How To 80/20 Your Life In 2021
I abhor a concept known as “The Grind” — as in grinding oneself into the ground for long hours in pursuit of work and personal success. I avoid this behavior at all costs choosing to achieve more in less time by minimizing my work footprint.
Back when I was on the speaking circuit in the ’90s, I stumbled across a captivating book called “The 80/20 Principle” — The Secret To Achieving More With Less.” In it, author Richard Koch reinforces the long-held, scientifically validated assertion that 80 percent of the results we achieve in business and life ensue from 20 percent of our efforts. Known as the 80/20 or Pareto Principle, it is one of the great esoteric secrets of highly effective people.
By way of example:
On average, 20 percent of customers account for 80 percent of revenues?
20 percent of our time accounts for 80 percent of the work we accomplish?
These sorts of proven findings led me on a journey to discover how I can personally achieve more with much less effort, time, and resources. And it was Koch’s book that helped me understand how this principle works in a practical and systematic way to vastly boost my effectiveness both personally and professionally.
The secret sauce to this is encapsulated in this one minimalistic theme:
Do less, accomplish more by laser focusing on the few things that are truly important.
Denver area Executive Coach Russel Owens espouses what he calls “The Next One Thing,” a call for mindfully focusing on one important task at a time. This is a habit that I’ve incorporated into my daily life over the years, namely, delivering laser-focused attention to only five important tasks per day.
Now, Koch is offering some fresh insights into this theme via his new book “Beyond The 80/20 Principle: The Science of Success From Game Theory To The Tipping Point.” In it he offers the following takeaways:
Work is about insight, not hours put in.
Wealth creation is 1 percent perspiration and 99 percent inspiration.
Intuition is more important than rational analysis.
Business is driven by ideas and information.
The best ideas create the most money and are infinitely recyclable.
Again, the overriding theme is that “less is more.” Our biggest breakthroughs according to Koch come from not addition but subtraction, stripping everything away except the 20% core.