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80/20 rule

concept · in 24 sources (2018–2024)

The idea that about 20% of the content or effort yields about 80% of the result, such as the marks in past papers.

Sources by year: 2018: 1 · 2019: 1 · 2021: 3 · 2022: 7 · 2023: 3 · 2024: 9

Also known as: 80-20 analysis

Questions

Often together

What comes up in the same parts of the videos; the number is how many parts.

Feel-Good Productivity (book) (2)

What the videos say

The most important statements of each year; all statements.

2024

  • 2024-02-14 · How to Find Time for Everything with a Full Time Job — Ali: You can do anything you want but not everything, Ali says: a big part of time management is prioritisation, knowing what to say no to so you have the time, energy and focus for what matters. — 00:06:34
    • Ali applies the consultant's lesson to his whole to-do list: there is always more work, so like a battlefield surgeon triaging, he shows up as his best self each day and works in order of priority. — 00:09:22
  • 2024-02-21 · Stop Wasting Time - 5 Time Management Skills to Master — Ali says the point of his time-management series is not to squeeze more into your time but to do more of what is truly important to you, so it is all about prioritisation. — 00:00:58
    • To get better at prioritisation, Ali advises having goals in and outside work: your priorities and how you spend your time are then reverse-engineered from those goals. — 00:01:48
  • 2024-02-27 · 7 Life Lessons I Wish I Knew Sooner — recommendation: Ali's thought experiment: if you could spend only two hours a week on your business or job, what would you do in them? Then ask why you are not spending 10 hours on just those things. — 00:12:58
  • 2024-03-01 · 7 Mistakes to Avoid While Building Your First Business — recommendation: Ali: When coaching entrepreneurs, Ali has them list what they would like to celebrate a year from now, then asks which one goal they would pick with a magic wand: that is the one thing, and the rest are paths to it. — 00:05:59
  • 2024-04-12 · 5 Easy Ways to Become More Self-Disciplined — recommendation: Ali often asks what he would do with his business if he had only two, four or eight hours a week to work, what would most move the needle, and then why he doesn't just do that five days a week. — 00:07:15
  • 2024-06-08 · 5 Journaling Prompts That Changed My Life ✍️ — recommendation: Ali's first three journaling prompts: with all the money and time in the world, how would you use your talents to serve others; what would you like said at your funeral, and how far do you live in line with it; which 20% of inputs drive 80% of your results. — 00:00:00
  • 2024-06-25 · How I Manage My Time Without Burning Out — recommendation: Ali: When a manager brings a new request, Ali advises showing your active projects and backlog with an estimate of when you can start, and, if it is urgent, asking which project they would rather you deprioritise. — 00:09:21
  • 2024-06-28 · How to Not Screw Up Your 30s — recommendation: Eric Partaker advises focusing on the 20% of things in your job, role or industry that could create 80% of the results and doubling down on them: finding the leverage is the secret. — 00:31:35
    • Ali's journaling prompt from Eric Partaker's advice: what is the 20% in work, health and relationships that drives 80% of the positive outcomes? — 00:32:05
  • 2024-12-12 · 6 Habits to Make 2026 Your Best Year Yet — Ali says a big mistake is to think productivity is about efficiency: the needle moves in the choice of what you work on, the direction you go rather than how fast. — 00:08:29
  • …and 1 statement more in 2024 — all statements of 2024

2023

  • 2023-04-06 · The Pareto Principle 👩‍🌾 — Ali explains that the Pareto principle, or 80/20 rule, named after the Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto, states that roughly 80% of the effects come from just 20% of the causes. — 00:00:00
    • Ali says a farmer should prioritise the crops that give the biggest return; applied to business, time management and personal productivity, the Pareto principle reminds us to focus on the most important tasks. — 00:00:29
  • 2023-09-05 · These 8 Laws From This Book Changed My Life — recommendation: Ali sees a lot of value in the 80/20 rule, focusing on the 20% of inputs that give 80% of the outputs, but also in its opposite, Bartlett's law that you must sweat the small stuff. — 00:08:19
    • Ali was mind-blown by Arun Maini's scripting time, which he calls the pure definition of sweating the small stuff and the complete opposite of the 80/20 principle. — 00:09:43
  • 2023-11-28 · If I Wanted to Grow An Audience in 2026, I'd Do This — recommendation: Ali: To get the most out of little time on content, Ali says the 80/20 on YouTube is the packaging, the title and thumbnail: if no one clicks, no one sees the content, so spend a decent chunk of time on it. — 00:03:36

2022

  • 2022-01-21 · My New Life Goals (2022) — recommendation: Ali: Following Oliver Burkeman's Four Thousand Weeks, Ali says we will never have time for everything we want, so we must strategically decide what to fail at; in 2021 he chose to fail at art lessons, busking and six-pack abs. — 00:05:29
  • 2022-05-18 · Life Is 4,000 Weeks. You’re Already Burning Through Them. — Ali: The first of Oliver Burkeman's steps to embracing our limits, as Ali relays it, is to accept defeat: we cannot get everything done and there is no cure for it, an insight that can set us free. — 00:06:19
    • Ali advises accepting that small urgent tasks such as cleaning, laundry, emails and WhatsApp replies will always be there, and deciding where to do just the bare minimum. — 00:12:39
  • 2022-06-22 · The 3 Laws of Sustainable Productivity #shorts — Ali names three essential laws for getting things done sustainably: Parkinson's law, so give yourself less time; the Pareto principle, so find the 20% of inputs driving 80% of results; and Newton's first law of motion. — 00:00:00
  • 2022-07-26 · 28 Life Lessons from 28 Years in 28 Minutes — Ali: Agreeing with Oliver Burkeman's Four Thousand Weeks, Ali says time is finite and there are not enough hours for everything important, so we must embrace mediocrity in parts of life. — 00:03:55
  • 2022-08-19 · How I Manage My Time - The System That Changed My Life — Ali: The meta point of Ali's approach, from Oliver Burkeman's Four Thousand Weeks: time and energy are finite, and we cannot do all the things. — 00:14:19
    • Ali says he sucks at replying to WhatsApp messages and will never reply to all his friends; rather than feel bad, he accepts that some friends go without a reply. — 00:15:17
  • 2022-11-24 · 12 Productivity Myths Wasting Your Time — recommendation: Ali advises strategically deciding what to be mediocre at: he has decided he will never be good at replying to WhatsApp messages and emails. — 00:07:27
  • 2022-12-16 · How I Failed in 2022 — recommendation: Ali advises working out the most important things and actively protecting time for them, because the urgent is rarely important, yet urgent things always take over the calendar. — 00:37:31

2021

  • 2021-02-14 · The Book That MOST Changed My Life — Ali first heard of the Pareto principle, that 80% of results come from 20% of inputs, in The 4-Hour Workweek eight years ago; it is now pretty standard. — 00:10:20
    • Ali used the Pareto principle for his medical school exams: minutiae give maybe an extra 10% of marks, the core 20% of content gives 80%, so focus on that. — 00:10:50
  • 2021-08-18 · 10 Rules I Follow Everyday — Tim Ferriss (quoted): Tim Ferriss applies the 80/20 principle to everything: 20% of your actions, inputs, products or services create 80% of what you want. — 00:06:44
    • Tim Ferriss (quoted): Tim Ferriss's example: with 100 products filling 100-hour weeks, 20 would likely produce 90% of profits, so cutting the rest could keep 90% of income on 20 hours a week. (hypothetical, hedged) — 00:07:22
    • Ali often asks which 20% of things lead to 80% of the outcomes, and does this 80/20 analysis in everything in life. — 00:07:45
    • After reading Marie Kondo's The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up, Ali found he wears only about 20% of his wardrobe and donated the rest; he also donated 22 of his 24 keyboards to a charity shop. — 00:07:45
  • 2021-10-29 · 8 Lessons I Learned From Elon Musk — recommendation: Ali says to focus on the important 20% of activities that drive 80% of the results, always asking whether you are doing what actually drives results or what merely feels and looks like work. — 00:13:44

2019

  • 2019-07-26 · How I Manage my Time as a Doctor + YouTuber - 9 Time Management Tips — Ali's second time-management principle is the Pareto principle, or 80/20 rule: for most things in life about 80% of the results come from about 20% of the inputs. — 00:01:11
    • In school and university exams, Ali says, 80% of the marks often come from 20% of the content: really understand that 20% and you can work out how to get the 80% of marks. — 00:01:43
    • Ali applies the 80/20 rule to every skill he has taught himself, from piano, graphic design and coding to photography, video editing and YouTube: they are not as hard as they look, and you can focus on the 20% that gets you 80%. — 00:02:42
  • …and 1 statement more in 2019 — all statements of 2019

2018