The Pareto Rule in Goal Setting

Have you ever wondered that you have been busy all day long and have not accomplished much. I'm guilty as charged. Many times we have been preoccupied of so many things, that doesn't add up to the goals we wanted to achieve. Brian Tracy , a motivational speaker and self-development author suggested the use of the 80/20 Rule or the so-called Pareto Rule. Developed by an Italian Economist Vilfredo Pareto, the 80/20 Rule showed that 80% of the land in Italy was owned by 20% of the population. It was at that time developed to showcase the Law of the Vital few ( the top 20% in terms of money and influence) and the trivial many ( the bottom 80%) during those times in Italy. However, this rule suggested a lot of practical applications not only in business management but also in life.

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To better understand Pareto Rule, here are the list of observations that most things in life are not distributed evenly

20% of workers produces 80% of the results
20% of customers produces 80% of the revenue
20% of the features causes 80% of the usage
20% of the input creates 80% of the results

Have you noticed something here? Take for example in the workplace approximately 20% of the employees are contributing to the 80% of the work. Roughly the 20% tasks are being done by the 80% of the employee. Sounds familiar right. So why is this Pareto Rule important to know? So that we realize that we need to focus on the 20% effort which makes a huge difference, rather than the 80% that doesn't add much.

How are we going to put this 80/20 Rule in Goal Setting. Brian Tracy suggested that we need to specify our top goals starting with our main goal. When we have identified these goals already, we need to work on it daily. Example, if you have a list of ten items you need to accomplish, you will notice that two of those items will turn out to be more than the other eight items put together. This is where the sad part comes in, we tend to procrastinate on the top 20% of the items that are valuable and most important or what we call "the vital few". On the other hand, we tend to busy ourselves in the least important tasks which is the " trivial many", or what sums up the 80%.

He suggested, to write down ten goals and ask yourself *"If you could accomplish one of the goals on that list today, which one goal would have the greatest positive impact on your life?" * Continue working on those goals that you feel are valuable all the time.

Daily, we tend to clear up small things first. One of the negative implications of having gadgets and Internet connection, is that when we wake up in the morning we tend to reach out for our smart phones look up on social media and for all we know we have already spent a valuable time browsing. These are the small things we might have overlooked on a regular basis that doesn't constitute to the 20% of our objectives.

We busy ourselves with little things that we feel so exhausted and yet has not accomplished much. The important ones that we need to work on daily might be too hard that we tend to be lazy and procrastinate. I, for one has been so guilty of these things. I cannot focus enough on one task at hand, I'd like to multi-tasking a lot. However, in the long run I realize that I have not finished a lot in return. If I had only focus on one task at hand and work on it until I completed it. I would have dive in another goal and much likely completed it as well.

Finally, Brian Tracy suggested to do what rich people do in regard to goal setting. Pick one big goal and work on it all the time, and it will change our lives.