I’ve been fascinated with a guy named Tim Ferriss for a few years. He’s an entrepreneur and author behind some of my favorite reads, The Four Hour Work Week, The Four Hour Body and The Four Hour Chef. He’s also an expert in learning and frequently refers to what he calls the 80/20 Principle, otherwise known as the Pareto Principle.
The Pareto Principle states that 20% of the work you put in to something should produce 80% of the results. Ferriss uses this to learn new skills by breaking whatever it is he wants to learn down into its simplest parts and identifying which parts are most important (the 20%) to producing a majority of the outcome (the 80%). This ratio isn’t always going to be a clean 80/20, but the general idea does apply to most things. Once you figure out the 20%, it should make you even more productive by working smarter, not harder.
I’ve tried to use this idea of the 80/20 rule to help me in my design work and with learning new skills. My problem often comes in the early stages of putting this principle in action: I can’t figure out what the 20% is. Often I end up spending so much time trying to identify the 20% that I get frustrated and quit without learning anything.
But that’s no way to go about things, so I’ll keep pushing on and trying to work as smart as I can. I’ll get my system down one day, but it sure is frustrating trying to figure it out now.
Here are some resources for you to learn more about the 80/20 Principle and start being more productive.
Tim Ferriss: The 80/20 Principle – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RqPijjNtQxA
Learning to play the Guitar with the 80/20 Principle: http://www.fourhourworkweek.com/blog/2012/12/11/how-to-play-the-guitar/
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