Pareto, Pass-Fail & Good Enough
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.
