Leave A Little Gas in The Tank – The 80% Energy Rule

Leave A Little Gas in The Tank – The 80% Energy Rule

Remarkable where one sometimes finds the most interesting opinions and ideas about career success ……….  Take Justin Jackson, a product manager in the IT industry.  He went looking for inspiration and found it on the Japanese island of Okinawa.

Jackson was going through a professional crisis at the time.  He was managing a start-up business, was a family man with four children, did volunteering and was involved in a variety of side projects when he was not at work, and he was studying for another degree and loved the “busyness” of his life.  (Does this sound familiar?).  No surprise – he “cracked” and fell into a depression – he had no reserves left to deal with anything new. He started looking for ways to do things differently.

On Okinawa, he discovered that people, generally, maintained a high standard of health, and this was especially evident in the high number of very elderly –a high percentage of residents seemingly easily reach their 100^th birthday. Wow!  Their health and longevity had to do with a specific practice, which translated, means “eat until you are 80% full”.  Jackson decided to apply this principle to his schedule.

For most people, 80% of anything is just not acceptable.  It has to be 100%, NO! –  a 110% – with all cylinders firing maximally at all times.  And this should apply to all areas of your life: career, finances, relationships, health, etc. But here we are being told 80% will do; in fact, 80% is recommended! How does this work?

Firstly, Jackson became aware of the amount of energy he was spending at the office, and deliberately paced himself so that he was only spending 80% of his mental energy throughout the day.  Immediately, the question comes up: How do you know when you have reached 80% of your mental energy?  Jackson describes it as follows:

“It’s a state of being mindful.  I try not to over stimulate my brain: I pick 2 – 3 big things to accomplish a day.  After that, I focus on little things that don’t require as much energy.”

In other words, don’t fill you schedule to the brim, but only 80%?  It makes sense, because it does give you time then to manage the crisis and unplanned things that often land in your lap, and to smell the roses inbetween.

It’s about planning and prioritizing MINDFULLY, is it not?

According to Jackson, the benefits have been huge: he has more mental capacity to deal with crisis and is at a much lower risk for burnout, and he is much more focused and creative when he works.

This notion of “leaving a little gas in the tank” at the end of the day sounds like good advice to me;  Where does it say you have to fall into bed like a dried out rag in the early morning hours every single night to prove your value? What do you think?

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