Oxford: eyes on the prize stream

A thing I have found helpful lately is explicitly asking myself where the stream of value is coming from the situation I’m in. For instance, sitting in a meeting, it might be mostly coming from lowering the probability of a particular costly course of action being selected or from showing support to a friend or fulfilling an obligation to be there. Looking at your phone in the bathroom, it might mostly come from improving your state of mind in a way that will help what happens in the next half-hour go well, or from bringing this activity to a close and getting on to something useful. It also seems interesting to ask how fast the stream of value is flowing.

I think this could sound cold-hearted (“hmm, I am with my friend, how is this accruing points for me?”), but that the best versions are not (“where is the awesomeness coming from in spending time with my friend?”). 

I think it’s very important to try to keep an eye on what matters and not get distracted in the noise of life, and this is one particular implementation of that. I haven’t done it for long enough or consistently enough to recommend it, so for now, it is just something new about my life.