80/20 Rule
Background: This ESL podcast is about the 80/20 rule. This is a concept that you hear about often in business and time management. Listen to this podcast, and you will learn English and also how to be more efficient. Let us know what you think.
Phrases and Vocabulary used:
What is the 80/20 rule?
It’s a term used a lot in business and other areas to describe the phenomenon that quite often a small % of something can have most of the impact on something else. The examples will help you to understand
Examples of the 80/20 rule
- 80% of donations come from 20% of the donors
- 20% of beer drinkers consume 80% of the world’s beer
- 80% of a company’s sales come from 20% of its customers
- You spend 80% of your time with friends, with only 20% of your friends.
- 80% of the time spent listening to China232 comes from 20% of our listeners
- 20% of the students in a class cause 80% of the problems for the teacher.
How can we apply the 80/20 rule to our lives?
Time management at work is a big one. This is true, especially in sales. If you know that 80% of your sales come from 20% of your clients, for example, it would be worthwhile to find out exactly who those 20% are, and then spend most of your time dealing with them. If one particular customer (especially one who doesn’t buy much) asks a lot of questions and wastes a lot of your time, then it may not be worth your time to deal with them at all because they are wasting so much of your valuable time that could be used better somewhere else.
In life it’s better to spend most of your time doing things that are the most beneficial to you and not get caught up with silly time wasters that do no one any good.
Source:China123
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