All men are created equal, but the mission is not.

Shenzhen Translation Bureau is its compilation team, focusing on technology, business, workplace, life and other fields, focusing on introducing new foreign technologies, new perspectives and new trends.

Editor’s note: I am very busy every day, but at last I find that I ca n’t do one thing. Many people are caught in the ocean of tasks, but they ca n’t grasp the main line of work. It seems extremely inefficient. But we do work, why do we come so slowly? The author of this article, Dipesh Jain, provides a very common concept in economics: the Pareto Law to explain and solve this problem. Original title Use the Pareto principle to simplify your life.

Learn to use

Image source: Terry Vlisidis / Unsplash

I first knew that Pareto’s law was in economics. The Pareto rule is also called the 80/20 rule. Pareto believes that about 80% of the results are generated by 20% of the variables. The professor gave us a variety of examples to those who are still ignorant, so that we can better understand the Pareto rule, such as:

  1. The richest 20% of people in the world hold 80% of their wealth.

  2. 20% of patients account for 80% of total medical expenditure.

  3. 20% of people infected with the epidemic are responsible for 80% of transmission.

  4. 20% of the offenders committed 80% of the crime.

  5. 80% of a company ’s sales come from 20% of its customers.

    The law of numbers is fascinating. I can’t believe it: such a simple figure is so profound.

    The first time I really discovered the depth of it was during the first few months of my work. After seeing my efforts to prioritize the 35 channel partners in my work in terms of time, attention, etc., my manager asked me to focus on the first 5 channel partners and temporarily ignore the rest. About 75% -80% of my sales come from them.

    Since then, I have analyzed many situations in life and found that this principle is very effective. For example:

    This principle helps me choose the activities that have the biggest impact on KPIs and my performance.

    1. According to statistics, most of my food expenses are spent in a few fixed restaurants.

    2. When I analyze time utilization, I find that I spend most of my time on certain things. (Like a talk show on YouTube and Netflix)

    3. I don’t socialize very much, but I spend 80% of my time with 20% of the people.

    4. Although I have six suits, in most cases I tend to choose only a specific one or two.

      If you look closely, you will find that similar scenes are staged in your life. Although it may not be the exact 80:20, most of the results and outputs of our lives depend on certain inputs and activities. These particular activities have a huge impact.

      They are like a master key that opens the door to life.

      Mastering Pareto’s Law will help us better control future results and make our lives easier. Considering that we are always faced with prioritizing matters, this can be a huge relief.

      Pareto’s law applies to all aspects of life. Let’s see how we can use this knowledge to work better for us.

      1. Analysis of the most important activities in work and life

      The first step is crucial. Each job has several tasks of higher importance. To give a few examples: For sales, your most important activities are usually: research market prospects, meet customers and make suggestions for improvement; for physical therapists, the most important activities are to record the patient’s medical history, Observe them and record their progress.

      Create a list of the most important tasks for yourself, with 3-4 most influential tasks listed above. The best way is: first, write down all the tasks you are responsible for; then think about these tasks, if you can only perform one task per day, then for you and your manager to maximize the value, you should choose Which task is performed? This is your most important task. Finally, if you could do two more things on the list, which would you choose? These three tasks are your most important tasks.

      This method is based on the order of preference given by the author of the book “Eat That Frog”, Born Tracy. Trish said that 90% of the value you contribute to the company is included in these three tasks.

      2. Analyze the time you spend on these tasks

      After you list the most important activities,Analyze the time you spend on these tasks, and get ready to face the harsh reality. When doing this statistic for the first time, I found that I don’t spend more than 40-50% of my time on these activities.

      I spend most of my time on less important tasks (probably many of us do this), the main reason is-

      1. The most important tasks do not provide instant gratification, while less important tasks do.

      2. The most important tasks are challenging and have a higher chance of failure.

      3. These important tasks gradually become repetitive and monotonous.

        Be honest with yourself and you will find some surprising conclusions.

        3. Schedule these tasks on the schedule

        The most important tasks should dominate your calendar. You need to schedule these tasks on your calendar and re-plan your daily life to ensure that you spend most of your time on these tasks and that you intersperse them with less important tasks. This helps ensure that you focus on those tasks that matter most, while doing the most important and less important tasks alternately to avoid monotony.

        Try to avoid multiple tasks at the same time. But if you have to, you try to deal with less important or routine tasks at the same time. Never do this when it comes to your most important tasks. Otherwise, either you are doing poorly or you need to take longer to complete the task, because you need to block all interference when performing the most important tasks.

        4. Tracking and revision

        Arrangement doesn’t mean action. The perfect schedule does not necessarily mean that you will follow the schedule. So, you need to count and regularly check your time usage to make sure that you are indeed spending your scheduled time on the most important tasks. this is very important.

        It doesn’t matter if you deviate from the schedule, the plan can’t keep up with the change, this situation will happen to almost everyone. Faced with this situation, you need to readjust your plans and tasks for next week. Finally, after weeks, months of statistics, review and adjustment, you will find your best plan. It is a timetable that prioritizes your most important tasks and suits you.

        We may not be good at self-analysis. Therefore, it is sometimes necessary for your family / friends / colleagues to help with this.

        Translator: Hi Soup