The 80/20 rule may mean that 80% of your results come from 20% of the tasks you perform. Or 80% of the sales you make comes from 20% of your customers. Knowing this, what are some situations in which the 80/20 rule can apply?
1. Books. Often 80% of useful information is found in 20% of the book. Reading the entire book to find useful information is time consuming. Then you look for the sections that interest you or have the information you are looking for. You read those sections and skip the rest. Each section also has some fluff. So, read only the paragraphs that are important. And you skip the rest.
2. Tasks. At work, you may have a to-do list. On your to-do list, let’s say you have 10 items. Two of them are high priority. And the rest can be left for later. Those two high priority tasks will make the most progress on your project. So do those two tasks first and save the rest for later.
3. Movies. His time is limited, so he cannot watch many movies. But you enjoy watching movies. Let’s say there are 10 movies for you to choose from. You can’t see all 10. So pick the 2 best movies and skip the rest. Those 2 movies can be classics or have rave reviews. But they are more likely to give you more pleasure than the other 8 movies combined.
4. Websites. When you search for information on the Internet, you will use a search engine. The search engine returns many results. So instead of reading a lot of the websites, just read a few of them. Those few are likely to contain information similar to that of the other websites listed.