Living The 80/20 Way: Work Less, Worry Less, Succeed More, Enjoy More

Product Description

For modern adults, life moves on the fast track, moving from one commitment to the next with a single-minded obsession to get ahead. What remains elusive is real happiness. According to Richard Koch and Living the 80/20 Way, happiness flows from doing less, not striving more. True achievement and success can and will come from doing less. With his first mega-seller, The 80/20 Principle, Koch explains a century old economic principle called the Pareto Principle: 80 percent of results come from 20 percent of effort. The 80/20 Individual showed how to apply the 80/20 principle in the workplace. Now, Living the 80/20 Way explains how to improve the key elements of your life and take back your time. Getting more by doing less is possible. Richard Koch and Living the 80/20 Way will show you how to: -Make a good life, not just a living. - Dissociate effort from reward. Focus on the outcomes and find the easiest way to achieve them with the least amount of effort. -Do away with time management and start your own time revolution. - Get rid of your to-do list and create a not-to-do list. By following Koch’s easy steps, you will be able to find your best 20 percent and get to what matters most. Focusing your time on those things that are most important, life acquires a meaning beyond the everyday rat race of work and responsibility. Within the realms of work, money and relationships, Koch shows you how to: 1. Focus on your 80/20 destination – where you want to be 2. Find the 80/20 route – the easiest way there 3. Take 80/20 action – the first key steps

Written in easy to follow steps and full of exercises and examples, Living the 80/20 Way will help you to focus your sights on a simple, happy life. By having the courage to go against conventional wisdom, you will get more of what you want in life with less work.
Product Details

* Amazon Sales Rank: #66562 in Books
* Published on: 2005-02-25
* Original language: English
* Number of items: 1
* Binding: Paperback
* 196 pages


Editorial Reviews

Review
"Koch writes with inspirational verve and assurance drawing on personal experience of building businesses." -- Choice of the Month, Director Magazine

"Through multiple examples, and a punchy down-to-earth commentary, Koch offers the first really useful advice we've seen... for years." -- Business Age

About the Author
Richard Koch is a self-made millionaire and the author of thirteen books, including the international best seller, The 80/20 Principle, named one of GQ’s Top 25 Business Books of the Twentieth Century. Formerly a consultant with the Boston Consulting Group and a partner with Bain & Company, he is now a self-described "lazy entrepreneur."
Customer Reviews

A Good Guide on Getting More with Less Effort4
The 80/20 principle has been around for a long time. Discovered by economist Wilfredo Pareto the principle holds that many phenomena break down into an 80/20 split. For example, 20% of your customer account for 80% of your revenue; 20% of your activities account for 80% of your production; etc. The key to applying this principle to your life and getting more out of less effort is to identify that 20% in each area of your life that accounts for the majority of your benefits. In your personal life, this may mean that it's better to have just a few friends and cultivate those friendships, rather than have a lot of friends and never get as much out of the relationships as you otherwise would. In your professional life, it means focusing on the 20% of your skills or talents that generate the bulk of your value-generating activities, rather than being a jack-of-all-trades and accomplishing far less proportionately. The idea is then that by spending more time on the tasks that create the most results, you will eventually be able to spend less time overall producing income, and thereby be able to work far less, or at least work on only those things that provide you with the most meaning. This pattern could allow you to drop out of the rate race and live comfortably with only those possessions, experiences and relationships that are truly important to you.

I have two criticisms: First, I wonder how much the 80/20 result is simply the way life just shakes out. For example, most people read only a few sources of media from which they get most of their news. That's just the way it seems things will be because one can only read so much. I think the same roughly applies to friendships: one can only extend themselves so much before friendships are basically meaningless. Second, and based on the examples author Koch provides, applying the 80/20 rule is far easier for someone who is young or uncommitted. I would have liked to have seen examples of families who applied the principles and succeeded. On the other hand, 80/20 is a good ideal to strive for, even if you will not ultimately achieve a 4-day work week. There are enough spheres in our lives where cutting down and focusing on what's most important would be very beneficial.

Read 20% of it4
A person who hasn't read this book might think to read all of it, thinking that all of it is useful. In fact, that is dead wrong and even goes against the philosophy of this book, which should have really been a pamphlet. The rule is to read only 20% of it. That is, skim it. You'll get 80% of the information in this book, and that way you'll work less, save time, and can move on to better reading. It's not that it's badly written, but the basic rule here isn't that complicated and just doesn't require a book. In fact, it requires about a paragraph. Do the important stuff that you enjoy, don't do the stuff that doesn't give you much return. Like write long reviews of this book...

Focus on Your Desires and Strengths3
Taking the well-known 80/20 principle (or Pareto's law of money - 20 percent of people enjoy 80 percent of the wealth) beyond its more common business applications, Richard Koch urges readers to move its application into their personal lives. Using anecdotal stories from various people's successes to demonstrate that the 80/20 principle is universal, the book sets out a 3-step route:

1 Focus on your desired destination - what are the things that you really enjoy or that interest you?
2 Find the easiest way to the destination - what are your strengths, the 20% spikes from an analysis of your emotions and attributes?
3 Take action to make it happen - plan your first several steps.

Not exactly rocket-science and much easier said than done perhaps; but a useful activity for an over busy life - sorting out the 20 percent of the things that produce 80% of the benefits. The author suggests it also applies to money and relationships, although the 80/20 way for individuals is primarily about how we spend our time.

Beyond the reminder that the 80/20 principle is universal, and therefore the benefits of focus and then playing to one's strengths, the book has little to offer. The Gallup StrengthFinders series and Marcus Buckingham's "Go put your Strengths to Work" offer far more depth and perspective. Dennis DeWilde, author of "The Performance Connection".