80 percent of users only touch 20 percent of their software features

Let’s talk about my job today. Yes, I code software for living, especially iPhone Applications (example one, example two) but I used to develop Web or desktop applications using different technologies. If you are not interested by programming don’t read any further and go on Youtube watch some funny videos.  I warned you this post is about techies. Otherwise keep reading. Even though you don’t care about coding I am pretty sure this principle could be applied to other area. Tell me.

Back to topic

One thing I observed and software designers all over the world would probably corroborate: Most users  use only a small bunch of features brought by software.

Think about it a couple of seconds. Even if you don’t have a computer-related job you probably use software like Word or a Web browser (at least to read my website). Do you use every capabilities offered? I don’t think so, especially for very comprehensive ones like Excel or Outlook for instance.

What’s the point?

If people use very few functionality, why do you waste your time creating minor features nobody but you will use?

Focus on the main feature of your application (at least first) and put all your effort into it. To figure out what is the main feature just answer the following question. What is the core purpose of my application? The answer is generally the short pitch you tell to introduce it. Example: a file-sharing application is made to share files, not to sort files depending their kind.

Be careful, I don’t mean additional features are not necessary, I just mean build first a small but perfect  application and then focus on secondary stuff. Would you use Firefox if it displays webpages incorrectly? Even though its add-ons system is great. No…

Pay attention to software and web application that are release nowadays. Most of them turn out as beta with very few features and developing team adds functionalities progressively with new revisions.

In this topic I recommend you the Getting Real ebook by 37signals. It’s focused on web-based application but worth reading. Excerpt:

Getting real is less. Less mass, less software, less features,  less paperwork, less of everything that’s not essential (and most of what you think is essential actually isn’t).

If you create programs (and even if you don’t) I would be curious to hear your point of view.

photo credit: mpalis

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Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion. Parkinson’s Law

Because having few time helps us to use it and organize it more efficiently.

You don’t believe me? Ok. Answer the following question honestly: During which phase of a project do you achieve most of work? If your answer is “on the early stage” you are an extraordinary person (or a shameless liar). My short experience shows me most of us are more productive in the last 20% of a project…because of the fear of the deadline.

I remember when I was a student I always waited for the last moment to seriously start a project with always the same excuse ,“I have plenty of time…”. Result: I spent some nights working like a slave to finished assignments. It’s not a very good way to manage time but I learned a lot.

Why set very hard to meet deadlines

Focus on the necessary: we tend to prioritize better when we know we have few time to complete a task. As a software engineer, I always start to work on the killer feature of my application and leave secondary ones for later. Running out of time forces ourselves to focus on the 20% that matters.

Give yourself 8 hours to achieve a task and it’s gonna take you 8 hours. Give yourself 4 hours and you will complete the same task in 4 hours. (Tips for manager: realize this experience with your team members: ask two of them to complete the same task, one with a one day deadline and the other with a half-day deadline. I bet results are gonna be somehow similar). In fact, we have a unfortunate tendency to fill the void.

How I set deadlines

This is how I set deadlines. It’s not universal rule. I just noticed it works well for me. I call it “the 50% rule” (Yes I love percentages and numbers).

I try to think objectively about how much time I need to achieve the task. I find an appropriate amount of time. I eventually set the deadline at 50% of this time. That’s it.

And you how do you manage deadlines?

photo credit: TLMELO

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80/20 principle can also be applied to a field where numbers are generally not applied…like relationships.

Yes, relationships area is all about emotions and feelings but I am going to show you 80/20 rule may help you in this domain also.

Review your social circle

As usual with the 80/20 principle we are going to make a rough analysis. Think about all your friends and social circle members and rapidly estimate time and feeling for each relationship. When do you feel good, happy? Who make you often get frustrated or angry?…

Of course you can take paper and pencil and write down every feeling about you friends and family. Personally as I told you in a previous post I am rather a “80/20 thinking” person and don’t waste too much time to make full analysis…especially when it’s all about emotions.

Once we will be done with the quick review some evidence will become clear.

Find out fulfilling and toxic relationships

I know relationship field is not easy to handle and everything is not black or white but thanks to that you will detect toxic relationship. I mean relationship where you invest time on but that does not make your feel good or happy. Get rid of them (or at least invest less time) and on the opposite spend more time with your most valuable friends.

Thank you Scott for the post.
photo credit: Meredith_Farmer

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Some time ago I realized something that changed my life : I cannot control everything.

I used to like to control every part of  my life. I mean I needed to control every situation, every given moment, even control people (bouhouh)… Basically I leave nothing to chance, I prepare for every meeting, every trip, every second. Or at least I tried.

Being willing to control your life is great….

I always thought I could control my own life, my destiny. I don’t believe in a superior authority that decide for me and make my life.

This is a very interesting point and the first step towards a happy living but an extreme behavior it’s not good neither. Some control is OK, too much is not.

…but stop to try to control everything.

Trying to control EVERYTHING is a huge waste of energy. There are elements you have few or no impact on. You cannot control the weather, you cannot control others thoughts and feelings, you cannot control others actions…

Rather than focusing on most things I cannot control I redirect my energy on the few I can control: I can control my thoughts and feelings, I can control my actions and choices…

When I am in a tough situation I asked myself the following question :

Is there something I can do to improve the situation?

• If the answer is YES I figure out what aspects I can control and work on them.
• If the answer is NO I stop worrying about that. As a result I don’t think anymore about issue I have no impact on, my mind is free to tackle real problems I can control.

I am not going to talk about percentage today. Maybe the part of “controllable items” represents 20% of my thoughts or actions (maybe more, maybe less). In fact I don’t know and I don’t care. What I know for sure is that in focusing on things I control I can have a huge and beneficial influence on my life (and on others’ I guess).

Next step would be “How to ignore difficult situations?”…This is going to be the topic of a next post.

photo credit: *MarS

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Holidays period is traditionally a time when you decide to make goals for the next year.Usually I don’t need a new year coming to set goals to myself but I had this thinking recently and I want to share it with you

This post is not about how to apply the 80/20 principle but about what this rule will help me to accomplish during next months. I will write about each of these goals later next year.

I’m in a very important period of my life: I have been graduated in 2007 and just terminate a job that leads me to Texas for 18 months. I’m on the point of making big decision for my future. Even thought any choice can be reverse next weeks are gonna be essential to decide what my life will look like.

Begin with the End In Mind. S. Covey

In order to help me visualize my path I decided to accomplish a bunch of great things by end 2009:

• Find a financial stability: As I told you above my job contract in the US has just ended. This goal is vague but I want to study any opportunities. This is also the most capital goal because it will allow me to get money to accomplish my others goals.
• Run a marathon: I’m a consistent runner (even though an ankle injury keeps me away from trails for a couple of months). Next step is to become more consistent, start an marathon training program and of course register for a marathon end 2009 or early 2010.
• Gain strength and muscles: I used to be a skinny guy (even very skinny). Now I am doing better (ie: 6′2/188cm and 177lbs/80kgs) but I would like to reach 200lb/90kg gained in muscles.
• Keep traveling: I took advantage of my job in the US to visit as many places as possible (Grand Canyon, Florida, Chicago, Vancouver, California…). I really enjoyed all my trips and now want to visit a lot of country all over the world. When I talk about visit I mean live over there for at least 2 or 3 months. I have nothing about 2 weeks trip but I truly believe you need to settle in a foreign country to understand its culture and its population. In the top of my list you will find Australia, Argentina…
• Keep learning: Because I think learning (and love) is the only thing that make you move forward….

These are my goals for the next 12 months? What are yours?
photo credit: 5348 Franco

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Having dreams is good. But knowing how to make them true is still better. Too often dreams are unrealistic projects into a corner of our brain. Transform your dreams into actionable items can help your to become what your really want.

Having dreams vs having goals

I don’t know if there is a big difference between goals and dreams but I’m inclined to believe that if you see your life as dreams you will never do anything to make them come true…because this is the definition of dream: something not very real.

On the other end imagining goals as reachable destinations may help you to make them fulfilled. It’s not a magical formula but it’s a good start: Being aware that your dreams can come true…

Step 1: Transform your dreams into goals

I make a big difference between goals and dreams: For me goals are measurable, dreams not…

Example:

• Being a professional poker professional is a dream. Earning 60000$ a year playing poker is a goal.
• Being a basket-ball coach is a dream. Coaching the high-school team of your town is a goal.
• Being a runner is a dream. Effectively running a marathon is a goal.

Got it?

Don’t forget to put a deadline. Becoming a poker player in 40 years is not interesting. Try to earn 5000$ by the end of the year playing poker is better.

The first step to live your dreams is to transform them into goals defining precisely what they are. Your goal must be measurable.

Step 2: Divide your goals into small tasks

I studied IT project management and one of the first thing you learn when you start a big project is to break it up into smaller subprojects. Then you take these subprojects and divide them into smaller tasks. Do it recursively until each task is well-defined and simple enough to be performed easily in a short amount of time.

Why do that:

• Because you have a better overview of your project and don’t feel overwhelmed. Smalls tasks seem more easy to complete than the whole project.
• Because you can organize and plan your work easily.
• Because you can measure progress and see how far to the objective you are.
• Because you get ahead once step at a time and don’t tackle several problems in the time.

Your goals are your life projects. You are your own project manager. Apply the same method to make them come true.

Example: You want to learn how to play guitar. This project divided into small steps could be:

• Google to find guitar teachers in your neighborhood.
• Call 2-3 potential guitar teachers.
• Choose one.
• Buy a guitar
• Take 2×2h class per week

Apply the 80/20 principle and eliminate every step that doesn’t make you immediately closer to your goal and keep only high-priority tasks. In the example above buy a guitar is not a priority because you can actually borrow a guitar to someone you know and wait. Like that you will gather information and advice from your teacher that help you to choose a good guitar.

Step 3: Take the first step NOW!

Once your life project is well-defined and broken up into small steps, focus on the first step and do it NOW. Don’t spend to much time looking for information online or into books. It leads to paralysis and you will never start. Tim Ferriss in his book The 4-Hour Workweek gives a great advice: Find someone who’s already done it, ask for advice and how to do the same. You will save a lot of time.

photo credit: Pensiero

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Keeping my life simple helps me to calm down my mind and focus on my goals. Some people like to be busy and overwhelmed, they think they exist. Unlike them I truly believe that simplifying my life allows me to see well and make better decision.

Here is how I avoid complexity and enjoy my life.

Why we usually love complexity

Complexity is challenging. So we are inclined to complicate everything in order to make our life exciting. However complexity doesn’t bring happiness, it fights boredom but instead of making us fulfilled complexity makes us overwhelmed.

In companies, managers love complexity because it gives us power and control about their job and coworkers. High salaries have to be justified. Nevertheless they will be more efficient and effective making processes and structure easier to understand.

Before to revolutionizing professional environment I’m gonna tackle personal issues.

Simplify my mind

Thinking about how my stress is related to the 80/20 principle I identified :

• 80% of my stress comes from 20% of my life
• 80% of my stress comes from 20% of my relationship
• 80% of my customers requests came from 20% of my customers.

I first think “How can I get rid of this 20% that pollute my life?” Some are easy to avoid but it’s hard to disconnect from every problem (dealing with your rebellious teenager son for instance). So I decided to focus on the few things I can control and try to follow some principles.

Zen my mind

Zen attitude is trendy nowadays but I don’t speak about meditation, yoga or relaxation. I just talk about stopping to occupy my mind with low importance stuff.

First step I try to keep everything out of my mind. I have a powerful memory but trying to remember everything tire me out (and sometimes I forget things). So I write down everything….todo tasks, ideas, piece of information. I eventually setup a trustworthy system that allows me to keep a trace of everything that cross my mind. It’s a rule advised by David Allen in his Getting This Done book, put everything in you inbox in order to free you mind.

However you need to trust your inbox system (if not it’s useless since you will still be worried about forgetting anything). My system is a mix between software Evernote and my phone when I’m away from my computer. (I should use more often the Jott.com’s voice-to-text services linked with Evernote). You should find the system that fit your way of life and needs. It could be a notebook you carry all the time or your iPhone.

Disconnect with what you don’t want

Don’t hate, ignore

Sometimes the easiest solution is to run away from the source of the problem. All your issues at work come from one coworker, try to no longer work with him. One of your “friends” brings drama, stop hanging out with him (even though I try to talk before to find a solution.) …

I cannot always stir clear of every problems but some of them don’t worth energy and time I could spend to solve them.

Accept and deal with

If there’s no solution, there’s no problem.

This is a quote from The Shadoks, a famous old cartoon in France. I don’t know if my interpretation is correct but this is what I think:

Problems exist because you try to solve them. If you stop trying to solve them it’s no longer problems. You can’t apply this every time but I used to look for solution when there were no issue. I learned how to accept and deal with some of my worries. I cannot control everything, I just focus on what I have the power to change.

Simplify my environment

Everything I talked about in previous paragraphs are also applicable with objects. I never liked to get tons of bibelots that pissed me off every time I need to sweep them up. I try to keep my closet simple and useful and don’t keep clothes or stuff I don’t use anymore (move out every six months helped me to get rid of my old stuff). I’m not a huge fan of gigantic house where you spend most of your time cleaning it.

I’m a kind of practical guy who enjoy simple environment. It makes my mind peaceful and give me more time to activity that matter. Less things to think about, less things to clean or repair, just the essential.

And you? How simple do you like your life?

photo credit: moogs

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This is Part 5 in a series on how to apply the 80/20 principle to save money. The full series is Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5.

This is the final post on the series. Today I am not gonna give advices or tips but just a selection of great blogs about finance. Because living the 80/20 is also not wasting your time reading 87 different sources, I’ve selected for you three useful finance blogs. Nothing underground just the three best blogs about money:

The simple Dollar: Trent, the author of this blog, started to blog when he wanted to get rid of a tough financial situation. He writes and shares useful articles about fighting debt and building a financially secure future. Now he had paid off all his debts, quit his job and became a writer. His posts are often full of good advices like his “Reader mailbag” where he answers questions ask by readers or finance books reviews.

Get Rich Slowly: Posts on Get Rich Slowly are longer and analysis deeper. Like Trent, J.D. was overwhelmed by debts and started to read about finance to solve his money problem. Then, he started to share what he learned. As he explains his blog is “about debt elimination, saving money, and practical investing”. Get Rich Slowly was recently named most inspiring money blog by Money magazine. Subscribe, you won’t regret it.

Free money finance: I’m gonna quote the blog author, Free money finance “is about one simple thing: growing your net worth”. This blogger, who wrote over 100 articles on finance and one book, writes short posts to help his reader to easily manage their finance. Most of the time he starts from quotes or articles he’s read and gives his own opinion about it. This is a different approach but very useful. Worth the reading…

Enjoy!

This is my selection of blog about money I read regularly. Do you know inspiring finance blogs I missed?

photo credit: kiki99

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Living the 80/20 way means be more efficient and effective perfoming tasks. One activity I used to waste a lot of time is email management.

These are the rules I encourage myself to follow in order to not be overwhelmed by emails.

Step 1 : Use Gmail

Gmail is THE service provided by Google you cannot ignored…after research of course. I don’t dislike the other webmails but Gmail features are so complete and make your email management much easier and faster.

I like Gmail for:

• The powerful search engine
• The possibility to fetch emails from external accounts
• Labels and filters
• Conversation threading system
• Hotkeys
• …

Step 2 : Group all my emails into the same inbox

I stopped checking several emails inboxes. It’s a waste of time. To do that Gmail provides a great feature: get email from external accounts. Go in the settings of your Gmail account then in the Account tab. In the Get mail from other accounts part click on Add another mail account. Enter email address, username and password. From now Gmail will check this external account periodically and it will display emails into your normal inbox. There is only one limitation: your external account needs to use POP3 protocol, Hotmail don’t for example…

Thanks to this feature I have centralized all my email in the same place.

Step 3 : Delete, delete and delete again.

The goal is now to keep in my inbox only the bare minimum.

I delete every emails I won’t need later. Example: As a Amazon customer I receive occasionally by email special offers. If I’m not interested by products advertised I delete the email, if I am I check Amazon Web site and delete the email once it’s done because I will probably not need it later.

Keep only emails that contain useful information.

Step 4 : Archive aggressively

I keep in my inbox only immediately vital emails, I archive the rest.

I keep visible emails I need to answer or that contain immediately useful information.

I archive emails that contains useful information I will probably need later. (Ex: A link I want to remember, an address, interesting conversation etc…). When I need it I use the powerful search engine to find it. Don’t forget research is the main job at Google.

Now I have in my inbox only actionable messages (pending answer…) or immediate added-value. My mind is no longer overwhelmed by tons of useless emails.

Step 5 : Subscribe only to indispensable alerts and newsletters.

This step is not about how to manage emails efficiently but about attacking the cause of the problem, reducing the quantity of useless emails I received.

I unsubscribed to almost every newsletters. To do it I follow the following rule:

I ask myself: “Does this newsletter worth the five minutes I spend to read it?” If I hesitate more than 3 seconds I unsubscribe.

I think about it also before subscribe to a new one. Most of the time I think about ten seconds and don’t subscribe eventually.

Moreover most of social network Web sites have alerts feature every time someone add me as a contact or tag me on pictures. I’ve deactivated all these notifications that bring no value. To do it yourself just go in your favorite social networks into settings panel.

Step 6 : Use labels and filters

Labels in Gmail work as tags. I use labels to organize emails and find them faster. I create label for projects or specific topics. The main advantage in comparison with Outlook-like folders system is I can apply several labels to the same message. Thus, I can tag an email “Project A” and “todo” for instance.

Filters are automatic actions achieved according to criteria. I use them to automatically apply a label when I receive emails from specific people or directly archive some emails without displaying it in the inbox.

Step 7 : Batch your email session

I used to be an emailaholic, checking my inbox every five minutes, waiting for important messages. This method is not very efficient.

A much better solution is to check new emails only twice a day. (11am and 5pm for example) and process all my message in one session.

When I process my emails I follow the two minutes rule from David Allen (author of Getting Things Done). Idea is simple : if I can answer within two minutes I do it immediately and archive the message. If I need thinking or research that can exceeded two minutes I keep it in my inbox and label it in order to find it more easily. Then I process next email and get back to the previous one later.

Step 8 : Answer briefly

I try to answer emails in five sentences maximum. That forces myself to be concise and only get to the heart of the matter.

I don’t like five pages emails and prefer when people get down to basic essentials. So I try to do the same writing only short and useful content. I said “try” .

What do so think about my email management method?

Source: Problogger, The 4-Hour Workweek, Getting Things Done and Problogger again

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This is Part 4 in a series on how to apply the 80/20 principle to save money. The full series is Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5.

Today topic is cooking. Because I truly believe that eating well is the first step to have a healthy life and body I really enjoy cooking and do my best to cook tasty recipes for my friends or family (or myself ).

The 80/20 principle is of course applicable to cooking and allows me to simplify my kitchen and save money.

Identify your cooking pattern.

Simply answer this question : What kind of food you mostly cook?

I personally cook French or Mediterranean recipes most of the time. That determines what kind of tools I usually need, what kind of cookbooks I have and what kind of food I need to buy. For example I never use a wok since I don’t cook Asian food.

Now I know this point I can smartly organize my kitchen and cooking system.

Kitchen tools and equipments

I use 20% of my kitchen tools 80% of the time.

What does it mean? It means I don’t really need this high-tech mixer I use only once a year or this set of 18 beautiful knives while I use only 2 or 3 most of the time.

Simplifying my kitchen makes me feel calm and zen. I don’t have dozens of closets full of shit and I don’t spend half an hour to find this roasting pans hidden behind my fancy set of 72 cooking pans.

I avoid as much as possible buying new kitchen tools. Most of the time I can adapt a recipe and use something I already have. In the past I bought some items just to cook one recipe. Now these items stay in my kitchen drawers and I don’t use them anymore. I try now to not make this mistake anymore.

You are gonna tell me : “What if I like to try new things, to be adventurous with my cooking?”

First I will answer you there is few recipes you won’t be able to cook with basic equipments. Then be flexible and modify the recipe to adapt it to your taste and cooking system. The ratatouille will have the same taste if you cook it in a basic saucepan and not in an oven dutch as the recipe told you.

Cookbooks

I use 20% of my cookbook 80% of the time.

To be honest I actually have only one cookbook. So the sentence above it’s not true. But I used to get more cookbooks.

I like my cookbook and don’t waste my time to browse a bunch of books when I’m looking for recipe or idea. It saves my time and my money of course. I’am sure you know at least one person who love to buy new cookbooks but never uses them. Ok they are a great decoration for a kitchen but I prefer keep my money and room for things that matter.

I learned how to select cookbooks I liked and get rid of the others. I learned especially to not buy cookbooks I don’t need just because there is ONE recipe I love inside or because the cover is amazing.

Now you are gonna tell me: “What if I’m looking for a special recipe that is not in my cookbooks”.

If you are reading this post it means you have access to a Internet connection. So use it to get new recipes. There is tons of very good cooking Web site. Just type “recipe” in Google…

Last point: Having a lot of cookbooks doesn’t make you a cook…:)

Batch cooking

It’s something I don’t do enough. Batch cooking is a good way to save money and time. Indeed it requires 20% of additional work but saves you 80% of your cooking time or money.

Cooking bigger quantities is not a pain since you have all the ingredient and have already setup everything. Baking two pans of lasagna is not longer than baking only one for instance. You can finally freeze the second pan and eat it later. Thus, next time you will just need to unfreeze and reheat lasagna. What a big amount of time saved!

Moreover you can buy food in bulk and save money. Check out at your groceries store to get discounts.

Add a comment if you have additional cooking advices. I’d like to learn more.

photo credit: Zesmerelda

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