Pseudo-progress

Not all progress is made equal:

• Big bookshelves full of things you’ve not read, but speed-read or skimmed. Reading that doesn’t make you better, makes you distracted. Nobody’s impressed by how many books you’ve “read”.
• Big research where you’ve covered your next project from every angle… but have yet to take any action. More is achieved through thoughtful action than by thought alone.
• Busy days where much was done, yet no momentum was created. Busy-work is seductive, it makes us feel like we’ve done something important when we haven’t.

How much more could we achieve if we were to avoid the allure of busy-work and vanity-metrics this year?