80-20
You want to be efficient at the tasks that actually move the needle. To find those tasks, use the 80/20 Rule. To actually finish them, use Parkinson’s Law.
Wasted Time
One of the first things I learned to do when becoming a software engineer was to customize my code editor. Themes, fonts, colors, plugins, shortcuts, and on and on. I even had a pretty complex Vim setup and have been known to casually flirt with Emacs. No clue how many hours I’ve spent on that.
Here’s the thing — I told myself it was productive. It wasn’t. It was busy work dressed up as improvement. What I’ve realized is that being efficient doesn’t mean much if you’re efficient at the wrong things. You need to be effective, and effectiveness means choosing the right things to focus on.
The 80/20 Rule
The Pareto Principle states that roughly 80% of your results come from 20% of your effort. Most people know this. Very few use it.
The move is simple: look at what you’re spending time on and ask does this contribute to 80% of my desired outcomes? If not, cut it or deprioritize it. The goal isn’t to do more — it’s to do less of the wrong things.
This applies to work, side projects, and yes, relationships too.
Parkinson’s Law
Work expands to fill the time you give it. Give yourself two weeks for a task that should take two days, and it’ll somehow take two weeks.
You already know this is true. You wrote that all-nighter term paper in one sitting. You packed for a trip in 20 minutes when the cab was outside. Urgency cuts through noise. A tight deadline forces you to decide what’s actually necessary and just do that.
The Combo
Here’s where it gets useful. Put these two together:
- Find your 20% — the few tasks that drive most of your results
- Set tight deadlines on them — short enough that you have to cut the fluff
The catch: you have to actually hold yourself to the deadlines. This falls apart the moment you start negotiating with yourself. The whole point is to let the deadline do the thinking for you.
Stop Optimizing the Wrong Things
Will I ever stop hunting for the perfect theme or adding one more clever shortcut? Probably not. But at least now I notice when I’m doing it and call it what it is — a distraction dressed up as productivity.