Pareto rule, famously called the 80/20 rule, says that 80% of consequences come from 20% of the causes. Despite being parrotted by many time management gurus, this rule does not see much application in our lives, again - public and private. Let's take a deep dive.
𝐂𝐚𝐯𝐞𝐚𝐭: Don't take the 80/20 rule in the literal sense. 80 here means something that is 𝐞𝐧𝐨𝐮𝐠𝐡/𝐝𝐞𝐜𝐞𝐧𝐭. 20 here means something that is 𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐢𝐦𝐚𝐥.
𝐃𝐞𝐜𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐮𝐥𝐭𝐬 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐢𝐦𝐚𝐥 𝐞𝐟𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐭.
We all are culprits of last-minute exam preparations. We studied the night before the exam and came out with decent marks. Our parents are not angry and we're saved. (Not talking about tiger parents who want great marks)
What we basically did the night before the exam is identify the 20% effort that gives us those decent marks. We go through previous questions and important topics that help us score more. This not only saved us on the exam day but also gave us enough time on other days — to explore sports, entrepreneurship, passions, internships or just waste it.
Something we did very naturally in school became an alien thing in life after school.
As a nation, there are few areas that the government should focus on to get those decent marks. Areas that see market failures - Education, Law and Order, Healthcare and few others. But what we see is governments trying to do every other thing on the planet - from regulating temples to private lives. Even ascribing good intentions to the government policy, the efforts are put in the other 80% causes which only begets 20% marks - less than the pass mark. "𝐌𝐢𝐧𝐢𝐦𝐮𝐦 𝐆𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐧𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭 - 𝐌𝐚𝐱𝐢𝐦𝐮𝐦 𝐆𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐧𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞" is nothing but a Pareto principle that needs to be implemented.
We do the same in our private lives. Instead of focusing on those few variables that bring us maximum happiness/work satisfaction, we try to do everything.
Sometimes to please others, sometimes because don't know what those 20% efforts are. And thus we end up chasing the 20% mark with all our might, neglecting the 80%.
I'm not supporting mediocrity here. If you're sure about getting 100% marks in a subject, you sure put 100% effort into it. Like many who studied for IITs in many coaching institutions.
But life has multiple subjects - and it's often better to score 80% in multiple subjects than to score 100% in one, failing in others.
So take a step back and analyse your efforts. Are they the 20% you should actually focus on?
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