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Change Your Life as a Programmer With the 80/20 Rule
The principle that will change how you make decisions
What Is the 80/20 Rule?
“The Pareto principle (also known as the 80/20 rule, the law of the vital few, or the principle of factor sparsity) states that, for many events, roughly 80% of the effects come from 20% of the causes.” — Wikipedia
In a general sense, 80% means the majority, while 20% is the minority. So even though the exact percentages might not work for every rule, the same approach is applicable.
1. When Choosing When to Work
Most programmers I know make this big mistake: They work 9-5 office hours despite more flexible hours being offered. They assume that this is how they can be productive, even though many of them feel tired after 1 p.m. Here’s how the 80/20 rule can help: Understand that 80% of your work will be completed in 20% of your daily 24 hours. So your most productive hours might be from 5 a.m. to 9 a.m. By following the norm, you’ll never know how much more work you can get done in a few hours.
2. When Choosing Features
Most of your users will only use 20% of the features you give them. As such, you should put 80% of your efforts into these features and make them your main features!
3. When Sorting a To-Do List
As programmers, we all create to-do lists to finish our tasks. In most cases, 20% of your to-do list will take 80% of your time. So sorting your to-do list might help you finish more tasks faster or finish the biggest part first. Sorting your to-do list according to this rule will help you stay motivated longer and know how long your do-list will take to complete.
4. When Starting a Project
80% of the time spent on a coding project should be devoted to the first 20% of starting it. Brainstorming the idea, creating the coding structure, and planning will help the project move faster and more easily. So before trying to code everything, make sure to invest enough effort in the first 20% of your project.
