More happiness and achievement with the 80/20 principle

The 80/20 principle is all about finding the few key actions that bring the greatest results.

Here's an exercise we can do to figure out the key actions to increase happiness and sense of achievement. This is taken from the book The 80/20 principle by Richard Koch.

The exercise is simple - create a list of your happiness and achievement islands.

Achievement islands are "the short periods when you have achieved a much higher ratio of value to time than during the rest of your week, month, year, or life."

And Happiness islands are "the small amounts of time, or the few years, that have contributed a quite disproportionate amount of your happiness."

Then we also list achievement and happiness deserts. The periods in our lives with the least achievement and happiness.

Two separate lists. One for achievements and one for happiness.

By thinking back on our lives we can list the highs and lows in each category. When we have the list, we can try to distill what's common between the things that made us feel a sense of achievement and happiness. And we can find what's common between the things that made us feel like we're not achieving things that matter to us, or that make us unhappy.

Then in the spirit of the 80/20 principle, we can find where to focus our attention for maximum results. We can do more of the types of things that made us happiest and gave us a sense of achievement. And we can work on eliminating the things that drag us down.

When I did this exercise I found these commonalities for my achievement islands and deserts.

The periods with the largest sense of achievement had these traits in common; they were hard, they required a lot of focus on one thing, they were something new, often self directed and creative. Basically a big, challenging project that required a lot of effort.

The periods with the least sense of achievement were the opposite in many ways. They were times when I was doing things that I "had" to do. Times when I was not working on my own projects.

Or they were times filled with fun activities I chose myself. Like playing games or doing other leisure activities. It's kind of obvious that leisure activities don't lead to achievement. But the interesting thing is, they don't lead to happiness either. At least not for me.

When looking at my happiness islands, there is a lot of overlap with the times with the most achievement. The struggle of doing hard things and the excitement of doing new things is often when I felt the most profound sense of happiness.

The other key ingredient for me was doing things with my partner. Having a person to share this time with brings me immense happiness. Many of the items in my happiness island involved my partner, friends and family. There's something about sharing experiences with others that seems to increase the enjoyment.

The times full of fun-in-the-moment activities that provided a short burst of fun and joy were the periods with the least amount of deeper happiness. These things are enjoyable and valuable. But in moderation. If they expand too much, they become a negative force.

I recommend giving the exercise a try and seeing what you discover. Grab a piece of paper and list your happiness and achievement islands. Find what they have in common. Then try to do more of those things.