80/20 rule
80/20 principle misunderstanding
80/20 principle misunderstanding
I often read online articles written by people who misunderstand the 80/20 principle. Here are the most common misconceptions about the 80/20 rule:
Two different things
Basically the 80/20 rule says :
80% of the output comes from 20% of the input.
80 and 20 are percentages of different things. Input and output aren’t the same things, it’s two different set of data like:
- sales and products
- time and tasks
- problems and sources
- …
80 + 20 = 100
Second misunderstanding : numbers 80 and 20 must add to 100. No, they don’t. Why? Because, as I explained in the first part, 80 and 20 represent two different things. You cannot add them. It’s stupid to add money and products or time and tasks…
Thus, you cannot represent the 80/20 rule with a pie chart.
It’s not absolutely 80 and 20
The idea behind the 80/20 principle is that few things have a big impact and most of them don’t matter. Using this rule I learned to prioritize my activities or thinking to achieve great results instead of wasting my time on details.
80 and 20 are only numbers that show things are imbalanced. It could be 70/30, 90/20 or 60/20…
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