The 80 20 rule is one of the most helpful concepts for life and time management.
Also known as the Pareto Principle, this rule suggests that 20 percent of your activities will account for 80 percent of your results.
This being the case, you should change the way you set goals forever.
What Is The 80 20 Rule?
The 80 20 rule is also called the “Pareto Principle.” It was named after it’s founder, the Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto, back in 1895. He noticed that people in society seemed to divide naturally into what he called the “vital few,” or the top 20 percent in terms of money and influence, and the “trivial many,” or the bottom 80 percent.
Later, he discovered that virtually all economic activity was subject to this principle, in that 80 percent of the wealth of Italy during that time was controlled by 20 percent of the population.
We can take Pareto’s 80 20 rule and apply it to almost any situation. Understanding the principle is essential to learning how to prioritize your tasks, days, weeks, and months.
How Does The Pareto Principle Work?
The Pareto Principle is a concept that suggests two out of ten items, on any general to-do list, will turn out to be worth more than the other eight items put together.
The sad fact is that most people procrastinate on the top 10 or 20 percent of items that are the most valuable and important, the “vital few,” and busy themselves instead with the least important 80 percent, the “trivial many,” that contribute very little to their success.
How To Apply The 80 20 Rule To Goal Setting
Here’s what you should do in order to effectively apply the 80/20 rule to setting SMART goals which will boost your overall productivity.
First, take a piece of paper and write down ten goals. Then ask yourself: If you could only accomplish one of the goals on that list today, which one goal would have the greatest positive impact on your life?
Then pick the second most important goal. What you’ll find is, after you complete this exercise, you will have determined the most important 20 percent of your goals that will help you more than anything else.
You should continue to work at those goals that you’ve chosen as the most valuable all the time.
Lets understand this with an example:
Assuming you 10 Goals Set as mentioned below:
1. Get Job Overseas
2. Work hard and become more knowledgeable
3. Excel in current Job
4. Maintain Good relationship with co workers
5. Let my boss appreciate my efforts
6. Let my client appreciate my efforts
7. Let me over work to make my job more effective
8. Let me participate in activities more than project to get rewarded
9. Let me more pro active in accepting more tasks in my project
10. Let me explore more business for my current employer
As you can see in all above set 10 Goals, If you achieve you first 2 Goals you will get 80% of rewards that may be rest 8 Goals not able to generate for you.
To Achieve First 2 Goals, You need to be find right mentor who can guide you to land you in overseas and same time support you in becoming knowledgeable QA.
Next Generation Go Europe Model help you achieve both Top 2 Goals in the example shared.
Lets extend Pareto principle to more deeper details.
The 3 Keys To Living Without Limits
The three keys to living without limits have always been the same. They are clarity, competence, and concentration.
#1: Clarity Of Your Desires, Goals, And Vision
Clarity means that you are absolutely clear about who you are, what you want, and where you’re going. You write down your goals and you make plans to accomplish them. You set very careful priorities and you do something every day to move you toward your goals. And the more progress you make toward accomplishing things that are important to you, the greater self-confidence and self-belief you have, and the more convinced you become that there are no limits on what you can achieve.
Having clarity of your desires and a clear vision for your future will help you stay focused on your goals everyday. Focusing on your goals daily is actually one of the most important habits of successful people in my opinion.
Here’s why:
Goal-oriented people tend to have more clarity and more success in life than those who do not set goals regularly. They are also most likely to be mindful of their time management and tend to be interested in productivity techniques, such as the Pareto Principle.
# 2: Competence In Your Key Areas
Competence means that you begin to become very, very good in the key result areas of your chosen field. You apply the 80/20 rule to everything you do and you focus on becoming outstanding in the 20 percent of tasks that contribute to 80 percent of your results. You dedicate yourself to continuous learning. You never stop growing. You realize that excellence is a moving target. And you commit yourself to doing something every day that enables you to become better and better at doing the most important things in your field.
# 3: Concentration
Concentration is having the self-discipline to force yourself to concentrate single-mindedly on one thing, the most important thing, and stay with it until it’s complete.
The two key words for success have always been focus and concentration.
Focus is knowing exactly what you want to be, have, and do. Concentration is persevering, without diversion or distraction, in a straight line toward accomplishing the things that can make a real difference in your life.
When you allow yourself to begin to dream big dreams, creatively abandon the activities that are taking up too much of your time, and focus your inward energies on alleviating your main constraints, you start to feel an incredible sense of power and confidence. As you focus on doing what you love to do and becoming excellent in those few areas that can make a real difference in your life, you begin to think in terms of possibilities rather than impossibilities, and you move ever closer toward the realization of your full potential.
Always Work Towards Your Main Goal as per Pareto Principle.
Building better QA for tomorrow
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