Apply the 80/20 principle to your daily life by changing the way you think.

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As you saw in the business examples, the 80/20 principle is normally applied by analyzing which 20 percent of inputs generates 80 percent of outputs. But in your daily life, it is difficult to perform an analysis like this.

This means you need something else: 80/20 thinking.

Conventional thinking is linear and assumes that all causes and inputs are equally important. For example, as children we are taught that all of our friends are equally valuable to us.

In this scenario, 80/20 thinking would acknowledge the fact that actually not every relationship is as valuable. Some of our friends are more important than others, and the relationships we have with them are more meaningful.

You could say that 20 percent of your friendships produce 80 percent of the “value,” meaning, for example, the feelings of joy and camaraderie that you get out of those relationships.

The key difference between an 80/20 analysis and 80/20 thinking is that the analysis would require you to collect data and analyze it to find out who the most important 20 percent are, while in 80/20 thinking you merely estimate them.

Here, the value of your relationships clearly can’t really be measured in absolute numbers, but you can always ask yourself: “Of the people in my life, who are the most important to me? How much quality time do I spend with them each week?”

This kind of question will help you understand which are your most important relationships.

80/20 thinking would then recommend that you go for quality, not quantity, and focus on deepening that most valuable, meaningful 20 percent of relationships.

This kind of 80/20 thinking can be applied to many areas of life without the need for solid data.

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