Eat That Frog! Part 4 of 9: The Pareto Principle
October 20, 2009 by dr. lam
All of you have heard of the 80/20 rule. Who came up with it? The answer is the Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto in 1895 who saw that society was controlled by what he called “the vital few”, i.e., the top 20%. Similarly, many things in life if we focus on the top 20%, we can accomplish much more than if we stayed in the 80% of the non-important stuff. As Tracy says, “20% of your activities will accomplish 80% of your results, 20% of your customers will account for 80% of your business, 20% of your products or services will account for 80% of your profits, 20% of your tasks will account for 80% of the value of what you do, and so on.”
The idea is that on our top ten list of things, the #1 “frog” can often be substantially more important to accomplish than the other 9 all added together. But what do we work on instead? The other 9 first. We want to do the small things first to get them out of the way so that we can then concentrate on the big thing. However, we oftentimes have no energy or time to focus on what really matters, which is our top 20%. We need to focus entirely on that important core by first defining what that core is. If we think our 20% is actually our 80% or vice versa then we are in trouble. Remember as Stephen Covey says before we climb the ladder of success we better know if the ladder is leaning against the right building.
We need to focus our energies to accomplish the top 20% so that we can accomplish so much more. It also fills us with a sense of completion and joy when we do. When we accomplish small tasks we do not feel the same sense of satisfaction. We therefore do not get the endorphin rush that reinforces the good habit of eating that frog. What is your frog today and are you going to eat it first?
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I never thought of it like that before! Now that 20/80% thing will be on my mind! Awesome!
Thanks, Dr. Lam!
cool, heather!