Setting goals is a fun way to motivate yourself and find clarity on what you want. A crucial piece of that process is defining the steps along the way and building an easy-to-follow path to success.
I wrote a post a while back on high-leverage activities (read it here). The essence of that post is based on Pareto’s Law (AKA the 80/20 Principle). This states that, in various facets of life, 80% of outputs are caused by 20% of inputs.
In this post, I will expand upon what I previously talked about and add more specific examples and explanations. Great books that influenced my thought are The 80/20 Principle written by Richard Koch and The 4-Hour Workweek by Tim Ferriss.
The Path to Success is Not Linear
80 percent of your results are caused by 20 percent of your actions.
It doesn’t have to be 80/20. It could be 90/10 or even 70/1. You are comparing the percent of outputs to the percent of inputs that cause them, so it doesn’t have to add to 100. The point is that actions and results are not linear. Half of your time/effort does not lead to half of your results. It is skewed since some activities are more or less impactful than others.
Life, and the things you do, are not linear. There are synergizing forces that make some things simply more effective/impactful than others. Sometimes you will do something new and work hard but have little to show for it. Other times, you will work on something for just a few minutes yet experience a breakthrough.
Adding, subtracting, emphasizing, and mitigating tasks are not going to produce proportional results. Use trial and error to see which produce greatly positive effects (or remove greatly negative effects) and, ideally, try to understand why this happens so you can replicate.
Harness the Power
To illustrate the power of this idea, consider the following in an 80/20 scenario. If you cut out the less productive 80% of actions and double down on the productive 20%, you will achieve 160% percent of your past productivity in only 40% of the time. Not too shabby. Even if there are diminishing returns, you still be much more productive in much less time. Take advantage of this.
First work smarter, then use your newfound free time to work harder on prosperous actions… or do something else altogether with your time. Once you create freedom, the choice and power are yours.
Pareto Strategizing
Given the nature of the law, it would stand that you can maximize your results in less time if you focus your efforts on the few activities that bring outsized results and steer clear of the ones that bring little return. If those you want to eliminate are mandatory, then seek to minimize the time you spend on them since they are not providing much of a return anyway.
On the flip side, some activities actually do harm. Once again, there will not be a linear relationship between causes and effects. You will find that most of the harm or struggle in many areas of your life is caused by just a couple of actions. In your efforts to improve, focus on eliminating/minimizing these.
Further background on the 80/20 Rule from Forbes can be found here.
Bang for Your Buck
In this section, I am going to share the activities in a few categories of my life that are most impactful. I highlight the positives that I want to leverage as well as the negatives I wish to eliminate. Keep in mind that these are specific to my life. I’m sure that a lot will be true and relevant for you as well, but think about the areas in the context of your life, too.
In your own analysis, you are going to have to consider what leads to good and bad results in YOUR life. Some areas may be quantifiable and others will require that you use insight, intuition, and even trial and error. Look at other successful people to see what greatly beneficial habits they utilize and how those could work for you, too.
Health
Positive
- Going to bed early: sleeping at a good hour and getting up naturally is perhaps the most impactful thing I do for my health and wellness
- Eating a variety of healthy foods: making sure to consume all kinds of nutrient-dense foods to give me vibrance
- Exercising: training or moving in some fashion, even if it’s just a walk or easy yoga on some days
For further clarification, let me go through the example in the context of my health. Here, I want to improve my wellbeing and work toward 100% of my wellness potential. (The numbers here are going to be somewhat arbitrary, but you could calculate them in a more quantifiable example.)
Consider all the things I do in my life that are health-creating and their effects. Of that, say that sleeping 8 hours, eating a variety of healthy foods each day, and exercising daily lead to a combined 82% of my healthfulness. You can see that by simply focusing on these three leverage areas, I fulfill a huge part of my potential here. The rest of the healthy habits I could possibly add to my life would add a combined 18%. Some of them are obviously worthwhile and should still be included, like drinking lots of water.
The main focus in terms of your health-promoting lifestyle should be the crucial, high-leverage ones that bring outsized results. By all means, do the various other activities you would like as they make you happy. But don’t spend a ton of time and energy focusing on a dozen tiny habits that are going to only bring 18% of results.
Prioritize the powerful. Add activities starting with the most beneficial and move down from there.
Okay… back to the list…
Negative
- Staying up late and not sleeping well: not good for physical or mental wellness and just makes me not feel good overall
- Eating too fast: perhaps a weird choice but I never feel good after eating food in a rush; if I do this, it’s probably also not the most nutritious food
- Being sedentary: makes it harder to sleep that night
*Note: Sometimes the negatives will just be the inverse of the positives. Other times they may be completely unrelated.
Read about my simple life design tips to easily maximize wellbeing and overall wellbeing guide here.
Happiness
Positive
- Gratitude: finding reasons to appreciate and enjoy all that’s going on… even the lackluster things; (read more on gratitude here)
- Presence: staying in the moment brings peace and the ability to fully enjoy what’s going on (a guide to presence here)
- Focusing on my highest self: anchoring to a vision of what it looks like to live my best life keeps me free from giving in to negative thoughts (more on this cool topic here)
Negative
- Exploring worries: spending time analyzing worries under the false impression that that will bring peace (it never does)
- Emotional reasoning: basing beliefs on fearful emotions rather than logic
Lifestyle
Positive
- Incorporating morning and nighttime routines: leads to clarity, focus, and peace
- Goal-setting: gives purpose to my actions and provides an incentive to work hard
- Developing meaningful connections/spending time with friends and family: develops a support network that improves all aspects of life
- Doing new or uncomfortable things: leads to adventure. fun, and personal growth
Negative
- Spending time on my phone: some of it is okay and even necessary, but scrolling through Twitter or whatever else for more than a few moments makes me feel worse than doing nothing
- Doing nothing or going about my day aimlessly: not in the sense of taking time to relax but rather doing things that provide no positive return
Professional
Positive
- Working in line with interests and passions: enables flow and enthusiasm that lead to enjoying tasks and producing better results
- Considering how I can add value to others’ lives: a surefire way for me to feel fulfilled and make my work higher quality
Negative
- Working for the sake of work: sometimes necessary but doing this for too long leads to resenting work and not producing my best
- Pursuing recognition: leads to doing things selfishly instead of with others in mind; putting others first will lead to being appreciated anyway
Keep in Mind
Some of the most beneficial or most detrimental tasks are things that you are currently doing. Others you are not. If you aren’t doing them and they’re tremendously beneficial, add them. If you aren’t doing them and they’re quite bad, continue to avoid them. For the things you are doing: keep doing the good and add new beneficial things if they are greatly advantageous. Keep mitigating the bad things you are doing.
End Goal
Optimizing is good, but it doesn’t have to be taken to an extreme. After all, 20% of your optimization efforts are going to lead to 80% of your results anyway. You don’t have to be perfect.
The goal should be to have a life filled with activities that bring you tremendous results and benefits. This absolutely does NOT mean that you should be doing a crazy amount of work in the name of productivity. Rather, if you follow the 80/20 Principle, you should be doing less work and getting more results. That then frees you up to do other things. But the other things could include enjoyable and relaxing entertainment or joy-bringing activities like spending time with family, watching your favorite show, or trying out a new restaurant.
The point is to stop spending so much time on the things that only bring a little bit of success, money, and happiness and to spend your time doing the few tasks in each area of your life that will produce the best results. Simplify your actions down to the most beneficial in each area of life, then add lower-leverage activities only if you find specific value in them.
Three-Point Summary
- The world is not linear. Don’t expect your efforts to produce proportional effects. Figure out which tasks bring outsized returns and which are futile.
- Prioritize the powerful. Make sure that your main to-dos are impactful. Add further tasks only if you choose to because you find them to be enjoyable.
- Build a life where everything you do brings you success. People who live the best lives, accomplish the most, find the most joy, and have the best relationships do so because they simplify each area of their life. Everything they do produces great effects and satisfaction. This leaves them with free time to do things that bring them more happiness.
Thank you so much for reading! Please share with others who may benefit! 🙂
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