Brianne Garcia

Was led to this article from the StartupDigest newsletter, which I strongly recommend subscribing to, even if you’re not into or building startups. There are always a ton of gems in the reading list on productivity, design, UX, getting out of your comfort zone, and so on.

With that said, this was a great article on the notorious 80/20 rule. My new life goal, personal motto and – smileyface – email signature is “do less, but better.” It’s too easy to go in a million directions trying to succeed at everything. The most successful people streamline and focus on strengthening their skills and productivity in one or a few very specific areas. 

This article had “9 practical 80/20 tips”, and the one I focused on most stated

4. Focus on your strengths

Reason: 20% of your skills give 80% of the returns

The few skills that give you the most returns are your strengths. It’s important to identify them so that you don’t waste time working on things which give you only small return. To be effective, you should do only a few things, the things you are very good at.

And I think should be added, the things you WANT to be very good at. And,

When you have a limited amount of time, you can’t perform every task possible. The 80/20 Rule suggests you look through all the tasks you normally could perform, pick the top 20% that create the most results and focus on them. Whatever time you have left can be spent on the less productive 80%