From Seth Godin, the high cost of now.

Sometimes, in our quest for the new, we overpay. Most of the time, moving down the curve will decrease your costs dramatically, without hurting your ability to make smart decisions. Alternatively, when you choose to spend the time (or money), leverage it like crazy.

I bet you are overspending on now. Not everywhere, just in the wrong areas. Worth an audit, probably.

Blackberries and the use and misuse of email is probably the #1 place where a good audit would work at an organizational level. There is no good technical way to distinguish between YOU NEED TO READ THIS NOW emails and READ THIS WHEN YOU HAVE A MOMENT TODAY emails and YOU NEED TO SEE THIS BY THE END OF THE WEEK emails, so the solution has to be social.

The alternative? This buzzing device that constantly interrupts you, most of the time for NO GOOD REASON – very damaging for flow.

Looking around me now, I see five ways that people can interrupt me (phone, cell, txt, email, doorbell) and another half dozen or so ways that they can reach me eventually (comments, Facebook, Twitter etc.). I feel like half of my work is keeping these things under control. Having the discipline to TURN THINGS OFF does wonders, when I am able to do it.

Because there is always this nagging feeling, “What if I am missing something important?”

photo credit: Pulpolux !!!