The 80/20 Principle is a proportion that says;

A minority of causes, inputs, or efforts usually leads to a majority of the results, outputs, or rewards.

           It can be learned from the above definition that there is an inbuilt imbalance between causes and results, inputs and outputs, and efforts and rewards. A good benchmark for this instability is given by an 80/20 relationship; a typical pattern will show that 80 percent of the outputs result from only 20 percent of the inputs, and the ratio is nearly the same for almost all the kinds of imbalances of this type.

           The pattern underlying the 80/20 principle was discovered in 1897, about 123 years ago, by an Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto. His discovery has gone through several names since 1897, including the Pareto Principle, the Pareto Law, the 80/20 Rule, and the 80/20 Principle. But, here in this article, we will call it the 80/20 Principle.

           In the late 1980s, Pareto was looking at patterns of wealth and income in 19th century England. He astonishingly found that most of the wealth and income went to the minority of the people in his samples. Furthermore, he discovered that there was a consistent mathematical relationship between the proportion of people and the amount of income or wealth that a particular group enjoyed. To put it simply, 20 percent of the people enjoyed 80 percent of the wealth and the other 80 percent of the people enjoyed only 20 percent. Here the key point is not the percentage but the fact that the distribution of wealth across the population was predictably unbalanced. Additionally, he found out another exciting fact that this pattern of imbalance was repeated consistently whenever he looked at data referring to different periods or centuries.

           The 80/20 Principle can be used by every intelligent person in their daily life, by every organization, by every social grouping, and by every nation to make significant changes and achieve much more with fewer efforts. It can raise personal happiness and effectiveness can multiply the profitability of corporations and can enhance the effectiveness of organizations and nations.

           The use of the 80/20 Principle for personal growth and transforming one’s life is imperative because, in this modern era of sophisticated technologies, it is very difficult to compete with others and win the race with time; be up to date on major tasks. We need not only to work smart but smarter to compete with competitors around us and achieve 80 percent of the results by just putting in 20 percent effort. So, in this article, we will deal with the uses of the 80/20 Principle that can transform individual life.

1, Become an 80/20 Thinker

           When we analyze the lives of successful people, we come up with a finding that they did only 20 percent of the things that contributed 80 percent to their success. Let’s take the example of Albert Einstein.  What do you think he had only the idea of the Theory of Relativity to work and research on? No, not. He must have had a few other things in his mind to study and research on, but instead, he chose Theory of Relativity because he had figured out that Theory of Relativity is one of the 20 percent of the things that will account for his 80 percent of the success. Likewise, your ability to use the 80/20 Principle is going to decide how much you can transform your life and be successful. So, start by thinking 80/20 in your day-to-day life. Figure out 20 percent of the things that are going to transform you up to 80 percent.

2, Use the 80/20 Principle for Goals

           Goals are the driving force and the road map to life. If you haven’t set your goals till now, take a pen and a page and write down 10 things that you want to achieve in life. After you write 10 things that you want to achieve, find out 2 of them that are going to define you in the future. These 2 things will be the goals that will help you to achieve the rest of the 8 goals. So, work more on these 2 goals.

3, Apply the 80/20 Principle on Tasks

           Everyone can achieve something significant. The key to achieving significant things is not the effort, but finding the right thing to put effort on. Everyone gets multiple tasks every single day, but those, who run 80/20 analysis to figure out the most important 20 percent of the tasks, enjoy real success. Learn to identify 20 percent of the things that will transform your life 80 percent and work on them. 

4, Apply the 80/20 Principle on Time

           There’s a typical observation that some people are great at doing things in the morning, while some are at night. Identify 20 percent of the time in which you appear to do things with 80 percent effectiveness. Use this time to do all your important tasks. Also, extend these peaks if needed. Furthermore, identify 20 percent more important tasks and spend 80 percent of your time on them.

5, Use the 80/20 Principle to Be Happy

           In life, we do and perform a lot of tasks and play multiple roles. We do a few things ourselves with passion and enthusiasm, while on the other hand, we are made to do a few things forcibly, and we don’t feel pleasure while doing them. So, to be happy, identify 20 percent of things that contribute 80 percent to your happiness. Align yourself to do these things and cut off the rest of the 80 percent that makes you unhappy.

This is how one can use the 80/20 principle to transform his/her life by simply running an 80/20 analysis in life and applying the 80/20 principle to his goals, tasks, and time. 

|By: Jahan Zaib Brohi|
The writer is a blogger and student at the University of Engineering & Technology. He can be reached at jahanzaib.writer@gmail.com