Comments on: The Pareto Principle in writing

By: Daphne Gray-Grant

Daphne Gray-Grant — Tue, 21 Feb 2017 02:05:00 +0000

In reply to William Stoner. So glad you found this useful, William! Thanks for writing.

By: William Stoner

William Stoner — Mon, 20 Feb 2017 23:00:00 +0000

Daphne,
It took me less than 3 minutes to get your message about making sure writing efforts are likely to pay off and remembering that not all efforts pay off equally. Those 3 minutes are a small fraction of the time is spent working today! In the future, I’ll have to work towards applying your insight in the days to come. Writing this comment will help cement your insight in my mind.

By: Daphne Gray-Grant

Daphne Gray-Grant — Wed, 01 Feb 2017 15:46:00 +0000

In reply to Rohi Shetty. You're very welcome, Rohi!

By: Rohi Shetty

Rohi Shetty — Wed, 01 Feb 2017 06:56:00 +0000

In reply to Daphne Gray-Grant. That's a GREAT help, Daphne. I needed this reminder today.

By: David Alan Dresser

David Alan Dresser — Tue, 31 Jan 2017 21:31:00 +0000

In reply to Daphne Gray-Grant. Thanks. My work life was sometimes in the trades, carpentry & others. And I was technician for the phone company. Sometimes, the Pareto unevenness appeared as ... 5 to 10 % doing most of the work with a clear majority doing very little. Indeed, the UNEVENNESS OF DISTRIBUTION. It works in many ways.

By: Daphne Gray-Grant

Daphne Gray-Grant — Tue, 31 Jan 2017 20:43:00 +0000

In reply to David Alan Dresser. Thanks for emphasizing that, David! Indeed, the whole point is to understand the UNEVENNESS of the distribution.

By: David Alan Dresser

David Alan Dresser — Tue, 31 Jan 2017 19:46:00 +0000

The Pareto rule may vary and be even more lopsided at times. During the Korean police action, the Chinese recorded that if they isolated just 5% of the leaders of American prisoners (not necessarily only officers) the remaining captives behaved as if sheep.

By: Daphne Gray-Grant

Daphne Gray-Grant — Tue, 31 Jan 2017 19:12:00 +0000

In reply to Rohi Shetty. To reduce your research time, spend more time thinking and planning, FIRST. I find that many people often do research that's totally unnecessary and unrelated to the project they're writing. So, mind map first. You can even do a mind map on the question "what research do I need to do to write this article on XYZ." Does that help at all?

By: Rohi Shetty

Rohi Shetty — Tue, 31 Jan 2017 18:45:00 +0000

Hi Daphne,
This month I realised that the biggest factor slowing down my writing is doing too much research. So, 20 percent of research is all I need to get 80 percent of my writing done? How do you stop spending too much time on research?