They’re at it again. The fitness influencers can’t help themselves, posting exhausting levels of optimization advice designed to keep us tuned in for the next life-saving tip. It’s not good enough that we’re all buying supplements with questionable efficacy. We need to go 110% on all the protocols, including red-light therapy, the newest thing since the demotion of the ice bath.
What extraordinary human being is doing all of these things while fully funding a 401(k) and successfully navigating the politics of the workplace? Throw a few kids into the mix and the 24-hour day begins to look like an ontological practical joke.
Despite digital appearances, nobody is “on” all of the time. It’s actually bad for your health, both physical and mental. Heck, it’s bad for your phone battery too. Guidance on lithium-ion batteries is to avoid sitting at a full charge all day; keeping a device between about 20% and 80% tends to extend its useful life. Interesting.
Where else have we seen this heuristic?
80% of profits come from 20% of customers
80% of returns often come from 20% of a diversified portfolio
80% of household wealth is typically accumulated in a relatively small slice of a working life (arguably 20%)
80% of income can be spent if 20% is saved first
80% of your productivity comes from 20% of your actions
Ooooh, that last one catches my attention. Now I need to think about this…
Yes, it checks out. Of the 24 hours in a day, I can confirm that roughly 4.8 of them are super productive (including weekends). The rest suffer from drifting thoughts, casual conversation, monotony and forgettable consumption.
This is not to suggest that those 80% hours are useless. Many of them are spent in service to our most productive hours. Colloquially, we call them downtime. It’s just humbling to admit how much of it we indulge in. This must be why our cats think of us as other cats.
Keep in mind that heuristics such as these are general rules, not precise descriptions of reality. There are exceptions. I would caution you not to automatically include yourself as one. Honest self-critique through introspection is almost as rare as a balanced life that satisfies every measure of modern success.
So, check your ego and assess your average week. That assessment is your baseline. From there you can map a workable plan to optimize your ancient wiring for a life it was not designed for. The curse of modern abundance is that we must choose to forfeit good things we cannot properly commit to. Spoilage is the result of a neglected hoard.
The 100%-always-on mantra is born from a culture obsessed with control. If we can just optimize every second, every process, every dollar, maybe we can turn the tides of time. Maybe the cheeseburgers we eat will taste as good as the ones Jeff Bezos eats.
It’s a ridiculous sub-optimization of priorities. Sure, there are specimens that can pump out productivity like words out of an AI chatbot, but they are called extraordinary for a reason. If the entire population consisted of these people, we would have died out long ago trying to build even bigger bonfires.
Bigger is not always better, and sometimes it’s a bad fit. Just ask anyone who bought a Cybertruck before measuring the garage. Life is too good to fill it with the anxiety of obsession. Focus produces better quality results than FOMO.
The application for this when it comes to investing is relatively straight forward. 20% of your portfolio, time and savings will produce the bulk of the results. It can also work against you in that a relatively small number of mistakes you make will have an outsized impact on your life. This underlies the foundational wisdom of diversification.
Target a savings rate of 20% of your income. Minimize errors by picking a sensible allocation and sticking with it.
When it comes to productivity, give 100% of what you have to give twenty percent of the time. That is the goal, and that is what it takes to succeed. Once we are honest about the required effort, the task becomes much more manageable to wrap our motivations around. It is a life approximating proper balance, an 80/20 balance.
Candidly, this is all I’ve done to get where I am. It has not been on purpose. I’ve wasted my fair share of stress and worry over the things I “should” be doing instead. I may not be as wealthy as Bezos, not even close, but my cheeseburgers taste the same as his.
Give the 20% your full attention. Leave the rest of the battery uncharged. That is enough.
Investment advice offered through National Wealth Management Group, LLC.
The information presented is for educational and informational purposes only and is not intended as a recommendation or specific advice. Personal stories and market observations are illustrative only and do not guarantee future results.
Past performance is not indicative of future performance. All investing involves risk, including the possible loss of principal. Consult a qualified professional regarding your individual circumstances before making any financial decisions.