80% of the wealth and land in many countries belong to 20% of the people.
Several years later, in the early 1950s, a person named Joseph Juran, who was active in the field of psychology, expanded this phenomenon and came to the conclusion that it could be used in the field of management as a universal principle. Joseph Juran believed that 80% of a company's income comes from only 20% of its customers, and in the production process, 20% of defects are associated with 80% of problems.
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A summary of Pareto’s 80/20 Rule:
The Pareto principle is named after the Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto, who discovered it when he was researching the wealth of the Italian people.
Misuse of the 80/20 rule of time management will result in a focus on short-term tasks rather than long-term tasks.
The Pareto principle is used in various fields such as business and economics.
The correct use of the Pareto principle allows tasks to be prioritized and improved efficiency is achieved by increasing productivity.
Advantages of the 80/20 rule time management
One of the most important advantages of the Pareto principle is that it increases efficiency and reduces wasted time, and prioritizing tasks, has the most benefit when solving a problem. Some of the benefits of the 80/20 rule time management are:
- Greater productivity
- Effective use of energy
- Prioritization based on the importance of value
- Improve decision-making skills
- Increased self-confidence
- Dividing tasks into smaller parts
Read more: Why is time management important?
The meaning and concept of the Pareto principle in life
We can use this law in almost all situations and in many fields. From management sciences to other sciences. For example, 80% of a factory's products are sold by 20% of buyers, or only 20% of a company's employees do work, and 80% of them are useless. In the following, we will give more examples.
80/20 rule time management examples
Today, 80/20 rule time management has found many interested people in the field of management and business; Some examples of the Pareto principle are:
- 80% of a country's income comes from 20% of customers.
- 80% of crimes are committed by 20% of the population.
- 80% of the world's pollution belongs to 20% of factories.
- 80% of a site's traffic, 20% of it will become customers.
- 80% of the warehouse space is occupied by 20% of the goods.
- in return
- 20% of a company's employees do 80% of the work.
- 20% of your products account for 80% of the profit.
- 20% of employees use 80% of their vacations.
- 20% of a blog's posts attract 80% of the traffic.
80/20 rule time management
Time management plays a very important role in life. With time management, you can master all your activities and tasks. In the topic of time management, the Pareto principle is very useful. Many people believe that by extending their working time they can achieve the desired results, but experience has proven this belief to be wrong. By prolonging the time of doing activities, job burnout occurs and reduces the productivity of a person.
But if you use 80/20 rule time management when doing tasks, you can do your tasks and activities in a shorter period of time and save time. But the important thing that affects your success in life is prioritizing things based on their importance. For success in life, experience has shown that you start your day by doing more important things.
Increase productivity by using 80/20
Use less energy and get more results with the Pareto principle. There are different ways that you can increase your productivity in the field of work, daily activities, and other fields by using the 20/80 rule. The principles of using 80/20 rule time management are to focus on more important tasks that bring greater results and always prioritize the more important issues that have the greatest impact on your work.
After you determine what to spend 20% of your time doing, you should allocate a certain amount of time to what you are most productive. Usually, people are more productive in the morning, so instead of spending your time on social networks in the morning, it is better to dedicate this time to more valuable work. By doing this, you will notice that the stress will be reduced to a great extent and you will feel comfortable during the day.
Read more: Increase self-discipline in life
The weakness of 80/20 rule time management
The Pareto principle is not true for all cases. There may be changes in it, for example, 60% of profit comes from 30% of the effort. Therefore, it can be said that the 20/80 rule does not always apply. Some people think that they should focus all their attention on the 20% that is a high priority and forget the rest, however, the other 80% of tasks, however small, should not be neglected.
The key point of the Pareto principle is that the distribution in life is not uniform and some tasks may need more time.
Conclusion
Note that using Pareto's rule may not work for everyone. From the 80/20 rule time management, we can conclude that many things in life may not be distributed equally. This principle can be a useful general framework for solving many problems. Note that 20% of anything is not a small amount. If you want to do something with superior quality, you may need all of it 100%.
See what activities have the highest priority and dedicate your time to that task when your productivity is optimal. You can increase your productivity and see the positive effects of the Pareto principle in your life by using the Reda app. You can click to install the Reda application.
Frequently Asked Questions
How does the Pareto principle work?
The Pareto Principle is a concept that suggests that out of every ten tasks you list for yourself, there will be two tasks that are worth more than the other eight.
Applying the 20 80 rule (Pareto's principle) in life
By applying the Pareto principle in life, you can increase your efficiency; But it may seem challenging to apply this rule in your life at first. In the following, we will review tips on how to properly apply this principle in life.