As we all know, “Time” is a very important and crucial factor governing our lives. There are numerous examples ranging from the ancient past to the present when man has tried out several ways to manage time at his disposal, which speaks volumes of time’s importance and crucial nature. People say they are extremely busy and they just do not have any time for themselves. The work pressure is too much and they hardly get time for their friends and family. Some say that they are not performing well in office because the work is more and the time at their disposal is less. These problems are very common and almost every other person feels the same, and this is where the role of time management starts.
Here we are talking about the 80/20 Principle of time management that is also known as the Pareto Principle, a theory given by Vilfredo Pareto. Many of you might be thinking that this must be another boring mathematical formula. Though there is no denial that the 80/20 Principle has its roots in Economics but even a layman can understand its functioning. Understanding this principle does not require a person to have a vast knowledge of economics or mathematics. Probably this is the reason that has made Pareto’s principle one of the most important and widely used time management strategy in the modern world.
The 80/20 rule is a mantra to increase efficiency by putting in much lesser efforts. It says, you put 20 percent of your efforts and get an 80 percent outcome. Let us take up an example to understand the concept of 80/20 Principle in a better way. Suppose you are in a job wherein you get tasks to perform on daily or monthly basis. Obviously to achieve your targets you need to devise a meticulous time plan that can make you achieve all the targets quite well on time. The next step would be to figure out various repeated patterns in your daily program that are too much time consuming and are problematic. You must cut such repeated patterns from your schedule, as they are the ones, which consume time unnecessarily and reduce your level of productivity.
Another thing that you have to consider in your daily schedule are the time slots, which you think are going waste as you are unable to use them to the maximum of their limit. Now that you have identified the problematic areas in your daily schedule, you should move on to applying changes. Try and start applying changes from morning to evening, and target every hour and make it usable to the fullest. Then focus on the processes that you think are taking more than the usual time, figure out the reasons that are making you underperform in the task, they could be physical reasons or the lack of resources and skills. Apply the 80:20 rule and concentrate on the 20 percent of the task information because the other 80 percent is useless, so ignore it and save time.
The Pareto Principle is a very powerful tool, especially for people who want to bring a substantial growth in their business. All you need to do is to find out those 20 percent resources and skills that can result in 80 percent profit. Thereafter, you need to focus hard on those twenty percent of resources and skills, and should try to achieve expertise in those skills. If you will concentrate solely on those twenty percent skills and if you ignore the rest eighty, you will certainly achieve the growth that you desire in your business.
Not just business, you can use this wonder formula to make your entire life wondrous. Like you can apply the 80/20 rule onto your diet and live a healthy life. You must be wondering as to how this is possible. The process goes like, you choose 80 percent healthy food at 80 percent of the time in a day and only choose 20 percent of a bit unhealthy, fried, junk, and sweet food at 20 percent of time. By involving yourself in this 80/20 analysis, you can lead a healthy and a happy life. The same goes for your exercising schedule as well.
