Lisa WoodruffCEO and founder, Organize 365

Effort: The 80/20 of Housework - Not All Housework is Equal - #499 - Organizing Your Home to 80%

26 Aug 2022 · 1 min

Watch on YouTube

0:59

In this video, productivity expert Lisa Woodruff explains how the 80/20 principle—where roughly 80% of results come from 20% of effort—applies to household organization. She notes that the principle mirrors patterns found in nature, and argues that achieving about 80% organization delivers most of the perceived benefit, while the remaining 20% often goes unnoticed. Woodruff contrasts this pragmatic approach with perfectionism, positioning the 80% target as a hallmark of a "woman of excellence" who focuses on high‑impact tasks rather than exhaustive detail.

Chapters

And I love patterns. I love math. I love jigsaw puzzles. And so I find it very interesting that some of the principles that we use as productivity experts actually truly occur in nature as well. And that's why I love this 80/20 principle, because it has a root in nature. So the 80/20 principle basically says this: 80% of the fruit comes from 20% of the labor. So you can get your house to 100% organized, but also you can get it to 80% organized and people will really not even notice if you didn't do that last 20%, because the majority of the benefit of what you and your family experience comes from the first big chunk of the work that is done. I think this is the heart of the difference between being a perfectionist and being a woman of excellence.