Dr. Reyaz Ahmad
Gen Z may be the most connected generation in history—and perhaps one of the most distracted.
They have more information than any previous generation, more access to education, more career possibilities, more digital tools, more online communities and more opportunities to build something without waiting for permission.
And yet many young people are exhausted.
They are constantly doing something, but often uncertain whether they are actually moving forward.
They answer messages, attend webinars, update profiles, watch tutorials, scroll through career advice, switch between apps, start online courses, consume motivational content, respond to emails and keep themselves endlessly occupied.
At the end of the day, they are tired.
But tiredness is not always evidence of progress.
This is where an old idea becomes urgently relevant.
The Pareto Principle, commonly called the 80/20 Rule, suggests that in many situations, a relatively small proportion of causes produces a disproportionately large proportion of results.
The idea is associated with Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto, who observed an unequal distribution of wealth and land in society. Over time, the principle was adopted in business, management, economics and quality control.
Its popular interpretation is simple:
Roughly 20 per cent of our efforts may produce 80 per cent of our results.
The percentages should not be treated as a rigid mathematical law. Sometimes the relationship may be 70/30, 90/10 or something entirely different.
The real message is more important than the numbers:
Not everything we do is equally valuable.
And that may be one of the most important lessons Gen Z needs to learn.
We have confused busyness with productivity
Modern culture rewards visible activity.
If you are answering messages, joining meetings, checking emails, posting updates and rushing from one task to another, you appear productive.
But productivity is not about the amount of movement.
It is about the value of the outcome.
Consider a university student preparing for an examination.
He spends two hours highlighting notes, one hour organising folders, another hour searching for videos and forty minutes discussing the examination in a WhatsApp group.
He has been “studying” for almost five hours.
But perhaps the single hour he finally spends solving difficult problems produces most of his actual learning.
That is the 80/20 lesson.
Now consider a job seeker.
She spends hours scrolling through vacancies and submits 40 generic applications.
Very little happens.
Then she identifies three positions that closely match her qualifications, researches the organisations, customises her CV, writes thoughtful cover letters and contacts relevant professionals.
One interview emerges.
Forty applications produced noise.
Three focused applications produced opportunity.
The difference was not effort.
It was effective effort.
Gen Z is not suffering from an information shortage
Older generations often struggled to obtain knowledge.
Students searched libraries for books. Professionals depended on newspapers, journals, teachers and limited networks.
Gen Z faces the opposite problem.
The problem is not lack of information.
The problem is uncontrolled abundance.
There are millions of videos telling you how to become rich, fit, confident, productive, employable, attractive, disciplined, influential or successful.
Every platform says something deserves your immediate attention.
Your phone vibrates.
Someone has posted.
Someone has replied.
Someone is live.
Something is trending.
A new course is available.
A new opportunity has appeared.
A new controversy has exploded.
A new influencer has discovered “the secret to success.”
And while young people are consuming all of this, an uncomfortable reality is emerging:
Attention itself has become an economic resource.
Technology companies compete for it.
Advertisers buy it.
Influencers depend on it.
Platforms measure it.
But your future also depends on it.
If everybody else is competing for your attention, then controlling your attention becomes an act of personal independence.
The Pareto Principle gives us a practical question:
Which 20 per cent of what I consume actually improves 80 per cent of my life?
The answer could be transformative.
Stop Collecting Knowledge. Start Using It.
One of the great traps of the digital generation is confusing learning with content consumption.
Watching twenty videos on public speaking does not make someone a good speaker.
Following investment experts does not make someone financially secure.
Saving productivity posts does not make someone productive.
Watching coding tutorials does not make someone a programmer.
Reading about fitness does not make someone healthy.
Knowledge becomes valuable only when it changes behaviour.
Gen Z therefore needs a shift from consumption to application.
After watching one useful tutorial, stop.
Practise.
After reading one important article, stop.
Apply it.
After learning one skill, build something with it.
The person who studies one concept deeply and uses it may eventually outperform someone who has superficially consumed information on fifty topics.
In an age of abundance, depth itself becomes a competitive advantage.
Your career may depend on a very small number of decisions
The 80/20 principle is especially powerful when applied to careers.
A young person may attend dozens of events and exchange hundreds of LinkedIn connections.
But perhaps five meaningful professional relationships will influence most of his future opportunities.
A professor may recommend him.
A former manager may refer him.
A colleague may introduce him to an employer.
A client may recommend him to another client.
A mentor may prevent him from making a disastrous career decision.
This does not mean treating people as instruments for career advancement.
Human relationships are deeper than transactions.
But it does mean recognising the difference between network size and network strength.
Ten thousand followers cannot necessarily help you.
Ten people who trust your character, competence and reliability may transform your professional life.
The same principle applies to skills.
A young graduate may list twenty skills on a CV.
Yet two or three may create most of his employability.
A data analyst might gain exceptional advantage from Excel, Python and communication.
A teacher may advance through subject mastery, digital pedagogy and strong presentation skills.
A business professional may find that analytical thinking, negotiation and communication produce most of his professional growth.
The mistake is trying to become average at everything.
The better strategy is to become highly valuable at what matters most.
Social media needs an 80/20 audit
Perhaps the most provocative use of the Pareto Principle begins with a simple exercise.
Open your social media accounts.
Ask yourself:
How many of the people I follow genuinely educate, inspire or improve me?
How much of my daily scrolling will matter a week from now?
How many online arguments have actually improved my life?
How much of the content I consume creates anxiety rather than knowledge?
For many people, the answers will be uncomfortable.
Suppose a young person spends three hours a day on largely low-value digital consumption.
Reducing that by even one hour creates approximately 365 hours in a year.
Three hundred and sixty-five hours.
That time could be used to complete a professional qualification.
Learn another language.
Write a book.
Develop coding skills.
Exercise consistently.
Prepare for competitive examinations.
Build a portfolio.
Conduct research.
Start a small business.
Read serious literature.
Or simply spend meaningful time with parents and children.
People often say they do not have time.
Frequently, what they actually lack is protected time.
The 80/20 rule can also save money
Personal finance provides another example.
People sometimes focus intensely on tiny expenses while ignoring large financial decisions.
Someone may spend considerable effort saving a small amount on coffee while paying excessive interest on debt.
Another person may bargain endlessly over groceries while maintaining expensive subscriptions that are rarely used.
The Pareto approach asks:
Which few financial decisions account for most of my long-term financial position?
The answer may involve housing, education, debt, insurance, transportation, investment and career income.
Small savings matter.
But large decisions matter more.
Financial wisdom begins with understanding scale.
Health has its own high-impact basics
The wellness industry constantly introduces new supplements, routines, diets and “life hacks.”
But for most people, a small set of fundamental habits can produce enormous benefits.
Sleep properly.
Move regularly.
Eat sensibly.
Control harmful habits.
Manage stress.
Maintain social relationships.
Attend appropriate health screenings.
Yet people sometimes ignore fundamentals while searching for shortcuts.
They buy expensive fitness watches but barely walk.
They take supplements but sleep four hours.
They follow diet influencers but eat chaotically.
The Pareto Principle reminds us that optimisation is useless when the basics are broken.
Do the important things first.
Do not misuse the rule
There is, however, a dangerous misunderstanding of the 80/20 philosophy.
It should never become an excuse to neglect responsibility.
A teacher cannot decide that only the top 20 per cent of students deserve attention.
A doctor cannot focus only on patients who are easiest to treat.
A parent cannot invest affection only in the child considered most promising.
Not everything in human life should be judged according to productivity.
Care, ethics, loyalty, compassion and duty often require us to do things even when there is no measurable return.
The Pareto Principle should help us prioritise effort.
It should never determine human worth.
Ask one question every morning
The easiest way to use the principle is simple.
Before checking notifications, opening social media or responding to everyone else’s priorities, ask:
What are the two or three things I can do today that will matter most?
For a student, it may be mastering one difficult chapter.
For a researcher, finishing the analysis.
For a job seeker, completing one exceptional application.
For an entrepreneur, speaking to an important customer.
For a writer, producing 1,000 good words.
For a parent, having one uninterrupted conversation with a child.
For someone struggling with health, it may simply be taking that first daily walk.
The objective is not to perform fewer responsibilities.
It is to ensure that important responsibilities are not suffocated by trivial ones.
Gen Z’s greatest challenge may be selection
Gen Z does not need another thousand pieces of advice.
It needs the ability to choose.
Choose what deserves attention.
Choose which relationships deserve investment.
Choose which skills deserve mastery.
Choose which opportunities deserve pursuit.
Choose what information deserves belief.
Choose what distraction deserves rejection.
The defining struggle of the next generation may not be access to knowledge.
It may be the discipline to ignore most of it.
Because time is limited.
Energy is limited.
Attention is limited.
Life itself is limited.
The world will happily fill every empty minute with notifications, entertainment, controversy, comparison and noise.
The real question is whether we will allow it.
The Pareto Principle ultimately teaches something far more profound than the arithmetic of 80 and 20.
It teaches that some things matter far more than others.
And perhaps maturity begins when we finally learn to recognise the difference.
For Gen Z, that distinction may determine who merely stays busy—and who actually builds a meaningful life.
(The author is a freelancer and can be reached at [email protected])
