For example, a 1992 United Nations report showed that over 80% of the world's income is controlled by the top 20%. In other reports, Microsoft found that fixing the top 20% of bugs fixed 80% of errors and crashes.

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The Pareto Principle also appears in sports, health, and criminal justice. In baseball, just 15% of the players accounted for 85% of the wins. Some studies found 20% of individuals responsible for 80% of contagious infections. Another found 20% of criminals committed 80% of crimes. 

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It's become axiomatic in business that 80% of revenue comes from 20% of clients. Accordingly, strategic planning involves directing the vast majority of resources toward just a few objectives. 

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That's where your dissertation figures in.

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How the 80/20 Rule Speeds Up Your Work

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You can leverage the 80/20 Rule for personal goals, explains productivity guru Brian Tracy. 

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The process begins by evaluating your daily actions with a more discerning eye. 

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Sadly, as Tracy puts it, instead of focusing on the "vital few," most people get seduced by the "trivial many." Procrastinating on the few items that will create real success, they burn up valuable time attending to the abundant lower-level tasks. 

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Instead of investing in your degree progress, do you exhaust yourself grading papers and preparing lectures that will have little bearing on your future? 

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Do you squander time reading nonessential materials, or worse, with social media or Netflix series, rather than devoting your energy to finishing the project that will significantly impact your life? 

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Sound familiar? If so, find out how to turn the situation around now. 

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"The difference between successful people and really successful people is that really

successful people say no to almost everything." ~Warren Buffet 

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Harnessing the 80/20 Rule for Success

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Start implementing the 80/20 Rule now, following Tracy's steps: 

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1. List 10 goals that you would like to accomplish.

2. Review your list. If you could accomplish only one, which one would most impact the quality of your life? Put a star next to it. 

3. Review the list again, starring the goal that would have the next most impact. 

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You have now identified your most important goals. Write them down where you will see them when you plan your actions for each day so that you devote 80% of your best efforts to them. 

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That does not mean you will devote 80% of each day to just two goals, but rather that you will devote the bulk of your most productive hours to them. The less productive hours will be used to handle the less impactful goals. 

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If this approach sounds too restrictive, don't stop reading yet. You can tweak it. 

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Some experts allow for choosing three or even five goals for your select attention. For example, in his bestseller 18 Minutes, leadership consultant Peter Bregman advocates intentionally focusing on five areas while declining everything else. 

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Whichever approach you choose, the overall principle remains the same: Select a few worthy goals, then devote your best waking hours to accomplishing them. 

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"To get the right things done, choosing what to ignore is as important as

choosing where to focus." ~ Peter Bregman

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Identify Your Peak Productivity Times

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Now that you know what matters, when will you do it? 

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The best way to get the right things done is to enter them for your peak productivity hours in your daily planner. Tying your goals to a specific time and place has been shown to double the likelihood of doing them. 

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While humans all share the circadian day of wakefulness and sleep, you may need to do some monitoring to discover your own unique pattern of daytime productivity. 

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During the day, we cycle through "ultradian cycles," i.e., periods of 90-minute blocks of productivity and heightened focus. Barbara Atkinson explains this further: 

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The start of each ultradian cycle is where your brain is most energetic and focused. Eventually, your energy slowly depletes. At the end of each ultradian cycle, you can keep working, but you simply won't be as effective. Your brain needs downtime. 

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To identify your own ultradian rhythm, track your own productivity over a week. This questionnaire will help you determine if you are a "lark" or an "owl" or in between. 

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Pay particular notice when you can focus well on your task—as well as when you start to get fidgety, hungry, or drowsy. 

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Most of us are trained to these ignore bodily signals that it's time for a break. When you power through those times, however, the quality of your work suffers, asserts Tony Schwartz, peak performance consultant. 

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For sustainability and overall speed, limit your focused work blocks to 90 minutes and interspersed with renewal periods, advises Schwartz. Doing so allowed him to wrap up his next book in under six months—less than half the time of previous books. 

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"The question I ask myself like almost every day is, 'Am I doing the most important thing I

could be doing?"  ~ Mark Zuckerberg

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Implement the 80/20 rule and watch your progress accelerate. Before you know it, you will be dancing across the stage to pick up your diploma and moving forward confidently with your new success habit. 

 

P.S If you need help cultivating your new habit, get an accountability buddy or a dissertation coach. 

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Photo above by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY