“Make the most of your difference. Nobody else can. When you’ve discovered and selected the authentic parts of yourself and make them work smoothly and easily, you’ll be unique, highly valuable, and yes, happy too.”

Richard Koch

​​​​​​​

I'm more of a rebel in my mind than I am in real life, but I can count on one hand the number of rules and principles that  I follow without question. What I'm about to talk about is one such principle. If there is anything that I've figured out as a writer is that experimentation is important in developing your craft. The idea is to find things that work for you. Things you are best suited for, and only you can do in a world-class way. So what did I find out about my experimentation? Well, one thing I realised is that  I'm lazy. Or should I say I wan't to optimise my time so its spent on endeavours that produce optimal results for effort expended.

Yeah, I'm lazy.

I want results,but I want to optimise my time in getting those results.

So I continued experimenting, asking questions and reading. I knew there were ways for me to get what I wanted without sacrificing every waking hour to achieving it. I came across some interesting stuff , some I could apply and others I dropped. But this principle was revolutionary, and I knew it would make a difference.

I was right, It did. My perspective on how to improve my productivity and my results, has changed ever since.

The 80/20 Principle by Richard Koch did that for me.

In a nutshell. An Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto created a mathematical formula to describe the unequal distribution of wealth in his country. Pareto observed that twenty percent of the people owned eighty percent of the wealth. And it was soon discovered that the Pareto Principle or 80/20 Principle could be applied not just to wealth distribution but to your effectiveness in life and business. Pareto called the top  20% the Vital Few and the bottom 80% Trivial Many. Later he found out that all economic activity was subject to this principle and so too was productivity and goal setting. Check this out:

20% of what you do leads to 80% of results, but 80% of what you do leads only to 20%. I was wasting 80% of my time on low-value outcomes.

In the past we've talked about how it takes time for me to assimilate life-changing ideas and although I read this book years ago; rereading it a few times in between the ideas have stuck with me. 

What if I could work less but target a limited number of very valuable goals that The 80/20 Principle applies to?

Working smarter and not harder.

Finding that magic 20% is the challenge but definitely worth the effort as my writing productivity and my goal setting has improved leaps and bounds because of it.

Don't accept the 80/20 Rule as an absolute, use it liberally. It is priceless when applied correctly.

Useful? I hope so. Talk soon. 

Peace, Love and Power

​​​​​​​