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The 80/20 Principle: The Secret to Achieving More with Less
by
How anyone can be more effective with less effort by learning how to identify and leverage the 80/20 principle--the well-known, unpublicized secret that 80 percent of all our results in business and in life stem from a mere 20 percent of our efforts.
The 80/20 principle is one of the great secrets of highly effective people and organizations.
Did you know, for example, that ...more
The 80/20 principle is one of the great secrets of highly effective people and organizations.
Did you know, for example, that ...more
Paperback, 288 pages
Published
October 19th 1999
by Crown Business
(first published 1997)
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Start your review of The 80/20 Principle: The Secret to Achieving More with Less

I give it five out of five but here's the deal. I think the book itself follows the 80/20 rule. 20% of the book gives you 80% of the value. Do this: Read a short definition of the 80/20 rule on the web. Skip to chapter 9 and begin reading the book. Stop when you finish chapter 11. Read 13 and then skim the rest of the book.
So if you do that the book is 5 out of 5 stars and if you read the whole thing I'd give it like 2.5 stars. ...more
So if you do that the book is 5 out of 5 stars and if you read the whole thing I'd give it like 2.5 stars. ...more

Why You Should Read It: The principles in this book can literally add hours to your days and compound your happiness. It’s worth a look. What’s more important than having time?
Average Read Time: 4.5 Minutes
We’ve all surely heard of the 80/20 Principle, or Pareto’s Law as it’s more formally known. It goes something like this:
80% of the results come from 20% of the effort.
It’s often thrown around in business as nothing more than a buzzword. Few actually do a full 80/20 analysis of their business a ...more
Average Read Time: 4.5 Minutes
We’ve all surely heard of the 80/20 Principle, or Pareto’s Law as it’s more formally known. It goes something like this:
80% of the results come from 20% of the effort.
It’s often thrown around in business as nothing more than a buzzword. Few actually do a full 80/20 analysis of their business a ...more

You'd think that someone who champions efficiency would write a book that wasn't so full of repetition and assumptions.
Just read the summary. Do that, and you get 95% of the book's benefit in only 0.01% of the time! I think Koch would be proud. ...more
Just read the summary. Do that, and you get 95% of the book's benefit in only 0.01% of the time! I think Koch would be proud. ...more

Apr 22, 2012
Chad Warner
rated it
really liked it
Recommended to Chad by:
50 Self-Help Classics
Shelves:
business,
non-fiction
This book is a truly enlightening and motivating look at productivity, time management, and happiness. It shows how to apply the 80/20 Principle to your personal and professional life in order to work less, earn more, enjoy more, and achieve more. The main idea: in business and personal life, “pursue those few things where you are amazingly better than others and that you enjoy most,” and eliminate or outsource everything else. This has immediately become one of my favorite self-improvement book
...more

Genre: Business, Efficiency
Publication Date: 1997
This book is a mentally stimulating one. The 80/20 rule suggest to simplify things in business and in life. He says that 80% of our achievements (outputs) comes from 20-25% efforts(inputs).
The author also offers the opposing points of view for the 80/20 rule, which involves savouring all of the moment and life. This is a separate chapter and has a lot of valid points and contrast of opinions, which can give us a bigger picture of the 80/20 princi ...more
Publication Date: 1997
This book is a mentally stimulating one. The 80/20 rule suggest to simplify things in business and in life. He says that 80% of our achievements (outputs) comes from 20-25% efforts(inputs).
The author also offers the opposing points of view for the 80/20 rule, which involves savouring all of the moment and life. This is a separate chapter and has a lot of valid points and contrast of opinions, which can give us a bigger picture of the 80/20 princi ...more

I get it. 80% results from 20% effort. I got it before reading this book. Nothing new was shared, there's not really much more to it than that.
I read 100 pages of un-credited examples, made up company names and far reaching generalizations. The point was made through the title alone. The table of contents added some details and ideas on where this phenomena can be found, but really, there was nothing profound here outside of 80/20 itself.
I skimmed the last half of the book hoping something woul ...more
I read 100 pages of un-credited examples, made up company names and far reaching generalizations. The point was made through the title alone. The table of contents added some details and ideas on where this phenomena can be found, but really, there was nothing profound here outside of 80/20 itself.
I skimmed the last half of the book hoping something woul ...more

For those proclaiming this book to be life-saver, you will be in for a shock to know that what this book expounds is but only one among gazillion other data analysis methods.
Let me explain, there is data and there is information. What you do to the data and in appropriate context makes it information. What the author has expounded in this book is that ‘a little of something causes so much of everything” or rather has stamped an approval (it was not his original idea, remember, only the name “80 ...more
Let me explain, there is data and there is information. What you do to the data and in appropriate context makes it information. What the author has expounded in this book is that ‘a little of something causes so much of everything” or rather has stamped an approval (it was not his original idea, remember, only the name “80 ...more

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
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While not brilliant, it's a pretty good read, however I read a summary, as the book itself suggests when picking up a book like this.
I liked the fact that It did have some interesting points that could actually be used in real life. Give it a shot. ...more
I liked the fact that It did have some interesting points that could actually be used in real life. Give it a shot. ...more

There's a good side to this book and there's a bad side to this book. Good side first. Ever since reading the book I've put 80/20 thinking to use, that is to say that cause and effect are rarely linked in an equal way. 80% of the world's energy is consumed by 15% of the world's people, 80% of hospital costs come from 20% of the patients, 80% of your sales come from 20% of your products etc. It's not so much the "80" and "20" that are the point with this book, it's the theme that the inputs are n
...more

How anyone can be more effective with less effort by learning how to identify and leverage the 80/20 principle--the well-known, unpublicized secret that 80 percent of all our results in business and in life stem from a mere 20 percent of our efforts.
The 80/20 principle is one of the great secrets of highly effective people and organizations.
Did you know, for example, that 20 percent of customers account for 80 percent of revenues? That 20 percent of our time accounts for 80 percent of the work w ...more
The 80/20 principle is one of the great secrets of highly effective people and organizations.
Did you know, for example, that 20 percent of customers account for 80 percent of revenues? That 20 percent of our time accounts for 80 percent of the work w ...more

I agree with 80/20 as a short-term philosophy to make money or get ahead in business or at work. I also always have wholeheartedly believed in permanently cutting personal relationships that are negative or draining. But as I was getting towards the end of the book completely won over by its business teachings I wavered a bit as I thought about a business that has fully adopted 80/20, the movie industry. Now the only movies that get made are super hero, sci-fi, and animation. I have been to the
...more

The book ultimately proves its own theory. 20% of the book comprises about 80% of the content. The rest is repetition.
Some interesting arguments are made. This book is definitely more business minded, though I would say it’s still worth a read for anyone looking to make a time revolution at home. I’m a bit skeptical if this theory is truly relevant to ALL jobs. It seems to me that the lower you are on the corporate ladder, the less likely the 80/20 principle can be utilized practically in your “ ...more
Some interesting arguments are made. This book is definitely more business minded, though I would say it’s still worth a read for anyone looking to make a time revolution at home. I’m a bit skeptical if this theory is truly relevant to ALL jobs. It seems to me that the lower you are on the corporate ladder, the less likely the 80/20 principle can be utilized practically in your “ ...more

Mar 22, 2017
Eugene
rated it
it was amazing
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
startups,
2017-to-read
another great book from Richard Koch on 80/20 principle discovered by Paretto and how it actually applies in the business, personal life and investments. While almost everybody knows about the principle it is not that easy to be apply the non-linear thinking and focus on the most important 1-20% and omit the remains. The book teaches what can be done specifically to apply the principle. Some parts intersects with "Simplify!" book.
...more

Brilliant book. Can help the reader do wonders by just realizing that most input and outputs have a natural imbalance in their relationship.
I personally liked the part two of the book's contents. Which covers the application of the principle in Business.
A must read for entrepreneurs indeed. ...more
I personally liked the part two of the book's contents. Which covers the application of the principle in Business.
A must read for entrepreneurs indeed. ...more

Aug 21, 2011
Walter
marked it as to-read
This book takes the "work smarter not harder principle" and runs with it, expands it. The central premise is that there is likely a huge imbalance in the effectiveness of your actions (for example, 20% of what you do may be producing 80% of your results) and you should learn what that 20% is - what it tells you about what you are best suited to do - and double and triple down.
There are a lot of chapters that discuss situations in businesses very different from what I do that weren't as engaging ...more
There are a lot of chapters that discuss situations in businesses very different from what I do that weren't as engaging ...more

It's OK, but rather repetitive and long-winded at times. The basic point is good and useful: different activities give different value, so it can be useful to focus on the stuff that is most useful and stop doing the other crap. It applies to economics, software development, and all kinds of other areas of life.
As the author mentions, the 80/20 principle is well-known in certain disciplines, including software development (which I have experience in), so the basic concepts were not so radical or ...more
As the author mentions, the 80/20 principle is well-known in certain disciplines, including software development (which I have experience in), so the basic concepts were not so radical or ...more

This book presents the theory of imbalance. Once you get acquainted with the general idea, it should be easy for you to spot the correlation between cause and effect in anything you do.
Whether you will find the book insightful and its ideas relevant will greatly depend on the way you read. True, the book gets quite repetitive at times so I reckon that you use the very same approach to reading it that the book itself recommends. Get the principle and skip to the chapters that are relevant to you ...more
Whether you will find the book insightful and its ideas relevant will greatly depend on the way you read. True, the book gets quite repetitive at times so I reckon that you use the very same approach to reading it that the book itself recommends. Get the principle and skip to the chapters that are relevant to you ...more

Over the last couple months I have been on a productivity kick as I plan for the start my Master's in January. With eminent time constraints, I want to be able to maximize the time I have to meet all my goals. I've read and re-read some very good books, unfortunately for me, The 80-20 Principle was not up to par with many of the others that I have read.
For starters it was excessively wordy. The author made some good points but then he surrounded it with excess words that, at times, bordered on ...more
For starters it was excessively wordy. The author made some good points but then he surrounded it with excess words that, at times, bordered on ...more

10/10
I've read a lot of good non-fiction and this ranks toward the top. It's referenced constantly in other books of this genre so I decided to read it. We've all kind of heard of the 80/20 principle but if you're like me you didn't really get it. Well, after reading this I definitely get it.
It's about finding correlations between inputs and outputs. What gives you the most for the least? Where is the juice most worth the squeeze? It's probably one of the most effective lenses I've ever been ta ...more
I've read a lot of good non-fiction and this ranks toward the top. It's referenced constantly in other books of this genre so I decided to read it. We've all kind of heard of the 80/20 principle but if you're like me you didn't really get it. Well, after reading this I definitely get it.
It's about finding correlations between inputs and outputs. What gives you the most for the least? Where is the juice most worth the squeeze? It's probably one of the most effective lenses I've ever been ta ...more

80/20 everything in your life! I read this book alongside Essentialism by Greg Mckeown which truly was an awesome pair. The concepts are quite similar, but The 80/20 Principle goes into more depth and examples about how you can use this strategy in your life.
Although if you understand the 80/20 principle concept right away you may feel like this book is redundant. I personally put it on my favorites list because the 80/20 principle is extremely powerful in business and in life.
For example:
1. The ...more
Although if you understand the 80/20 principle concept right away you may feel like this book is redundant. I personally put it on my favorites list because the 80/20 principle is extremely powerful in business and in life.
For example:
1. The ...more
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