Pareto's Principle for Writers
Higher Productivity with Less Activity
Pareto's Principle states that 20% of your activities will yield 80% of your results. For writers who acknowledge this theory, it can mean higher productivity.
If you made a list of every activity you performed during the day and assigned it a value based on the ratio of input to output, you would notice a startling tend. A very small proportion of your activities will create your highest value results, while most of your day is spent spinning your wheels with low value activities. For writers in a freelance and self-employed work environment, this theory outlines a significant strain to productivity. Here are examples of where this rule can be applied and what it means for your bottom line.
Time
Twenty percent of the time you spend writing results in 80% of what you actually create.
This means that if you were to get serious about the time you spend being productive, you could effectively cut out 80% of your work day and your results would only decrease by 20%. If you write five articles in an eight hour work day, you could, under Pareto's Principle, work just one hour and 36 minutes and write four articles. If you type 10 pages in two hours, you could theoretically type 8 pages in just 24 minutes.
Pay
Twenty percent of the work you do results in 80% of your paycheck.
Using the examples above, if you wrote five articles at $20 each and it took you eight hours, you would make $12.5 per hour for a total of $100. (Hopefully you're making more, but this just keeps the math simple!) If you wrote four articles in one hour and 36 minutes, you would be making $50 per hour for a total of $80. Which would you rather make?
Marketing
Twenty percent of your promotional activities will result in 80% of your results in getting found online and name recognition.
This becomes considerably apparent when you look at where you spend time online and where traffic to your main sites comes from. Some sites, such as article banks you contribute to often, Squidoo lenses, your MySpace page, and your author website, might end up generating high-volume referrals. The many forums, social networking sites, random article sites, and other links may take a lot of time to maintain, yet only provide a very small percent of your traffic. Identifying which of these time drains to avoid will help you make good marketing decisions - especially if you are spending money for any of your marketing campaigns.
Ideas
Eighty percent of what you write will come from 20% of your ideas.
If you make a list of ten things you could write about or use in your books, statistically, two of them will give you the most content. In the case of articles, this isn't hard to see. Out of ten topics, two or three will give you the most opportunity for spin-offs. In the case of fiction and longer non-fiction works, 20% of your ideas will give you the most to write about.
Submissions/Queries
You only need to look to 20% of your submissions and queries to find 80% of your published work.
Again more noticeable with article marketing since there is a greater volume of submissions, just 20% of the editors and publishers you send work to will purchase and/or publish 80% of your total published material.
Categories/Genres
Eighty percent of your success will come from 20% of your categories or genres.
Many writers spread themselves too thin on projects. They dabble in too many categories of articles, genres of fiction, or types of non-fiction. This shows how focusing on one topic, genre, or form of presentation can help you reduce your workload. If you currently publish non-fiction books, websites, ebooks, classes, and brochures, determine which of the five, or which two or three of the five, is creating your largest portion of results. If you write about gardening, technology, home decor, book reviews, and music, determine which
Research
Eighty percent of what you find will be found during 20% of the time you spend looking for it, or in 20% of the places you look.
As you surf the web, you'll find a few very helpful sites among many unhelpful ones. You'll find a few helpful books amidst several unhelpful ones, and you'll know a few knowledgeable interview subjects among many who are lacking.
Readership
Only 20% of your readers will read 80% of what you publish, and 80% of your readers will only see 20% of your material.
This is probably most noticeable with fiction and non-fiction full-length books. A small group of dedicated fans will plow through everything of yours they can get their hands on. Most of your readers will read just a few examples of your work.
As you read the examples above, keep in mind that the opposite is also true; you'll spend 80% of your time creating only 20% of your results. The percentage won't always be exact. You may find that 30% of your activities create 80% of your results, or that 25% of your activities create 65% of your results. However, knowing this, it makes sense to take a hard look at the value of your activities so you can see audit your schedule and goals.
Recognizing which small section of your activities yield the greatest percentage of your results can help you achieve higher pay, higher productivity, and a lower level of stress. By putting Pareto's Principle to work in your writing career, you will easily become a more efficient and successful author.
