Solution? Obviously there’s no ‘one size fits all’ answer, but I find it helps to do a chunk of it at a time. For example, say I have identified a meeting with my boss as one of the tasks for the day that will have the most bang for buck value. What if I can’t summon up the resolve to meet with him or her? Break it down and perhaps schedule an appointment for another day.

As I said, there’s no perfect solution, but taking action on the 20% of activities that produce 80% of the results doesn’t always have to be done in one go.

My personal work is in helping people promote entrepreneurship, especially baby boomer entrepreneurs. One of our first conversations is about the 80/20 rule. If one is to do planning, the first goal is to identify the result you want to create. That is followed by identifying the possible actions that can be taken to reach that goal. And thirdly, to identify the 20% that best contribute to probable success of the original goal. Of course, the final step is to take action and adjust until the goal is reached.

Like the other people leaving comments thus far, I agree that it is not always strictly 80/20. Sometimes it may be 75/25 or 85/15. The point is that the rule seems to apply to most of life and a lot of waste can be avoided by looking at how it applies to a specific situation, before diving into the work.