Daily Dose 58: 80/20 Principle

Out in the realm of abstract math—not to be mistaken with arithmetic that simply connects or separates concrete numbers by straightforward operations like adding and subtracting—the mysterious “they” have repeatedly demonstrated in a variety of applications an interesting mathematical aspect to life. Roughly 80 percent of outcome almost always comes from something close to 20 percent of input.

What does that Mean?

What does 80 percent of outcome comes from close to 20 percent of input mean? The majority of “result” comes from a minority of “work.” For priority stewards this is wonderful news. It means we are virtually assured noteworthy, well, at least average results for reasonable effort. This explains why a regular 10 minute clean-up drill can keep a living space “acceptable” for such a long time. The minority of effort (dusting, picking up) produces a lot of result for the effort. Pulling out the buckets and scrubbing the walls with a toothbrush vastly increases the effort to maybe 85 or 90 percent, but the “result” in the look of the room may only increase another 5-10 percent.

A majority of home-cooked meals can be prepared with a minority of effort and attention. I know we all seem to believe even minimal effort is “too much”  in the case of cooking. Too often we act like anything beyond box opening and bag tearing requires professional chefs! In reality, small efforts developing basic skills will go a long way to producing functional food.

Students can normally “produce” reasonable grades without overly taxing study regimes. This confirms suspicions that seriously low grades are more the result of strenuous efforts to avoid study work than basic efforts to do the work.

Tremendous results come from relatively minor work to develop a personal Bible study framework. Comparatively small doses of real conversation often result in major communication. Presenting the greatest truth of all—salvation through Christ—can be carefully done in less than thirty minutes. Imagine, an eternity of benefit for thirty earthly minutes.

Not even applying minimal effort

Perhaps it is a dismal reflection of how little we truly apply ourselves to skill development, smart habit building, and putting in even minimal consistent effort, that so many of us feel so inadequate at so many things. Said another way: the 80/20 principle may reveal that “not doing well in school,” or “can’t cook a lick,” or “can’t sing a note,” or “just can’t stick to a budget,” or “never have time to tackle the mess” or “never could memorize” are rarely accurate statements of truly deficient, substandard abilities, but indicators that we have not even gotten to the twenty percent input or effort level in that area.

Reasonable skill for minimal effort

I prefer to think, however, that this principle provides hope that some learning and instruction combined with some thinking and planning time, along with some concentrated practice, will produce reasonable results in almost any area receiving such attention. That’s encouraging for the stewardship part of the equation.

The corollary to this principle is an equally important consideration for the priority part of the equation, but thinking about that can wait till tomorrow. Today I’m going to walk around looking for life priorities not yet getting twenty percent of my God-endowed efforts to do all things decently and in order.