Page 54 - Time Management

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Lining Up Your Ducks: Prioritize!
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The Pareto Principle
Certain numbers (like pi) and shapes (such as the hexagon and
the spiral) somehow recur in nature. They seem to underlie the
fabric of reality itself, in ways that remain largely incomprehen-
sible, even to scientists and mathematicians.
Time management, too, harbors something that surfaces
with mysterious regularity: the 80/20 formula, also
called the Pareto Principle.
An Italian economist, Pareto Principle The
generalization that, in any
Vilfredo Pareto, observed
group of items, 80% of the
in 1906 that 20% of
value will be derived from 20% of the
Italians owned 80% of that items. If a car owner’s manual, for
nation’s wealth. Over time, example, were to list 20 features, you
this ratio has been applied can expect to derive 80% of your sat-
in various situations and isfaction from the purchase of that
has become a rule of car from only four of those features.
thumb: the value of a small Many people use this principle to
weigh the relative importance of
number of items in a group
activities in setting priorities.
far outweighs that derived
from the other items.
How does this translate into real terms? Here are a few con-
crete and familiar examples of the Pareto Principle at work:
• 20% of the mail received yields 80% of the value obtained;
the other 80% of the mail is virtually worthless.
• 80% of a company’s sales come from 20% of its clients.
• 80% of your time on the phone is spent with only 20% of
the people you call during the course of the year.
• Most people derive 80% of the value they receive from
their computers from 20% of the computer’s functions.
• 20% of a company’s employees take 80% of its sick
leave.
• 80% of the clothes you wear regularly are only 20% of
what hangs in your closet.