ASYMMETRY
Asymmetry can be observed in a whole lot of things: the 99% wealth concentrated in the hands of 1% of people or 99% value created by 1% people (depending upon your politics), the uber-successful companies from the portfolios of VCs or even personal portfolios, reproductive mechanisms across species, the matter to empty space ratio of atoms and even the universe, the percentage of your work that is going to make you money if you are an artist, more importantly, percentage of artists whose work makes any significant money(grim), so on and so forth.
Like it or not, Assymetry is an integral part of living. In fact, instead of resisting it, you can incorporate it creatively
to improve various aspects of your life. Nothing of note was ever achieved by living a 'balanced' life.
While an asymmetric approach towards life is something that will go against the grain of most people, if you are an obsessive kind of
person who is restless, wants to do many things with high standards, and are determined enough, this is just the thing for you.
Some instances of Asymmetry I have incorporated in my life:
Time Restricted Eating:
Restrict your meals to a small part of the day. Say a 6 hour slot from 4pm to 10pm.
You leave the decision to count calories on the clock instead of letting it depend on your cravings
and moods.
You invariably eat only because you are hungry, and it is impossible to eat as much in 6 hours as you can eat within the
whole day, especially in a culture built around easy, unhealthy food.
Diet:
You should be eating the same simple wholesome food with minor rearrangements for 95% of the time, while eating literally anything for the rest 5% of the time. (In an year, that computes to around 18-20 days)
Finding a Great Book:
You read hundreds of different books to find the one(or more) that is personally life transforming for you.
Often, the rest, directly or indirectly, pave the way to that book through references and end-notes.
Consistency on Average:
Aim for consistency on average. For instance, take reading. Say you want to read 7 hours a week. Rather than reading an hour everyday, do it in 2 sessions over the weekend, or even better, one session on, say, Friday night. You have higher chances of hitting a flow-state and having better comprehension and retention. (Imagine watching the complete movie for 3 hrs, or watching 26 min chunks for 7 days. What's better?)
Exercise:
While a daily set of light activities is a must for your well-being, you can concentrate your major work-outs by planning very intensive ones say or twice a week. You can walk(a lot), or do basic streches/body-weight exercises on the weekdays, and complex full body ones(Bench-Presses, Dead-Lifts, Free Weights, Sprints) say on Wednesday and Saturday, or just Saturday. You can follow a better diet and allow for more sleep than usual when you are relatively more free and relaxed than the weekdays, and you get much more time for recovery between workouts. This one's directly inspired from Nassim Taleb.
The TL;DR of the whole asymmetry thing is the maxim 'Never half-ass anything. Always full-ass everything'. Be it Meals, Exercise, Love, Work, Interests, or even Sleep. Looking back, your life ought to be an average of extremes, not an average of averages. The former always trends higher than the latter.