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Johannes Herrnegger 🚢

Personal Development & Human Behaviour

4y ago

Within Ship 30 for 30 I want to write about Personal Development, Human Behavior and App & Web Development

Self Development Junkies: Apply the 80/20 Rule for better Mental Health
@27leaves - Johannes Herrnegger

I guess at some point in your life you've crossed the Pareto principle (or how it's also called the 80/20 rule). It "states that for many outcomes, 80% of consequences come from 20% of causes". Originally it stems from a study of the economist Vilfredo Pareto who discovered that 80% of the land in Italy was owned by 20% of the population. From this, he and other people found this to be true in many other areas.

For example in software development I can roughly plan 20% of the time for 80% of a feature that I want to implement. If I need to implement the 20% of edge cases and details to be perfect it needs 80% of the time.

I found that this principle can be applied in your daily life and it might make sense to ask yourself if 80% is enough. Do you really need to apply all the self development methods that you've learned? Do yoga, meditate, do intermittent fasting, be a minimalist, live vegan, drink no coffee… the list does not end if you want to follow every little thing you've read or heard on the internet. Try to focus on one or two things at a time that have the most impact.

Not only is this absolutely sufficient, it will also ease your mind and will support your mental health. I found that everything should be followed with some moderation. Sometimes it's just time to be compassionate with yourself and see that less is more.