Pareto principle!

The Pareto principle (also known as the 80-20 rule, the law of the vital few and the principle of factor sparsity) states that, for many events, 80% of the effects come from 20% of the causes.

The 80/20 Rule means that in any set of things (workers, customers, etc.) a few (20 percent) are vital and many (80 percent) are considered trivial.

I first learnt it in my computer engineering course. I vaguely remember it was something to do with Software Development cycle or something like that.

I revisited Pareto principle in my MBA days.

I recently re-revisited a revised Pareto Principle (90/10) when I read an article supposedly by Stephen Covey which said that "10% of life is made up of what happens to you. 90% of life is decided by how you react."

Now, 5 months down in 2008, I realise that not only I am revisiting Pareto principle, I am LIVING it.

As 16th June approaches (the day Fountainhead School opens to 200 bright new faces), my mind is a muddle of excitement and stress. (I had a similar feeling when I was in my 9th month of pregnancy waiting for Sunay to arrive).

A lot of vital things for the school are being done in the last 20% of time. Sometimes, I wonder, was I inefficient earlier/ napping for the past 5 months? But hey! the Italian economist said this in early 1900's. So, I assure myself that it is normal and keep going on.

On some days, I am at my efficient and effective best,am productive at work and am a happy,worn out individual when I go to bed. On some days, I am stressed, panicky and move around with a sense of urgency which refuses to translate itself into productive work and I sit up in the middle of the night thinking of the work that I need to do tomorrow and what I could have done today.

I need to direct this nervous energy in productive work...

So, signing off now..