Rules, Principles, and Laws you NEED to know
Pareto’s 80/20 Rule
Have you ever stopped and wondered where 80% of your outcomes are coming from? More often than not, we try to do it all thinking that 100% of our efforts result in 100% of our results. This however is not the case. In fact, 80% of the outputs result from 20% of the inputs. As surprising as it sounds, this principle was founded by Vilfredo Pareto, an Italian economist in the late 1890’s. This rule holds true to this day with any given context.
80% of wealth is owned by 20% of the population
80% of sales/marketing leads come from 20% of initiatives
80% of things of fulfillment come from 20% of the things you do
The 80/20 rule can be applied towards any aspect of your life! Try it out and ask yourself:
What 20% of sources are causing 80% of my problems/unhappiness?
What 20% of sources are causing 80% of my goals/happiness?
This is powerful when it comes to eliminating the overload from your life, which as we’ve talked about in the past is essential to leading a wholistic life. Remember to use this rule to help you focus in life and identify areas where you need to make changes. Please do not get caught up in the numbers. I hope this method allows you to use your time better and achieve more with less effort.
Parkinson’s Law
Parkinson’s Law refers to the old adage that work expands to fill the time allotted for its completion. This is something we’ve all experienced whether as a student or as an employee. Let’s say you have a big presentation due in 2 weeks. Ideally researching, creating the presentation and the talking track may only take you a few hours. But because you know you have 2 weeks at hand, you fill that time with other activities: you go down a rabbit hole of research, you continue watching videos on the topic, or you simply avoid it until the very last day. It’s the imminent deadline that eventually gets you started on your presentation. Now if I were to give you 2 months to finish your presentation, you would’ve also done it (perhaps at the last second). And if I give you 12 hours to do it, you would’ve cut down your tasks to the absolutely essential ones and gotten it done in time.
Now that we understand the law, how do we take it and apply it to our personal and professional lives? When it comes to working as an employee, there’s little you can do with tasks given at hand. Still try to identify the few critical ones and shorten the deadline given to you by your boss.
When it comes to your personal tasks, use the Pareto principle stated above and identify a few, 20% of the tasks that get to 80% of outputs, and shorten your work time allocated to each one to get it done in a more efficient and timely manner. For example, emails should never take more than an hour to reply to. But I’ve seen my own co-workers spend all day replying back and forth. Set deadlines for yourself and follow through with them even when distractions come in the way.
Baader-Meinhof Phenomenon
Have you ever researched something for the first time and now see it everywhere? I’ll give you an example. Now I’m not really into cars but my boyfriend introduced me to the Audi Q5 recently. He shared all the wonderful features, the design, looks, everything. I thought ‘hmm cool’ and forgot about it. Until, I kept seeing Audi Q5’s every time I turn the street! Everywhere I go, I kept spotting an Audi Q5. I couldn’t figure out if my brain was playing tricks on me or everyone had actually bought the same car all at once.
What I experienced is known as the Baader-Meinhof phenomenon. It’s when your awareness of something increases. This leads you to believe that something is occurring more often even if that’s not the case. It’s simply a frequency bias. If this hasn’t happened to you with cars, I’m positive it’s happened with a song you’ve heard or a breed of dog you learned about.
The Baader-Meinhof phenomenon occurs when we’re exposed to something new and exciting. Our subconscious brain takes notice of this and alerts you every new time you see the same thing. Why is this important? We are constantly exposed to hundreds if not thousands of things every day, especially with social media. It’s important to clutter out the irrelevant posts, topics, and things that don’t bring you value. Our subconscious mind keeps track of everything you’re seeing and will keep reminding you of it and it’s our job to make sure the things it keeps track of are helping us in the long run. Surround yourself with people, ideas, and conversations you want for your future self, not bad habits you want to leave behind.