This evening, I was filling out something for work (mamma’s playing catch-up, what else), when I encountered this concept of the 80/20. I’ve heard of this before, but never dived into the subject very deeply, so I took to on-line research and learned a thing or two:
1) Essentially, 80/20 comes from the Pareto ratio/principle, where 80% of your results are driven by 20% of your inputs (simply put – you may have 20% of staff who’s doing all of the heavy-lifting, and thereby contributing to 80% of your total output).
2) Most people live their life in an 80/20 manner. For instance, they may spend 80% of their time with approximately 20% of the people within their social network, or 80% of their income on just 20% of total expenses (i.e. rent and food). So on and so forth.
Using the 80/20 rule, I can safely deduce the following:
1) The majority of my happiness (80%, if not more) is derived from my family – my husband and my son. It’s sad, but I suppose at this very moment, we probably only see each other about 20% of the time… though I’d venture to say that I devote the majority of my time and resources on that 20% piece because it is everything to me.
2) My passion – blogging and styling, is also something which occupies largely 80% of my personal and professional satisfaction, though also – unfortunately, at the moment, I am only able to devote approximately 20% of my professional scope to this.
3) In this new age of social media, we spend 20% of our time (maybe) doing something... and then 80% of our time advertising it via various channels. Though come to think of it, this is no less true in other dimensions of life, where people spend the majority of their time talking about the things that they did or have accomplished.
So, knowing this 80/20, what then, is the logical next step?
Do you try and shift things in life so that they are more evenly distributed? For instance, should I reorganize my time and career so that I can spend more time with family, and more time dedicated to doing things that I love?
I suppose the initial response would be a simple and resounding “yes." No brainer.
However – if one were to scratch the surface a bit deeper, would that still hold true?
Would I still love blogging as much, if I had to do it all day long, 24-7, and my very livelihood depended on it? Would I cherish the moments with my son as much, if I were to spend every waking minute with him, with nary a second devoted to myself, my hobbies, and my pursuits? What comes then, after he is old enough to establish his own independence and I end up with all this free time to myself, not knowing how to fill that void?
Perhaps life was always meant to be just a little bit imbalanced, and this is why, according to Vilfredo Pareto (the Italian mathematician behind the 80/20 rule), 80% of his peas were generated by 20% of the pea plants in his garden. Maybe he was never going to reap his harvest, if the other, seemingly deadbeat pea plants were to cease to grow?
Who knows, and ultimately, it's possible that the entire point of the 80/20 principle is that we’ll never truly know what REALLY drives results, but at least it gives us some guidance and a framework with which to think through our problems. I know I learned a bit just by reading some recent blog posts on this very subject. My personal favorite was this piece by Mintlife, which I thought presented the principle in a rather clear and straightforward framework.
Some of my favorite takeaways:
1) Applying the 80/20 rule at work helps you know what to let slide when you don’t have time to do it all. (This is something that I personally need to work on, as I can become rather obsessive-compulsive about minutiae because I think that I’m such a perfectionist, but as a result lose the big picture and burrow way too deep into the rabbit hole)
2) While you’ll never leave work for the day with everything “done,” if you are completing your core tasks with excellence, you’re 80% of the way there, and that’s more than most. (Whoo! Hubs always comment that I’m very goal orientated, so perhaps if I just write down 80% of what I need to achieve in any given day, use that as target and perform, then I’d be aces).
3) Only by producing output for other people to enjoy or make practical use of can you expect to convert a passion into a sustainable income. (Amen for all of my blogger colleagues out there!).
4) Finally, apply the principle to your own day: is there a time of day you’re most effective? The one hour where you’re wide awake, most energized and undistracted? That’s the time to tackle your toughest, most valuable challenges. If you align the best 20% of your day with the top 20% of your list of work, you’ll get more done in that sprint than most accomplish in a 10-hour day. (Thinking through this, I believe, should help everybody better tackle their time and resource allocation. For instance, I’m not a morning person, but I do know that I can get more things done in the morning if I just get my lazy butt up. On the other hand, I am at my most productive in the evening, but often times that is the time where all of my social engagements take place, and when I can get some quality time with hubs, so I cannot always rely on those moments to get my core-work done. Ay the quandary!!! However, knowing all of this is at least food for thought – which is always a plus, in my book).
If you’re interested, you can also read this blog post by Yaro Starak, the self-proclaimed “80/20 Optimizer.” While I think that some of his arguments are a bit too simplistic and extreme, I didn’t mind many of the points he was trying to make (at least they got me thinking).
Happy reading, and happy weekend everyone!!!
