When I first began fly fishing, I caught zero fish and lost a bench if flies to bushes and snags. Since I couldn't count fish caught, I started tracking flies lost, with the goal of minimizing that number. Gradually it dropped to near zero, and number of fish caught began climbing, along with the size of my grin.
So, maybe this is too analytical an approach, but what would you say your "trash-to-treasure" ratio is, per outing, and how has it improved, or not, over time?