By Bayo Ogunmupe
Vilfredo Pareto (1848- 1923) was an Italian economics philosopher who lived in Switzerland. He laid the foundations of welfare economics with his research finding of the Pareto Principle. I first came into contact with this Principle at the bend-down booksellers littering Dugbe and Mapo Hill post offices in Ibadan in the late 1960s. Pareto Principle is a prediction that 80 percent of effects come from 20 percent of causes. Examples are: the richest 20 percent control 80 percent of the world's income. Two, only 20 percent of patients account for 80 percent of total healthcare spending. Three: in epidemics, 20 percent of infected individuals are responsible for 80 percent of transmissions. Four, 20 percent of criminals commit 80 percent of the crimes. Five, in company profits, 80 percent of company sales come from 20 percent of its customers.
Isn't this fascinating? I could not get over the fact that something so simple can be so profound. The first time I saw Pareto Principle in action was the first year of working. I had to struggle to prioritize my time and attention. Since then, I have analyzed many situations in my life and found this Principe in effect. For example, a select few activities at work create a maximum impact on my performance. In feeding, I end up spending the majority of my upkeep money on a few items. In societal associations, I spend 80 percent of my time hanging out with 20 percent of my friends. And in spite of owning tens of buba dresses, I end up wearing a few 20 percent with adequate neck coverage like General Buhari native wears. Despite a myriad of Buhari infirmities, I imitate his full neck cover wears.
Observe closely, you will discover similar scenarios playing out in your life as well. While it doesn't come to be exact 80/20, the majority of our life's outcomes are dependent on a few inputs. These select activities are high impact activities. These activities are like the the master key to the doors in our lives. Getting a grip on them helps us get better control over our outcomes and simplify our lives. This can be a huge relief in managing our competing priorities. The Pareto Principle has many applications in all walks of life. Here are ways you can apply it to your life to achieve your life dreams.
One: Analyze your high impact activities. This is the crucial first step you need to take in your working life. In sales the high impact activities are: prospecting; meeting clients and working on proposals. Create a list of high impact activities for yourself. Of such tasks, you have to choose which one to perform first in a day. You will perform whichever is most valuable to yourself or your manager. Within the 2 combined with the one highest impact activity become your high impact activities. This prioritization process is laid out by Brian Tracy in his book, Eat that frog. Two: Analyze the time you spend on these tasks.Be prepared to face some harsh reality here. The first time I did this exercise, I found I spent the majority of my time working on low impact tasks. My discovery was that high impact activities did not provide instant gratification whereas, low impact tasks did.
It has been found that high impact activities are challenging, they are repetitive and monotonous. moreover, you must schedule these tasks on your calendar. High impact activities should dominate your calendars. Restructure each day to ensure you spent the majority of your time on high impact matters interspersing them with low impact tasks. This ensures you remain focused at the same time avoiding monotony. You must avoid multitasking. However, multitasking is okay in low impact tasks. Multitasking makes you do shoddy jobs, taking longer to complete them.
Sometimes it is perfect to deviate. Scheduling an activity on your calendar doesn't mean you must follow it. But it is extremely important to review yourself regularly to avoid wasting time on low impact activities. After weeks and months of reviewing and recalibrating, you will arrive at an optimal schedule that works best for you. We are often terrible at self analysis. Hence, it is worthwhile to have a friend or colleague hold you accountable. Pareto Principle is ubiquitous, so the sooner you understand it, and start applying it to your daily activities, the better for you.
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