people

The 2×4 Interview: Productivity

Towards the end of last year, my friend?Michael Schechter?was kind enough to invite me to chat on his?2×4 series.

The idea behind 2×4 is simple: one?series that examines?two?topics, creativity and productivity, by asking those who make things on the web the same?four?questions on both subjects.

I had a blast answering Mike’s questions, and thought it’d be cool to share the answers here. In this second part, we talk Productivity – make sure you drop by Monday’s post for the creativity answers.

Can you describe your current personal and professional responsibilities?

Personally, I?m a father and husband, so my main responsibility is making sure they have food on the table and a roof over their heads, and that they feel secure in my ability to look after them. This leads to my professional responsibility ? I?m the VP, Product Intelligence at Jugnoo, Inc., and my responsibilities there see me making sure we look after our users by providing the best tools possible, to ensure they can be truly effective on social media. It also sees me working on bringing products to the market that will make the social web simple, accessible and monetizable for everyone.

How do you go about balancing the personal, professional and digital?

Easy ? I keep them separate, and dedicate the time solely to each one when I?m ?there?. During the day, I?m in professional mode, so you?ll rarely see me online. In the evenings and at weekends, that?s my family time. Once the kids and wife have gone to bed, that?s my digital playtime, to catch up on all I?ve missed. You might get the occasional crossover, but generally I keep all three separate. It?s why I don?t do a lot of conferences or speaking ? I like putting my son and daughter to bed, and waking up under the same roof as them and my wife. I wouldn?t swap that for the world.

What tools and techniques do you find yourself counting on to get through your workload?

I simply use a lot of Google?s tools ? Docs, chat, calendar, etc. They?re good enough for what I need. I?m also a big fan of?Hootsuite?and how they’ve made social media dashboards so effective. Of course, there’s now a certain product called JugnooMe, which we’re creating for everyone from businesses to bloggers, franchisees, realtors, agencies, non-profits and more. And the reviews so far are pretty positive, which is nice, and with the update we’re releasing next week, hopefully that will continue!

What is the best starting point for the unproductive amongst us, who are looking to get more organized?

A notepad and pen. Seriously. Take an hour out of your day, and sit down with a notepad and pen, and divide a page into two columns ? Must Have and Optional. Then write down all the stuff you do during the day ? personally and professionally ? and separate them into these two lists. Then prioritize what you need to do every single day to make your life easier/better, whatever, and begin to work from that. If you don?t recognize what?s really important versus what you can do if you want to, you?re never going to be more productive.

image: inju

The Most Important Job in the World?

In life, we often place merit on someone by the job they have. We may not mean to, but it’s no real fault of ours if we do – it’s been ingrained from us almost since we could walk.

Parents tell us to get an education, or we won’t get a good job.

Teachers tell us to study harder, or we won’t get a good job.

Potential girlfriends and boyfriends can decide whether or not we’re worthy of their attention, based on the job we have and the material things that can bring.

We see someone being chauffered from place-to-place and feel they must be really important.

Ironically, in social media, this feeling can be exacerbated.

Our blogs become popular; we get hundreds of thousands of followers on Twitter; conferences invite us to speak; we have badges of merit that show how smart we are.

When you have that kind of “adulation”, it’s easy to mistake your importance and think your job is something it’s not. Sure, you may have a great job with a personal secretary; or your golf course fees cost more than it takes to send a child through college; or your blog is quoted in the New York Times.

But does that make you owner of the most important job in the world?

Think about it:

If every single blogger in the world stopped blogging tomorrow, we’d still get our news and opinion pieces. They might be watered down a little, but we’d still get them.

If every chauffeur quit tomorrow, we’d still have cabs, buses, trains, motorbikes and even bicycles to get around on.

If every girlfriend or boyfriend dumped their partners tomorrow, we’d still get by on our imaginations. Life would go on.

Now think about some of the jobs we often look at as lesser, and ask the same question:

If every trash collector quit tomorrow, we’d be faced with disease on the streets as the rats came to town.

If every security guard quit tomorrow, our businesses might follow suit, as we see the bad people come to town.

If every sewage worker quit tomorrow, our streets would be overrun by crap.

If every school crossing guard quit tomorrow, how long would our children stay safe at busy intersections?

We look at life through funny lenses. We see people in lesser light when often we should be shining the light on them. We celebrate our own importance when, often, that importance could be survived if it were to disappear overnight.

The point is, we all have important stuff to do and offer. Let’s try remember that more – yes?

image: Auntie P

The Only Marketing Tip You’ll Ever Need

Want to know the only marketing tip you’ll ever need?

People. Want. Things.

That’s it.

It can be anything – good luck charms; medicines; food; drink; news; shoe polish. Anything.

With the exception of air, everything else costs. So there’s a need to be filled.

How you fill that need is where the difference comes into play.

Some folks will go for service; some folks will go for price; some folks will go for nationality; some folks will go for the people behind the product.

That’s where your dividing factor comes into play. Your knowledge. Your smarts.

But the starting point? That’s the same for everyone.

People. Want. Things.

Ready?

Why You Don’t Need to Impress Me

No, this isn?t an ego post. It?s not driven by,??Oh, I really need to impress that Scottish/Canadian/Brit (what the heck is he??) Danny Brown guy.?

Screw that ? ego is for chumps (hat tip?Shannon Boudjema?for the phrase).

But you seriously don?t need to impress me.

I?m not your life mate. I?m not your boss. I?m not your editor. I?m not your parents. I?m not your font of all wisdom.

But then, you don?t need to impress these people either (more on why you don?t need to impress your boss in an upcoming post).

Nope, the only person you need to impress is yourself.

If you blog and you hit publish and know that you?re happy with the post, that?s all that matters.

If you?re in business for yourself and you know you?re doing the best you can for your clients, that?s all that matters.

If you?re employed and know you?re doing all you can in your role, that?s all that matters.

If you look in the mirror at the end of the day and know you did every thing you could that makes a difference in whatever you do,?that?s all that matters.

Impress yourself. The others will follow.

So You’re Having a Bad Day

We all have them. Bad days that make us wonder why we do what we do, whether in our own business or for our employer.

Or we wonder why we’re with our partners when we have an argument. Or we see the size of our email inbox and wish we could just skip the day and begin again tomorrow.

But are we really having such a bad day?

I took my dogs out for a walk this morning, and one of them crapped on a snail. I mean, seriously – how bad does your day have to be to look up and find that someone is shitting on your house?

So, yeah, we may be having bad days. But do they compare to a child beaten and abused by their parents, or bullied at school?

Do they compare to a good, law-abiding person fighting terminal illness and wondering why that rapist lived to 97?

Do they compare to people that are jailed and tortured for wanting to live in a democracy?

Maybe we feel like nothing can be worse than the day we’re currently having. But if all we have to complain about is the noise of social media, or the commute to work, or the amount of emails we still have to answer, or the waitress not getting our drink order right, or a myriad of other things, ask yourself one thing.

Is it really all that bad?

image: DanRhett