I’d consider myself to have better than average self-discipline. But I have to concede – what gets measured gets done.
And it needs measuring often. I didn’t see off my half stone of blubber until I started counting exactly what I was eating throughout each day. I didn’t make the healthy changes to my daily routine (and still don’t) unless I tick them off every night.
And at work – where someone once said: ‘We all want to know precisely how we’re going to be measured, but absolutely not be measured precisely’, I’ve decided to bite the bullet, commit to some challenging targets and see if I can fire up people to measure and hit them.
My latest measuring gizmo is the Nike FuelBand: steps, activity and calories counted as you go. It syncs with an iPhone – so there’s instant data and no hiding. And it colour codes your progress all through the day…
The good thing about constant measurement is small stuff gets done a bit more often – which over time can add up to big changes.
Humans are lousy estimaters, expert self-deceivers and eternal optimists. These are three of our vital survival skills – but they don’t always get the job done.
Achilles & Aristotle 