Posted by Dan Hulsman

Jan 25, 2014 12:06:00 AM

About 2 years ago, I somehow stumbled upon a copy ofThe Four Hour Work Week audiobook by Tim Ferriss. It is a fantastic book which is filled with mindset-altering truths, questions, and exercises that can leave you re-evaluating your thinking in many areas of life. One of my favorite principles from the book was born from an Italian economist who made a keen observation amidst his garden. This epihany, he found, went far beyond his garden and applied to several other facets of life.

The Pareto Principle (or, the 80-20 rule)

The Pareto Principle (also known as the “80-20 Rule,” “Pareto’s Law,” or the “Pareto Distribution”) is beautiful in its simplicity and usefulness. What did Pareto see in the garden that day? Our friend, Vilfredo, observed that 80% of his peas came from about 20% of his pea pods. To take this out of gardening terms for a moment, 80% of the desired outcome or output resulted from 20% of the input. On the one hand, this may sound like a terrible waste (what happened to the other 80% of the input?). On the other hand, if you take this principle and reframe it you can do some serious optimization in several different arenas and save yourself major time, money, and energy.

Finding the Minimum Effective Dose

The 80-20 Rule has two basic steps before the magic can happen. First, you must identify that magic 20% of the input/effort which yields the most. Note that the percentage values are somewhat arbitrary, but the point remains that you can often achieve a majority of the desired outcome with a more focused effort.  Let’s look at an example which will help illustrate the point.

Learning to play the guitar

There are dozens of chords with dozens of variations available to the guitar player. Even if you look at a single chord, you can play that chord in several different ways. With so many options, it can be confusing. It is a LOT of informaiton to organize in your head and hands. Fun fact: the most popular progression of chords in popular music right now is a sequence of 4 specific chords, which appear in so many popular songs it will make your head spin. How is this possible? This 4-chord progression is simple, predictable to the ear (which humans find pleasant), and provides a lot of flexibility for writing a melody to go with it. With some basic understanding of music theory (what the most common chords are and how they fit together), a little ear training so you can figure out which Key a song is in, and the ability to play the most common chord progressions relative you can suddenly play along to most popular music. No learning music scales, no complicated chord diagrams, and no sheet music required – which not only gets you faster results, but eliminates some of the top reasons beginning guitar players quit playing in the first place.

Identifying the Low-Yield 80%

The second step sounds easy but is usually painful – once you’ve identified the 20%, the second step is to eliminate or minimize the other 80%. By sacrificing these low-yield activities, you can reclaim valuable time, energy, money, happiness, and more. If you’re starting a new skill or activity, you can simple avoid the 80% as much as possible from the start. For things that you’re already spending (or wasting) your time on now, this fat-trimming might make you uncomfortable but pays you back in dividends.  Let’s look at another example:

Your Facebook Account

If you’ve found this article, you probably have one already and have been using it for years. I’ve had a Facebook account since 2003 or something – back when Facebook was only for college students and you were limited to connecting to people who attended the same college as you. As Facebook expanded beyond college to high school, alumni, and eventually became a totally-inclusive platform so did our number of possible connections expand. Meet someone new? Friend request ‘em. Cute girl at the party you’re too afraid to talk to in person? Friend request ‘em. Family you never see? Friend request ‘em. Coworkers? Friend request ‘em (maybe). The potential for meaningful connection is only dwarved by Facebook’s potential for meaningless relationships and exchanges of information. After you’re done reading this post, log into Facebook and ask yourself the following questions (if you can make it past the News Feed without being distracted by someone’s pet photo or grump cat meme):

1.  How many Facebook Friends do you have?

2.  How many of your Facebook Friends have you spoken to, either in person or over the phone, in the past 6 months? 12 months? 3 years?

3.  Look at the first 20 posts in your News Feed – how many of those are either interesting to you or somehow deepen your relationship with that person? (If you consider someone’s photo of their lunch or their 100th selfie as either interesting or valuable to your relationship, you may already be too far gone to rescue)

4.  If Facebook suddenly forced all users to reduce their number of Friends by 90%, who would make the cut and why?

After asking yourself these questions, you’ll have a pretty good idea as to who is part of the solution and who is part of the endless distraction. The next step?

Trimming the Fat

Depending on your intended goal with Facebook, you should do a purge of all the folks who slipped into your Friends list without truly deserving it. De-friend with prejudice or, if you have the need/see value in a social network beyond the people you care about (to promote your business or blog, for example) you can bend Facebook to your will through a few minutes of clean-up and additional setup. Facebook is just one example, but you should take this approach with most tools, platforms, and services. Master Facebook so that it works for you. Watch TV on-demand on YOUR schedule to avoid the commercials and the trap of watching the next show in the queue. Relentlessly unsubscribe from email lists you don’t actually care about. If you wear the same 10 outfits over and over, get rid of the other 80% of the clothing that’s just taking up space. Take control and reclaim your precious time and energy from any area you can, and redistribute that time and energy towards the things that really matter to you.

Taking YOUR Next Step

In a nutshell, this is the 80/20 rule – identifying the 20% of effort which will achieve 80% of the desired result. From there, you can either magnify that 20% or eliminate the other low-yield activities. Now it’s your turn!

Where can you apply the 80/20 rule in your life? It can be anything, but tell me in the comments or on Twitter with #superself. Don’ t leave me hanging, either – I want to hear the results!

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