Many of you may know what the “80 – 20 Rule” is, however, many of you have no clue what the 80 – 20 rule is, so I want to explain it here. Even if you think you know it by heart, reread it and then teach it to someone else and cement it in your head for life.
In 1895 an Italian economist, by the name of Vilfredo Pareto noticed something about his world and the people in it. He called this observation the “Pareto Principle.”
Pareto noticed that the people around him there in Italy spent 20% of their time on a vital few things. He also observed that the other 80% of the Italian’s time was spent on trivial things in life, eating up their precious time available every day.
Hence the 80 – 20 Rule.
One of my favorite teachers, mentors, leaders and inspirational people that has shaped my life is Dr. John Maxwell. His books on leadership and teams and a plethora of other topics is a wealth of knowledge that I have drawn from for decades. One of Dr. Maxwell’s teachings on the 80 – 20 Rule gives this account about how we used this today in our personal lives and in our professional lives.
We spend 20% of our activity time doing things which will account for 80% of your results.
20% of our customers will account for 80% of your profit.
20% of your tasks today will account for 80% of the value that you bring to the table.
Look at your work calendar today.
What did you spend that 20% on?
Who are those 20% of your customer base?
What are their names?
When did you last communicate with that 20%?
Where did you spend the 80% of the “trivial” today?
Look again at your work calendar today; list the 10 things that you did today on a separate sheet of paper.
Look at the list again. TWO of those ten will bring you 5 to 10 times the other 8. What were those TWO things?
What are you now seeing about how you spend your time during the day when you are at the office?
The very best way to learn this is to do the exercise with someone else.
Who will you teach this to?
