The One Principle that Allows You To “Hack” Chemistry

If you’ve never heard about Pareto’s Principle, your life is about to be changed.

Pareto was an Italian economist who observed that 80% of the land inItalywas owned by 20% of the population. Why is this relevant at all? Well, the 80/20 principle doesn’t only apply in economics. It applies in almost everything we do.

Roughly 80% of our results come from 20% of our effort. For sales representatives, 80% of successful closes come from 20% of the customers. Likewise for us students, 80% of our grades come from 20% of our effort.

In other words, 80% of our effort only account for 20% of our grade, which mean most students spend the majority on their time on assignment or work that determine a small fraction of their grade.

So how can Pareto’s principle help you get better grades with less studying? The key is to find the highest leverage activities, find the 20% of work/ assignments that are accounting for 80% of your grade. Then spend more time on those work/ assignment and less time on the majority that only account for 20% of your grade.