Pareto principle

What It Means

The Pareto principle is the observation that, in many situations, a relatively small number of causes accounts for most of an effect. It's often shortened to the 80/20 rule, as in 20% of causes producing 80% of results, though the split is a rule of thumb rather than a fixed ratio. Quality expert Joseph Juran named it after the economist Vilfredo Pareto and called the important few causes "the vital few".

How People Say It

• "It's the 80/20 rule, most of the mess comes from two drawers."
• "Which 20% of this list actually matters?"
• "A few customers take up most of our time."

The Breakdown

How to use it on your to-do list (Buhata's own suggestion)

1. Write down everything on your plate this week.
2. Next to each item, note what it moves: money, a deadline, your health, someone waiting on you.
3. Score each item for how much it matters, say 1 to 1010,000 stepsA popular daily step goal that began as the name of a 1960s Japanese pedometer; later studies find health benefits begin well below it. See more.
4. Circle the few with the highest scores. Those are your vital few.
5. Do the vital few first, and give them your best hours.
6. For the rest, decide what can be dropped, handed off, batched or scheduled later.

Short version to try today. Look at today's list and ask which two items would make the biggest difference if they were the only things you finished. Start with those.

Where it fits with other methods. The Pareto principle helps you spot what matters most. Eat the frogEat the frogA time management rule from Brian Tracy's book Eat That Frog!: do your biggest, most important task first thing in the morning, before easier work. See more then says to do your biggest, most important task first thing, and the Eisenhower matrixEisenhower matrixA four-box grid that sorts tasks by two questions, whether each is urgent and whether it's important, to decide what to do now and what to plan. See more sorts what's left by urgency and importance. Time blocking gives the vital few a set place in your day.

Where It Comes From

Vilfredo Pareto (1848 to 1923) was an Italian-born economist whose studies showed that 80% of the land in Italy was owned by 20% of the population. In the early 1950s, the quality pioneer Joseph Juran pointed out that the same pattern shows up far beyond economics, especially in quality problems, and called it the Pareto principle. Juran coined the phrase "the vital few and the trivial many", and later changed "trivial many" to "useful many".

Good to Know

The numbers 80 and 20 are shorthand. In your own list the top items might carry 60% or 90% of the value, and the two figures don't have to add up to 100. Juran Institute describes the principle more loosely: a relatively few causes account for the bulk of an effect. Use it to set priorities, and still check the small items for anything with a hard deadline.

Related Terms and Categories

• Eat the frog

  A time management rule from Brian Tracy's book Eat That Frog!: do your biggest, most important task first thing in the morning, before easier work.

• Eisenhower matrix

  A four-box grid that sorts tasks by two questions, whether each is urgent and whether it's important, to decide what to do now and what to plan.

• Getting Things Done

  David Allen's productivity system, from his book Getting Things Done, for capturing everything on your mind and deciding the next action on each item.

• To-do list

  A written list of the tasks you plan to do, checked or crossed off as each one is finished.

Productivity methods and focus