Using the 80/20 principle to simplify my life 😌

“Doing less is not being lazy. Don’t give in to a culture that values personal sacrifice over personal productivity.” — Tim Ferriss, master of productivity

After hearing frequent references to the book “The 4-Hour Workweek,” I finally decided to put my assumptions aside and pick up a copy. To say I was skeptical is an understatement.

The title of the book sounded just as cheesy and unstable as a pyramid scheme, and I feared for what our “get rich quick” culture was buying into now. I wanted to be wrong about the book – and so far I can say that I was. While my reading has only progressed to page 139, I have already stumbled upon a few intriguing thoughts of author Timothy Ferris. The most shocking realization is that he and I share a similar personality type and view on effectiveness in both work and play.

I could spend weeks’ worth of blog posts regurgitating what I’ve read so far because it’s what I would tell (and have told) those who contact me for entrepreneurial advice. But instead, I want to share just one principle from the book which I’ve found to be the most thought-provoking for my own life – The 80/20 Principle.

WHAT IS THE 80-20 RULE?

The 80-20 rule is the principle that 20% of what you do results in 80% of your outcomes. Put another way, 80% of your outcomes result from just 20% of your inputs. Also known as the Pareto principle, the 80-20 rule is a timeless maxim that’s all about focus. Because so much of your output is determined by a relatively small amount of what you do each day, focusing on the most productive tasks will result in greater output.

“The Pareto principle (also known as the 80/20 rule, the law of the vital few, or the principle of factor sparsity) states that, for many events, roughly 80% of the effects come from 20% of the causes.” — Wikipedia

In a general sense, 80% means the majority, while 20% is the minority. So even though the exact percentages might not work for every rule, the same approach is applicable.

Debugging can take hours of your coding time. So many developers say that 80% of their bugs are in 20% of the code. So it is smart to invest more time in debugging a patch of code when you discover a bug because there might be more bugs in the same code snippet.

If you are a developer, you might get hundreds of ideas for a new application. So knowing that 20% of your ideas are worth doing and will work might help you choose which idea is best to implement. Don’t go for any idea out there.

You only need to learn 20% of something to start using it. So let’s say you want to learn Java. Choosing the right 20% to learn from it will help you get it faster (i.e. learning about the Object-Oriented principle, syntax, etc.). Once you are done with these principles, you may start coding with confidence — even though you don’t know 80% of Java yet!

80% of the time spent on a coding project should be devoted to the first 20% of starting it. Brainstorming the idea, creating the coding structure, and planning will help the project move faster and more easily. So before trying to code everything, make sure to invest enough effort in the first 20% of your project.

As programmers, we all create to-do lists to finish our tasks. In most cases, 20% of your to-do list will take 80% of your time. So sorting your to-do list might help you finish more tasks faster or finish the biggest part first. Sorting your to-do list according to this rule will help you stay motivated longer and know how long your do-list will take to complete.

You can’t use the 80-20 rule to your advantage unless you know what it is you want to focus on. How do you cut out all the background noise and zero in on that 20% that’s going to make an extraordinary difference in your life? Follow this equation: Purpose + Priority = Productivity.

START WITH YOUR PURPOSE

Your purpose is the foundation of everything in your life or in your business. Every time you make a decision or a change, ask yourself, “Does this serve my purpose?” If you don’t know your purpose, you can’t create goals or take action. It’s that important.

Your purpose could be something like having more time with your family, the freedom to live life on your terms, or the money to travel the world. In business, your purpose is your company vision. It’s the reason you started the business in the first place. It’s the difference you wanted to make in the world. When you apply the 80-20 rule the right way, you start off thinking big – but not for long.

CREATE ACTION ITEMS

You’re not done yet. Priorities are nice, but they’re not enough to get you over the finish line. You need to create SMART goals: steps you can take that are Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and anchored within a Time Frame. Then you need to hold yourself accountable to them. These specific action items are the real 20% of the 80-20 rule – the things you’ll spend 20% of your time doing that will yield the best results.

One example of this is the “Dream 100,” a concept from marketer, consultant and sales powerhouse, Chet Holmes. Create a list of the top 100 people you want to work with or gain as clients, and rank them by level of importance. Then start targeting them – and don’t stop. Put all of your focus on those 100 people. It will be worth it when you start bringing them in.

Conclusion

There is always more. Let me know if you have any other applications of the 80/20 rule.