How To Use The Pareto Principle (80/20 Rule) In Your Business

Imagine being able to work less and stress less while increasing your happiness and productivity by identifying the few things that provide the biggest impact.

Today, we're going over the powerful Pareto Principle (80/20 Rule) and how you can leverage this beautiful principle in your life and business.

Let's dive in!

The Backstory

Vilfredo Pareto was born in Italy in 1848.

One day, sitting in his garden, he noticed that 20% of his pea plants, were generating 80% of the healthiest peapods. As he went about his day, he began thinking more and more about uneven distribution and the commonalities that he kept seeing all around him.

He noticed that 80% of the wealth and Italy was owned by 20% of the population. 80% of the distribution came from 20% of the companies. And he even noticed that he was wearing roughly, 20% of his clothes on a regular basis.

And so, the Pareto Principle, otherwise known as the 80/20 rule, was born! Stating that 80% of results come from only 20% of actions. It's now one of the most common and Powerful productivity principles taught and for good reason.

We literally see it everywhere...

• 20% of sales reps generate 80% of total sales.

• 20% of customers account for 80% of total profits.

• 20% of patients result in 80% of healthcare spending.

I guarantee that you wear roughly 20% of the clothes and shoes that you own, and you probably only use about 20% of the apps on your phone (that rhymed).

Now, the Pareto Principle doesn't always mean that it's cut and dry and is that everything is split EXACTLY 80% and EXACTLY 20%. The key for us is to know the 20% (or 20-ish percent) that is going to generate the biggest results. And that's where we want to put our time.

In business, that 20% is also known as our MIT's, which stands for Most Important Tasks.

How To Find Your 20%

Here's how you find your MIT's:

• Identifying the core purpose of your work.

• List, the regular tasks that need to be accomplished in order for that work to be done.

• Rank those tasks based on how each one of them will impact your core purpose and which ones are more important than others (the needle movers).

• The top 1-3 tasks are your MIT's.

NOTE: Remember, less is more. The less that we can focus on the better because we can put more energy into the more important things. 

For the rest...

Automate, Delegate, or Eliminate

Conclusion

The biggest thing for us to do is to start developing the mindset and to begin noticing the few things that are going to produce the biggest results for us in whatever our task is.

You don't need to calculate every little thing you do and find the exact 80% and the exact 20% in order to reap the rewards of this principle. Just focus on your most important things and automate, delegate, and eliminate the rest

Realize that you can work less, you can stress less, you can increase your happiness and your productivity by figuring out the 20% of goals and activities that are going to produce the biggest results.