In 1906 an Italian economist, Vilfredo Pareto, discovered that 20% of the Italian population owned 80% of the nation’s capital. Further studies discovered that The Pareto Principle, as it became known, affects us all in every aspect of life. If one can identify the main areas to focus upon it will save a lot of time and effort. In other words, you do more of what actually matters. For instance:

• 20% of your tasks produce 80% of your results.
• 20% of a meeting gives you 80% of the information.
• 20% of your contribution produces 80% of the recognition you get.
• 20% of clients create 80% of your sales.
• 20% of the clothes in your wardrobe are worn 80% of the time.

This rule applies to everything you do at work. Whatever task, project, role or goal you have, it can be tackled with the 20-80 rule. A good result can be achieved if these five step can be helpful:

• Start with the end. What is the outcome you want?
• When you’re clear about that, break it down into the actions you need to take to get there.
• Take actions in the most logical order you can. (Learn how to prioritize work).
• Keep asking ‘What’s the next relevant step to take?’
• Repeat the process until its completion.

This can be also best utilized in the early stages of a project. The initiation of a project and the closing of a project are the most important phases in a project.  The focus should be more on the start and at the end of the project which is actually the 20% of the whole project. If these 20% can be properly tackled then the rest of the 80% of the project becomes very much easy. So in this way adequate time, money, and other resources must be allocated to the 20% of the work that will produce the 80% of the deliverables.

The 20-80 rule is very vital for any project manager as if this rule is not taken into consideration while doing project activities like budgeting, scheduling and assigning resources, the project will be a failure in terms of not completing the project in time and will be over budgeted with other issues as well. Therefore, the 20-80 rule plays a significance role in the life time of a project, and it can also be used in the day to day activities of life visit homepage.

By Humayun Khan
Project Coordinator