Using the 80/20 rule to positively impact your productivity

How do you plan your day when there are seemingly 101 tasks to complete? Do you pick out the most urgent tasks, the easiest ones or those to-do list items you keep avoiding? Chances are, if you pick out the cream of the crop (the most important tasks) and focus on them, you’ll achieve higher positive outcomes thanks to the 80/20 rule.

• The 80/20 rule, also known as the Pareto Principle, states 80% of outcomes result from 20% of the causes
• It suggests you can achieve the best results by prioritising the 20%
• However, do not ignore the remaining 80% as it still has an impact; it could result in negative outcomes if ignored
• The Pareto Principle is not a hard and fast rule, it’s a guide to help prioritise tasks

The idea behind the 80/20 rule is it helps businesses and individuals focus on the most beneficial priorities and assets to create maximum value. For team leaders, you could focus on the top-performing staff members to receive high-quality work output. For individuals, it means you’re focusing on a handful of essential tasks each day to achieve the most beneficial results. 

Although this is a helpful time management concept, you do need to recognise when and where flexibility is required. There are also times when the Pareto Principle isn’t going to help. But used right and you can achieve great results, so let’s look at some good examples. 

Time management and task setting

We all struggle with time management; let’s face it, some days do not have enough hours to get everything done. That’s when the Pareto Principle can help.

By focusing on 20% of your most important tasks, you should see 80% of the results. Now, does that mean you’re only focusing on a handful of jobs and then you’re slacking off for the day? Not at all. 

If you write down a to-do list of items and their outcomes look at the tasks that will impact others. For example:

• By sending an email following up on an overdue report, would you spur another employee to give you relevant information necessary for other key tasks? 
• What if you finally take the time to look at the budget to approve an important marketing request? If you approve their expenditure, could it result in additional sales and new consumers?
• Conversely, do you really need a 10am follow-up meeting with no clear outcome, or could it be pushed back to the afternoon once more important tasks are completed?

Giving time to the tasks that have the greatest outcomes will not only help you, but it will help others. That chain reaction is one reason why focusing on the 20% can result in far-reaching benefits. 

Decision-making and problem-solving

Similar to time management, you can benefit from the Pareto Principle when important decision-making moments arise. It’s especially helpful when you can’t quite figure out what’s causing the problem and you need to narrow it down. 

For example, say you provide home care services, but you have started to receive more complaints regarding the quality of care. As you look into solving the issue you will need to:

• Identify what’s happening, to whom, where and when
• Assess common factors, such as the staff member providing support, the type of service and the clients involved
• Prioritise complaints based on their impact on your operations and revenue (you can do this on a sliding scale to help)
• Determine potential causes: do your new carers lack relevant skills, are your clients too spread out, are staff relying on older equipment?
• Plan the most impactful and effective solutions: should you recruit a new training manager, focus on a smaller clientele base, or recruit more staff?

By focusing on the 20% of causes, you should find 80% of the outcomes are improved. It means the main problem with wide-ranging side effects is removed or reduced, allowing you to focus on the next big decision in due time. 

Remember: 80/20 doesn’t mean 20% effort

There are countless practical implications for the 80/20 principle, however, you have to remember it doesn’t mean you can get away with 20% effort. It just means by focusing on the top 20% of tasks or problems you are likely to achieve 80% of the result. 

Other less important tasks can then be completed later on or you might find they no longer matter because their importance was heavily linked to another critical task. So by putting in the full 100% effort into a small number of essential tasks, you are maximising your efficiency and reducing the amount of time wasted on unimportant tasks.