Chris Guillebeau's addictive blog “The Art of Non-Conformity” has a nice article on why we all focus on the numbers? People ask him why he wants to travel around the world and go everywhere, to focus so much on the numbers? He answer the question by saying that tracking the numbers makes his pursuit more interesting, more fun, and helps him to keep perspective.
My new book is being written with that answer in mind, with the idea that we can use all kinds of numbers to drive freedom and choice, and not to take them away. As a practice, I prefer using numbers and lists as the fuel for my own efforts. Like many creatives, I am easily distracted and have a lot of interests, so it is simply too quite easy for me to prance from this to that, and end the day having accomplished very little. So, to manage that tendency (I’m not alone...) I’ve moved to super simple list making, with numbers. For instance, I will write 5 pages in my book today, and 25 this week.That's 1300 pages of writing, or at least two books. The small number seems doable, the big number seems desirable! Not a big audacious number, but doable. Even if I don't feel like writing, I write. I might write a page in the morning, a couple of pages in the afternoon, and another couple that night. Do I ALWAYS write 25 pages a week? No, but I have the number, and if I fall behind, I pump some energy into it when I have a few minutes free on my weekend. The framework functions to drive my process, and serves as a reminder that I have something fun to do...write!
Life and death numbers. Now that I'm a T1 diabetic I'm even more focused on numbers. What's by BG in the morning, before and after every meal, and how many carbs does a meal have? It's a useful analogy, because if I don't pay attention to the numbers, the big and the small, I put my life at risk. If I don't pay attention to my professional, creative, and career numbers, I put my financial goals at a risk. Using numbers, big ones and small ones, is now driving you.
Yesterday, I created a spread sheet to capture and track my ideas. It’s like a bank account for my imagination, and when an idea. Try it for a week or so...pick something you're going to track, record, and accomplish. Make it small enough to do, and big enough to be interesting.
Oh...I have to go, those 5 pages won't write themselves.
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