If we were to cut away the parts that “do not matter as much,” the net result would suffer in ways we could not anticipate.īut these feelings came from linear thinking and not looking at the big picture. I also felt that the end result of any activity came from the sum of its inputs. My belief was that we should give our 100% in everything, rather than pick things to focus on. I used to write off the 80/20 rule because I felt it was at odds with my perfectionist self. 80/20 is about choosing to make the most impact with your limited time on Earth. But when you don’t apply the 80/20, you are already choosing - you are choosing against the high-impact tasks that could benefit enormously from your attention and focus. Some people resist the 80/20 because they don’t want to choose. Misconception #6: 80/20 is about being mercenary.It can be found in our relationships, beliefs, goals, habits (20% of habits will make the biggest difference), and health (20% of actions will make the biggest difference to our health). It can be found in sports, science, software, medicine, and more. While 80/20 gained popularity in the business world, it can be found in almost everything in life. Misconception #5: It only applies to business.It’s about using your limited energy to create the maximum impact, rather than being haphazard and unstrategic in the way you do things. When you use the 80/20, you think about the areas where you can make the most impact so that you can focus on them. Misconception #4: 80/20 is about being lazy.The percentage of causes and the percentage of effects do not have to add up to 100. The reality is that it can be 70/20, 90/30, etc. When Pareto made the connection, it was regarding the distribution of wealth in Italy, where 20% of people owned 80% of the land. 80% represents the effects while 20% represents the causes. Misconception #3: The numbers should add up to 100.The point is that a small percentage of inputs leads to a large percentage of results. Maybe 4 of the tasks contribute to 90% of the results. Maybe you have 3 tasks that contribute to 80% of the results. It doesn’t mean that there must be precisely 2 tasks (20% of the 10 tasks) of high value. So say you have 10 tasks on your to-do list. As I mentioned in Part 1, It just happened that Pareto’s observation was 80-20 (rather than 70-20). Misconception #2: It must be precisely 80/20.The 80/20 rule is about spending more time on the important, spending less time on the unimportant (by automating, batching, delegating, etc.), and eliminating the tasks with almost no value (not doing them will not make a difference). Not doing them will create significant negative downsides. For example, washing laundry and paying the bills. Some tasks are low-value but need to be done. Misconception #1: 80/20 means eliminating all unimportant tasks.When teaching the 80/20 rule in my classes, I notice some common misconceptions about it.
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