Tax revenue and spending

From Congressional Budget Office:

US Budget at end of 2011

Tax revenue: 2.3 trillion
Spending: 3.6 trillion
Deficit: 1.3 trillion
GDP: 15 trillion
Deficit as a percentage of GDP: 8.7%

Break down of the tab:
Social security: 725B, 4.8%
Defense: 700B, 4.7%
Medicare: 480B, 3.2%
Medicaid: 275B, 1.8%
Other formula based, such as unemployment insurance, civilian government and military retirement, veteran's benefit, earned income tax credit, food stamp, etc: 545B, 3.6%
Interest servicing debt: 227B, 1.5%
Non-defense discretionary: 646B, 4.3%

Time wasters

The challenge is to overcome these time wasters and become more productive and effective.

1. Planning

• over-planning

• lack of written goals and deadlines

• taking on too much

• failure to divide projects into manageable tasks

• lack specific plan of activities to meet goals selected

• lack of daily planning

• shifting priorities constantly

• lack of contingency planning

• not monitoring progress throughout the process

• mis-estimating the amount of work needed

2. Organizing and Managing Yourself

• unorganized and messy work area

• lost time spent search

• procrastination

• lack of self discipline

• unfinished projects

• excessive socializing

• inability to say “no”

• perfectionism

• lack of personal focus

3. Organizing and Managing Your Environment

• email overload

• telephone interruptions

• drop-in visitors

• paperwork overload

• meetings

• lack of authority/ misunderstood authority

• duplication of effort

• lack of training

• inadequate equipment or facilities

• unclear communication