Apply the 80-20 Rule

 

Vocabulary

rule	principle	principal
power	powerful	important
time	manage	time management
tools	divide	all
vital	trivial	activity
law	thing	percent (%)
fully	value	account (2)
apply	aspect	reverse (2)
life	sell	personal
sales	product	customers
profit	success	advancement
list	income	particular
worth	more	less
other	together	put together
focus	ability	identify
task	determine	as much as
factor	practice	productivity
creative	everything	procrastination
since	something	therefore
yourself	contribute	discipline
result	average	hold your feet to the fire
after	start	consequence
before	deliberately	continuously
begin	always	check (2)
sure	rest (2)	make sure

 
 

Video

 

Transcript

The 80-20 Rule, the Pareto Principle, is one of the most important and powerful time management principles.

This rule comes from the Italian economist, Vilfredo Pareto who divided all activities into the vital few and the trivial many.

This law says that 20% of the things you do — the vital few — will account for fully 80% of the value of all the things you do.

The reverse of this principle is that 80% of the things you do will account for 20% of the value of all your activities.

This 80-20 Rule applies to all aspects of business and personal life.

In business, 80% of your sales come from 20% of your customers. 80% of your profits come from 20% of your products. 80% of your sales come from 20% of your sales people.

80% of your income, success and advancement will come from 20% of your activities.

If you make a list of ten things that you have to do on a particular day, TWO of those items will be worth more than the rest of the other items put together.

Your ability to identify and focus on the top 20% of tasks will determine your success and productivity as much as any other factor.

And here’s an idea for you: practice creative procrastination with the 80-20 Rule.

Since you can’t do everything, you have to procrastinate on something. Therefore, discipline yourself to procrastinate on the 80% of activities that contribute very little to your life and your results.

The average person procrastinates on high value tasks — but this is not for you.

You must hold your own feet to the fire, and procrastinate deliberately and continuously on those low value items that have very few consequences if they are done or not.

Before you start work, always check to make sure that what you are doing are in the top 20% of all the things you could be doing. Procrastinate on the rest.
  

 
 

Questions

1. The speaker developed the 80-20 Rule. True or false?

2. What do the 80 and 20 represent? 80 represents….

3. Does he give examples of the 80-20 Rule? If yes, what examples does he give?

4. Describe the list that he talked about.

5. What does he say about creative procrastination?

6. What does the average person do?

7. What should you do?
 
 
A. The 80-20 Rule can be applied to my work and tasks. Yes or no?

B. Do some or many people in your company or office follow the 80-20 Rule?

C. Make a list of all your work activities. Can you identify the top 20% of tasks?
 
 

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