How to Apply the Pareto Principle in Life

You’re a pretty bright person, right? You’ve got a fantastic tech career, and time management tools like the Pareto Principle help you prioritize your tasks so that you spend your work day on only the most essential jobs. You can use the Pareto Principle in life, too. When you have an effective time management strategy for your personal time, you can take control of your schedule and use your day productively.

We’re here to help you get the info you need to turn your life into a well-oiled machine. In this guide, we show you how to use the principles of Pareto time management as a means of getting your home life prioritized and humming along smoothly. You’ll learn how Pareto works on your business environment to keep you working on the most vital tasks, and we let you in on how to turn that time-management gaze on your personal business. You’ll be amazed at the difference it makes to your life.

Pareto Principle? Huh?

As an up-and-coming member of Techworld, you probably know all about Pareto. It’s an effective tool that allows project managers to keep their teams moving and on top of the key work. In simple terms, Pareto time management separates work into two buckets: the “vital few” and the “trivial many.” From this viewpoint, roughly two out of every ten tasks are vital, and the other eight are trivial. Hence, the slogan 80/20. (It looks better on a bumper sticker than “8/2.”)

Pareto’s core concept is to focus on the 20% of tasks that really matter and to leave the other 80% to serve as cleanup tasks. Keeping a tech project focused in this manner means that the lion’s share of energy goes to the most pressing concerns. That means the project moves forward, and that in turn means more money for your company when you deliver on time and in good shape.

Using Pareto at Home

“That’s great,” I can hear you shouting through the Internet, “but how will Pareto help my personal life?” Time management tools aren’t just for project managers. The same concepts that keep your projects moving forward can make your home life easier and more ordered, too. It’s easier than you might think.

You’ll need to sit down and list your various activities, and then you should order them by priority. You might not find yourself at a clean 80/20 ratio, but you’ll probably surprise yourself with how close you get. After you’ve got the “vital few” identified, you have what you need to whip your schedule into shape. Every day, concentrate on the top priorities. Before long, you’ll surprise yourself with free time and a sense of personal accomplishment.

So, that’s the deal, people. There are tons of excellent workplace tools that can help you get a handle on your personal life, as long as you know how to apply them. Our guide gives you the information to help you apply the Pareto Principle in life, so you can become a problem-solving machine in all aspects of your life.