Pareto’s Rule (80-20 rule) and its practical usability

Hi Friends,

Hope you all had a great time putting yourself in the wheel of work again after a relaxed holiday break. I know it’s tough to go back to work after so much fun filled days at home...  Just like my son did not like going to daycare after a long break.... I was also not ready to go to work again...!! But, Can’t help it!!

Thank you all so much for your responses, likes, and comments for my first blog entry. You guys really inspired me to go further. Thanks again!! I am really excited and looking forward for ideas worth sharing with you all. The below topic was the one which came to my mind ...   This topic can be found in all the time management books I read so far. Hope you will find this interesting and useful too... So here we go...  Pareto’s Rule (80-20 rule) and Practical Usability.

Most of you might have already heard about this rule at some point in your reading. It is an inexact rule (rule of thumb) which says “80% of the effects come from 20% of the causes”. Vilfredo Pareto an Italian economist came up with this rule 100 years ago,  when he observed  80% of lands in Italy was owned by 20% people and  80% govt tax revenue was generated from 20% of tax payers.  Even in today’s world this kind of economic inequality is proved by data, time and time again.

As per an recent world GDP distribution chart

Quintile of world population	Income
Richest 20%	82.70%
Second 20%	11.75%
Third 20%	2.30%
Fourth 20%	1.85%
Poorest 20%	1.40%

Even though there is no magic about the number 80, in many practical scenario the number of outputs (70 to 90%) you get from any system usually caused by 20% of inputs.  I wanted to apply this logic to my last week's activities and see what it tells me.

I usually work 10 hrs a day (7 to 8 hrs in office   and 2-3 hours working from home in the night or early morning). Last work week had 4 working days. So I had 40 working hours.  When I made simple time log which keeps track of my activities, I observed the following

Below were the actives in which I spent time in last work week.

It shows only 50% of my time was spent in value added activities. If we remove "Important docs preparation" and "Status meeting with PM" from  my activities list, the time spent on providing value addition to client comes down to only 37%. When I analyze where the remaining time was spent, I found the following . It was spent on repeatedly checking work email, responding to some non result oriented emails, Unimportant meetings, Going for coffee, Chat with colleague or clients and Surfing internet (dinamalar, FB, blogs).

Hence it’s appropriate to say, more than 90% of my last week’s value added work came from nearly 37% of time I spent. So the learning here is if I consciously work to reduce the 63% of time wasters to improve the quantity of time I am spending on value added activities and at the same time improve the quality of work done during 37% of current productive time, I will be able to improve my productivity and get more quality work done.

Here are some thoughts on using Pareto’s law to improve this numbers

1.    First you need to know your value added activities, so please create personal /official goals for the day by spending 10 mins as first task . So that tells you what you wanted to get done today as per your larger goals.(With out this you cannot get out of this time sucking activities).

2.    Find the most important job/task from your activities list. Most Important Job is the one which makes you feel that you have achieved your goal for the day when it gets completed. It does not mean that it has to be a high priority or urgent task. Set a goal to complete this Important job/task before 11:00 AM.
3.   Also, Log your activities and time spent on them in a simple excel sheet or notepad for a week or two, to understand where you are spending time and is it in alignment with your goals or not. ( It’s fun to review this log!! Believe me the above pie chart is well filtered J)

4.    Once you observe your time killers, use pareto’s law as constant reminder to make sure the time you  are spending is aligned with your goals (your personal value added activities).

5.    I know it’s difficult to change our regular mail checking habit but try to reduce the times you open your email. Most of the time we are checking some unwanted mails (corporate mails, group mails, just FYI mails, request from some non- value added work).  Just keep your IM and phone ON so if there is any real emergency people will catch you in that. But just check your mail only twice a day, other times just continue what you planned to  work. Try this for one week, it works!!

6.    Last but not least, if possible change your proxy settings for good, to limit yourself from accessing internet. If you think twice, checking the news (dinamalar, FB) every 1 hr is not really adding any value.

In a nutshell, be aware of where you are spending your time and do first things first.

Catch you next week...  As my fav RJ Garrison Keillor say … Be well, do good work and Keep in touch.