The Pareto principle: the four kurtas you actually wear

It is the week before Diwali, and Shweta in Jaipur is cleaning her almirah. The door will not shut. Her mother holds up a kurta with the tags still on, then another, then a third. Shweta laughs and says she will wear them soon.

Then she counts what she wore in the last month. It is the same four kurtas, washed and worn on repeat, while forty others sit on the shelves.

What the model is

The Pareto principle, often called the 80/20 rule, says that a small share of what you have or do can account for a large share of what you get out of it. A few kurtas make up most of what you wear. A few customers make up most of a shop's orders. The idea is named after Vilfredo Pareto, an Italian economist, and the quality expert Joseph Juran made it popular as a way to find the vital few among the many.

The numbers 80 and 20 are a rough shape, not a fixed split. What matters is the question behind them: which few things are doing most of the work here?

Trying it on one almirah

Shweta has a simple plan for Diwali. She wants to give away what she does not wear, but she feels bad about every single piece. So she asks the Pareto question instead of the guilt question.

First, she makes a list of what she actually wore in the last month. She does not guess from memory. She checks the laundry basket and her phone photos from two family functions. Four kurtas show up again and again.

Second, she asks what these four have in common. They are soft cotton, they fit well after a full day, and they need no ironing. That is useful. It tells her what she really looks for when she buys, which is not what she thought.

Third, she looks at the rest with that in mind. A few pieces are close to the four and just need a wash. Many are tight, scratchy or too special to wear to the market. She keeps a handful for weddings and puts the others in a bag for her cousin and the maid's daughter.

The almirah shuts now. She did not become a minimalist. She just saw where the use really was.

The same question works in a small shop. If you run a stationery counter near a school, list last month's orders by customer. You may find that a handful of regular buyers brought most of the money. Then you know whom to call before the exam season and whose credit you should not forget.

Where it stops

Pareto is a rough pattern, not a law. Sometimes the split is 70/30, or 95/5, or nothing like it. If you force every list into 80/20, you will invent a few where there are none.

It also does not say the other items are useless. The wedding sherwani is worn once, and it matters a lot that day. The customer who orders rarely may still be the one who pays on time. The model tells you where the use is today. It does not decide what is worth keeping.

One thing to try today

Before tonight, take a sheet of paper and list the few things that did most of last month's work. It could be three tasks that filled your week, two clients who brought most of your income, or the four kurtas. Write only what you can check from a basket, a calendar or a notebook, and stop at five. The first time may feel slow, and that is fine.

Each Sunday: one mental model and one real decision to try it on. Find more in the /models library.