It is commonly known as Pareto principle. To me, it reflects the beauty of life—the imbalance—in every aspect. The rule gives a relative concrete number of how imbalance it is. The rule is straightforward and simple. However, to take advantage of the rule, one needs to embed it into the mind, into every day thinking.

If you do the exercise everyday, you will be healthier. Is that true? Not always. Instead this question might be a better choice: What are the 20% of exercise that contributes to 80% health improvement?

I knew this rule when I was in the university but did not truly understand it and how it could help me. Until recently, I read the book 80/20 Principle by Richard Koch, I got it. Well, It might be I am getting older. So I started to reflect on my life and practice it. I want to embed it into my unconscious mind.

Life Control and Decision

Most of the things are out of my control, the weather, the traffic, the time, other people feeling, other people judgements, … and a million more. There is a few things that I am in charge of. Well, it is not 20%, maybe just 0.2%. What are they? my body, my mind, my actions and reactions, my time. In each area, there are 20% of things that matter most, that contribute to the 80% of the outcome.

Find them and practice.

Health

Many only care about it when being sick, feeling tired. Looking suggestions from the internet, from books, there is an exhausting long list of things you should do. They are useless to me. Life is imbalance so to health. I still want to do things that might not be good for my body but I like it. That is life and I want to enjoy it.

However, thinking in 80/20 helps me to find the 20% activities that will contribute to 80% of my health improvement. The rest 80% will cause 20% damage. It is an acceptable imbalance.

Here are some I found recently and practice.

1. Reduce junk food
2. No sugar. There is sugar in cooked food. But I do not actively put sugar in my food, drink. I go with original
3. Exercise with MAF methodology. This one is the best thing I found this year. I have practiced it for 3 months. Wonderful! I like the result
4. Sleep. Increase the amount and quality of sleep. Eye opening from reading the book "Why We Sleep"-Matthew Walker. I suggest everyone should read it. I do not try to have 7-9 hours per night but try to more than 6h per night.

Time

The most scared resource in the universe, 24h a day is what you are given, same amount for everyone. I will refuse the activities that have 20% impact but consume 80% of my time. It is simply too expensive that I cannot afford. I like drinking beer. I used to have heavy drinking in the weekend. The joy was less than 20%, only benefit at the drinking time, but the cost was way too high, the hangover the next days.

This part is really hard. Practice makes perfect.

Software Design and Architecture

The rule is perfect for software design and architecture. Start with asking these questions

1. What are the 20% that contribute to the 80% success of a project?
2. What are the 20% that contribute to the 80% success of this module, feature?

There are millions of pieces, lines of code, … which ones are the 20%?

Focus on them and relax a bit on the rest. Everything is a trade-off, so spend time and energy on the right ones.

Team Management and Assignment

There are certain things that you MUST do. That is the 20%.
Find out that 20% and do it yourself, the rest is delegated to others.
20% of members contribute to the 80% of the team success.

And What Else

The list goes on. It is interesting to look at life in this angle.

Where is the 20%?