Briefly about 80/20.
"You do not have to do everything. You need to do only what gives the result. "

You may find this wrong, or use it to your advantage. If you are reading this, you are one of those smart people who will rather choose to curb the energy of this rule than to fight it.

Here you will learn how to optimize everything that you do, from the very beginning.

How 80/20 works
In most cases, about 80% of the results come from 20% of the reasons. These numbers can vary - sometimes it's 70/30 and sometimes 90/10. But whatever the ratio, the fact is that a small number of reasons have a disproportionately large impact on the result.

In everything from attracting customers, blog posts, traveling, fitness, relationships - you'll find that the 80/20 rule works everywhere.

But let's go back a little. What is this "80/20 rule" and what does it even mean?

The original wording of the rule:
"20% of investments lead to 80% of the result"

The rule comes from Richard Koch's book "Rule 80/20". It is a three-dimensional work, which definitely deserves to be read.

Curiously, if you open Koch's book, you will find, on 25 pages, he mentions that you can get the most important information from any book, following the instructions of the three steps. As a good student, I followed his instructions - I read the beginning and end of the book, looked casually the rest of it, and then read the beginning and the end again. If the author tells you how to read books - you should listen!

80/20 A good example

Some practical examples 80/20

LANGUAGE
Most languages have about a million words (if not more)

If you want to learn a language, you do not need to memorize the entire dictionary. You just need to remember the words that are used most often. Their number does not exceed several thousand words.

You can spend the day and night learning Spanish words - small aspects of biology for the completeness of the language, but it probably will not bring you much benefit unless you need to urgently talk about mitochondria.

If you do not need to discuss mitochondria, you can learn the basics much faster. It's someone like Benny who manages to learn the language in 3 months. He does not focus on his mastery of perfection, he just focuses on speaking and is not afraid to look stupid.

DIET
If you change 20% of your diet, you will see absolutely huge results, especially at first, when you just started to improve your diet. If you observe the Paleotic diet and exclude from the diet of grain and dairy, you do not need to worry about whether or not eating beans is a paleo rule. This may be important, but not enough to worry about. A simple decision to stop eating nonsense and start eating real food. This will bring a much quicker result than if you were thinking about eating or not eating beans.

I talked about this in several places, but excluding grain and dairy products is 80% of what you need. All that will be after is a routine tweak.

If you are upset and do not see the result, when it comes to weight loss, stop thinking that you need to completely rebuild everything. Just change a few things that will create a big difference, and use this difference, for the momentum to make great changes in the future.

FITNESS
If you want to change your fitness habits, you do not need a complicated program. You can make a ton of progress through working with your own weight and sprints. This is what the program "Training without excuses" is based on. You do not need a heaped up gym with a personal trainer, in order to get yourself in shape. You just need to start, concentrate on doing several exercises and turn these exercises into a habit.

BUSINESS
Even when I was working at an agency, I was given a statement that I could never lose a client. Whatever happened.
There were no real prerequisites for this belief. It just looked "bad" to "lose" the client. Even if the client was shitty. And some customers were really shitty! Bad.

For example, we had a client who paid us almost nothing but called and complained almost daily. Despite the fact that we doubled their conversion (and revenue) and cut their expenses by half, they were still not happy. They did not care about the result because they wanted to control.

Some clients are absolutely incapable of reasoning.

Note: there is always a customer who pays the least amount and who wants the most from you.

Unfortunately, the desire to "save every customer" is a nightmare installation when working in an agency. But since such an installation was for the entire agency, we lost $ 20,000 per month. But the money was not such a big reason for concern (because of the structure of the organization and the investors in it), so no one worried much about them.

Nevertheless, I'm allergic to a poorly functioning business, so I sat down for Excel and, in twenty minutes, laid out how I could take away half of our "problem customers" who brought in less than $ 1000 a month. I also outlined how we could double the rate of our clients (who do not have a headache) to customers who loved us and make more money with fewer headaches (without losses among employees), thereby actually making a profit. I got the answer: "Hmm ... It's interesting" before I decided to quit. 

It works with a ton of other activities. Here are some examples:
-If you are blogging, you will find that 20% of posts generate 80% of your traffic.
-If you are trading something, you will find that 20% of the goods bring you 80% of the profit.
-If you look at your expenses, you'll find that 20% of your accounts are 80% of your expenses.

Income, earnings and well-being.
Attention! Wranglers, go ahead!

WHY DO YOU REALIZE USING 80 20
I was brought up to have a hardworking Midwestern way of thinking. Work hard and do not stop until the work is done. Do exactly the same every time.

This is excellent advice. He creates integrity and a sense of pride in his work. This is a weighty advice that most people can use in their lives and work.

It can also be a waste of time if you unintentionally apply it in all directions and to everything that you do.

Here is the truth: you do not have to be perfect. Your work should not be perfect. In fact, it often will not be perfect. So, instead of chasing after unattainable standards of excellence, focus on getting a "good enough" result, to move on to the next step.

If you are not quite sure how to treat this, your inner perfectionist probably screams "foul !!!!".
I have news for you: you must make him disappear.
He must go, for your good. You must kill him. With your bare hands, if necessary. It will not be pleasant, but it is necessary. He seems innocuous, even well-intentioned, but he holds you back from being as effective as you can be.

USE OF 80/20 IN ACTION
If you are tired of theory, here are some practical things that you can do to realize 80/20 today.

BUDGET
Look at your budget. Use Mint to analyze your purchases. Which of the categories cause the most expenses? Find out which of the big expenses can be reduced. Choose something like a cable. Turning off the cable will save you about $ 100 monthly, probably as much as you would save on something small that you had all this time, like your daily cup of coffee - and give you time to create something worthwhile, in the same time. Double victory.

INCOME
Analyze your various sources of income and efforts spent on each. There is a possibility that you have one milk cow or a larger income stream, which takes up a minimum of work / is the most fun / it's the easiest for class. Get rid of other responsibilities that do not generate a return on investment to the same extent and focus on those flows that give disproportionate results (this is exactly what I did when I refused low-paid client work).

DIET
Do not overhaul your diet. Do not go to the "Cleaning" and do not spend hundreds of dollars to make juice. Just give up cereals and dairy products for four weeks. See what happens.

FITNESS
Do not buy a subscription to the gym. Do not spend three hours a day on the treadmill. Spend 20 minutes a day doing a 4-week program, or an 8-week work program with your own weight and sprints. Put it all together with your new diet and see what happens.

LANGUAGE
Stop trying to memorize the dictionary and learn 200 words in another language. Go to another country for a week and just talk with people. You will see that you have become more fluent in language these days, unlike your friends who spend months in the face of the book and do my assignment.

SITES AND MARKETING
Instead of focusing on every marketing channel you can imagine, look at your statistics for the past 90 days and find out where the most traffic comes from. Double your bet on these traffic sources and forget about all the others. Do this for 90 days and see what happens.

EXCEPTION FROM THE RULES: WHEN 20% - NECESSARY

Naturally, the 80/20 rule does not guarantee 100% of the time (all the same 80/20 rule)
If you find yourself in any of the following situations, please forget the tips described above:
-You build a rocket.
-You are a surgeon conducting an operation on something of the brain, heart or other vital organs.
-You are a sign language interpreter at the funeral of a foreign leader.

If one of these situations applies to you, then this is good for you. Otherwise, overcome yourself, focus on 20%, this is important, and make things go as you need.