The “Vital Few And The Trivial Many”
Ever wonder how the likes of Bill Gates, Oprah Winfrey and Jerry Bruckheimer spend their time? Aside from the fact that they have secretaries and personal assistants and all but can you picture how they spend their time from the moment they rub their eyes when the morning sun shines through their window until nighttime when they click off that side table lamp?
Well good news for us everyday people, we have some sort of principle or system we can follow to effectively utilize our time. And maybe try to accomplish a little of what those aforementioned famous and accomplished people have achieved. It’s called the Pareto Principle. It’s a century old concept of effective time management but I think it has merits, I think it has some grain of truth in it.
Basically it’s an 80-20% ratio. The small percentage or the 20% ("the vital few") produces 80% of the results, profits, share etc. The 80% (" The trivial many") does not make such an impact. Pareto Principle was originally conceptualized by Vilfredo Pareto, an Italian economist in the early 1900’s.Is somewhat rehashed by Joseph Juran management expert and universally applied to just about any fields of endeavour.
There is an imbalance between effort and results like 80% of what we achieve comes from just 20% of what we do. The purpose of this effective time management concept is to make us identify which of that small percentage that give us the most favorable results and focus and improve on it. That easy. No more stress, no more pulling your hair or jittery nerves over not having enough time to do the things which are important to you.
How does this principle apply to you? If you are an internet marketer find out which products sell more, which customers buy more and focus your time and energy on those facts. If you run ads, find out which ads pull in more leads, check your traffic logs and identify which keywords and phrases bring more visitors and concentrate on those.
I can’t remember the conversation verbatim but somehow this is the gist of the interview.
Romy Garduce, achieved national fame when he, among other Filipinos reached the summit of Mt. Everest sometime last year. It was the first time ever in Filipino History. Since mountaineering is what he does best and made him famous he was asked , why not make mountaineering his main job, other than holding down a more conventional work in an office. He said it doesn’t matter, as long as 20 percent of his time is spent on things he cares and enjoys the most (which is climbing mountains) he is pretty content and happy. So far he’s been to the three highest peaks in each continent namely Kilamanjaro, Acongacua and Mt. Everest. He aspires to traverse the South Pole and go kayaking the Amazon River upstream. But I digress.
To push my point a bit further Nathaniel Hawthorne worked in the Customs office while he wrote the famous novel, The Scarlett Letter in his spare time. Alexander Graham Bell was a teacher when he invented the telephone. It just goes to show that you can spend only a small percentage of your time, but hugely, hugely make an impact on culture, history or business.
Well good news for us everyday people, we have some sort of principle or system we can follow to effectively utilize our time. And maybe try to accomplish a little of what those aforementioned famous and accomplished people have achieved. It’s called the Pareto Principle. It’s a century old concept of effective time management but I think it has merits, I think it has some grain of truth in it.
Basically it’s an 80-20% ratio. The small percentage or the 20% ("the vital few") produces 80% of the results, profits, share etc. The 80% (" The trivial many") does not make such an impact. Pareto Principle was originally conceptualized by Vilfredo Pareto, an Italian economist in the early 1900’s.Is somewhat rehashed by Joseph Juran management expert and universally applied to just about any fields of endeavour.
There is an imbalance between effort and results like 80% of what we achieve comes from just 20% of what we do. The purpose of this effective time management concept is to make us identify which of that small percentage that give us the most favorable results and focus and improve on it. That easy. No more stress, no more pulling your hair or jittery nerves over not having enough time to do the things which are important to you.
How does this principle apply to you? If you are an internet marketer find out which products sell more, which customers buy more and focus your time and energy on those facts. If you run ads, find out which ads pull in more leads, check your traffic logs and identify which keywords and phrases bring more visitors and concentrate on those.
I can’t remember the conversation verbatim but somehow this is the gist of the interview.
Romy Garduce, achieved national fame when he, among other Filipinos reached the summit of Mt. Everest sometime last year. It was the first time ever in Filipino History. Since mountaineering is what he does best and made him famous he was asked , why not make mountaineering his main job, other than holding down a more conventional work in an office. He said it doesn’t matter, as long as 20 percent of his time is spent on things he cares and enjoys the most (which is climbing mountains) he is pretty content and happy. So far he’s been to the three highest peaks in each continent namely Kilamanjaro, Acongacua and Mt. Everest. He aspires to traverse the South Pole and go kayaking the Amazon River upstream. But I digress.
To push my point a bit further Nathaniel Hawthorne worked in the Customs office while he wrote the famous novel, The Scarlett Letter in his spare time. Alexander Graham Bell was a teacher when he invented the telephone. It just goes to show that you can spend only a small percentage of your time, but hugely, hugely make an impact on culture, history or business.
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