“Hack away at the inessentials.” – Bruce Lee

I delete way more posts than I ever actually publish. That’s because any idea that I have immediately goes into a draft post with a few notes as soon as it pops into my head. I’ve gotten pretty good at going back through and figuring out which ideas are terrible and which ones I think I could actually use to add value to a reader’s life.

See, I’m a firm believer in Pareto’s Law that, essentially, says that 80% of the results come from about 20% of the effort. If you were to look at my blog stats, you’d see that about 80% of my views come from about 20% of my actual posts.

“Quality only counts when you care enough to do your best.” – Dad

Where this applies for me is that I work very hard to make sure that 100% of my posts are aligned with my goal for the site – to add value to any reader who comes across it. It doesn’t matter if only 20% of my posts ever get read at all. What matters is that any 4 out of 20 that are selected to be read consist of good content.

I find great fulfillment when I can finish a post (after several times of reviewing for content) and say that it is some of my best writing. The challenge is to make your current work be your best work. Whether it’s your fitness/diet, production, or your happiness, there is the 20% that contributes most of what you need/want and there’s the rest of it. Find that 20% for yourself, pay special attention to it, and keep knocking everything you do out of the park.