We all want maximum results with minimal effort! Can you agree with us on that? Especially, in today’s technologically advanced, information age where there are tons of new things available to learn and do, which somehow – topped with our daily responsibilities, make the days seem shorter. And there is a way to use minimal effort to gain maximum results. Thanks to a rule derived by economist and philosopher Vilfredo Pareto called the 80/20 rule or the Pareto principle.
The Pareto Principle – also known as the law of the vital few – states that 80% of the results come from 20% of the causes. In 1906, Pareto observed that 80% of the land was controlled by 20% of the people, and that 20% of the pea pods in his garden produced 80% of the peas. Since its introduction, the Pareto Principle has been applied and proven to exist in virtually all areas of life. Whether it’s maths, economics, business, software, health, or energy, the Pareto Principle is statistically embedded into virtually everything.
We have mastered this 80/20 rule here at MBB and have amplified it to the point where we have pinpointed our 4% that has been yielding the most favorable results and have been concentrating our efforts on those specific areas. This is the pinnacle of the Pareto Principle and it can literally improve your life in all key areas, enabling you to enjoy a higher quality of life.
How the Pareto Principle Can Help Improve Our Lives
The Pareto Principle Helps Us to Leverage Our Time
Time is our most precious resource! It is universal, meaning we all have the same 24 hours in each day, but what we do with that 24 hours will make the difference in whether we achieve success and how soon. When we leverage our time we channel it towards the things that are important and meaningful to us, and look for ways to maximize it. Most of us don’t use our time efficiently! But utilizing the Pareto Principle will help immensely in ensuring we use every ounce of our time where it is most valuable to us – towards our BIG goal. It is important to note that we have productivity peaks when we are most effective at whatever it is that we do. There are certain tasks, times of day, or even days of the week when we tend to produce the best results. So, by identifying these productivity peaks, and applying the 80/20 rule, we can optimally harness time and catapult our results.
The Pareto Principle Forces You to Identify Your Goals
The first step in harnessing the Pareto Principle is to identify your goals. When you know what your goals are, you have a target. Without a target in mind, the Pareto Principle is not very beneficial. If you’ve never done any goal setting, now is the time to get started. Goal setting is essential to progress and growth in any area of your life. It gives you a steady target for your mind’s eye. Without goals, we are aimless! And being aimless is synonymous with wasteful time. We might think we know what we want in some obscure fashion, but if we haven’t actually actualize it on paper and laid out a plan to accomplish those goals, then there’s no telling where we’re heading. By writing out your goals, they become more real, and you are 99 times more likely to get set on your path towards something meaningful and actually follow through.
The Pareto Principle Demands That You Track your Progress
The second step in leveraging the 80/20 rule for exponential growth in any area of your life, is to thoroughly track your progress. If you’re in sales, this means you should track the number of leads per day, how many phone calls or contact attempts you made (and the type of those attempts – i.e. email, phone, in-person), how many sales you closed, the dollar amount of those sales, your profit, etc. Create a spreadsheet for yourself – whatever the goal may be. If you have a goal to lose weight, put a number to it, and track your progress assiduously. How much did you weigh this morning? What precisely did you eat (write it all down)? How many calories went into your body? How many calories left your body? How many steps did you walk? How much cardio did you do? How much do you weigh at bedtime?
The Pareto Principle Works When You Identify the 80/20
Now that you’ve tracked everything comprehensively, you can identify your 80/20 subset. Which 20% is giving you 80% of the results? Once you’ve identified the 20%, you can work on scaling out your 20%. For example, if you’ve identified that 80% of your results in marketing are coming from a particular online campaign, scale out that campaign. Now, this is why tracking is so important. You have to be able to identify where your results are coming from so you can maximize that source.
The Pareto Principle Shows You Where to Scale or Outsource
Depending on the type of goal you’re working towards, once you’ve identified your 20% subset, you can either scale out or outsource in order to uplevel those efforts. For example, if you’re a graphic designer, and you find that 80% of your income comes from a specific 20% of your clients, your goal would be to scale or outsource that subset. If 80% of your income comes from 20% of your clients, but you spend 50% of your time on it, by reducing the time spent to 25% by outsourcing certain tasks related to that work, you can spend more time on scaling your business by locating more clients like your 20%. All you have to do is identify your 20% target demographics’ customer profile, and engage in marketing efforts to gain similar clients. This applies to any measurable and trackable goal that you can have in life.
The Pareto Principle Allows You to Explode Your Results to Its Highest Degree
To harness the true power of the Pareto Principle, identify the 20% of the 20%. This will allow you to exponentially explode your results! The 20% of the 20% of your subset – or the 4% – is producing 64% of your results. So, if you can identify this elite subset, then you can truly develop explosive results by scaling out further. The 4% of your subset are in a class of their own. The 20% of the 20% is your optimal peak performance segment. Identify this segment and replicate it in any way possible. This should be your utmost important task. Find this 4% and foster it, replicate it, and nurture it, and you’ll find yourself producing explosive results in the long term. In other words, put your efforts where it benefits you most, and multiply your efforts in that area. You can read author David Finkel’s article over at FastCompany.com regarding taking the 80/20 rule to the next level for better productivity and more massive results.
We are fully immersed in the 80/20 rule here at MBB, and we encourage you to get started using this principle today. It will save you a lot of time and effort, and improve your overall life, by helping you to direct your time and energy where it serves you most.
With love, gratitude, and empowered attitude,
Setting reasonable goals actually helps leverage time in blogging or any other on and offline business. I’ve been procrastinating for too long and recently started keeping track of my actions and have set up weekly goals.
Trust me, I was never able to complete my responsibilities as efficiently as I do now. That Pareto principle works!
Thanks for sharing.
Yes Desiree, go ahead and leverage your time by tracking your progress, seeing what works best and making the necessary adjustments to amplify those. This principle is a necessity!
Keep upleveling 🙂
Works like a charm! It’s all about deciphering and singling out what is working and bringing in results. Took me a while to get there, but now this is freeing up so much of my time and the results are like guaranteed. Really appreciate this principle.
Hey Patricia, so happy you chose to tune in to this principle and have allowed it to work for you. As we always encourage, continue seeking out the collective reservoirs of minds that are imparting immense amounts of knowledge on the pages of books as well as conferences. Collecting and implementing them can only lift you higher and enhance your standard of living and quality of life.
Thanks for stopping by 🙂
PS If you haven’t already done so, we invite you to access and use our Lifestyle Designing Workbook to carve out and map your individual life design and take the necessary steps to ensure you accomplish your BIG goal.
The Pareto Principle in conjunction with Stephen R. Covey’s Time Management Matrix in his powerful book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People will take your business and your life to the next level – literally. These systems have been around for a while and have proven by so many people to work. I’m a witness, and I know so many others who are witnesses as well.
Don’t sleep on the knowledge and gems that are given to us every day! Access and use them!
Yes, we cannot sleep on the knowledge that are curated to enhance our lives. Must access and use them for our betterment. Thanks Katherine!
Yessssss! That 80/20 rule has helped me make a ton of money and still had most of my time to travel, live, spend quality time with family and friends AND take care of ME 🙂 You guys, it’s truly all about narrowing that sh*t down to what is working and then multiplying that – period. I’ve also, because of this principle, and some help from MBB (thank you MBB:) set up auto money-generating, money-inflow systems that work regardless of where I am or what I’m doing. I would not have been able to do this so effectively if I didn’t know what was working. It is amazing!
Kudos to you Gillian for making this rule work for you! We are delighted to share, not only what we have designed, but also others’ work that have enhanced our lives here at MBB. Yes, you will definitely have more time available when you take full advantage of the Pareto Principle.
Thanks for sharing this info! I’ve never heard of this principle but I can see how it could work for me. At the end of each day I’m usually so exhausted and half the things I set out to accomplish hasn’t even been accomplished. Would love to get to that 4% effort for 64% result part, but I guess I have to start where I am first and hopefully move up to that level.
Love you guys so much Team MBB (:
Briana, you are so welcome! Now you have a principle – a workable principle, that has the ability to change the way you do things and get maximum results from minimum effort. It works if you work it! Thanks for stopping by!
OMG! I love love love you ladies 🙂 I can’t tell you how much things have changed for me since I came across your goodies, and I must continue to let you all know I appreciate you. I introduced my best friend’s daughter to your UPPPP Your Genius System of Programs because she is in that space where she needs help figuring out how to get at least 1 of her many gifts working for her. Believe me, she is truly gifted and talented!
Now back to this post 🙂 The first time I heard about that 80/20 was during a college presentation, and the way it was presented really spoke to me and I took a hold of it and ran all the way to implementing it in pretty much everything I do. We even used it in a future group project, introduced by me and we gained so much popularity because of how much we were able to accomplish in the short amount of time. Had to explain it to them, professor and all. LOL! I did give credit to Vilfredo Pareto. I like the way you ladies always give credit here. Way to go!
We love you too, Nora! And we are delighted to hear that we are making a positive impact on ambitious women like you – everyday. Thank you for spreading the word about us! Please use our contact form to send us your best friend’s daughter’s name so we can look out for her, and give her the best treatment possible – including a discount when she contacts us. We will definitely help her to make her gifts and talents shine and do the work for her so she can enjoy an amazing life. Thank you!
“Time is our most precious resource! It is universal, meaning we all have the same 24 hours in each day, but what we do with that 24 hours will make the difference in whether we achieve success and how soon.” Indeed it is, and you’re absolutely right!
Indeed, Janice! Same 24 hours we all have in each day and we must make it work for us – optimally, and not against us. It’s totally possible!
Great article!
I’ve used the Pareto Principle my whole life – since freshman year in college and it has helped me, and continue to help me a whole lot. Yes, when you choose to do the things that yield the most results you are setting yourself up to win, and you will definitely succeed!
Loving your blog 🙂
Way to go, Viola! And yes, we are in agreement! “When you choose to do the things that yield the most results you are setting yourself up to win, and you will definitely succeed!” Well said!
The Pareto Principle has helped me too, to accomplish so much including meeting and exceeding my monetary goals. It is highly recommended, and you can actually use it in other areas of your life. If you haven’t tried it, go ahead. It’s worth a try!
Good for you Delma! Welcome aboard 🤗