The 80/20 Rule
by Tom Hess
Note: This article uses "musicians" as an example to illustrate a very important law of success - The Pareto Principle that is used by successful achievers (in all areas of life) around the world. It will benefit you greatly to think about how this topic applies to your life and reaching your specific goals, even if you are not a musician.
Have you ever noticed how some musicians, who practice less, seem to make more progress than others who practice more? That can be really frustrating for musicians in the second group! If you are like most people, the following two statements are approximately true (whether you are aware of it or not):
* 80% of your practice time brings you only about 20% of your total progress.
* 20% of your practice time brings you only about 80% of your total progress.
No, I didn't just pull these numbers out of the air. These statements are based on Pareto's Principle - (The 80/20 Rule). It would be too lengthy to go into detail about the origins and facts behind Pareto's Principle here, but I'll just tell you Pareto's Principle has been proven true in many areas of human life, industries, economies, time management and many other areas of the human existence. It affects us all, not just in music, but in much of what we do and are involved in.
The basic idea, as it applies to learning anything (or music, in our example), is how long you practice is not always as important as what you choose to focus your practice time on. This is not about efficiency or time management. This is about obtaining "maximum effectiveness" with whatever amount of time you can invest into practicing.
Let’s say there are two musicians: guitar players John and David. The first player (John) practices 30 minutes a day is making good progress and the other guy (David) practices 90 minutes a day and makes less progress than John. What are the two things you might expect David to say about John?
1. "John must be practicing more than I am, so of course he is getting better results."
2. "John must have more natural talent than I do."
In our example the first statement cannot be true. Although it is possible the second statement could be true in rare cases, it is not as likely as it would seem. David failed to see that John's better results probably were due to what he focused on and how effective his practicing was.
To be effective you must have a clear idea of what you want to accomplish each practice session, then you must analyze your current skill level in each area you will be practicing. Then you are ready for the Powerful practice of implementing the 80/20 rule to practicing which I state as this:
* Any weak area that is preventing your strengths from being used to the fullest potential, is a weakness you must overcome as soon as possible. These weaknesses are part of your important 20% that you should focus on, because overcoming these weaknesses will likely bring you 80% of the total progress you want.
* Any weakness that does not interfere with the implementation of your strengths to the fullest potential is usually non-essential. These weak areas are part of your non-essential 80% of what you probably currently focus on (whether you are aware of it or not) that will likely bring you only 20% of the total progress you want.
If you are having a hard time following this, it probably is because you have not sufficiently researched Pareto's Principle.
If you change this one approach to your practice time on a consistent basis, your results will massively improve. You can accomplish a lot of positive forward momentum in moving towards your goals even if your practice time is limited. But please do not misunderstand me, I am not implying, in any way, that short practice sessions are as good as longer ones, nor that short practice sessions are a substitute for longer periods of serious practice time. What I am saying is "effective short practice sessions" can be very valuable when longer sessions are impossible.
If you already know that tomorrow, you will have only 20 minutes of practice time possible, you might be tempted to just say, "forget it, what can I accomplish in 20 minutes? I'll wait for the next day when I know I will have an hour to practice. Don't do this to yourself, because daily consistency is the best fuel for forward momentum. Use that 20 minutes and pack it with practicing on what really matters, don't sit around and play a bunch of stuff you already know how to do well.