The 70/30 Principle, also referred to as Cochram’s Law in honor of its creator, Steve Cochram, is a conceptual framework designed to optimize personal productivity and job satisfaction. It is a strategic approach to both our own energy management as well as how we align others with their roles and job descriptions within our company or organization.  It emphasizes the importance of aligning one’s tasks with one’s innate strengths and competencies.

70/30 is considered the ideal where “70” means spending 70% of our time in our sweet spot. Your sweet spot engages your “unconscious competencies.” Unconscious competencies are skills you have developed which are aligned with your natural aptitudes.  When you engage tasks requiring these skills and aptitudes, you do them with relative ease and, rather than draining you, they actually energize you. These are tasks  which you are naturally gifted to do, tasks which you have natural strengths and abilities to successfully carry out. When you are doing these tasks you feel more alive. When you’re more alive, others around you are more alive. 

The “30” is 30% of your time doing the learned behaviors which take and have taken much more effort to learn to do well. These are the tasks that you are consciously competent in, task you can do—and may even be able to do well—but which are not necessarily emerging from or related to your core wiring. And, therefore, aremore draining. 

We all have tasks within our realm of responsibilities which we may not like and which are draining yet we still have to do them in order for them to get done. It’s my opinion that it is good for our character, among other things, that we still have to do some of these things we don’t necessarily enjoy.

However, when we’re upside down (30/70; even 60/40), when you’re doing more in your life of the things that are draining, then you’re under water, and if you’re under water too long, you’re drowning.  Right? 

While the ideal is 70/30, and perhaps 80/20 might even be attainable, if we get to 90/10 or maybe 95/5, perhaps we would become narcissistic or have already been trending that way. It seems there needs to be certain things we do that we don’t necessarily enjoy and which are not within our natural strengths. There is something humbling in this as well—or at least which provides the opportunity for growing in humility.

To better understand and contextualize the 70/30 Principle, let’s consider it in relation to other well-known productivity concepts:

1. Flow State: The concept of flow, introduced by psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, describes a state of complete immersion and enjoyment in an activity. The 70% component of Cochram’s Law aligns with this idea, as it involves focusing on tasks that are so well-suited to one’s skills that they can induce a state of flow.
2. Energy Management: Tony Schwartz’s work on energy management, as opposed to time management, highlights the importance of aligning tasks with one’s natural energy levels. The 70/30 Principle similarly advocates for dedicating the majority of one’s time to activities that are energizing rather than draining.
3. Strengths-Based Approach: The strengths-based approach to personal development, popularized by tools like Gallup’s StrengthsFinder, encourages individuals to focus on developing their strengths rather than fixing their weaknesses. The 70/30 Principle is in harmony with this approach, as it suggests spending most of one’s time on tasks that align with their natural strengths.
4. Work-Life Balance: The 70/30 Principle also touches on the broader concept of work-life balance, emphasizing the need to balance energizing tasks with necessary but less enjoyable ones to maintain overall well-being.

In summary, the 70/30 Principle posits that individuals should aim to spend 70% of their time on tasks that play to their natural strengths and energize them—activities where they possess unconscious competence. The remaining 30% should be allocated to learned behaviors that may be necessary but are less invigorating. Straying too far from these percentages on either side can lead either to burnout, a lack of engagement with the necessary aspects of life and work, or perhaps narcissism in the other direction. The principle serves as a diagnostic tool to assess one’s current state of job satisfaction and alignment with one’s passion to guide individuals toward a healthier work-life engagement.  

What about you? What activities are you doing which are aligned with your natural strengths and which energize you? What activities are you doing which are not aligned with your natural strengths and which are draining of your energy? How do your percentages line up?  How much of your time is spent in areas of your natural gifting and which energize you? How much of your time is spent carrying out tasks which fall more within areas of “conscious competence” and which are more draining What about for those on your team?  What needs to change?  How will you go about making these changes?