{"id":28240,"date":"2021-03-05T19:29:24","date_gmt":"2021-03-05T23:29:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?p=28240"},"modified":"2021-03-11T10:26:35","modified_gmt":"2021-03-11T14:26:35","slug":"the-pareto-principle-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/the-pareto-principle-2\/","title":{"rendered":"The Pareto Principle: Focus on Value Over Quantity"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>What is <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/the-pareto-principle\/\">the Pareto Principle<\/a>? How can focusing on the &#8220;vital few&#8221; instead of the &#8220;trivial many&#8221; help you increase productivity?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/80-20-law\/\">Pareto Principle<\/a>, or the 80\/20 rule, states that as little as 20% of your tasks and effort will account for 80% of your results. Before you start a task, ask whether it\u2019s a top 20% task or bottom 80% task; only do it if it\u2019s high-value.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Keep reading for advice on how to implement the Pareto Principle in your own life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Prioritize and Live by the Pareto <\/strong>Principle<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Eat That Frog <\/em>by Brian Tracy says that you should complete the most important task\u2014or eat the biggest frog\u2014first. But the biggest task is the one most people put off. They focus on the least important items, which have little impact, in contrast to the most valuable one. Thus, many people are busy while accomplishing little.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The 80\/20 rule, or the Pareto Principle, was developed by Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto and is the key to prioritizing.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Pareto noticed in 1895 that 20% of his country\u2019s population accounted for 80% of its wealth. He interpreted this to mean that input doesn\u2019t correspond directly with output. For example, the Pareto Principle states that <strong>as little as 20% of your tasks and effort will account for 80% of your results because some things are more important or contribute more to outcomes than others.<\/strong> It\u2019s the difference between the \u201cvital few\u201d and the \u201ctrivial many.\u201d In economic terms:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>80% or your sales will be generated by 20% of your customers<\/li><li>80% of your profits will come from 20% of your products<\/li><li>80% of your grocery bill comes from 20% of the items<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>According to the Pareto Principle, <strong>if you have 10 things to do, doing the two most important ones will have a greater impact than doing the other eight combined.<\/strong> Each of the 10 tasks may take the same amount of time, but a certain one will generate more value\u2014perhaps as much as 10 times more\u2014than all the others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Focus on Value, not Quantity<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Resist the temptation to get the easy or small things out of the way first to shrink your list. What you choose to do repeatedly becomes a habit that is difficult to break. If you always do unimportant things first, that becomes your habit. Of course, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/low-value-tasks\/\">low-value tasks<\/a> multiply like rabbits and you never get caught up so you can get to the important things.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Instead, <strong>before you start a task, ask whether it\u2019s a top 20% task or bottom 80% task; only do it if it\u2019s high-value<\/strong>. The 80\/20 rules says you should refuse to work on the low-value 80% of your tasks until you\u2019ve completed the valuable or top-20% tasks on your list.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Take Control<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>The hardest part of tackling big things is getting started, but once you start, you&#8217;ll be motivated to continue by the excitement of working on something that makes a difference. Keep building on this energy and stimulating your mind by following the Pareto Principle and doing the important things. The feeling of satisfaction you get from completing a big, important job will motivate you to do more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>When you develop the ability to prioritize your time this way, you\u2019re really managing yourself and your life.<\/strong> By taking control over what you do next\u2014choosing the important over the unimportant\u2014you\u2019re managing the sequence of events in your life and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/setting-yourself-up-for-success-gtd\/\">setting yourself up for success<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What is the Pareto Principle? How can focusing on the &#8220;vital few&#8221; instead of the &#8220;trivial many&#8221; help you increase productivity? The Pareto Principle, or the 80\/20 rule, states that as little as 20% of your tasks and effort will account for 80% of your results. Before you start a task, ask whether it\u2019s a top 20% task or bottom 80% task; only do it if it\u2019s high-value. Keep reading for advice on how to implement the Pareto Principle in your own life.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":28262,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[25,30],"tags":[224],"class_list":["post-28240","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-statistics","category-work","tag-eat-that-frog","","tg-column-two"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v24.3 (Yoast SEO v24.3) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>The Pareto Principle: Focus on Value Over Quantity - Shortform Books<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Pareto Principle says that as little as 20% of your tasks and effort accounts for 80% of the results. It&#039;s also known as the 80\/20 rule.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/the-pareto-principle-2\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Pareto Principle: Focus on Value Over Quantity\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Pareto Principle says that as little as 20% of your tasks and effort accounts for 80% of the results. 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