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Pareto Principle
Table of Contents
The Pareto principle is the 80/20 rule - most results come from a small slice of effort.
Key Concept
- Named for Vilfredo Pareto (roughly 80% of results from 20% of effort - shorthand, not a law).
- I use it when my reading list, task board, or note tags all feel equally important: which few actually moved the needle?
- Same rule for flashcards: only spine notes carry
review: truehere - PKM habits plus six Eternal Principles with cards, not every faith note in the garden.
- Cards ask what I would do, not what I would define.
Level 1 - Recognize
The Pareto principle is shorthand - roughly eighty percent of results from twenty percent of effort.
Level 2 - Explain
Like most apples on one branch, not spread evenly on every twig - outcomes cluster in a minority of inputs.
Level 3 - Use
List your top three outputs last month - find which inputs produced them and protect that slice first.
Level 4 - Connect
The ratio is a heuristic, not a law - cutting the long tail can kill compounding habits that matter later.
Level 5 - Create
Create an 80/20 filter with Low Hanging Fruit and Minimum Effective Dose: protect the few inputs that drive results without cutting slow gains that compound.
Examples
- The kids' activity list had six things and we skipped three nights - I trimmed to basketball and piano and we actually showed up.
- My reading pile had forty tabs - the five that moved work got Sunday morning, the rest got deleted.
Note Relationships
| Relationship | Wikilink | Reason |
|---|---|---|
| contradicts | Compounding | when cutting the long tail kills compounding habits |
| extends | Signal vs Noise | Most results come from a small slice - find the signal and cut the noise |
| extends | Vilfredo Pareto | 80/20 origin story - worth its own note later |
