The 80/20 Principal

The Pareto Principle of 80/20 has been a recognized economic theory for over a hundred years and it’s worth the effort to reconsider its practicality from time to time. A new book, “Living the 80/20 Way, Work Less, Worry Less, Succeed More, Enjoy More” by Richard Koch, applies the principle to ordinary work and living.

Vilfredo Pareto, an Italian socio-economist who lived in the early 1900’s, made a profound observation about life. He learned that about 80% of the land in Italy was owned by only 20% of the population. In his garden he observed that 20% of the peapods yielded 80% of the harvested peas. Time and again, with one observation after another, he validated the 80/20 principle. Through his writings and lectures, his name was eventually attached to this statistical phenomenon.
Richard Koch, the author of “Living the 80/20 Way…” illustrates this principle in many of our daily encounters. In meetings, 80% of the decisions are made during 20% of the meeting time. With supervisory problems, 80% of the headaches come from 20% of the employees. Churches can expect 80% of their funding from 20% of the congregation.
When volunteers are needed, 20% of those available will do 80% of the work.

Within the library, I’ve experienced the Pareto Principle for years. I’ve known that 20% of the collection gets 80 % of the use. It pains me to think that 80% of what we add to the collection will get very little use. It aggravates me even more that much of the 20% of the heavily-used library materials—particularly videos and DVD’s-- are mindless items of entertainment. But, I cannot be the judge. If I were to build the kind of library collection I really wanted for the community, check out statistics would probably be cut by 80%. The community might have a great collection of materials within the library, but there would be very few patrons.

In his book, Koch explains how we can simplify, as well as enrich, our lives by concentrating on the 20% that is important to us. For the remaining 80%, we should either forget about it or do only a marginal job at it.

By increasing our ability to separate the essential from the non-essential we can live a more meaningful and richer life. Oftentimes we are overwhelmed by the demands and the complexities of life, so we concentrate on the non-essentials and postpone separating the meaningful from the inconsequential. The author challenges us to use the "Pareto Thinking" process to improve our decisions, and ultimately our lives.

The Library’s website, www.columbuslibrary.info is a great source to have “bookmarked” on your home and office computer. You can check the library’s catalog