How can we squeeze more out of our time? The question has been pondered for so long and in so many venues, that it has become a complete banality. For many of us trying to increase our effectiveness at work and at home, the problem is still time. If only we had more of it, we could get more done, but it is always slipping away. After all, tasks need to be done a certain way—x amount of effort needs to be expended to get y results, and this all takes time.

Or is this view false? The 80/20 Principle, also known as the Pareto Principle, asserts that a great contributor to our general inefficiency and unhappiness may come from our misconception that effort and result have a balance of fifty fifty. Not every minute spent is the same—and not all effort is equal. According to the 80/20 Principle, if we can successfully identify the parts of our lives where our effort produces the most results and focus only on those parts—and identify the parts where our effort yields little results and eliminate those parts—we are well on our way to maximising our time and finding out that our hours and days are not as limited as we think. We don’t need to manage our time more—just increase our actions that have value.

Pareto´s 80/20 Discovery

The first person to notice the trend behind this systematic imbalance was Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto, in the 19th century. He found that 80 percent of a population’s wealth was more or less consistently controlled by 20 percent of its citizens —and the numbers didn’t just apply to Italy.

The core of Pareto´s 80/20 Principle is simple. There is an observable imbalance in the relationship between many things that we would expect balance from: effort/result, clients/sales, wealth/people, wardrobe/clothes worn. While this is a fairly consistent number, it is not exact, so it could potentially also be 90/10, or 60/40, but it is a rough ratio that shows up in surprisingly varied situations:

• Roughly 20 percent of clients contribute to 80 percent of a company’s sales.
• Roughly 20 percent of a company’s products contribute to 80 percent of their sales.
• Roughly 20 percent of the time we spend working produces 80 percent of our results.

The principle is visible in our personal lives as well:

• If we added up all our friends, we probably see somewhere around 20 percent of them 80 percent of the time.
• Most of us wear 20 percent of our clothes 80 percent of the time.
• 80 percent of the most valuable information in our reading material is found in 20 percent of the text. (Provided that we are not reading for pleasure.)

Nobody is quite certain why this rule can be observed in so many unrelated areas, but it can exert a visible effect when systematically applied in our work and home life. Put bluntly, what the principle tells us is that 80 percent of the things we do essentially don’t matter that much at all. We do them anyway, because it is our habit, or because we have been taught to do that, or because it is the way our system is set up. We are taught that brute effort and perspiration brings results, and Pareto´s 80/20 rule is anything but intuitive. So how can we start making the principle work for us at our jobs—or are we even in a position to do that?

Career 80/20

Most of us spend at least eight hours a day at our job—if this is a job we dislike, we can see the 80/20 rule directly influence our lives: After sleep, work, chores, and errands, we have only a small slice of our day to use as we wish, and this can be very frustrating. If you are feeling frustrated or trapped in your career, you may want to take a moment to look at the chart below and identify which of the six boxes you fit in—and which box you would like to fit in.

• Box 1 (high ambition/prefers organisation): This describes many people who seek out corporate work—if you enjoy or need the structure of an organisation, staying here is the best bet.
• Box 2 (high ambition/prefers self-employment):
  Someone in this category will most likely be unhappy in an organisation and should become self employed quickly, so they can focus on their field.
• Box 3 (high ambition/prefers organising others):
  These people are the builders and entrepreneurs—people in this box are probably happiest running their own company.
• Box 4 (low ambition/prefers organisation):
  Someone in this category may not have a need for a splashy career, but they do enjoy the company of others. They would most likely be happiest in an organisation and should not seek to become self-employed.
• Box 5 (low ambition/prefers self-employment):
  These people do not have a high need for recognition, but they do prefer the flexibility of working for themselves. Freelance work probably suits them best.
• Box 6 (low ambition/prefers to organise others):
  Again, there is little need for recognition for many of these people, but they do like organising others. Working as a teacher or social worker may be suitable for someone in this category.

Source: Koch, R. (1998), The 80/20 Principle: The Secret to Success by Achieving More with Less.

Not everyone is cut out to be an entrepreneur and not everyone wants to be the CEO of their own company. Not everyone can handle working from home and many people really need the structure and social aspects of a corporation. Take some time to honestly identify where you are in the six categories and where you would like to be—but also where you can realistically see yourself. You may find that you have no desire to leave your current job and are ready to accept its benefits and dissatisfactions, but if you feel the dissatisfactions outweighs the benefits, you may consider moving to another box.

The 80/20 Revolution

Koch maintains that there is an intimate connection between the things we like to do and the things we are good at: Generally, we do not enjoy doing things we have no aptitude for—and we are not passionate about things we do not enjoy. However, these things can comprise only a small slice of the tasks we do every day. One way to benefit from Pareto´s 80/20 rule is to find out what are the things we enjoy and are good at, and do them more. Then, that effort will be spent more wisely—the product will satisfy us more and our time will be better spent.

The concept also extends to businesses and entrepreneurs already selling a product. To maximise profit and efficiency, Koch advises never to sit on one’s laurels, but to treat the company as a system that is about to be derailed! Where can improvements be made? Where can efforts be concentrated to make a difference—and where are they being wasted?

Intelligent Laziness

According to Pareto´s 80/20 Principle, out of four types of people: stupid/lazy, stupid/hard-working, intelligent/hard-working, intelligent/lazy—it is, quite counter-intuitively, the intelligent, lazy man who will probably go the furthest, because he will have successfully identified what activity yields him the most powerful results—and focusing on that now enables him to have more free-time to pursue his leisure. He is happiest and free. For our professional lives, this means quickly identifying what we wish to achieve, what our niche market is, our “customers” (even if we are not selling a physical product, Koch talks about having “customers,” the people who buy whatever concept we push), and for some, becoming self-employed as soon as possible. This also means taking the 80/20 rule to the alliances we form at work: Our mentors, colleagues and mentees. If we want to get ahead, we need to quickly identify the people who can help us, and who we can help—and stop wasting our time with people who do nothing for us.

Social 80/20

If we take a moment to make a list of our top ten closest friends, we’d probably find that we spend much more time with the first few people than all the others combined. This is most likely because we have satisfying relationships with these people and they enrich our lives.

The same applies for our happiness. Koch recognises that much of our happiness is dependent on external factors we cannot control—our upbringing, our environment, and our experiences have all contributed to how we see the world—and it’s undeniable that some people seem to have a talent for being happier than others. Still, we can make a list of the things that make us happy—and then focus on doing them more. It seems easy—but it’s surprising how many people do things they do not want to do or do not enjoy, even outside of the workplace. There are parties we attend where we know we will not have a good time; and novels we read to the end only out of a sense of obligation. Even if we cut out a few things that we find ourselves doing, but not enjoying, we have already freed up some time for the things we do enjoy.

Of course, neither the 80/20 Principle nor Koch are advising hedonism—we all have some tasks that must be done and that we cannot escape from. However, we can use Pareto´s 80/20 rule to at least start identifying the things that bring us more pleasure, more gain and more results and simply perform them more—and start eliminating the things that bring us less results and little satisfaction.

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