The cool thing is the rule or principle of 80/20 can be applied to ALL areas of life. I have been researching and thinking about this a lot recently for how I can apply it to my own life. Some areas I'm focusing on are: social/friends, house chores, self-care, hobbies/interests.
Some of these areas were easier than others. And it was surprising which ones were easier for me. Somehow social activities and friends was easier for me than self-care. The basic idea is to focus your efforts and time and energy on the 20% that gives you the most or the 80% payoff.
Let's take household chores. The first thing I did was write all the usual chores down on a piece of paper. I am pretty OCD when it comes to cleaning my house. I wish it was clean 100% of the time. With young kids at home, this is very unrealistic. I still have to tell myself almost weekly (ok, daily) that it's okay if rooms are messy sometimes. This is real life. It's messy.
Once I had my list, I reviewed it to decide which chores, when accomplished, make the house feel "clean" and make me feel like I was keeping the house in order.
My 20% of household chores is as follows:
Kitchen
Trash/recycling
Living room
Foyer
Vacuuming floors downstairs
Out of 16 listed chores, only 5 made the cut. This small list gives me the most satisfaction and helps me to feel like I'm keeping the house in order. If the kitchen, living room, and foyer are picked up, the trash or recycling isn't overflowing, and the floors have been vacuumed recently, the house feels "clean".
This process has been been interesting and enlightening for me. If I can use this principle with chores, I believe it can be expanded to any area of life. But like I noted before, some areas are more difficult than others to 80/20. Which areas of your life would you use this rule on?
Let's take household chores. The first thing I did was write all the usual chores down on a piece of paper. I am pretty OCD when it comes to cleaning my house. I wish it was clean 100% of the time. With young kids at home, this is very unrealistic. I still have to tell myself almost weekly (ok, daily) that it's okay if rooms are messy sometimes. This is real life. It's messy.
Once I had my list, I reviewed it to decide which chores, when accomplished, make the house feel "clean" and make me feel like I was keeping the house in order.
My 20% of household chores is as follows:
Kitchen
Trash/recycling
Living room
Foyer
Vacuuming floors downstairs
Out of 16 listed chores, only 5 made the cut. This small list gives me the most satisfaction and helps me to feel like I'm keeping the house in order. If the kitchen, living room, and foyer are picked up, the trash or recycling isn't overflowing, and the floors have been vacuumed recently, the house feels "clean".
This process has been been interesting and enlightening for me. If I can use this principle with chores, I believe it can be expanded to any area of life. But like I noted before, some areas are more difficult than others to 80/20. Which areas of your life would you use this rule on?
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