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

I’m a huge fan of the 80–20 rule, also known as the Pareto principle. It’s a concept that is intended to help both individuals and businesses focus their efforts on the things that matter most.

Common examples of the principle in action might be that 80% of a company’s profits often come from 20% the products they sell, or that 80% of the joy a person gets in life comes from 20% of their daily activities.

I’ve learned from productivity gurus like Tim Ferriss that it’s about being as efficient with your time as possible. Simply putting in an 8 hour day at work, when you can get 80% of the results done in less than 2 hours, doesn’t seem to make much sense.

I need to get better at constantly re-evaluating how I use my time in order to get the most out of it.

A strategy Tim says he’s found effective is looking back at his recent schedule every two weeks to see how he can apply the 80–20 rule to better utilize his time.

I’m going to commit to doing the same, and spending a few minutes every two weeks looking back at my schedule to see how I could have better utilized my time and hopefully cut out some of the least value-add activities.

Making a change a day is obviously a lot, so I think it’ll be helpful to review the most recent ones every 14 days or so and only choosing to keep the 20% of them that have driven 80% of the improvement in my life.

I’ll end off by including a short passage from a great book I just finished reading called Happier, which was written by a Harvard professor and based around the popular course he teaches on positive psychology.

“We are, generally, too busy, trying to squeeze more and more activities into less and less time. Consequently, we fail to savor, to enjoy, potential sources of the ultimate currency that may be all around us — whether it is our work, a class, a piece of music, the landscape, our soul mate, or even our children.

What can we do, then, to enjoy our lives more despite the fast- paced rat-race environment so many of us live in? he answer to this question contains both bad news and good news. he bad news is that, unfortunately, there are no magic bullets — or magic pills. We must simplify our lives; we must slow down. he good news is that simplifying our lives, doing less rather than more, does not have to come at the expense of success.”

A few months ago, I realized that I wasn’t satisfied with where I was in life and wanted to do something about it. The only problem was that the gap between where I was and where I wanted to be seemed daunting. That’s why I decided to start making micro-changes in my life on a regular basis*. On March 11, 2017, I decided to start making at least one change in my life each day.

*Note: if you improve yourself by 1% everyday for an entire year, you will grow by 38x (1³⁶⁵=37.8)

Here’s what the journey has looked like so far:

11-Mar-17: Starting taking cold showers (for the last 60 seconds)

12-Mar-17: Set goal of learning one new song per week on the guitar

13-Mar-17: Started listening to Audiobooks at 3–4x the speed

14-Mar-17: Started keeping my shoes organized

15-Mar-17: Decided to learn to juggle, practicing a few min daily

16-Mar-17: Began reading 3 book summaries (~10 min each) daily

17-Mar-17: Limit eating out to bare minimum, learn new recipe weekly

18-Mar-17: Limit alcohol to a bare minimum

19-Mar-17: No more snoozing alarm clocks, no more than 7 hrs sleep/night

20-Mar-17: Build tracker for bills as a reminder

21-Mar-17: Limit TV usage to 2 hours per day

22-Mar-17: Saying people’s names when I say hello, brushing teeth with weak hand, do one charitable thing a day, stretch for 10 minutes a day, spend 15 minutes a day on personal improvement

23-Mar-17: Picking up one piece of litter a day

24-Mar-17: Drink 3L of water a day

25-Mar-17: Start keeping track of calories with myfitnesspal

26-Mar-17: Try a day without the internet next weekend

27-Mar-17: Start attending weekly Toastmasters sessions to become a better public speaker, start meditating 5 minutes daily, take one online course at all times, learn to play the game “Go”

28-Mar-17: Sketch one thing at least once a month for the rest of 2017

29-Mar-17: Find a mentor by the end of April (to chat with on a regular basis)

30-Mar-17: Make it to work on time everyday, and start posting on Medium in the mornings

31-Mar-17: Start volunteering at least once a month (look into options and find a place by April 7th)

1-Apr-17: Start quizzing myself in Chinese for 10 min daily using a flashcard app; start shampooing hair every other day (as opposed to every day)

2-Apr-17: Explore downtown Toronto by riding bike each weekend in spring, summer, and fall of 2017; Bike the 24km to my parent’s place uptown and back at least once this summer

3-Apr-17: Start donating blood, register as an organ donor, use less energy heating and cooling home, start buying some fair-trade products, start using reusable bags when grocery shopping

4-Apr-17: Eat an orange in the shower each morning, keep kitchen clean, jot down 10 ideas every day

5-Apr-17: Read fiction for 5–10 minutes a day

6-Apr-17: Ignore eNewsletters until the end of the day, and write down lesson learned from each book I read

7-Apr-17: Strike up a 1+ minute conversation with a stranger each day, read over Medium posts for grammar

8-Apr-17: Include a header image on all Medium posts

9-Apr-17: Drink a class of kefir each morning

10-Apr-17: Run at least one mile every single day

11-Apr-17: Plank once a day for as long as possible

12-Apr-17: Substitute baby carrots for regular carrots for morning smoothies

13-Apr-17: Buy a foam roller and start using for 5 minutes daily

14-Apr-17: Take the stairs (as opposed to escalator) wherever possible

15-Apr-17: Climb the stairs in my apartment building from ground to 50+ once a week

16-Apr-17: Play Spikeball with friends on at least 10 occasions this summer

17-Apr-17: Take one picture every day

18-Apr-17: Hold the door open for others for one straight minute each day

19-Apr-17: Wearing earplugs from now on at loud events

20-Apr-17: Add a “quote of the week” to the whiteboard in my room for inspiration

21-Apr-17: No longer dispose of cardboard in the recycling chute (which we are not supposed to do)

22-Apr-17: Recording and posting a one-minute video each day

23-Apr-17: Using an RSS reader for news consumption

24-Apr-17: Set a timer for 5 minutes before bed and spend the time jotting down all the things I want to accomplish the following day

25-Apr-17: Stop cracking knuckles

26-Apr-17: Stay disconnected for the first hour after getting up each morning

27-Apr-17 to 9-May-17: Quit my job to start non-profit, drink green tea at least once a day, write down one mistake I made each day that I can learn from, do at least one run and one bike for the cure each year, call grandparents at least 3 times a week, get a compost bin and start using it, start standing while playing the guitar, start cutting my own hair, spend 25 minutes a day on self-improvement, become a vegetarian within 100 days, made rule to never accept more than $75k annually in personal income, spend 5 minutes a day learning to type properly, learn to drive stick

10-May-17: Spend a few minutes each day reviewing this growing list of changes

11-May-17: Take daily mood quiz on moodscope.com

12-May-17: Writing down 3 things a day that I am grateful for

13-May-17: Draw something every day

14-May-17: Add a slice of lemon to a glass of water daily

15-May-17: Creating a Vision Board and reviewing it monthly

16-May-17: Stop using Instagram

17-May-17: Smiling & saying hi to strangers in the elevator

18-May-17: Putting my phone and wallet/keys in opposite pockets

19-May-17: Reach out to one new person a day for advice on my startup

20-May-17: Using the pomodoro technique to manage time

21-May-17: Start 30-day wall sit challenge, and then continue to do one 5-minute wall sit a day

22-May-17: Learn one new word a day

23-May-17: Brainstorm and write down 10 uses for a random object each day

24-May-17: Write at least 100 words daily on any topic

25-May-17: Use the Rule of 3 to identify the three most important things I want to focus on accomplishing each day at work

26-May-17: Using the ‘5 Why’ technique to get to the root cause of problems

27-May-17: Switching my iPhone wallpaper during work hours as a reminder to leave my work at work

28-May-17: Try again with online iOS development course and commit to 15 minutes of learning per day

29-May-17: Only checking and responding to emails once each morning

30-May-17: Only visiting Medium once a day

31-May-17: Always climb the stairs two steps at a time

1-June-17: Watching one new TED talk a week

2-June-17: Asking each person I chat with about my startup if they’d be willing to connect me with someone from their network

3-June-17: Use the iPhone app “Daily Dozen” to track my eating habits daily

4-June-17: Spend 5 minutes each night reflecting on my day

5-June-17: Listening to NPR’s “How I Built This” weekly podcast

6-June-17: Going for a short walk each day without my phone

7-June-17: Using the 80–20 principle to evaluate my schedule/use of time every two weeks