Don't leave the dashboard open. Don't put the app on your home screen. Decide that you will look at the numbers for 15 minutes, once a day, or once a week. Outside of that window, the numbers do not exist. You are a ghost to them. If the business is going to burn down, it will do so without your gaze.
"I'll just check the numbers to see how we're doing. Data is empowering." 2. The Flirtation (Noon): "Hmm, that’s up 2%. But why is this down 1%? Let me check the hour-by-hour breakdown." 3. The Fixation (Afternoon): You refresh the page. Nothing changed in the last 14 seconds. You refresh again. You are now refreshing out of spite. 4. The Existential Crash (Evening): The number is red. You feel like a fraud. The number is green. You feel nothing, because the green was not green enough . numeric gazer
The gaze is a prayer. The dashboard is the altar. The number is the god. Here is the dirty secret that the Numeric Gazer learns after years of staring: The more you watch the number, the less the number works. Don't leave the dashboard open