The 80-20 Principle

The Promise

Twenty percent of your inputs produce eighty percent of your outputs. Find that twenty percent and double down; cut the rest without guilt.

How It Works

• Identify the twenty percent. Trace outcomes back to the inputs that actually produced them. Most of what feels important turns out not to be in the twenty percent.
• Double down on what's leveraged. Concentrated attention on the few inputs that produce results compounds. Spread-thin attention does not.
• Cut or delegate the rest without guilt. The other eighty percent feels like work but produces little, and most cuts are reversible if they turn out to matter.

In Practice

Trace this quarter's real results back to their sources and a small handful of inputs accounts for nearly everything that matters. Doubling down on that handful, and cutting the rest, produces more in a month than the evenly spread effort produced in a quarter.