I received the book, Universal Principles of Design
Of course, as I’m reading, I’m thinking about how the concepts apply to what I do every day, and blogging in general and I thought I would use some of the principles as inspiration for posts.
The first principle in the book is the well-known “80/20 Rule” or “Pareto Principle“:
A high percentage of effects in any large system are caused by a low percentage of variables.
Spend Time Wisely
The 80/20 Rule is most helpful in determining where to put your time and resources. If 20% of a site’s functions are used 80% of the time, then it only makes sense to focus time and attention mainly on these items. This seems like a no-brainer, but it’s so easy to get bogged down in some minor detail that ends up sucking all your time away.
I have 2 ways of dealing with this issue:
- I complete the most important items first, so that if anything is going to get shortchanged on time as a deadline is looming, it will be the least critical elements.
- If I get stuck on a less important item, I force myself to put it aside until the most important pieces are complete. Often, giving my subconscious time to ruminate on the problem makes it easy to solve when I get back to it.
Using the 80/20 Rule as a Formula for Success
Another way to think about this principle is to look at all of the activities that consume our time as we work towards success in whatever we’re trying to accomplish. The 80/20 principle indicates that about 20% of the activities we engage in are responsible for 80% of our success. The other 80% of the activities might be somewhat useful, but are not major contributors to the bottom line.
An interesting exercise might be to list out all of the activities you participate in during the time you have to work. If, for example, you’re working towards being a successful blogger (whatever your definition of success is), then you have multiple activities you engage in including things like researching and writing posts, tweaking your site, reading other blogs, commenting, networking, participating in social media such as Twitter and StumbleUpon, etc. and the list goes on. Rate all these activities by how much they contribute to the actual success of your blog.
Let’s say you have 5 hours a day to devote to your site. 4 hours should then obviously be given to those things that fall into the top 20%, leaving an hour for all the other items.
It is so tempting to get sucked into Twittering away the day, or reading every last item in the feed reader, and before you know it the day is gone and nothing has been accomplished. This happens to me regularly. If I would only keep my eye on those few things that are most important, I would be much more productive.
Okay, so this post has been a big pep talk to myself really. There is so little time and so much to do. I need to be more disciplined. I encourage you to check out the Universal Principles of Design- it’s a great read.
the 80/20 rule.
i’ve heard variations of the same idea but more or less.
Nice to do’s, vital fews.
Which means, although there are heaps of things to do, there are only really the vital ones. I should check out the book.
Sounds pretty interesting.
This will definitely help me! Thanks!
Nice to hear that i’ve never read the book that you mention, but i bet it follows the above rule.This will definitely help me! Thanks!
The 80/20 rule really does work for me and I am glad that you are sharing it with other designers
I really do believe in the 80/20 rule and I try to apply it to whatever I do. There are so many activities out there for me to choose from. If I didn’t prioritize my time, how would I get anything done?
I agree with everyone that have said that 80/20 is important. One of the biggest problems of working online is all the distractions that are only a click away. Twitter is a big time waster and even facebook can be a time drain. I try and do my most important stuff in the morning and then only use the ‘fun stuff’ in the afternoon.
Very informative post. I agree with you and the book contents 100%. In my design work, I myself do the 20% of most important work and I leave the rest 80% work for my employees or outsourcing.
I haven’t heard this 80/20 rule before.
After I’ve read the article, I think I should give a shoot on it!
We often waste lots of time on trivial, repetitive tasks. That means people are kept busy whether it is important or not, equipment is running whether needed or not, sales are made whether they are profitable or not. By understanding Pareto’s principle, we can improve our productivity and profitability. Thanks for sharing your experience.
the 80/20 rule is a terrific thing to apply to all of life. the best thing to start with is to make a list of all the relevant to-do’s for any project, and then to prioritize them so one knows what is up at the top of the list (where to put your “80″). luck to all.
I tend to do waaaaaaay to many things, because I like a wide variety of projects — drawing, design, painting, writing, etc. Any ideas about how to apply the 80/20 principle to that scheme?
I heard this book is awesome!!
I read the book about 80/20 in the russian translation.
Thanks for info!
Thanks for the refresher. 80/20 is especially important now because of the economy – less margin for wasted time. Every step needs to count. Thanks again.
Well, I didn’t read the book, but the 80/20 rule is well known and it’s really useful. I always try to apply it to every situation, and it usually helps to act more efficiently.
I cannot tell you how much I agree with this formula. I have experienced the 80/20 rule of thumb in just about every endeavor I’ve ever tried. Good comments. Thanks,
Rob
As I get (slightly) older I feel more and more that someone ought to be investing in elastic hours. I’d buy them! It seems that time flies faster and the busy side of my business tends more towards driving people (nicely) to my shop, rather than in enjoying my art.
It sounds real helpful, I hope the book is on the net in pdf form so I can just paste the words into a text to speech software and let it be read to me as I am not the best book reader my self! Is that cheating?
I have never heard of the 80/20 rule but now when I think about it, it makes perfect sense. The only problem could be correctly identifying those 20 percent that matter.
I have bought 80/20 revolution. This book is dedicated to business. Still I haven’t managed how to mange time’s 80/20 principle.
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