Vital Few vs Trivial Many

I received some interesting feedback from one of my supervisors several years ago. She told me, “John, you have to stop wasting time on many trivial tasks you are chasing. Instead, you need to focus on the vital few that move the needle.” At the time, I felt that my boss was not recognizing all the hard work and effort I was putting in.

But upon reflection, I realized she was right. You see, we tend to get busy doing nothing. However, at the end of the day, what matters is the bottom line. So the question to ask is, what is the bottom line, and how is your work contributing to it? The answer lies in learning to differentiate the vital few from the trivial many, which is sometimes referred to as the Pareto Principle.

The origins of this principle trace back to Vilfredo Pareto, an Italian economist who, in 1896, noticed something curious in his garden. Most of his fruits were coming from a small number of plants—about 20%. As an economist, he became intrigued and applied the same observation to land ownership in Italy, discovering that around 20% of the population owned 80% of the land. And the more he explored, the more he saw this 80/20 split all around him: in wealth distribution, in production, and in societal influence. Over time, this phenomenon became known as the Pareto Principle.

The Pareto Principle also applies to work. Only a few activities at work really move the needle towards our objectives. These are the activities we need to focus on. They could be hiring critical talent for a certain role, implementing a new system, changing the reward and incentive structure, or simply finding better customers.

With respect to our personal finances, only a few decisions and practices really matter to enable us to achieve financial independence. Simple things like living below your means and automating savings can make all the difference.

Focusing on the vital few is not easy because they don’t seem urgent, and the reward is distant. So we get caught up chasing the trivial many with endless to-do lists. Doing this robs us of the time and energy to do the things that really matter.