Well, one day I had a sudden thought. Businesses have known for a long time that they can improve their position enormously by concentrating on the key 20 percent of activities. But why can’t people do the same? It turns out that we can. We can make our lives enormously better by doing less. The secret is not to do less of everything, but to do less of the great majority of things we do that don’t work very well for us. And to do more of the very few things that do deliver what we want.:”Learn to live the 80/20 Way(An excerpt from Richard Koch’s Website)”:http://www.the8020principle.com/Html/HotTopics.htm .

I came across this article/speech on Richard Koch’s website:”Richard Koch’s Website”:http://www.the8020principle.com/ and found it quite profound. The concept is this: every company, and every person generally does too much work. 80% of what they do, isn’t going for them, and 20% of what they do they do excellently. They should figure out what that 20% is, and then chuck the rest. Its better to focus on your strengths, than your weaknesses; put 80% of your time towards the 20% of your strengths.

I already knew this concept from Good to Great:”Good to Great(An excellent book about why some companies make the jump from mediocre to greatness)”:http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0066620996/002-4615927-4876059?v=glance but this article reinforced it for me. It’s also good, because it directly applies it to life. It works for everything people do. For everything I do, and everything you do.

Its not so easy to pick out what fits in our 20%, and what fits in our 80% all the time. For me, I just do too much, and for a short period of time, to tell what fits where right now. So, pay attention to what people comment on, and what you find most enjoyable, and your improving on the fastest.

I’ve only been taking pictures:”My Photography”:http://jeremycurry.com/photography/ for about 3 months, and I think I’ve picked it up pretty quickly. Mind you, I’m not quite at the professional quality, but if I put it in my 20% category, and focus on it, it will get better, and I will enjoy myself more. I earlier figured out that drawing was in my 80% pile, because for the effort I put into it, I was unsatisfied, and couldn’t seem to get over that hump of mediocre.

So, for the next little while, I’ll probably post on what I feel fits in which category, and what I’ll be giving up on, and working on more. Let me know what you think is in your 20%, and what’s in your 80%.