Although we spend hundreds of hours studying material in carefully thought-out curricula at esteemed universities, sometimes the information that sticks the most comes from the most random places. Upon attempting to learn some Arabic online, I stumbled upon a rule called the 80/20 Principle. This was usually the type of introductory information I would skip over; it was a paragraph in a long packet of information, and I was attempting to get to the meat of the "Learning Arabic" course I had stumbled upon.
Fortunately for me, my eyes glazed over the page and a few phrases stuck out to me. Suddenly I found myself reading the entire section on the 80/20 principle, and completely forgot about the Arabic lesson I was planning on teaching myself. The irony in this entire scenario is that my experience of learning about the 80/20 principle actually proves its existence. It is without a doubt a lesson which took me maybe five minutes to read about, but has left a deep impression in me and left me pondering for weeks after. It's absolutely essential that everyone gets at least a basic understanding of this phenomenon if we wish to be successful and happy in our lives.
What is it?
The 80/20 Principle basically says that 80% of your profits come from 20% of your business. More generally, 80% of your outcomes come from 20% of your incomes. While this concept is more of a heuristic than a statement of fact, it absolutely has the potential to change your life.
Examples of the 80/20 principle can be seen in all of our lives. In an office that is carpeted, 80% of its use will come from 20% of the carpet. If a manager keeps that in mind, he or she can replace just that 20% of the carpet when it wears down, rather than replace the entire carpet for a marginal increase in benefit.
Another example would be that 80% of the wealth in a nation is controlled by 20% of its people. In terms of this example, the ratio is actually much more stark in some places. For instance, in the United states this ratio would be 99/1. However, in terms of the concept, the lesson learned remains the same. If someone acknowledges the 80/20 principle, they would see an effective way to divide income would be to redistribute the income/wealth of the top 20%, which would create the largest benefit from the smallest amount of "damage."
How can it change my life?
I may not be able to speak to everyone's lives, but I can certainly speak for my own. The 80/20 principle gives me hope for my future. Often times, I've found myself working extremely hard and achieving minimal results. It's frustrating and disheartening. I've seen students study the night before for an exam I spent weeks preparing for, and pull off better grades than I did. I've talked to students about biological processes that I've mastered that they hadn't even gone over, and found that the knowledge was useless on the exam. Time and time again I have suffered through a state of continual failure after a tremendous amount of effort.
Failing after putting in effort is one of the most miserable feelings in the world. You're told from a young age that you get out of life what you put into it. If that were true, I would be the valedictorian of my college class. I have spent countless hours at the library, head in my books, with a million cups of coffee and an endless drive to prove myself. I have put in more effort than I ever thought was humanly possible, and yet I have very little to show for it. Naturally, I had come to the conclusion that I am simply not smart enough, and I may not be up for the challenges I pose for myself. After all, hard work can only work to a certain extent. After a point, only people with natural talent can achieve their goals.
All of this could not be further from the truth. In my moments of self-doubt and despair, the 80/20 principle gave me a reason for my failures and a guide for how to succeed.
I have spent a tremendous amount of time studying dense material with very little to show for it. That's because I'm not studying the 20% of the material which makes up 80% of the content of my exams. I spend 80% of my time taking detailed notes on readings, when the 20% of the time I spend reading the material aloud actually provides me with the most memory retention. I make flashcards and study guides in fancy color coded pens but spend little time actually mastering the material. Most of my time is spent in mindless work when my eyes glaze over the page of the text and blankly write down meaningless information in my notebook. I plan that later on I will read these detailed notes. But WHY? If my plan is to read attentively later, why go through the motions of taking notes now? Why not read attentively now? Instead of spending 80% of my time doing extraneous things like making flashcards and taking notes, which will only provide me with 20% of my desired outcome, I could spend 20% of my time on an attentive, focused reading where I retain and utilize information that will comprise of 80% of my exam. Now I've spent less time studying, but have learned more. I have become more effective.
The 80/20 principle has taught me that I'm not incapable of success. I am actually very capable of success. Imagine all I could have achieved if I had spent the tens of thousands of hours at the library on the stuff that actually mattered, the 20%, rather than the superfluous 80%. The best part is I would have spent a fraction of the time and reaped a hundred times the benefit. I would be less stressed, more healthy, more happy and more confident. All I have to do now is make sure I follow this rule.
Concluding Thoughts
In life, 80% of the conversations I have will be with 20% of my friends. 80% of the foods I eat will be of 20% of the types of food that exist. 80% of my life will be spent wasted on things that will only leave me with 20% of the happiness I could achieve. Most people work multiple boring jobs now, so that one day in the future they can open up their dream store. In the 20% of their time they have left, they work tirelessly on their dream, and find that time to be far more rewarding than the 80% spent at the office. Just imagine how much happier and fulfilled we all could be if we spent 80% of our time doing the things we loved, and 20% of our time doing things that don't matter. It's a sad reality that majority of us do just the opposite. But all we need to do is recognize that fact in order to change it.
It is never to late to change. Sure, I'm entering my fourth year at UConn, and most people know how they like to study and what works best for them. That doesn't mean I can't adapt to this new information. I am not going to give up like I previously wanted to. I'm just going to refocus my efforts. I don't have to spend 100 hours studying because more time does not actually more success. I can spend 20 hours studying and be 80 times more successful. Apply the 80/20 principle to your own life. It doesn't have to be about school, it could be about your job, your friends, hobbies, sales- literally anything imaginable. We could all live happier, healthier, and immensely more satisfying lives if we applied the knowledge that this principle is there to give us.
