Little numbers that rob our productivity

photo © 2008 bixentro | more info (via: Wylio)

Earlier this year, I read a great post by Chris Brogan about distractions. What struck me about this post is how true it rang in my life. If you’re like me, you’re really as “busy” as you feel.

Often when I feel like I’m really busy, or overwhelmed, it’s not because I really have too many important things to do. Instead, it’s because I’ve got so many distractions — little things that I’m doing that take time and energy away from doing the really important things. Maybe you’ve encountered the same thing in your life. Or it could be that it’s just me.

For me, this quote is the core of Brogan’s post.
Here’s the except:

“You are not as successful as you want to be because you’re looking at little numbers and wanting to pop them like digital bubble wrap, instead of working on the tasks that have no numbers beside them, but are worth so much more than the number to the right of these words.”

Check out the whole thing.

Maybe it’s your email that distracts you. You spend hours checking your email, looking for new messages, or it could be twitter, or maybe your favorite blog (or even waiting for people to comment on your latest blog post). Whatever it is, we’ve got to recognize that focusing on these little numbers is killing our productivity. Once we recognize that, maybe we can take the necessary steps to stay focused.

Re-Post: What a Trillion Dollars Looks Like

As we talk about the national debt, sometimes the numbers can get so big that we can’t wrap our brains around them.

This is something I ran across some time ago. It’s kinda scary, and eye-opening, but helps us get a better handle on just what a trillion dollars looks like.
Click Here to see what a Trillion dollars looks like.

What a Trillion Dollars Looks Like

I just ran across this. It’s kinda scary, and eye-opening.
Click Here to see what a Trillion dollars looks like.