The 80/20 Principle. Beginners Guide

Today we present to you the translation of the article A Beginner's Guide To The 80 / 20 Principle about the operation and use of the 80/20 rule, which we hope readers will find it useful tools to manage their performance.




Brief about 80/20. B>
"You do not need to do anything. You need to do only that which gives the result ". I>

You can find this wrong, or take advantage of. B> If you're reading this, you - one of those smart people who would rather harness the energy of this rule than to fight it.

Here you will learn how to optimize everything you do, from the very beginning. B>

How does the 80/20
In most cases, about 80% of the results derived from the 20% of the causes. These figures may vary - sometimes it's 70/30 and sometimes 90/10. But whatever the relationship, the fact that a small number of reasons have a disproportionate influence on the outcome.

In everything from attracting customers, blog post, travel, fitness, relationships - you will find that the 80/20 rule works everywhere.

But let's go back a little. What is the "80/20 rule" and that it even mean?

The original wording of the rules:
"20% of the investments lead to 80% of the result" i>

Usually comes from the book by Richard Koch "80/20 Rule." It is a three-dimensional work that definitely deserves to be read.

Curiously, if you open the book, Koch, you will find 25 pages, he mentions that you can get the most important information from anywhere in the book, following the instructions of the three steps. Like a good student, I followed his instructions - I read the beginning and the end of the book, looked casual rest of it, and then read the beginning and the end. If the author tells how to read the book - you should listen! I>

80/20 illustrative example


Expectations - a reality. Costs - the result

Some practical examples of 80/20

Language
Most languages ​​have about a million words (if not more)


Total # of words - # of words used every day.

Most people use only a few hundred of these words a day.

If you want to learn the language, you do not need to memorize the whole dictionary. You only need to remember the words that are used most often. Their number does not exceed a few thousand words.

You can spend the day and night, learning Spanish words - small aspects of the biology of language, for completeness, but it probably will not bring much benefit to you only if you do not need to talk urgently about mitochondria.

If you do not need a discussion of mitochondria, you can learn the basics of a lot faster. That someone like Benny manage to learn a language in 3 months. He did not fixate on the possession of them in perfection, it just focuses on spoken language and is not afraid to look at this stupid.

Diet
If you change 20% of your diet, you will see absolutely tremendous results, especially at first, when you have just started to improve their diet. If you observe Palaeolithic diet and are excluded from the diet of grain and milk, you need not worry about whether or not the use of legumes paleo rule. This can be important, but not enough to worry about cost. Simple solution to stop eating crap and start eating real food. This will bring much faster results than if you are pondering whether or not the beans.

I talked about it in several places, but the exclusion of grains and dairy - 80% of what you need. All that will be after - this is a common refinement.

If you are frustrated and do not see the results when it comes to weight loss, stop thinking that you need to completely rebuild it. Just change a few things that will create a big difference, and use this difference to the momentum for the accomplishment of great changes in the future.

Fitness
If you want to change their habits in fitness, you do not need a complex program. You can make a ton of progress through the work with its own weight and sprints. This is based on what the program " Workouts without excuses ". You do not need a fancy gym with a personal trainer to get in shape. You just need to start to concentrate on doing a few exercises and turn these exercises into a habit.


BUSINESS
Back when I worked in the agency, I was given a setting that I can never lose a customer. Whatever happened.
There were no real prerequisites for this belief. Just look "bad" to "lose" the client. Even if the customer was shitty. And some customers were really shitty! Badly.

For example, we had a client who paid us almost nothing, but called and complained almost daily. Despite the fact that we have doubled their conversion (and income) and reduced their costs by half, they still were not happy. They are not worried about the result, because they wanted to control.

Some customers have absolutely no ability to reason.

Note: is always the client who pays the least and who wants more from you all. I>

Unfortunately, the desire to "keep every customer" - the nightmarish setting when working in the agency. But since this unit was the entire agency, we lost by 20,000 per month. But money was not such a big cause for concern (because of the structure of the organization and investors in it), so that no one of them did not bother much.

Nevertheless, I'm allergic to poor functioning of business, so I sat down for Excel and twenty minutes later, laid out, how you can dismiss half of our "problem customers" who bring less than 1000 $ per month. I also outlined how we could double down on our (which will not have a headache) clients, who loved us and make more money with fewer headaches (loss among employees), thereby actually making a profit. I got the answer: "Hmm ... This is interesting," before I decided to resign. I still do not know what they decided to do with this table.




This works with a ton of other classes. Here are some examples:
-If You blog, you will find that 20% of the posts you generate 80% of the traffic.
-If You sell something, you will find that 20% of the goods brought to you by 80% of the profits.
-If You look at your expenses, you will find that 20% of your account is 80% of your expenses.

80/20, 80/20, 80/20.

Income, earnings and well-being. B>
Attention! Wranglers forward!

Below you can see a chart of "income inequality" shows the "alleged" and "ideal" levels for different demographics.


At first glance, the results look awful. But if you really look at what it shows is essentially work the 80/20 rule. Check it out.

Diagram of distribution of the actual level of wealth in the United States, showing the estimated and the ideal distribution among respondents with different income levels, political and gender identity.

WHY DO YOU REALLY AFRAID TO USE 80 \ 20
I was raised to have a hardworking Midwest thinking. Work diligently and do not stop until the job is done. Do exactly every time.

This is great advice. It creates a sense of integrity and pride in their work. This weighty advice that most people can use in their life and work.

It can also be a waste of time if you mindlessly apply it in all directions and to all that you are doing. B>

Here's the truth: i> you do not have to be perfect. Your job is not to be perfect. In fact, it often will not be perfect. So, instead of chasing the unattainable standards of perfection, focus on getting "good enough" result for the transition to the next step.

If you are not quite sure how to feel about it, your inner perfectionist would probably scream "foul !!!!".
I have news for you: You have to make it disappear.
He must go, for your sake. You have to kill him. Bare hands if necessary. It will not be pleasant, but necessary. He seems harmless, even well-meaning, but he is holding you back from being as efficient as you can be.

80/20 USE IN ACTION
If you are tired of the theory, here are some practical things you can do to implement the 80/20 today.

BUDGET
Look at your budget. Use Mint , to analyze your purchasing. Which categories will cause the greatest cost? Find out which of the high costs can be reduced. Choose something like a cable. Turning off the cable will save you about $ 100 a month, probably as much as you would save on something small that was with you all this time, such as your daily cup of coffee - and give you time to create something worthwhile in at the same time. Double victory.

INCOME
Analyze your various sources of income and effort spent on each. It is likely that you have one milch cow or a greater flow of income, which takes a minimum of work / is the most fun / is the easiest to study. Get rid of the other duties that do not generate a return on investment to the same extent and focus on those streams that give disproportionate results (This is exactly what I did when the client refused the menial work).

Diet
Do not do major overhaul of your diet. Do not go to the "cleansing" and do not spend hundreds of dollars on juicing. Simply discard cereals and dairy products four weeks. See what happens.

Fitness
Do not buy a gym membership. Do not spend three hours a day on the treadmill. Spend 20 minutes a day, doing a 4-week program, or an 8-week program with its own weight and sprints. Put it all together with his new diet and see what happens.

Language
Stop trying to memorize vocabulary and learn 200 words in another language. Take a trip to another country for a week and just communicate with people. You will see that become more fluent in the language for these days, unlike your friends, spending months in the face of the book.

SITE AND MARKETING
Instead of focusing on each marketing channel, which can be represented, look at his stats for the last 90 days and find out where most of the traffic goes. Double your bet on these traffic sources and forget about all the rest. Do this for 90 days and see what will happen.

exception to the rule: WHEN 20% - a must

Naturally, the 80/20 rule is not guaranteed to work 100% of the time (all the same it is usually 80/20)
If you find yourself in any of the following situations, please remember tips described above:
-You Build a rocket.
-You - The surgeon conducting the operation on something the brain, heart or other vital organs.
-You - Sign language interpreter at the funeral of a foreign leader. In this case, you should know more than 20% of body language, unlike this guy:


If one of these situations applies to you, then it's good for you. Otherwise, it was overpowering yourself focusing on 20%, it is important, and make things go wrong to you. B>

Editor - Alexander Protsiuk .

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