Today is Day 2 of the Ultimate Blog Challenge – I am committing to blogging every day for the month of July. (If you aren’t familiar with the challenge – I invite you to check it out!)    This means – you will be getting LOTS of content from me this month!

Now, if you’ve been following my blog for awhile – you know that I’ve been posting about 3 – 4 times a month . . . so to jump to every day is a pretty big step.  How in the world do I plan to do it?  (Great question!)

Well – planning is the first step!  Each night, as I set my priorities for the next day, I am committed to prioritizing writing my blog posts first.  So, if I have a number of appointments through out the day, I will either wake earlier to write – or I’ll write my post the night before.  We’ve all heard the saying, “What we think about, we bring about.”  I’m focusing and thinking about posting on my blog each day.  (If you are working on achieving a BIG, HUGE goal, I urge you to prioritize time first thing each day to work towards achieving this goal!)

Other than planning, I’m also going to implement my version of the Pareto Rule.  See, one of the areas I’m focusing on in my life is self-care.  So, if my plan is to prioritize writing my blog posts, and on “busy days” my back-up plan is to get up earlier to write or stay up later to write, this could be in direct conflict with my goal of taking care of myself.  But, I’m also going to implement the Pareto Rule (also known as the 80/20 Rule).  To paraphrase, the 80/20 Rule states that 20% of your effort will deliver 80% of your results.  Conversely, 80% of your effort will only produce 20% of your results.  This means that when I’m pressed on time, I’m only going to write short, insightful blog posts instead of long, insightful blog posts.  The short posts will have ONE picture, straight-up formatting (no fancy text or tables!!), and minimal links.  Thus, shortening the time needed to write each post!  (See how I’m working on honoring my commitment to taking care of myself!  Yeah me!)

For me, the key to implementing the Pareto Rule effectively, is the 80% result produced is still high enough quality to my readers still get value – and don’t really miss the extra 20% “bells and whistles”.   (Do you miss extra pictures, links, and examples in this post – or did I successfully walk the line?)

I’d love to know your thoughts!  Where can you use the 80/20 Rule in  your day-to-day life?  When does going the extra 20% really make the difference?  I’d love to hear your comments below!