A couple of weeks ago (where does the time GO?!), I promised to share some audio from my rehearsal for my Guthrie gig with you.

As I hope you know, dear reader, I take the promises I make to you in this blog seriously. Probably more seriously than you require. *smile*

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(Before I digress, here is your audio.)

Okay, back to our regularly scheduled blog post …

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Since I was already posting on Monday (rather than Sunday night), I decided to “bang out” an audio post from my rehearsal recordings before moving onto my other web tasks for today — backing up my blog and web site files, updating my blog software, designing my student newsletter (more info on that soon), and updating my facebook fan page. A short and sweet update and then onto the rest of my day.

Hah!

I spent nearly three hours editing a 4-1/2-minute segment of audio! Not to mention the time writing about it and sending the email.

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Please understand, I absolutely think you are worth every minute of the time it took to write and edit this post, including the time I spent editing the audio.

But the experience of writing this post and editing the audio got me thinking about the 80-20 rule (also known as the Pareto Principle) and how I’d failed to follow it.

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In my case, I’m using the variation of Pareto’s principle that states that 80% of the value of this audio clip for you, came from 20% of the time I spent on it.

Maybe 10% of the time spent was recording the rehearsals in the first place and archiving them on my computer. Another couple percent to convert the files into a format small enough for you to stream on the web.

The bulk of the time I spent came from my decision to edit the audio for you. Presto-change-o, a 20-minute project became a three-hour project just like that.

(While I like to think I added value for you, I’m not sure it three hours’ worth. *smile*)

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So I have decided to use the 80-20 rule as a “good enough” rule. (My apologies to Signore Pareto.)

In other words …

Once you do 20% of the work, it’s a good idea to stop and evaluate how much of the remaining 80% of work you should do to make whatever you’re doing good enough.

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Not excellent. Not perfect. Not superior to all blog posts with audio clips that have ever been or ever will be written.

Just finished, complete.

You know, good enough.

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When you are in school, your level of effort and the quality of the finished product matter. (Okay, it mattered to me. *grin*)

There is A work and there is C work.

(And F’s for no work or really bad work.)

Guess what?

In the “real” world, most of the work is pass/fail.

You get credit for doing it. You get labeled lame for not.

80% of the time (*smile*), good enough gets the job done.

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How about you? Are you spending 80 to get 20?

Striving for an A+ when the assigment is pass/fail?

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P.S. I’m headed out of town for the holiday weekend so I’ll post again June 3.

“Besides the noble art of getting things done, there is the noble art of leaving things undone. The wisdom of life consists in the elimination of non-essentials.”
– Lyn Yutang

My singer friend M and I were talking the other day about singing for a living and realized “it’s like the to-do list never ends.”

I have worked many (and varied) jobs in the past, but this sensation of the never-ending to-do list seems particular to my self-employed life. I don’t remember feeling like I would never finish my to-dos in my past occupations.

Besides, when you work for somebody else, they assign the priorities. You don’t have to decide what’s important on a global scale. You are a cog in the machine. (Yes, sometimes I miss being a cog. *rueful smile*) 

Mostly, when you work for someone else, you are not in charge of everything. Even when I had a to-do list that was pages long, I always felt I could tackle — and eventually — finish it. (And finishing is important to me. *grin*)

When the list was really long, I could give myself permission not to add to the list. No, that’s not quite it — I could prioritize what else should be added to the list and usually add very little. And, I could be objective about the time it might take me to finish a list. Even if I spent a month or more on a project, I still felt like I was making progress.

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Being in charge of everything is harder.

How much time should I spend looking for gigs? On teaching? On writing? Looking for money?

What about scheduling, software updates, paying bills, marketing, networking, (and writing blog posts *smile*) … ?

Sometimes I get overwhelmed just thinking about it.

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In fact, that’s where I am right now.

Usually, I can revel in the freedom and flexibility of my self-employed life. The amazing people I have met, the beautiful places I have sung and the profound things I have learned about the music and myself in the last three years.

Every once in a while, I get stuck and indecisive and pine for the days when I walked into my cubicle, sat at my desk and crossed off every item on my list for the day.

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So what can I do when I find myself wilting under the weight of the overwhelm?

Well, it almost always “the cooldown.” It means I am overtired.

It means I have forgotten (yes, again!) that do-it-yourself work takes more energy than follow-the-leader work.

It usually means I have just finished something big (or a lot of something smalls *grin*) and have to start again.

(And while I’m trying to rewrite my story about starting, it’s still a bit bumpy for me.)

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It means making new to-do lists that include sleeping in, getting outside, watching TV and lots of time to do nothing.

(Hey, it’s my list, right?)