In the last week of holiday I’ve downloaded and watched most of the TED talks in the “What Makes Us Happy?” theme. Below is one by Daniel Goleman. In it he relates a study conducted at Princeton Theological Seminary indicating that personal acts of Compassion become increasingly unlikely as a person becomes busier. So the more hurried we feel, the less we seem to care for others. ( Link )
It seems to me that many of my peers in Marketing have been busier than ever before in the past year. Certainly I have been. If we want a more fulfilling 2008, we’d better get savvy about how much information spam we’re taking in and putting out,
In the New Year I’ll be writing alot about Attention Age tools and tactics which serve to reduce our processing load. In the meantime: “Mark As Read” all those emails that have backed up while you were on holiday;-)
Here’s to a more conscientious 2008. Happy New Year all!
This is a difficult challenge (specifically in service industries), and one which even the smartest guys out there battle with. I think part of the answer is to work out what part of your schedule makes the biggest impact, and then to grow your systems and team around that – but this takes tremendous effort to get right.
The Pareto principle: 80% of results come from 20% of actions:)
Man I fully agree with you! But it’s not just the marketing guys, also the technical guys. Later you don’t even know if you’re coming or going. Not good at all. And all too quickly you start to lose focus. Am really looking forward to your posts regarding managing this workload. At IBM a study was conducted and it indicated that some individuals were more than 100 times as productive as others. I think managing your time for optimal productivity is a whole new skill on its own I’m starting to learn now!
Anyway, gotta catch yet another flight, I’ll send you mail a bit later!
Yep, 100 percent more productivity than other people in the same context is not impossible if one learns how to channel one’s effort effectively. I’m back at work today, and am building a syllabus around the topic so I’ll definitely be sharing my thoughts here.
Thanks for the comment Charl. I look forward to achieving excellent results in the work we’re doing together this year!