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How to simplify life with the help of the Pareto law



Not all tasks are equally useful.


I learned about Pareto law in economics classes.

This law states that 20% of the efforts yield 80% of the result.

The teacher gave us examples that helped to understand what is meant:

  1. Only 20% of the richest people control 80% of world income.
  2. 20% of patients account for 80% of healthcare costs.
  3. In epidemiology, 20% of those infected are the cause of 80% of infections.
  4. Among criminals, 20% are responsible for 80% of crimes.
  5. About 80% of the company's sales come from 20% of customers.

I was impressed that such a simple wording could carry such a deep meaning.

I first saw this principle in action in the first few months at work. Having noticed that it is difficult for me to prioritize my time and attention, my manager suggested focusing on the five largest trading partners (I was responsible for 35 in total) and temporarily postpone the rest - these five partners provided about 75-80% of my sales.

A lot of time has passed since then. I have analyzed many cases from my life in which this law works - for example:

  1. .
  2. .
  3. ́ , , ́ . (, .)
  4. , 80% 20% .
  5. 5-6 , -.

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Take a closer look, and you will see how similar scenarios are played around you: the greatest result in our life gives a small number of factors and actions (although the ratio is not always 80 to 20). Such activities can be called highly productive .

They are like a universal key to many doors in our lives. Having understood this, you can learn to better control the achievement of the desired results and simplify your life.

Various priorities are constantly fighting for our attention, so using the Pareto law will make life easier.

This principle can be used in all areas - let's see how it can be used to increase our own effectiveness at work.

1. Identify highly productive tasks


The first step is the most important: each job and each position has several highly productive activities. For example, in sales it will usually be searching for potential customers, meeting with them and working on offers. For a physiotherapist, it will be collecting the patient’s medical history, monitoring how the exercises are performed, and documenting successes.

Make a list of 3-4 highly productive activities for yourself. This is best done as follows: list all your responsibilities, and then imagine that you can only do one task per day - which one will be most useful from the point of view of your manager and yourself? This task is the most highly productive. And if you could add two more, which ones would you choose? .. So you got a list of the three most highly productive activities.

This method is based on the prioritization described by Brian Tracy  , the author of the book β€œ Get Out of Your Comfort Zone ”. Brian says that 90% of the benefits your company brings is the result of these three main tasks.


Photos - Terry VlisidisUnsplash Playground

2. Analyze the time devoted to these tasks


Having compiled a list of highly productive tasks, analyze how much time you spend on them - and be prepared for not the most pleasant discoveries. After the first such analysis, I realized that I spend on these tasks no more than 40-50% of the time.

Most of my time was spent on less efficient work. Here are the main reasons why this happened in my case (probably it will be true for many others): 

  1. Highly productive tasks did not give instant gratification, while less efficient ones did.
  2. Highly productive tasks were difficult (for example, finding potential customers), and the likelihood of failure was high.
  3. Over time, they became monotonous, boring.


If you are honest with yourself, you can understand a lot about where your time goes.

3. Add these tasks to the calendar


Highly productive tasks should form the basis of the work schedule. Add them to the calendar and plan the day so that it takes them most of the time, and so that they alternate with less important work.

This will help to focus on the important and avoid monotony - due to the alternation of high and low productivity tasks.

Try not to tackle several things at once. And if you have to, then let it be low-productivity tasks - and by no means high-productivity ones. Otherwise, the result will be hacky, and more time will be spent on them. When working on highly productive tasks, eliminate all distractions.

4. Control yourself and make adjustments


If you have added a task to the calendar, this does not mean that you will definitely do it. Therefore, it is very important to regularly check whether you really devote sufficient time to highly productive tasks.

If you deviate from the schedule - it's okay, it happens even with the best of the best. Just adjust the schedule and tasks for the next week. After weeks and months of such rechecking and adjustment, you will have an optimal, convenient schedule in which priority is given to highly productive tasks.

Introspection not at all can turn out well. Ask a family member, friend or colleague to control you.

The Pareto law is universal. The sooner we understand this and begin to look at what is happening around us through the prism of the 80/20 ratio, the better.

About the translator

The article was translated by Alconost.

Alconost localizes games , applications and sites in 70 languages. Native translators, linguistic testing, cloud platform with API, continuous localization, project managers 24/7, any format of string resources.

We also make advertising and educational videos - for sites that sell, image, advertising, educational, teasers, expliner, trailers for Google Play and the App Store.

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