I thought of you as I was shopping in the app store for a notebook I could physically write in on my new iPad2.  I found five or seven great apps.  I probably spent over two hours researching, testing, and looking for the perfect notebook based on the extensive reviews in the app store, I bet I’m not the first person to do this.  I had a lot of demands for this app.  I needed to be able to write in it and I wanted it to look natural. Neat. I didn’t want it to cost too much.  Errr, on second thought, I'll spare you the details of my requirements.

Of the seven I settled on testing, four were free and the other three didn’t cost more than $5.00 a piece.  As I started to do that math in my head I realized I would easily spend more than $15 on notebooks and planners throughout the year and that I would only spend this $15 once.

About three hours into this exercise — yes THREE hours — I realized I was wasting.  My. Time. I had spent hours (litterally hours) looking for the perfect app.

What do I mean by that?

A couple executives I consult for introduced me to the “$100 bill” concept.  That is, as you exert time or — even as importantly — energy to different activities think about how much the time you are spending is worth.  In this instance I had given a lot of my time and energy to something that was worth $15 to me (literally and figuratively).  I probably could have spent 15 minutes on that activity and been just fine.

Of course it’s relative.  When I’m up against a deadline or a project, the website might be a $100 bill; however, it gives you a filter question to raise to yourself when you are sucked into Facebook, on Twitter, in a battle with someone about something, etc., etc.

I’d love to know how the $100 bill concept works for you – let me know in the comments and share the love if you have a friend or associate that might like it too!

xoxo,
Amber