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Hello my dears,
[asap if you will tree]
phew okay so please please bare with me on this, it's going to be long and rambling and im sure it will jump back and forth a lot so you've had a fair amount of warning :p
im going to start off with the long "essay" posts from yesterday, just to kinda get my foot hold on things c: and guys please understand that in writing this i am really not trying to come off as rude or attackful or anything, and i apologize if i do or if i come off overly "unprofessional" it seems a lot of the time when i try to be super professional i come off as condescending or cold and when i try to be a bit more relaxed im just being silly or unprofessional.
"artists not doing anything for months and then getting to come back whenever they want, taking up a slot that could’ve been an active artist filled with energy and vigor to create instead."
I've seen this mentioned a lot ,, the whole slot thing. the thing is guys, that we don't have a set number of "slots" on staff ,, really we base what we think we need on how efficiently the staff we currently have is functioning. I know recently [the last month or so] things have been a little slow but you have to remember that it was the end of the year, many staff members [and heck people in general] we're busy with finals/vacations/family/the holidays and a whole slew of other things. Bringing in more staff during the holiday season because there a bit of a dip in activity doesn't really make a whole bunch of sense in my opinion because its just the natural ebb and flow of how things go, it happens every year.
"nursery slots being weeks and even months overdue while dozens of personal work and things for other people get put out"
I'll be the first to admit ,, this is actually a bit of a problem ,, it doesn't happen with every artists but I do understand that sometimes owed work gets forgotten, especially when the artist keeps taking on more and more in an attempt to keep up with demand that the community has created. we are aware of this, and myself and Karmel have been discussing it for quite awhile and throwing ideas back and forth for a way to manage it ,, at the time I think we have a pretty solid solution and it after a bit more discussing and working out the kinks it should be able to be implemented fairly soon and shouldn't take too long to see the effects c: i do apologize to anyone that has been on the brunt end of having to wait. one thing you can always do though is message the artist directly to see whats up, and if you don't get an answer then you can always come to myself or Karmel [or if you're noticing something that you aren't a part of you can even submit it to us anonymously via ask or tumblr!!
"hardly anyone but a handful of artists having hm customs open almost constantly, and i’m sure we all know why that is, other than the few artists who genuinely can’t open slots right now."
HM customs have always been a bit of tricky situation since it was switched so that only offical team members could do them and I do apologize that it was never fully explored how to best impliment this system. in the beginning i dont think it was set up to handle a community the size of which we have and hasn't ever really been revised to help fix it. with that being said though we do have a fancy new thread you may want to check out !! its still in the works as all the artists find their spots but there are already several artists who have started using it if you would like to keep track. its called the <a href="http://www.chickensmoothie.com/Forum/viewtopic.php?f=87&t=3701780">Kalon Artist Alley</a>!! essentially every artist on the Kalon team has a post here and they will be able to detail what work they are open for, lay out what projects they currently have, and list any examples or prices [as they may apply] for their work! with this it should make it a lot more easy to find an artist that is open to HM customs and browse just who you might want to partner with!
"staff not responding even to help questions until it’s irrelevant or the other person completely forgot they even asked. not enough nursery artists who are actually active to compensate for the rise in kalon members looking for batches."
I do apologize for any questions that have went unanswered! Its really unfortunate that we've gotten this reputation, but I do swear to you that it is never intentional! Sometimes I so wish I could just show you guys a day in the life of the staff chat, it is honestly off the hook 24/7 with people chatting about all kinds of different business from questions to designs/growths/rule breaking and a whole slew of everything in between! And often times our inboxes are just the same, I know mine is! Things fall through the cracks sometimes in a community so big and id be willing to bet that more often than not we actually have discussed the question at hand and it may just be that the conversation rolled over to something new that distracted the original staff member handling it from responding to you and then never picked it back up. that is something that we will have to start working a lot harder on, but like i said, it is absolutely never intentional that we are forgetting responses. if you dont hear back usually within 72 hours it is absolutely okay for you to resend the message or to send it to a new staff member !!
"staff don’t have an obligation to be active since if they aren’t, they don’t get the activity rewards, but again, like i said in a previous point, artist activity is a serious issue that isn’t taken seriously enough, or at all. if people aren’t active but get on to post maybe one kalon every few months, that’s an issue and needs to be talked to with the person. if they can’t get on enough to post kalons more than every few months, maybe they should take a break and someone who can be more active can be brought in."
like you mentioned, i kinda touched on this one in the first response, however I would also like to point something else out. while i dont consider Kalons to be a business and myself and Karmel dont run them as such, even if you are looking at this from a real world employment there are actually a lot of different levels of activity that are acceptable!! normally you have full time ,, part time ,, and PRN [as needed] employees all working for the same company. my artists are just like that in a lot of respects and its completely unfair to say they dont deserve compensation for what they do when they are able to do it. they aren't taking up a slot from anyone else and they are still providing amazing designs and input into the community ,, heck a lot of the time when an artist is unable to make designs they are still active in the staff chat and in other areas that may not be their primary duty as an artist.
" staff apparently being too big to manage properly"
[cutting this one a little short]
you are absolutely right !! we have said this a lot and that's because we really do mean it !! and when we talk about staff being too big to manage we dont actually mean that all those names are just too much, we mean that the active people that we are currently managing is quite a lot !! looking back on our activity documentation for the last 6 months there has consistently been an average of 30+ active artists working !! and that not even including our mods or myself and Karmel ,, for two people who have adult lives off the internet that is a lot to manage and we are trying our absolute best while still not spreading ourselves too thin because then the issues that you have already expressed just become more exaggerated when we have to provide them with even less attention than we already do. and while we think that the staff we have right now is very strong and putting out a lot of work already [did you know that last month alone over 200 designs were put into the community just from the nursery and main adopts ?? and over the last 6 months over 2,000 designs were?] we have opened the nursery search again and may soon be opening the main artists search as well to alleviate some of the demand that you guys are throwing out there c:
I'm not going to quote any of the last point as its quite long but to a degree I would like to agree, just in all honesty. I haven't been able to be a real part of the actually community for quite some time since becoming a co-owner and in that time from the position i am in I have seen a lot of stuff. I know that it may seem like no body cares but really I think the issue is just in a community this large in general it can be hard to find a foot hold. now im not making any excuses for those that go out of their way to ignore everyone or only talk to their friend group, but I do also know a lot of people that try their hardest to talk to new people or as many people as they can. i wish there were some easy clear cut way that I could address this and have it fixed in just a couple of days but the sad truth is that you are right, this is more than just what we as staff can tackle by ourselves and really takes the effort of the entire community but we are trying to promote it !! our events have shifted from just token grabs to be more development and cooperation based and often offer or require the interaction with community members that you may not know !! while I dont have any wonderful news for how we plan to fix it please know that we see the rift and we do want to fix it ,, if you or anything really has suggestions or just wants to talk about the experiences that made their introduction to the community better/worse i would honestly really urge you to come talk to me or any staff member. i promise you for all the anxiety it can cause to message one of us we are really just a group of massive dweebs and our side chat would definately prove that. we don't ever aim to make anyone uncomfortable or to be rude when responding to you guys and i apologize if it has ever come off that way when dealing with one of us with Kalon related things. one good thing about such a big staff is that if you have an issue with one of us you can always find someone else <3
Im sure i've missed some stuff and i know i had origianlly planned to address more than just the essay posts but its getting late for me and I have a really big day tomorrow ,, so if ive missed someone or you guys have anything else you would like to have addressed I would actually really urge you to send it on over to the Kalon tumblr. you can find it at kalon-adopts.tumblr.com [where this was submitted from] !! i vagued it earlier but yeah !! its brand spanking new and still under a lot of construction as far as coding and the like goes but it is functional !! as much as i despise the premise of both of the confessions blog i have realized that Tumblr has become quite an ingrained part of the CS and Kalon community and I would love to continue engage with you guys over it. I know its not the same as the confessions blog but hopefully you will feel more at ease contacting us anonmously there or just sharing your views and opinions in general c: we plan to eventually link the blog on our CS pages once its compeltely set up so please keep in mind nothing explicit will ever be allowed to be submitted there.
ack so yeah here's my really long and drawn out submission that i promised earlier c: i hope you guys read a bit of it and maybe understand a bit more now. i know sometimes it can seem like the staff is being really quiet and maybe not doing anything at all but i can assure you that we are always abuzz and honestly we are just about everywhere listening to just about everything and in some way or another almost all complaints are brought up and discussed. we may not post or announce every little move we are making but i cross my heart and pinky promise that we are working tirelessly to try and improve this community for you guys and for ourselves ,, we love this species and we know that without each and every one of you there wouldn't be anything for us to love so we want to make it as friendly and functioning as we can. all i ask is that you give us a little understanding and patients and i promise you are going to see the positive outcome <3
[also please forgive any mistake its late for me and im tired and not the best at typing anyways lol]
-Wicced!
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Oh, Amazon, why have you forsaken me?
Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the World Wide Web, once said: “Data is a precious thing and will last longer than the systems themselves.” This is one of those inspirational quotes that you often find on the innumerable Memes that make up a significant portion of the Internet. It’s truth is fundamental to any 21st Century business. Data is king. The more you know, the more you can achieve. It can be controversial, but it is certainly essential.
This is as true for the indie author as it is for a huge corporation. The algorithms that determine what products I may be interested in when browsing Amazon are, at the end of the day and at the most simplistic of ways, not much different to Campaign Management Screen on the Amazon Advertising site. We deal with several hundred keywords, Amazon deals with trillions, but the intention is the same. This data helps us to determine which campaigns work, and which don’t. Without this information, Amazon would lose millions. We don’t lose as much but it is all proportional.
So imagine the feeling I had when I received an email off Amazon telling me that one of my campaigns was out of budget but the Campaign Data Management Screen told me that everything was OK?
I contacted Amazon and their reply was perplexing. Firstly they said that we should only have two campaigns - one manual and one automatic. This flies in the face of what I had learned that very same week at the very excellent Amazon Ad School 5 Day Facebook challenge. Here we learned to create as many campaigns as possible, to use as many keywords as possible with the view to narrowing them down later once sufficient data has been collected. This works very well on the .com site but came to a grinding halt on the .co.uk site.
I am not intelligent enough to understand all the complexities or to pretend to try and use all the jargon, so here are all the to-ing and fro-ing I have had with the help-desk over the last week. I will update when I receive each reply:
(Please note: the most recent communication is on the top. If you want to read them in order, scroll to the bottom)
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Date: 6 Aug 2020, 06:57 BST
From: [email protected]
Hi 1. Can people stop marking this as resolved until it has been confirmed by both parties that it has been resolved. It is incredibly rude to continue assuming everything is fine and ignoring the issue. 2. The campaign 'LFE(2) Keyword entire' is showing 9070 on your systems, however, when I look, it is telling me that there is 'No Data Available'. I see no Impressions, no clicks and no sales. 3. On the Campaign Management Home-screen, where I should see ALL my campaigns and the grand total of impressions, clicks etc, I am being told that there is still (for 2 weeks now) only 8754 impressions, 3 clicks and 0 orders. This screen is not updating. This is the issue I have bee trying to get you to look into. 4. The US site is working fine. It is updating and, if I click on a campaign, then I get data for that campaign. That is not the case on the UK site. 5. I have tried accessing this information on two computers and a mobile phone. I have used Firefox (as recommended), Google Chrome, Internet Explorer, Samsung. I have accessed the Campaign Management screen on my home network and via VPN. I get the same results every time. 6. I have cleared all Cookies and Cache, as recommended and this has made no difference. 7. This is NOT an issue of daily budgets, or spend etc. This is an issue of me not being able to see my data. Finally, I hope you take the time to read this. So far I am getting the impression that people are not reading these messages correctly and, instead of addressing the issue, they are assuming what it is then disregarding it. Thanks Steve
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Date: 5 Aug 2020, 22:35 BST
From: Amazon Advertising Support
Hello from Amazon Advertiser Support, I am Lu, from the advertiser specialists team. We understand your concern regarding the campaign manager showing the same information during the last 2 weeks. I have reviewed your account, currently only the campaign 'LFE(2) Keyword entire', is running, I can confirm that we are not able to find any errors in the account, I am providing screenshots for your reference. The campaign is showing 9070 impressions, it has received impressions in 3-8-2020 and 5-8-2020, please note that payment failures and orders that are cancelled within 72 hours will be removed from sales totals, so that information may change from the information provided on the screenshots. The history of this campaign, it was created on 30 Jul 2020 21:37 and paused on 31 Jul 2020 19:49, and re-enabled on 1 Aug 2020 21:09 and it has been delivering. About the lack of impressions, kindly note that receiving impressions is directly tied to winning auctions which is tied to CPC bids. Your current CPC bids may not be competitive enough to win auctions which would increase your impressions. If your average daily spend is near your daily budget, it is likely that campaign's daily budget is too low. If you want more clicks per day, then you may need to increase your daily budget. Make sure your budgets reflect the average amount you want to spend on ad clicks per day. If you are still not able to see the refreshed information, I will recommend clear cache and cookies on your browsers from your computer and devices. This case has been resolved. For a faster solution, If you have questions about a new concern, please create a new case. Kind regards and thank you for being part of Amazon. ............................................................... Were you satisfied with the support provided? If yes, please click here: http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/help/survey?p=A1QZIH6XET0Y7V&k=hy If no, please click here: http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/help/survey?p=A1QZIH6XET0Y7V&k=hn ............................................................... Best regards, Lourdes M. Amazon Advertiser Support http://www.amazon.co.uk/ To contact us again about this issue, please use the Contact Us form using the following link: https://advertising.amazon.co.uk/caselog/case/6222215132 Have you seen our Help and information center? Check it out: https://advertising.amazon.co.uk/help
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Date: 5 Aug 2020, 18:14 BST
From: [email protected]
Hi I would be grateful if someone here took my case seriously, actually looked into it, and sorted out the issue! How can you say there are no issues and close the case when there HAS BEEN NO UPDATES ON THE CAMPAIGN MANAGEMENT SCREEN FOR POSSIBLY TWO WEEKS. The campaign management screen is showing 8754 impressions, which is excatly the same figure that has been there for 2 weeks! According to the campaign management screen my campaign LFE(2) Keyword entire has had no impressions, no clicks and no sales. However, if you run a report you will discover that this campaign has had 26 impressions, 3 clicks and £5.98 in sales. How can you say that there are no issues, dismiss me completely, without taking the time to look into this. The way you have treated me is appalling! Absolutley terrible. If I tried treating my customers like this, I WOULD BE FIRED. Now please, sort this out for me. Do not close this case until it is sorted. And please, do not wish me a nice day whilst treating me so disrespectfully.
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Date: 5 Aug 2020, 17:50 BST
From: Amazon Advertising Support
Hello from Amazon Advertiser Support, On reviewing your account, I see that there is only one active campaign 'LFE(2) Keyword entire' in your account. All the other campaigns are archived. Please note that we will not be able to troubleshoot archived and paused campaigns. On reviewing the delivering campaign 'LFE(2) Keyword entire', I see no issues and it is receiving impressions. https://advertising.amazon.co.uk/cm/sp/campaigns/A0468560145XDJ1LLCCAX/ad-groups?entityId=ENTITY26HC1UR0YB6PU Therefore, please be sure that there are no issues and campaigns are working as intended. Have a nice day! ............................................................... Were you satisfied with the support provided? If yes, please click here: http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/help/survey?p=A27AKOXK7I7OKG&k=hy If no, please click here: http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/help/survey?p=A27AKOXK7I7OKG&k=hn ............................................................... . Best regards, Swetha S. Amazon Advertiser Support http://www.amazon.co.uk/ To contact us again about this issue, please use the Contact Us form using the following link: https://advertising.amazon.co.uk/caselog/case/6222215132 Have you seen our Help and information center? Check it out: https://advertising.amazon.co.uk/help
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Date: 5 Aug 2020, 16:24 BST
From: Amazon Advertising Support
Hello from Amazon Advertiser Support, Thank you for writing back to us. In order to better assist you, I am transferring this case to a team that will be able to resolve your issue. Have a great day. Best regards, Bijeta A. Amazon Advertiser Support http://www.amazon.co.uk/ To contact us again about this issue, please use the Contact Us form using the following link: https://advertising.amazon.co.uk/caselog/case/6222215132 Have you seen our Help and information center? Check it out: https://advertising.amazon.co.uk/help
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Date: 5 Aug 2020, 15:36 BST
From: [email protected]
Hi The problem is not with my computer as I have tried accessing the information on multiple devices. I have also tried on Google Chrome, Firefox and IE. The Campaign Management Screen is the same on all devices and on all browsers. I am able to access all the information on the US https://advertising.amazon.com/ site. This is working perfectly. It is only the UK site that is not working. However, I did follow your instructions below just in cast - no change. Your instructions seem to indicate that the problem is my end, that you seem to think there is a problem with my computer, it is not. I am not getting any error messages at all. A quick glance at the screen would suggest it is all working. It loads correctly and quickly. However, the data on that page is from 2 weeks ago and nothing, and I'm quite honestly getting sick of saying this, has changed in that time. The data froze approximately two weeks ago and has not been updating since. I know you don't like me using the word 'frozen', however, I can't think of any other explanation. The data is not updating. Can I have this referred to a supervisor, please? It is obvious that you are not looking at the previous messages here and neither are you taking it seriously. If this is not sorted soon, I will want to make a formal complaint. Thanks Steve
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Date: 5 Aug 2020, 13:44 BST
From: Amazon Advertising Support
Hello from Amazon Advertiser Support, Thank you for writing back to us. As you have said that Campaign Manager Screen is still has not updated. Upon replication, I was able to see the spends till now in the campaign manager page without any issues. I have attached screenshot related to the charges which were made on your campaigns. I've provided suggestions below that usually help with the kind of problem you're describing. a) Try reloading: If the site is taking a long time to respond, or if a page is timing out, try reloading. Go to the top of your browser window, click the "Stop" button, and then click the "Reload" or "Refresh" button. To perform a "hard refresh" and bypass cached pages, hold down the Control (CTRL) key while reloading, or simply use Ctrl + R. b) Check Ad Blockers: Open your browser's settings and disable any ad blockers you may have installed. These ad blockers can be add-ins installed manually. c) Clear your cache: Clearing your cache deletes temporary copies of pages and makes room for new ones. Go to the "Cache" or "Temporary Internet Files" option on your browser (in the "Tools" or "Options" area), and delete the files stored in your cache. d) Upgrade your browser: Most websites will work best with the most current version of your browser. You should be able to upgrade to the newest version of your browser by going to the website responsible for your browser. This is usually free of charge. In the case of Google Chrome, some options will not be compatible, so in this case we would suggest using Mozilla Firefox. e) Check your security settings: You must have cookies enabled to access pages in your Seller Account. In some instances, you may also need to be sure that other security or privacy options are set correctly. You'll find more information on the following Help page: f) Clear your cookies: The problem may be caused by corrupted cookie files on your browser. Clearing your cookies should solve the problem. For Internet Explorer, go to Tools > Internet Options > General > Browsing History. For Firefox, go to Tools > Options > Privacy > Cookies. g) Check your clock: When you log in, your cookies are validated using time settings, especially when you're trying to access order or payment information. Please make sure that the clock on your computer is set to the correct local date, time, and Time Zone. h) Check any proxy servers: If you are using a proxy server, try using a different web browser or access the site directly by changing your proxy settings. If your network is configured so that the only way to access outside sites is through a proxy, contact your network system administrator. i) Check any firewall settings: If you are protecting your system with a firewall, you may want to modify the firewall settings or try disabling it temporarily to access secure areas of our web site. If the problem is caused by a network firewall, you may want to ask your system administrator to reconfigure it. j) Check for parental software: If you are using any type of parental control software, or if your Internet Service Provider has such controls active on your account, please be sure that these functions are disabled. If none of these suggestions has solved the problem, please click the link at the end of this message to send us more information. By providing all of the information requested below, you can help us to troubleshoot the problem you're experiencing. 1. The last link you selected or last address you typed before the problem occurred. 2. The exact text of any error messages you received, whether in the browser window or in a separate pop-up window. 3. The complete URL that appears in the address window of your browser for any Amazon.com pages with error messages. 4. Your browser type and version (for example, Internet Explorer 7.0, Firefox 3.0). 5. Your operating system you are using (for example, Windows XP, Macintosh OS X). 6. Screenshot of the entire page including error and URL If you are still facing issue while checking the updated details, kindly write back to us with the screenshot by creating a new case. Note: Once you create a new case by providing the attachments, we will resolve that case and will work on this case. Also mention this Case 6222215132 as a reference, when you create a new case for providing us with the attachments. Simultaneously, provide the same content on the original case as well ( i.e this Case ID: 6222215132) as the new case will be merged to this case. Await your response. . Best regards, Bijeta A. Amazon Advertiser Support http://www.amazon.co.uk/ To contact us again about this issue, please use the Contact Us form using the following link: https://advertising.amazon.co.uk/caselog/case/6222215132 Have you seen our Help and information center? Check it out: https://advertising.amazon.co.uk/help
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Date: 5 Aug 2020, 08:58 BST
From: [email protected]
Hi I already attached screenshots of my Campaign Manager on the very first post I did when I reported this. The data hasn't changed since that data. What is on those screenshots is still the same as if showing today. Nothing has changed. Thanks Steve
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Date: 4 Aug 2020, 15:47 BST
From: Amazon Advertising Support
This is a reminder to let you know that we need more information to resolve your case. If you still need assistance, please respond to this message and provide the details we’ve requested below. If we’ve resolved your issue, no further action is needed and we’ll close your case. Thank you, Amazon Support -- Original Message -- Hello from Amazon Advertiser Support, I understand your concern about the advertising charges that was applied and you are not able to find the details for the charges. We apologize for the attachment that you have not received in the previous correspondence. I would request you to access the link below to download the Sponsored Products Targeting report: https://advertising.amazon.co.uk/sspa/tresah/history/48b84fe6-0660-4751-bb84-f0dbe7ed0de3?ref_=AAC_gnav_reports&entityId=ENTITY26HC1UR0YB6PU Once you access the link you will find the download button at the right side of the table. Further, we would request you to attached a screenshot of campaign manager full screen to investigate why you are not able to see the data. Kindly attach the Screenshots ( In English ) by creating a new case. We would like to inform you that all the KDP authors will have an option to add an attachment while creating a case. Post this, if the same case is responded again, then the option to add any attachments is disabled. Due to this, you will not find an option to add an attachment on this case while you respond. Therefore, kindly attach the Screenshots ( In English ) by creating a new case. As an alternative, you can also provide us the link here instead of screenshot. Note: Once you create a new case by providing the attachments, we will resolve that case and will work on this case. Also mention this Case 6222215132 as a reference, when you create a new case for providing us with the attachments. Simultaneously, provide the same content on the original case as well ( i.e this Case ID: 6222215132) as the new case will be merged to this case. Awaiting your response. Have a good day. Best regards, Pradeep G. Amazon Advertiser Support http://www.amazon.co.uk/ To contact us again about this issue, please use the Contact Us form using the following link: https://advertising.amazon.co.uk/caselog/case/6222215132 Have you seen our Help and information center? Check it out: https://advertising.amazon.co.uk/help
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Date: 3 Aug 2020, 15:37 BST
From: Amazon Advertising Support
Hello from Amazon Advertiser Support, I understand your concern about the advertising charges that was applied and you are not able to find the details for the charges. We apologize for the attachment that you have not received in the previous correspondence. I would request you to access the link below to download the Sponsored Products Targeting report: https://advertising.amazon.co.uk/sspa/tresah/history/48b84fe6-0660-4751-bb84-f0dbe7ed0de3?ref_=AAC_gnav_reports&entityId=ENTITY26HC1UR0YB6PU Once you access the link you will find the download button at the right side of the table. Further, we would request you to attached a screenshot of campaign manager full screen to investigate why you are not able to see the data. Kindly attach the Screenshots ( In English ) by creating a new case. We would like to inform you that all the KDP authors will have an option to add an attachment while creating a case. Post this, if the same case is responded again, then the option to add any attachments is disabled. Due to this, you will not find an option to add an attachment on this case while you respond. Therefore, kindly attach the Screenshots ( In English ) by creating a new case. As an alternative, you can also provide us the link here instead of screenshot. Note: Once you create a new case by providing the attachments, we will resolve that case and will work on this case. Also mention this Case 6222215132 as a reference, when you create a new case for providing us with the attachments. Simultaneously, provide the same content on the original case as well ( i.e this Case ID: 6222215132) as the new case will be merged to this case. Awaiting your response. Have a good day. Best regards, Pradeep G. Amazon Advertiser Support http://www.amazon.co.uk/ To contact us again about this issue, please use the Contact Us form using the following link: https://advertising.amazon.co.uk/caselog/case/6222215132 Have you seen our Help and information center? Check it out: https://advertising.amazon.co.uk/help
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Date: 3 Aug 2020, 12:11 BST
From: [email protected]
Hi, In your previous correspondence you said: I have attached the targeting report for the campaign "May 14th Start" which is a category targeting campaign and there are all the details of the campaign as to which category and product detail page got impressions and clicks with date. However, no file was attached here or on the email I received. I have, however, worked out how to find the information in Reports. The Campaign Manager Screen, however, still has not updated. I have archived all my previous adverts and created one new one, but the Impressions, Clicks and Orders figures have not updated from when I raised this complaint on the 30th July. My complaint was that I didn't think I should be charged when I am not getting any data to tell me what I am being charged for. If I had known that I was being charged so much, I would have cancelled the May 14th Campaign immediately as it was restarted in error. As a result of not seeing the data, I was charged over 27 times the value indicated on the Campaign Management Screen. This has not changed. I have created a single manual campaign as per your instructions, but the data still refers to prior the May 14th Campaign recommencement (I believe that was the 26th July). In other words, I am still not being told what I am being charged for. In your previous correspondence, you also said: I would like to inform you that campaign manager data takes up to 72 hours to be updated with accurate data. As the data has not updated in over a week, then clearly there is something else wrong. I know the value on this account is very small, and because of this, I am not a priority, but can I once again ask that this information be made available as soon as possible. I just want to see the information I am entitled to. Thanks Steve
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Date: 3 Aug 2020, 01:38 BST
From: Amazon Advertising Support
This is a reminder to let you know that we need more information to resolve your case. If you still need assistance, please respond to this message and provide the details we’ve requested below. If we’ve resolved your issue, no further action is needed and we’ll close your case. Thank you, Amazon Support -- Original Message -- Hello from Amazon Advertiser Support, I understand the email correspondence regarding campaign manager data was not updated. I would like to inform you that campaign manager data takes up to 72 hours to be updated with accurate data. However if you want to check the impressions and clicks data you can download targeting report which shows accurate data of impressions and which impressions got clicks. I have attached the targeting report for the campaign "May 14th Start" which is a category targeting campaign and there are all the details of the campaign as to which category and product detail page got impressions and clicks with date. You can also filter any campaign from the filter option in campaign column. Tips to update keywords in manual targeting campaign. 1. Choose multiple keywords that are relevant to your product. The more relevant the keywords you select, the better chance you have of receiving ad impressions and clicks 2. Group similar keywords together in ad groups. Create ad groups that follow similar themes around your products. For example, if you sell indoor and outdoor lights, create two ad groups: one that contains keywords for your outdoor lights and another that contains keywords for your indoor lights. 3. There is no problem if you have 2 campaigns for the same ASIN, as long as they are set up with a different targeting (manual or automatic). For a better performance, we recommend using a lower bid on the automatic campaign that the one set up for the manual campaign. 4. Try to have the keywords that you want to target on the ASIN's metadata (the title, bullet points, and product description) Please refer the below help page to know more about match type: https://sellercentral.amazon.com/gp/help/help.html/?itemID=G201817600&referral=A1YJQRAEG7WUAZ_A3GW6IDARUDXM3&referral=A1663CMTCVYH3Z_A1P15CJVEH7D66&referral=A3LV5BEU71OJCU_A79HMAHA8PGIF We get different people on the page everyday and new sellers join advertising so from time to time, the advertisers will need to try different keywords, targeting, bids and/or bidding types until they find what works best for them. If you want to know any specific details about the charge please write back with the invoice ID of the Ad charge so that we can investigate if the charges are valid. Please stay safe and have a great day! . Best regards, Vivian L. Amazon Advertiser Support http://www.amazon.co.uk/ To contact us again about this issue, please use the Contact Us form using the following link: https://advertising.amazon.co.uk/caselog/case/6222215132 Have you seen our Help and information center? Check it out: https://advertising.amazon.co.uk/help
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Date: 31 Jul 2020, 01:31 BST
From: Amazon Advertising Support
Hello from Amazon Advertiser Support, I understand the email correspondence regarding campaign manager data was not updated. I would like to inform you that campaign manager data takes up to 72 hours to be updated with accurate data. However if you want to check the impressions and clicks data you can download targeting report which shows accurate data of impressions and which impressions got clicks. I have attached the targeting report for the campaign "May 14th Start" which is a category targeting campaign and there are all the details of the campaign as to which category and product detail page got impressions and clicks with date. You can also filter any campaign from the filter option in campaign column. Tips to update keywords in manual targeting campaign. 1. Choose multiple keywords that are relevant to your product. The more relevant the keywords you select, the better chance you have of receiving ad impressions and clicks 2. Group similar keywords together in ad groups. Create ad groups that follow similar themes around your products. For example, if you sell indoor and outdoor lights, create two ad groups: one that contains keywords for your outdoor lights and another that contains keywords for your indoor lights. 3. There is no problem if you have 2 campaigns for the same ASIN, as long as they are set up with a different targeting (manual or automatic). For a better performance, we recommend using a lower bid on the automatic campaign that the one set up for the manual campaign. 4. Try to have the keywords that you want to target on the ASIN's metadata (the title, bullet points, and product description) Please refer the below help page to know more about match type: https://sellercentral.amazon.com/gp/help/help.html/?itemID=G201817600&referral=A1YJQRAEG7WUAZ_A3GW6IDARUDXM3&referral=A1663CMTCVYH3Z_A1P15CJVEH7D66&referral=A3LV5BEU71OJCU_A79HMAHA8PGIF We get different people on the page everyday and new sellers join advertising so from time to time, the advertisers will need to try different keywords, targeting, bids and/or bidding types until they find what works best for them. If you want to know any specific details about the charge please write back with the invoice ID of the Ad charge so that we can investigate if the charges are valid. Please stay safe and have a great day! . Best regards, Vivian L. Amazon Advertiser Support http://www.amazon.co.uk/ To contact us again about this issue, please use the Contact Us form using the following link: https://advertising.amazon.co.uk/caselog/case/6222215132 Have you seen our Help and information center? Check it out: https://advertising.amazon.co.uk/help
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Date: 30 Jul 2020, 22:07 BST
From: [email protected]
Hi I can now see what my charges are (£27.32 as compared to the £0.94 I was told I would be charged - that is a huge difference), however, I still can't see what I have been charged for. I need the information so that I can improve the advertisement. I need to know what keywords produced Impressions, what Impressions produced clicks and what clicks produced orders. Without this information, I have been grossly overcharged without benefiting from it at all, which means I will have to pay again to collect the 2 weeks of data which are missing. I have archived all my Ads now and have to start all over again, wasting far more money than I wished to spend. If there were any issues with duplications, surely someone should have informed me as soon as it happened instead of waiting for the charges to pile up behind the scenes. This smacks of a cowboy operation. I would be grateful if you could give me this information as soon as possible. Thanks Steve
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Date: 30 Jul 2020, 19:16 BST
From: Amazon Advertising Support
Hello from Amazon Advertiser Support, I understand that you have some concerns about campaign performance. 1. Amazon understand the fact that you are not happy with paying for something you are not able to see. The recommendation in this cases, if you do not want to reactivate campaigns that were created in the future is to archive them. If you archive a campaign, you will not be able to enable it. To archive a campaign, you can select it by clicking on the check box to the left to the button that you can toggle to activate or pause a campaign and they click on the button Archive that will appear above the sales column. Since this is a self service option you are in full control of enable, archive or pause a campaign. If you would like to check which campaigns are active and generating impressions or clicks, you can apply a filter on the Campaigns section. You will see the option "Filter by" that can be used to check which campaigns are delivering and active. If you are not sure about how to perform an update and have some other concerns you can request a call to guide you through over the phone. You can request a call from 8am to 5pm your local time. 2. The f act that your campaigns showed no impressions (frozen) is related to the fact that you created several campaigns for the same product. You may see some impressions in the first days, but as the system identifies duplication, impressions will stop. We recommend to have one automatic and one manual campaign per product to prevent performance issues. The system will let you create as many campaigns as you want to throughout all market places, but impressions will stop as soon as the system identifies duplication and this also happens on all marketplaces. 3. If you would like to know what are you paying for you can check the billing and payments section, by clicking on the main menu in your Advertising Account on the top left corner. In this section you will see your invoices and a break down per campaign and the number of clicks received. If you would like to keep track of each campaign in Campaign manager, you can also go to the Campaigns section and click on the Columns button. You will see the option "Customise colums" if you click on it you can select metrics from a list and click apply. If you would like to check which campaigns are having clicks you can select the Clicks metric. To check metrics on a specific date range you can select the button Date Range besides the Columns button. 4. We highly recommend to use Mozilla Firefox to prevent any issues with the platform as missing options or no visibility of some options at all. If you experience any of this the recommendation is to clear cookeies and cache. If the issue persists you can create a new case and send us a screenshot with the problem you are experiencing. 5. At the moment you have paused all campaigns and there is only one active: Horror Campaign. ............................................................... Were you satisfied with the support provided? If yes, please click here: http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/help/survey?p=A1XGPAA57ZIHY2&k=hy If no, please click here: http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/help/survey?p=A1XGPAA57ZIHY2&k=hn ............................................................... Best regards, Angel R. Amazon Advertiser Support http://www.amazon.co.uk/ To contact us again about this issue, please use the Contact Us form using the following link: https://advertising.amazon.co.uk/caselog/case/6222215132 Have you seen our Help and information center? Check it out: https://advertising.amazon.co.uk/help
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Date: 30 Jul 2020, 18:05 BST
From: [email protected]
Hi I understand and accept point 1, although I am not happy being charged for something when I am unable to find out what I am being charged for. However, point 3 (impressions not frozen but best try another browser) seems to contradict point 2 (The system identified the duplication and stopped impressions). I do not know the difference between 'system stopped' and 'frozen'. From the user point of view, they are the same thing - my impressions and clicks are not updating and I have no idea what I am paying for. I have paused all my ads but it has not updated so far. Will I be getting access to this information? If not, you can understand my reluctance to pay for something when you are unwilling or unable to tell me what it is for. Also with regards to Point 2, I have completed several training programmes and they have all recommended using as many adverts as possible, in order to maximise keyword searches. I have done this on the US site with no issue, even though I have almost 20 adverts for the same book. I have been led to believe that this is standard practice. Can I ask, what I need to do to stop this from happening again (in layman's terms if you will, please)? I have stopped and archived the May 14th Start Campaign, as well as all pre-July ads. Is there anything else I need to do? I have also paused all but one current campaign and hope to restart them over the next few days. Is this unadvisable? Thanks Steve
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Date: 30 Jul 2020, 13:51 BST
From: Amazon Advertising Support
Hello from Amazon Advertiser Support, I understand that you received an out of budget notification on an old campaign that was paused. Also you see that campaign manager is frozen and lastly you would like to know if we can process a refund on campaign May 14th Start. 1. The reason why you received the out of budget notification on campaign May 14th Start is because it was activated on July 28th the end date was 21/05 and it was modified to end on 08/16. You reactivated the campaign and it was running as usual until July 29 day in which you paused it. You can check the history on a campaign, by clicking on the campaign and going to the History tab to the left. That section records any update that you perform on a campaign. Since the campaign was reactivated, we are not able to process refunds for the charges you have received. 2. The reason why you do not see impressions on your campaigns, is because you have created multiple campaigns for the same book. The system identified the duplication and stopped impressions. In order to prevent performance issues, we recommend to have one automatic and one manual campaign per product. You can pause duplicated campaigns by going to the main dashboard in which all campaigns are listed and toggle the button under the Active column to the left. 3. I checked your account and did not find any issues with Campaign Manager, it is not frozen at the moment. The recommendation for this is to access the campaign manager using Mozilla Firefox (web browser) as it is the one that fits better and has the highest performance. If you experience any issue with Campaign Manager not working or freezing after installing Mozilla Firefox, we recommend to clear cookies and cache. If the issue persists the recommendation is to create a new case and send us a screenshot if the issues you experience. ............................................................... Were you satisfied with the support provided? If yes, please click here: http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/help/survey?p=AGHZOZS790TWB&k=hy If no, please click here: http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/help/survey?p=AGHZOZS790TWB&k=hn ............................................................... Best regards, Angel R. Amazon Advertiser Support http://www.amazon.co.uk/ To contact us again about this issue, please use the Contact Us form using the following link: https://advertising.amazon.co.uk/caselog/case/6222215132 Have you seen our Help and information center? Check it out: https://advertising.amazon.co.uk/help
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Date: 30 Jul 2020, 08:54 BST
From: [email protected]
Hi I have received an email to inform me that one of my advertising campaigns was out of budget, however, I have checked it and it shows no Impressions, Clicks or Sales. It is an old campaign (May 14th Start) which was reinstated in error and I would have cancelled it immediately had I seen the mistake. The problem is, I think my All Campaigns Management screen is frozen. The number of impressions, clicks etc for all campaigns has remained on the same figures for sometime and at the moment I am unable to tell if I am spending too much. This is very frustrating. Could you help unfreeze the screen please? Also, as this has hit me financially, could you refund or give me a credit for any expenditure on this campaign, please? Many thanks Steve EntityId: ENTITY26HC1UR0YB6PU EntityType: KDP_AUTHOR
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How To Crush It With The World's Ultimate Productivity Tips
The Ultimate Productivity Tips Roundup
What happens when you type "Productivity Tips" into google?
You get masses of hits containing hundreds of results. The problem is how to find the grains of gold?
You could start ploughing through each result one by one and see what they say (don't do that!).
Here's what you do instead.
I've been through hundreds of the best productivity tips from experts around the world. I've sorted them, chucked out the stuff that doesn't cut it, deleted duplicates and organised it into a single uber-list.
It turns out that the advice from productivity experts can be categorised and that's what I've done to make searching for exactly the kind of advice you're looking for easy to do.
So whatever kind of productivity advice you're looking for, there's going to be a tip here for you.
The headings below are broad categories. Click on the title and it will take you to that section. Then you can scroll down until you find something that interests you.
1. Focus On What's In Front Of You And Avoid Multitasking
2. Batch Your Jobs and Tasks
3. Build Consistency In The System And Methods You Use
4. Set Things Up A Day Ahead
5. Delegate It
6. Deal With Distractions
7. Eat That Frog
8. Look After Your Health
9. Manage Meetings Better
10. Organise Your Workspace
11. Outsource It
12. Develop A Positive Mindset
13. Use Rituals To Create New Habits
14. Say No
15. Build Your Self Awareness
16. Simplify It
17. Step Back From It
18. Manage Your Time
19. Use Travel Wisely
20. Use Technology
21. Write It Down
1. Focus On What's In Front Of You
Prioritise Your Most Important Tasks
What The Science Says
Our brains are actually not evolved to multitask. When we were first walking about on the savannah, it didn't pay to be distracted. You generally got eaten.
Task Switching as it is known has a quantifiable impact on the time taken to complete tasks. The general rule is that lost time increases with the complexity of the task involved. The cost involves the brain undertaking two switches. First the task of changing subject, from one task to another. Then the second task of finding your place in the task you are switching to.
Although these costs are quite small, they do add up.
One tactic to minimise task switching which experts suggest is to prioritise your most important tasks. By focusing your attention on your most important tasks, you will reduce the likelihood that your attention will waver.
Nicole Fallon Taylor takes up the suggestion that "goals are the most effective way to prioritize what’s important so you can delegate or eliminate the most unnecessary tasks that slow you down". In her article published on Business News Daily she shares some advice from Kathleen Kobe, founder of Smart Business Mom who states categorically that we should avoid multi-tasking. says, don't do it and I agree. You can read the rest of Fallon's article here.
We Just Aren't Evolved To Multitask
Robin Sharma makes the point that multitasking can also reduce our cognitive capacity. He cites research which "confirms that all the distractions invading our lives are rewiring the way our brains work (and drop our IQ by 5 points!)." The Daily Muse puts it this way:
"Stop trying to multitask! We're really not built for it, and while it may feel like you're getting more done, everything will ultimately take you longer."
Brandon Turner, reflecting on a past year of improved personal productivity writes:
"This past year, I made a commitment to multitask less and focus more on the task at hand"
The Take Away
Check to make sure you're spending time focused on your most important goals. To increase your effectiveness, create opportunities to zero in on one thing at a time and avoid the temptation to try to focus on more than one activity at a time.
References:
http://www.businessnewsdaily.com/5658-easy-productivity-tips.html
http://www.robinsharma.com/blog/09/become-the-most-productive-person-you-know/
https://www.themuse.com/advice/45-productivity-tips-for-extremely-busy-people
https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/254432
http://www.apa.org/research/action/multitask.aspx
2. Batch Your Jobs And Tasks
Use Time Slots
One way to deal with the damaging effects of multitasking is to chunk your jobs or tasks into time slots. I call this batching. Brandon Turner explains what he does. "Simply take your to-do list and give each item a place on your calendar. it doesn't matter if you use a physical calendar or an online one; simply block out time to work through each item on your list".
Graham Allcott speaking on ITV News suggest we should undertake a 5-minute re-boot whenever our attention or energy level is waning.
"Do you find yourself staring at the screen, feeling a bit jaded? The average attention span is typically 25 to 45 minutes, depending on the person and the time of day. So every half an hour, take a five minute re-boot – get up, grab a drink, focus your eyes on something else - even a couple of minutes away from the screen will help stop your attention from waning and keep you fresh through the day".
Match Your Work With Attention Span And Energy Levels
Organising your work so that it matches our natural attention span seems like a sensible manoeuvre. The Daily Muse even suggests allocating a time slot for you favourite distractions:
"Budget limited time for your favorite distractions".
"Knowing that you'll get to spend 10 minutes on Pinterest after you work for a couple hours can help you avoid wasting time on it now. Plus, using that as a reward for getting through hard work can help you stay motivated."
The advice to allocate time to tasks doesn't just apply to your daily activities. As The Daily Muse suggests, allocating periodic time to administrative tasks can have a big pay off too.
"Once a quarter, do a massive inbox clean and archive all messages older than 2-3 months. (Seriously, answering them at this point would just be embarrassing.) As emails you're subscribed to roll into your inbox, make a snap decision about whether you actually read them or if you should unsubscribe".
The Daily Muse continues:
"If email's really getting you down, try Time Management Ninja's system for only checking it twice a day…Only check email at specific times during the day, and try to limit it to only 4-5 times a day. If you don't have nearly this much self control, use a tool like Inbox Pause to keep emails from showing up in your inbox until you're ready for them".
Robin Sharma batches his email activities to match his energy levels.
"Check email in the afternoon so you protect the peak energy hours of your mornings for your best work"
You can have a look at my own advice on email management here.
Put Time In Your Schedule
Stacia Pierce has a different take on batching. Her advice is not just to make a list – something a lot of us do. She goes further, recommending:
"Give yourself an allotted time to get things done. When I am planning for events, I often block of chunks of time weeks in advance so that I can research, plan and write my presentations. I often use my morning hours to get it done…Blocking time allows you to get into a zone. You can use the Rescue Time app to eliminate distractions from your computer and devices so that while you’re in the zone you are completely focused".
Laura McClellan argues that this principle applies to lots of things we do each day.
"If the demands of your day include routine tasks, try to group similar tasks and schedule certain times during the day to knock them out. Answering emails? Returning phone calls? Entering expenses into a spreadsheet? Instead of interrupting your other tasks to do these things piecemeal, batch them".
Use Tools To Help You
Stacia has some advice for us about dealing with the incoming tide of information hitting our inboxes and other kinds of content we come across while on-line.
"Create organized reading lists with the Pocket app and Instapaper. As you browse the internet these apps allow you to put articles, videos and other information in a virtual pocket for you to read at your own leisure. Facebook allows you to save videos and Instagram allows you to save posts that you want to reference later as well".
I'm a big fan of Instapaper personally. I use it not only to save items I'd like to read later, but I can also clip internet pages I might want to refer to again. Once I've reviewed them later, if I want to keep them I send them into Evernote.
Of course, we also need to manage our social media feeds. Here's Stacia again:
"Save time with Social Media. Let’s face it, social media is here to stay and it plays a major role in business marketing. To stay on top of it all, use Hootsuite, my tried and true app for years, to automate social media posts to Twitter, Facebook and more. The app has gotten more sophisticated over the years and offers many more social media management tools as well. Hootsuite has never let me down. I love that it organizes your time lines, direct messages and mentions so that you can review them easily".
Hootsuite is a great app, but today I use Sprout Social. I prefer the way it organises my feeds and I find the scheduling capability suits my way of working better.
Go On The Offensive
Rounding up this section on batching, The Harvard Business Review in a collection of articles from top leaders shares the approach Tom Rath takes. He makes sure that he can:
"Block out time to work away from email, programming your phone to only ring for select colleagues, and resisting emails first thing in the morning until you’ve achieved at least one important task."
Control Interruptions
Finally in this section, Bruna Martinuzzi suggests taking a leaf out of the restauranteur Danny Meyer's approach to managing people:
"He has his assistant group all questions that come up during the day in one list so she doesn't have to interrupt him repeatedly during office hours. Take a cue from this and see how you can ask others on your team to group questions, requests and other non-urgent inquiries so you're not distracted by interruptions that don't add value".
So that concludes the round up of top advice about batching jobs and tasks. Avoiding multitasking and batching activities can make a huge difference to our personal productivity.
The Take Away
If you're already implementing the advice to avoid multi-tasking it makes sense to create time slots in your day. Use these time slots to match work to your energy levels and attention span and allocate time in your calendar to tackle similar tasks in groups. You'll find this easier to accomplish if you deploy tools to help you. Remember to control distractions that could throw you off course.
References
https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/254432
http://www.itv.com/news/2016-01-28/top-10-tips-for-a-productive-workplace/
https://www.themuse.com/advice/45-productivity-tips-for-extremely-busy-people
https://timemanagementninja.com/2017/02/7-tips-to-increase-your-email-speed/
http://www.robinsharma.com/blog/09/become-the-most-productive-person-you-know/
http://healthyleaderblog.com/blog/how-to-beat-email-and-quadruple-your-best-time
http://lifecoach2women.com/main/ten-productivity-tips-for-business-owners/
http://www.lifehack.org/articles/productivity/top-10-tips-for-productivity.html
https://hbr.org/2015/12/9-productivity-tips-from-people-who-write-about-productivity
https://www.americanexpress.com/us/small-business/openforum/articles/productivity-tips-from-incredibly-busy-entrepreneurs/
3. Build Consistency In The System And Methods You Use
Build A System
With so much complexity around us and with so many ways of receiving information it is inevitable that without some kind of system we are going to get overwhelmed. This is one of the most critical steps any of us can take to become better organised and so more productive.
I've written a series of posts about my own approach to these issues. You can read my note taking method here.
Create A Schedule Of Activities
At its most basic a system has a schedule of activities that you follow in a pre-defined way. Brian Tracy puts it like this.
"Scheduling your time reduces stress and releases energy. The very act of using your organizational skills to plan your day, week, and month gives you a greater feeling of control and will help increase productivity throughout your day. You’ll feel in charge of your life. It actually increases your self-esteem and improves your sense of personal power".
There is a psychological aspect to developing a system – it creates a sense of order around you and that helps to reduce stress. When we are stressed our creativity and productivity drops exponentially.
Manage Your Diary
Scot Farquhar has this recommendation for diary management:
"Review your diary at the end of each week. Literally print it out and review it. Ask yourself three questions: (1) did we achieve what we wanted to (2) did I personally need to be there (3) could it have been achieved in a shorter time frame. It will transform how you spend your time."
This regular discipline can pay you back many times over.
Manage Your To Do's
April Underwood, Vice President at Slack reminds us of how important it is to have a system for managing all of your to-do's.
"Have a clear system for to-dos: whether it’s 'Getting Things Done' or the 'Checklist Manifesto,' just have a system and stick to it. I have a very specific method I use in Slack and in email that works for me, and knowing I have that system keeps me from feeling overwhelmed even when I’m behind or the to-dos pile up."
Big, Brave Goals Release Energy
Here's Robin Sharma again:
"Remember that big, brave goals release energy. So set them clearly and then revisit them every morning for 5 minutes".
Be Realistic
Regular and consistent seems to be the way. Larry Kim is dismissive of To-Do lists as they are not actually a system but actually in Eric Barker's words, a 'pipe dream'.
"Have you ever had that to-do item that simply wouldn't disappear? It hovers at the bottom of the list or scratched in the corner, petulantly scowling at you for days, weeks, even months! As more time passes, you feel even less inclined to give it attention. We've all been there--it's just one of the reasons I'm saying out with the to-do list and in with scheduling".
This means you have to be realistic about what is possible. Eric Barker suggests we should:
"Seriously sit down and consider your available time and what specific slots you can designate to completing certain tasks in a given day. To-dos are pipe dreams. Scheduling is a game plan. Studies show that even scheduling free time can be rewarding and can result in better quality of time spent – even if that time spent is playing PS4 or reading a Stephen King novel".
Always Have Back Up Tasks
The Daily Muse reckons we could all do with having a list of things we can turn our attention to when we are blocked from working on what he have planned to do.
"Always have backup tasks. There are times when life will try to derail your productivity: A person you need to talk to is unavailable, the internet is down, or you just can’t focus on the task at hand. Always have other options so that you’re able to get something done even when you can’t finish your primary task."
This method ensure there's always something we can move forward, even when our planned activity can't be worked on.
Clarify Your Three Most Important Goals
Many of the experts included in this round up recommend adopting a 'top three things' approach. J D Meier has written extensively about this method in his brilliant "Getting Things Done The Agile Way."
Writing about this Stacia Pierce suggests:
"Streamline your focus. Instead of trying to get a million things done in a day, write your list then choose the top three things to accomplish each day. These three things should be of the highest priority and once accomplished will leave you feeling satisfied with your productivity. Use the Streaks app to be reminded to accomplish your top 3 daily goals. You can also turn your most important daily tasks into new habits with this app’s features".
The trick is to ruthlessly prioritise. Kathleen Kobel, founder of Smart Business Mom makes this clear:
"If you can, set aside the low-priority items and come up with a plan to delegate or outsource them so that you can spend more time on the things that add more value to your position and the company."
Have A Great Filing System
There's so much information we now have available to us, that the premium on great organisational systems for storing and retrieving that information has never been higher. Brian Tracy suggests:
"Resolve to improve your organizational skills and use a filing system both at home and at work. …There are few activities so frustrating as spending your valuable time looking for misplaced materials because no thought was given to a filing and retrieval system".
He suggests that the best systems are probably the simplest. He recommends using an alphabetical system and then creating a master list which enables you to understand very quickly where everything is.
Never Procrastinate
Having a good system is one thing, but it is crucial that you develop some self-discipline too. Not only will this help make the system stick, it will also stop things piling up, particularly if you follow Anthony Tan, CEO and co-founder of Grab's advice:
"Just get it done right away. I don't wait until I get home, I take calls wherever I am. I execute on any feedback I get right away. That way the work never piles up."
The Take Away
To be a more productive person, build a system that you can trust. Manage your time, your to-do's, and major goals. Have a plan for when you get side tracked. Avoid procrastination.
References
http://fortune.com/2016/09/26/productivity-tips-40/
http://www.robinsharma.com/blog/09/become-the-most-productive-person-you-know/
http://www.inc.com/larry-kim/23-best-productivity-hacks-of-the-year.html
http://theweek.com/articles/444385/how-most-productive-person-office--still-home-by-530-pm
http://www.30daysofgettingresults.com/
http://lifecoach2women.com/main/ten-productivity-tips-for-business-owners/
http://www.businessnewsdaily.com/5658-easy-productivity-tips.html
http://www.briantracy.com/blog/time-management/6-time-management-tips-to-increase-productivity-organizational-skills/
http://fortune.com/2016/09/26/productivity-tips-40/
4. Set Things Up A Day Ahead
Prepare The Night Before
There are only 24-hours in each day. There's obviously a limit to how much time you have and what you can get done in a single day. Some productivity experts recommend getting a jump on each day by preparing the day before. Bharath Kumar writes:
"The family is asleep. They think the weekend is over. Monday morning is yet to come. Work through Sunday night, or at least till 3AM. You get at least 4 hours of extremely productive, thoughtful, non-interrupted time with no expectations. When you get work done on a Sunday night, your Monday is awesome. You meet colleagues with confidence, and can do meetings to plan the next week - all armed by a productive night."
The Rationale For Preparing A Day Ahead
Brian Tracy is another who uses this practice to increase his productivity. He explains the rationale for doing so like this:
"A major benefit of preparing your daily list the night before is that this exercise lets you sleep more soundly. A major reason for insomnia is your lying awake trying not to forget to remember everything that you have to do the following day. Once you have written down everything you have to do on your list, it clears your mind and enables you to sleep deeply. This will help you increase productivity throughout the next work day."
In a later section on looking after your health there are some further suggestions about how getting a good night's sleep can have a positive impact on your personal effectiveness. Thorin Klosowski discusses Barack Obama's approach to preparation:
"By the end of the day, most of us want to relax with some cable TV and zone out for a while before our next stressful day. Barack Obama reminds us that a better approach is to spend a little bit of time preparing for the next day".
He suggests that Obama would often stay up late into the night flicking through documents to help him get his thoughts organised. Klosowski suggests:
"The president’s job is much more stressful than yours, so implementing this as a daily routine makes sense. The rest of us can utilize this tip before big meetings, presentations, or deadlines".
Beat Monday Mania
Larry Kim uses this practice to avoid what he calls Monday mania. He suggests that it's not necessary to spend a lot of time working. It's more a matter of switching your brain on ahead of time.
"You don't need to make calls or even answer emails – simply assess what your Monday game plan will be, and you'll sleep a little more soundly".
It seems that priming the brain a day ahead creates some advantages. It enables the mind to start processing ahead of time and it means you feel more prepared and ready for the day ahead. Even a simple review of what lies ahead can help. Laura McClellan writes:
"The best way to hit the ground running is to start the night before. Before leaving your workspace, or before going to bed, take ten minutes to look over the next day’s commitments".
The Take Away
A stitch in time saves nine. Get a jump start on your day by preparing the night before. Just a quick review of what lies ahead will be enough to get your unconscious churning away so that when your day starts you'll have the benefit of that predigested thinking.
References
http://www.inc.com/ss/13-productivity-hacks-help-you-get-more-done
http://www.briantracy.com/blog/time-management/6-time-management-tips-to-increase-productivity-organizational-skills/
http://lifehacker.com/top-10-productivity-tips-from-former-presidents-1792454530
http://www.inc.com/larry-kim/23-best-productivity-hacks-of-the-year.html
http://www.lifehack.org/articles/productivity/top-10-tips-for-productivity.html
5. Delegate It
You Are Not Alone – Use The People Round You
Mastering the ability to delegate is a crucial productivity competency it seems. It stands to reason that if we are faced with multiple demands on our time we need to maximise our ability to engage others in completing the tasks we have to complete. Laura McClellan offers some very practical advice. We can ask these questions she suggests:
"What tasks could someone else do, thereby freeing you up to focus on the things only you can do? Look around you: who is available to do some of those tasks? A secretary? A colleague? A family member? A paid helper? An important key to productivity is doing only those things that only you can do, and giving somebody else the opportunity to contribute by doing those other tasks".
Daniel Tan, a web entrepreneur is very clear about the benefits of delegation.
"Delegation is the most important fuel for productivity. Having more staffs should double, triple, quadruple, etc., your time."
Get The Most Out Of Delegation
To get the most from delegation he argues that staff should be set free, and not micro-managed.
"Let them fly with their wings. You hired them, they are surely good. Otherwise, why keep them? Since they are good, there is really no need to check on them all the time. Cultivate a sense of ownership and let them work like they are the boss. Things will go so well when everyone think they are the owners of the company and act in it's best interest".
The Take Away
Make the most of the team you lead. Empower them and increase not only your own productivity, but make their lives better too.
References
http://www.lifehack.org/articles/productivity/top-10-tips-for-productivity.html
http://www.inc.com/ss/13-productivity-hacks-help-you-get-more-done
6. Deal With Distractions
Switch Off
Laura McClellan hits the nail on the head when she says:
"One of the major productivity killers is the distraction of constant interruptions. Emails, phone calls, people appearing at your door… The technology that can (and should) make our lives easier and better also can make it virtually impossible to maintain the kind of focused attention that’s necessary to work efficiently and effectively".
There is a huge problem which is inadvertently created by the very technology which was supposed to make a work easier to accomplish and amplify our productivity efforts. The question is what can we do about it?
Bryan Guido Hassin makes a radical suggestion:
"After noticing that he got some of his best work done on long intercontinental flights, Guido established "Airplane Days" to help him get things done".
"On "Airplane Days," Guido restricts his Internet access, removes distractions, and churns through his high priority to-do items."
He offers some advice based on his implementation of this strategy which he claims creates the most productive time of the week by far.
"At the beginning of each week, I carefully look at my schedule and declare one day (or two half days) to be Airplane Time. I block it out on my shared calendar and treat it as if I were in the air: working out of the office, disabling my phone, and shutting off network connections on my laptop."
Dealing With Social Media
Social media can be a huge distraction, with it's constantly updating streams which can litter our screens and cause big reductions in our effectiveness. Roman Grigorjev has a clever hack for Facebook:
"He partially quit Facebook by moving all his friends to acquaintances."
He explains: "You can move everyone from 'friends' to 'acquaintances.' You will still get updates, but instead of 'check out what I ate for breakfast,' you will only be shown the most important posts, i.e. 2-5 new posts max a day from hundreds of your friends. That would save you lots of time and make you 5-10x more productive."
The Daily Muse recommends an app which can turn off our social media streams completely while we are at work.
"Try an app like SelfControl to block your access during the workday".
Larry Kim recommends turning off notifications – something which I totally recommend. I've written a post about my app set up which discusses how to do this this at some length.
It's not just social media that jostles for our attention. News feeds can also create unwanted distractions. Larry Kim offers this advice:
"The idea that we need to keep up to date on the news is largely outdated. Most of what passes as news today is prettily packaged garbage – it's trivial, depressing, and unreliable. If something major happens, you'll find out one way or another. Instead, focus your attention on what's useful and actionable in your life".
The Take Away
Learn how to control distraction and you'll already be ahead of most people. Try some of the methods suggested here and regain control of your time and what you seen it on.
References
http://www.lifehack.org/articles/productivity/top-10-tips-for-productivity.html
http://www.inc.com/ss/13-productivity-hacks-help-you-get-more-done
https://selfcontrolapp.com/
https://www.themuse.com/advice/45-productivity-tips-for-extremely-busy-people
http://healthyleaderblog.com/blog/mobile-device-hero
http://www.inc.com/larry-kim/23-best-productivity-hacks-of-the-year.html
7. Eat That Frog
Tackle The Worst One First
Brian Tracy's best selling book, Eat That Frog!: Get More of the Important Things Done - Today! is based on the idea that quite often the thing that weighs on our mind is the thing we tend to put off.
I've explored previously how this is a problem for us, these 'open loops' will continue to deplete our mind's mental energy store and make us less likely to make good quality decisions. Brian's advice is that we should deal with the most unpleasant task first. It's really surprising how doing this releases a ton of energy and some endorphins too as you realise you've actually dealt with that problem. He calls them Frogs because the idea of eating of frog to most of us is – well fairly grim. Anything we eat afterwards will seem much more palatable as a result.
Murray Newlands takes this philosophy and uses it to:
"Schedule the most vital activities first. If you first deal with your most critical tasks first, it'll be easier to discover time for less important tasks. If you permit yourself to become sidetracked on busywork or unimportant tasks, odds are you never will get to the things that really matter"
Alok Bhardwaj says that this is the way he starts every morning.
"Do the least desirable tasks first thing in the morning. Try to work 2-3 hours straight on getting stuff done first thing in thing in the morning, before email or anything else".
You'll Feel Much Better When It's Done
People develop their own rationale for eating frogs. Nicole Fallon Taylor tells us what her's is:
"Instead of waiting until the last minute to finish a task, get it off your plate as soon as possible. Your other tasks will seem less daunting by comparison, and you'll stop stressing about that one task all day, making you more productive overall".
Graham Allcott doesn't use the term "frog" but it's clear that he has his own method for dealing with the difficult or the unpleasant tasks we all have waiting. He has what he calls a "Power Hour" approach.
"So the Power Hour is a single hour each day, where you schedule in an obligation to tackle the difficult, or unclear, or scary, or tedious. Power through those things in an hour, and then you don’t have to think about them for the rest of the day."
Jason Kanigan adopts a similar strategy, terming it the "Golden Hour." These are times when you are functioning at peak performance.
"Figure out when your 'golden hours' are, and protect them at all costs. Permit no distractions during those times. Then 'Eat That Frog'– pick the biggest, hairiest, most difficult goal that stands between you and the next giant step towards success ... and Do It Now. "A small number of decisions makes up the majority of your life experience (the 80/20 rule strikes again!). Therefore, a small number of activity choices make up the large majority of your achievements ... or lack thereof."
Wrapping up this section, Brandon Turner has the simplest advice which captures the essence of frog eating. He puts things like this:
"This year, I made a change. I decided to tackle my biggest task first, before anything else."
The Take Away
Stop avoiding that job you have kept pushing away. You'll be amazed at how liberating it is not to have the anxiety these postponed 'frogs' create swept from your mind.
References
Eat That Frog!: Get More of the Important Things Done - Today!
http://www.inc.com/murray-newlands/11-awesome-productivity-tips-that-will-radically-improve-your-life.html
http://www.inc.com/ss/13-productivity-hacks-help-you-get-more-donehttp://www.businessnewsdaily.com/5658-easy-productivity-tips.html
https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/254432
8. Look After Your Health
Mental And Physical Well Being Matter
It’s important not to overlook the role that your physical and mental well being play in maintaining peak performance. There’s little point in designing systems and building workflows if the engine that drives them (that’ll be you) is faltering.
Eat Breakfast
Larry Kim’s advice is to start each day by re-fuelling, priming your mind and body for another day of peak productivity. He says:
“Eat Breakfast! Breakfast truly is the most important meal of the day--it's not a ruse put on by Dunkin' Donuts. A morning meal gives you the fuel you need to be present and productive at work, so don't skip it”.
Laura McClellan confirms this noting that there is a lot of evidence which confirms the importance of beginning each day with a good breakfast.
"Healthy people are more productive. No matter how busy you are, eat a decent breakfast. It’ll fuel you for a terrific start to your day".
Stay Well Hydrated
It’s not just breakfast however, it’s also vital to make sure that you are properly hydrated. Robin Sharma makes the point:
Drink more water. When you’re dehydrated, you’ll have far less energy. And get less done.
Thorin Klosowski takes a look at what US Presidents have done to maintain their personal health. Here’s a quick summary:
“A large number of presidents have made it a point to add exercise into their daily routine. Obama planned for an hour of exercise a day, Clinton was an avid jogger, Teddy Roosevelt loved tennis, jogging, and boxing. George W. Bush was also an avid tennis player and jogger, while Jimmy Carter was a cross-country runner. John F. Kennedy, Gerald Ford, and Ronald Reagan were all swimmers. Time and time again we’ve seen that exercise is as important for physical health as it is mental health, and in the stressful position of president, that seems to hold true”.
Benefits Of Exercise
The benefits of exercise on your mood can change how you feel. Your mood can be given a quick positive injection of productivity enhancing hormones that will help you power through the tasks in front of you. Larry Kim writes:
“It's been shown that exercising in the morning can greatly improve your productivity. Exercise energizes rather than exhausts you, contrary to what the couch potatoes might tell you. (Not that I'm judging. I can be very spud-tacular myself at times.) Exercising also promotes good health (quick, alert the press!), and some studies have shown that exercise can improve your mood for up to 12 hours following your workout. Less stress, more efficiency – it's definitely worth setting that alarm 30 minutes earlier”.
Why Exercise Makes Sense
If you want a quick summary of the reasons why you should start an exercise programme today, take a look at this article by Whitson Gordon. He lists 10 reasons to exercise regularly.
You’ll just be happier.
You’ll live longer.
You’ll get sick less often.
You’ll have better sex.
You’ll get sick less often.
You’ll sleep better.
You’ll de-stress.
You’ll boost your confidence.
You’ll improve your posture.
You’ll improve your memory.
The Take Away
There is a simple truth in the maxim: a healthy body, a healthy mind. Take action to improve your physical and mental well being and not only will you become more productive, you might leave longer and more healthily too.
References
http://www.inc.com/larry-kim/23-best-productivity-hacks-of-the-year.html
http://www.lifehack.org/articles/productivity/top-10-tips-for-productivity.html
http://www.robinsharma.com/blog/09/become-the-most-productive-person-you-know/
http://lifehacker.com/top-10-productivity-tips-from-former-presidents-1792454530
http://lifehacker.com/top-10-reasons-to-exercise-regularly-besides-losing-we-1473616982
9. Manage Meetings Better
We Spend Way Too Much Time In Meetings
According to Scott Dockweiller if you’re a middle manager you’re likely to be spending 35% of your time in meetings. This figure climbs to 50% as you enter the C-Suite.
Given the huge time commitment that meetings require, it’s critical that you maximise the productivity you obtain from meetings.
Carlos Ghosn, CEO of Renault and Nissan, is strict on the timing allotted for single-topic, non-operational meetings: He allows a maximum of one hour and 30 minutes. Fifty percent of the time is for the presentation, and 50 percent is for discussion”. Source: The Daily Muse
Adjust The Default Times In Your Calendar
One way to start is to adjust the default settings in Outlook or whichever calendar app you use to manage your time. Jeff Haden suggests:
"Whoever invented the one-hour default in calendar software wasted millions of people-hours."
Most of the time a meeting doesn’t need more than half and hour – often fifteen minutes will suffice. Parkinson’s Law will operate if you don’t do this. Re-set expectations and change the default. You can free up a huge amount of time by tweaking this one setting.
Plan Your Meetings
If you’re responsible for organising a meeting, there are some simple rules that just have to be implemented. The Daily Muse hass a super formula for conducting highly productive meetings. Start with a plan for the meeting, facilitate for focus – organising a distraction free environment if possible and keeping everyone on track, and then closing out effectively with a clear series of next steps.
As The Daily Muse puts it:
“Be incredibly proactive about keeping meetings on track. Send everyone an agenda for each meeting, and, if the conversation goes off topic, don't be afraid to rein it in . A simple, “Let’s schedule time to discuss that later if it’s helpful, since we only have 10 minutes left,” works perfectly”.
Avoid Pointless Meetings
Finally, remember that you always have a choice. Avoid pointless meetings at all costs. Graham Allcott makes this suggestion:
“Avoid pointless meetings Meetings can be a massive time-suck. Never take part in a meeting that doesn’t have a clear purpose, a clear agenda and clear start and finish times. But even well-organised meetings can be a time suck! The occasional sending of your apologies can all be good ways to reclaim some vital hours to put your attention to better use than sat in a boring meeting”.
The Take Away
Many of us spend a lot of time in meetings. These are therefore very important opportunities for us to maximise productivity. Avoid the pointless ones and plan the one's you lead.
References
https://www.themuse.com/advice/how-much-time-do-we-spend-in-meetings-hint-its-scary
https://www.americanexpress.com/us/small-business/openforum/articles/productivity-tips-from-incredibly-busy-entrepreneurs/
https://www.inc.com/jeff-haden/10-simple-steps-to-exceptional-daily-productivity.html
https://www.themuse.com/advice/45-productivity-tips-for-extremely-busy-people
http://www.itv.com/news/2016-01-28/top-10-tips-for-a-productive-workplace/
10. Organise Your Workspace
Clutter Creates Distractions
It’s surprising how an untidy and cluttered working environment impacts on productivity. There are the obvious reasons to do with inefficiency. It’s much harder to find what you need in a disorganised workspace. It can be hard to lay out your work and make it easy to understand what you have to do.
The signal an untidy or disorganised workspace sends to our brains is more insidious. We know the place is a mess, so our mind wild it’s best to keep track of where things are. This is an unconscious process that will be stealing energy from the processing power you’ll need to perform at you best.
These are more of the mental “open loops” which will quickly drain your mind’s battery. It makes a lot of sense to create a well organised and uncluttered environment to work in.
The Daily Muse emphasises the impact clutter can have on your ability to focus:
"Just like multitasking, clutter overloads your senses and makes it harder for you to get stuff done. So if you find yourself having trouble focusing, look around at your desk (and your computer desktop) to see if any of them need a little tidying."
Organise Your Workspace
What do the experts suggest?
Nicolle Fallon, quoting Kristoph Matthews suggests a remedy:
“Before you do anything else, take a few moments at the start of each day to organize and de-clutter your workspace. Having a clutter-free environment helps you think more clearly and produce better results, said Kristoph Matthews, founder of on-demand storage company Boxbee. By cleaning up and organizing your space, you will greatly increase your productivity and limit the time you spend searching for items.”
The Take Away
A disorganised and cluttered workspace will leave you prone to distractions. Not being able to finds what you need, coupled with the 'open loops' such environments trigger in your brain will drain your mental reserves dramatically.
References
https://www.themuse.com/advice/45-productivity-tips-for-extremely-busy-people
http://www.businessnewsdaily.com/5658-easy-productivity-tips.html#sthash.tvZsA0SW.dpu
11. Outsource It
Value Your Own Time
Not everything that’s on your plate has to be dealt with by you personally. If you are lucky enough to have a team, you can empower them and delegate tasks to them.
Sometimes you need to go further. Two good questions to ask are:
Does anyone need to do this task? If no, then stop doing it.
Do we absolutely have to do this ourselves? If no, then consider outsourcing it.
There’s no doubt that highly productive people are very picky about how they spend their energy and time. Bruna Martinuzzi offers this advice:
“Do a cost/benefit analysis of how you spend your time and see if it's worth offloading some repetitive tasks so you can focus on what will bring value to your company”.
Some Outsourcing Options
Marissa Brassfield suggests there are some areas of your life which could be potential candidates for out-sourcing. These are:
Appointments, Reservations, and Logistics Coordination
Fancy Hands
TaskRabbit
Task Bullet
MyTasker
Zirtual
TimeSvr
For Call Handling
AppleTree Answers
Ruby Receptionist
MyReceptionist
VoiceCloud
Research
Fiverr
Freelancer.com
Elance
Graphic Design and Freelance
Fiverr
Elance
99 Designs
Guru
DesignCrowd
Putting Together Furniture, Dry Cleaning Drop-Off, and Other In-Person Tasks
Zaarly
TaskRabbit
Shopping for Fresh ProduceShopping for Fresh Produce
There will be many suppliers that can tailor an offer to your needs based on your specific geography. Marissa is very clear about the advantages she finds in out-sourcing:
“…the truth is, you can outsource more than you might think—for less than you’d imagine—using the tons of online virtual assistant and delivery services out there”.
The Take Away
You really don't need to do everything yourself. Leverage these resources to free your time up for the tasks that you and you alone can do.
References
https://www.americanexpress.com/us/small-business/openforum/articles/productivity-tips-from-incredibly-busy-entrepreneurs/
https://www.themuse.com/advice/7-tasks-you-should-outsourceimmediately
https://www.fancyhands.com/
https://www.taskrabbit.com/
https://www.taskbullet.com/
https://mytasker.com/
https://www.zirtual.com/
https://www.timesvr.com/
http://www.appletreeanswers.com/
https://www.callruby.com/
http://myreceptionist.com/
https://www.voicecloud.com/
https://www.fiverr.com/
https://www.freelancer.com/
https://www.elance.com/
http://www.99designs.com/
http://www.guru.com/
http://www.designcrowd.com/
https://zaarly.com/
12. Develop A Positive Mindset
The Happiness Advantage
I’ve written a summary of the best books out there on how the mind works. One of the books which made it to the list was Shawn Achor’s The Happiness Advantage. This books reinforces the principle that happiness drives success, not the other way round.
It’s no wonder that productivity experts emphasis the importance of cultivating a positive mindset as part of your strategy to become more productive. President John F Kennedy once said:
“Of course, while it’s important to learn from past mistakes, nostalgia for the past can be a boring, manipulative emotion that blinds you to the needs of the future”.
Having a growth mindset means that you will be on the look out for learning and will assume that even when things haven’t worked out, it will be possible to learn from them. They key is not to wallow in the mistakes and spend time recriminating.
Monitor Our Internal Conversation
We can also prime ourselves for improved future performance by being careful with the language we use in our internal conversations. Graham Allcott suggests you should:
“Use language to change your motivation. If you’re dreading doing a particularly boring task, don’t say “I have to…”, say “I get to…”. The language we use with ourselves is a key component of productivity psychology”.
The Take Away
The new field of positive psychology creates some powerful new insights for people interested in improving productivity. Maximise your personal effeorts by building an appreciation of positive psychology – reading the Happiness Advantage is a good place to start.
References
http://lifehacker.com/top-10-productivity-tips-from-former-presidents-1792454530
http://www.itv.com/news/2016-01-28/top-10-tips-for-a-productive-workplace/
http://amzn.to/2q1ydke
https://healthyleaderblog.com/blog/5-best-books-mind
13. Use Rituals To Create New Habits
Build New Habits
No-one can operate at 100% of their ability constantly. Optimising the periods of time when we are at our best is one of the principles behind improved productivity. You are looking for a way to organise your routines into some kind of consistent pattern which you know helps you work at your best.
Brigid Schulte puts it like this:
“…we have been seduced into thinking that if only we try harder and work longer, we can achieve anything. Top performers take a different approach. They recognize and honor their physical limitations by getting plenty of exercise and sleep, cycling between 90-minute bursts of focused work and short restorative breaks, and taking time to disconnect from email for some portion of their off-hours”.
Tony Schwartz, CEO of The Energy Project suggest four ways of setting up rituals to automate behaviours that will make you more productive. One of them is to define one task each day which you will prioritise – then start the day focused on that task.
"Force yourself to prioritize so that you know that you will finish at least that one critical task during the period of the day when you have the most energy and the fewest distractions," Schwartz says.
Building rituals is something that successful people have done over time as Robin Sharma describes:
“When I studied the creative lives of massively productive people like Stephen King, John Grisham and Thomas Edison, I discovered they follow strict daily routines. (i.e., when they would get up, when they would start work, when they would exercise and when they would relax).”
Meditation Helps Ideas Develop
Stacia Pierce has a meditation practice she uses to start each day:
“Every day, I spend time meditating before I start my day. Meditation for at least 15 minutes can get you focused and help to improve productivity. Insight comes early; if you sit quietly in the morning and meditate and then listen within, you will discover brilliant ideas are ready to burst out of you”.
Tackle Habits You Want To Change
The flip side of positive behaviours you want to encourage is those bad habits you’d like to change. Here’s one piece of practical advice from Larry Kim:
“Sometimes the best way to break a bad habit is to make things incredibly difficult for yourself. If you hate that you watch too much TV, keep the remote control in the upstairs closet”.
The Take Away
To be productive you need to master your own behaviour. Lots of our behaviour is driven unconsciously which is why habits and rituals play such an important role in driving improved productivity.
References
https://www.americanexpress.com/us/small-business/openforum/articles/productivity-tips-from-incredibly-busy-entrepreneurs/
https://hbr.org/2015/12/9-productivity-tips-from-people-who-write-about-productivity
http://www.inc.com/larry-kim/23-best-productivity-hacks-of-the-year.html
14. Say No
You Always Have A Choice
No is a very powerful word which you can use to regulate how much you have to do. It is sometimes difficult to say no, but developing a confident ability to recognise when you are already shipping water is a strategy many experts recommend.
Adam Grant’s book Give and Take reveals the findings from his his research into strategies for giving and receiving help. While his study demonstrates that successful people tend to be people who are prepared to help others without expecting something in return, he noticed something else too. The Harvard Business Review puts it like this:
"While giving can certainly help you succeed, Grant’s data also reveals that helping everyone with everything is a recipe for failure. So how do you do it right? Top performers, Grant argues, avoid saying yes to every helping opportunity. Instead, they specialize in one or two forms of helping that they genuinely enjoy and excel at uniquely”.
Learn How To Discriminate
Larry Kim offers a clear rationale for cultivating the ability to discriminate – to be clear what you can take on and what you really shouldn’t.
"Remember, it's not simply a matter of being agreeable – when you take on too much, all your work suffers. You may end up missing deadlines, and despite good intentions, you could end up disappointing others when you are unable to meet the extraordinary expectations you've created for yourself”.
The Take Away
Remember whenever you say yes to something, you're also saying no to something else. There are only so many things which it is possible to do in any allotted time. Learning how to say no, to discriminate between the important and the not so important can have major benefits to your productivity.
References
https://hbr.org/2015/12/9-productivity-tips-from-people-who-write-about-productivity
15. Build Your Self Awareness
Increase Productivity With Prime Time
Brain Tracy has made a career from providing advice to business leaders. His conclusions are based on thousands of hours of observation and conversations with some of the world's top business leaders. He suggests you should:
"Organize your life so that you are doing creative work during your internal ‘‘prime time.’’ Your internal prime time is the time of day, according to your body clock, when you are the most alert and productive."
By identifying when you are at your most productive, you will maximise your ability to work at your optimal level of productivity. This appears to be one of the characteristics of some of the most successful business leaders. Here's Ryan Smith, CEO of Qualtrics:
"The key for me is you have to understand how your brain works and when you are most productive. For me, I’m most productive and creative in the morning through early afternoon, so I’ve gotten rid of lunch meetings to keep my productive time going as long as I can. I make sure the tasks I have at the beginning of the day are the tasks that require the most creativity or, in other words, tasks I have never done before."
Think About Your Thinking
Henry Ford once said:
"Thinking is the hardest work there is, which is the probably reason so few engage in it.”
There are huge benefits you can obtain from spending time considering carefully about what you have to do.
"But quality thinking time is vital not only to our productivity, but to our sense of control and well-being at work. Regularly reviewing what we’re working on, what’s on our schedule and what’s coming up can help us spot efficiencies, empower us to be realistic and say no to requests, and get the clarity we need to create momentum and remove procrastination from our working week".
Psychologist Ivan Staroversky, a counselor, psychotherapist, NLP trainer, and Lifehacker, uses the knowledge he has acquired about how our minds work to help him be more productive. He says that he listens to his Ultradian rhythms which are natural body cycles that rise and fall throughout the day every 90-120 minutes. He explains:
"Approximately every 90-120 minutes, the mind and body give us clues signaling the need for rest and change in physical and mental activity. Ignoring these signals may lead to fatigue, stress, and ultimately physical (psychosomatic) illness. These rhythms suggest that its time to take a break and can help increase your productivity. Basically you have to: - recognize the signals - listen to yourself - make time for rejuvenation and awakening".
You can find out more about his work on his blog.
Cool Off Before Responding
If you're provoked, it's all too easy to snap back. Similarly, following our instinctive response can lead us to places we didn't ever intend. While there's nothing wrong with encouraging a creative exploration of other possibilities, sudden, reactive changes in direction can be a serious problem.
President Thomas Jefferson gave himself some rules to counteract these tendencies:
"When angry, count ten, before you speak; if very angry, a hundred".
Allowing a pause between the stimulus and your reaction to it make a lot of sense. Bear in mind that if you can't always control what happens, you can always control how you respond to it.
Switch Locations
We are all made differently and one of our points of differentiation is how we respond to the environments we are in. For some people, changing your location can lead to a big boost in productivity. Meghan Khaitan, founder of seat belt buckle device MyBuckleMate said that a change of scenery can be a big help in boosting productivity.
"Head to the library or a local park (weather permitting), or find a place that's quiet and full of natural light. This can help spur new ideas or shed new light on an old problem."
Silence Your Inner Perfectionist
If you wait for everything to be in perfect alignment, for the absolutely perfect set of conditions, you might have a longer wait than necessary. This is a twist on the paralysis bu analysis maxim – which argues that enough information is enough information. Robin Sharma argues we should quit waiting for perfection:
"Stop waiting for perfect conditions to launch a great project. Immediate action fuels a positive feedback loop that drives even more action".
It's not just when we wait for the perfect situation to begin our tasks that we lose potential productivity opportunities. It's also when we try to perfect what we're doing. Larry Kim sums it up:
"Yes, a single piece of work can always be better, but what are you sacrificing by laboring over slight improvements? Do the best you can do in a reasonable amount of time, and then stop. Your inner perfectionist can be helpful, but it also needs to be kept in check".
Make A Verbal Commitment
If you're the kind of person who finds it tough to honour promises made to yourself – and let's face it many of us are, why not follow Larry's advice to make those same commitments to another person?
"It's easy to break a promise to yourself, but it's much harder to break a commitment you've made to another person. Words have weight and power--make vows to friends (and ask them to hold you accountable), and you may find it easier to keep commitments you wouldn't necessarily hold yourself to".
The Take Away
Build a better understanding of how you work at your best will pay you back handsomely. You will then be better placed to choose the times when you'll be at peak performance. You can choose more than when you work, you can also influence how productive you are by choosing where you work. Controlling your reactions to adversity and maintaining your focus are all skills which you can cultivate.
References
http://www.briantracy.com/blog/time-management/6-time-management-tips-to-increase-productivity-organizational-skills/
http://fortune.com/2016/09/26/productivity-tips-40/ http://lifehacker.com/top-10-productivity-tips-from-former-presidents-1792454530
http://www.businessnewsdaily.com/5658-easy-productivity-tips.html
http://www.inc.com/ss/13-productivity-hacks-help-you-get-more-done
http://www.inc.com/larry-kim/23-best-productivity-hacks-of-the-year.html
http://www.robinsharma.com/blog/09/become-the-most-productive-person-you-know/
http://www.itv.com/news/2016-01-28/top-10-tips-for-a-productive-workplace/
http://lifehacker.com/top-10-productivity-tips-from-former-presidents-1792454530
http://www.businessnewsdaily.com/5658-easy-productivity-tips.html#sthash.tvZsA0SW.dpuf
https://staroversky.com/
16. Simplify It
It's Simple, Stupid – Focus On What Matters
Winston Churchill once gave a speech, which he began by apologising that it was going to be a long one. He hadn't time he said to write a short one.
President Woodrow Wilson said much the same thing:
"If I am to speak ten minutes, I need a week for preparation; if fifteen minutes, three days; if half an hour, two days; if an hour, I am ready now."
One way to achieve a measure of simplicity is to narrow your focus.
Eric Schmidt, Google's executive chairman, says,
"I keep things focused. The speech I give every day is: 'This is what we do. Is what we are doing consistent with that, and can it change the world?'"
Jason Goldberg, CEO of Fab.com, has an alternative message:
Pick one thing and do that one thing—and only that one thing—better than anyone else ever could.
He argues:
"We can derive a great deal of power from developing a laser focus on our top business priorities. It's one of the attributes that sets apart the average businessperson from the more successful one.
The Take Away
When you commit to use your time, make sure that it is focused on your most important goals. That way you will make more progress. If you've got an important presentation to make, ensure you make enough time to deliver a short, simple message.
References
https://www.americanexpress.com/us/small-business/openforum/articles/productivity-tips-from-incredibly-busy-entrepreneurs/
http://lifehacker.com/top-10-productivity-tips-from-former-presidents-1792454530
17. Step Back From It
Maintain Perspective
This article is about implementing productivity hacks that will help you get more done. Jeff Lawson reminds how important it is to keep a perspective on what you're doing. For example, many people advocate clearing your emails to zero each day – something which I do recommend. Jeff has his own take on this:
"Inbox zero is a fool’s errand. I don’t try to keep up. I feel perfectly fine picking and choosing what I want to engage in."
This is an an example of an important caution about following anyone else's advice. In the end, you have to make the choice about what'll work for you. No-one else can do that.
Step Away From The Daily Grind Too
As a Harvard Business Review makes clear, "in a knowledge economy, productivity requires more than perseverance — it requires insight and problem-solving".
HBR presents a strong case for allowing a space to open between the hurly-burly of the daily business hustle and gain some perspective.
"Research indicates quite clearly that we are more likely to find breakthrough ideas when we temporarily remove ourselves from the daily grind. This is why the best solutions reveal themselves when we step into the shower, go for a run, or take a vacation".
"Top performers view time off not as stalled productivity but as an investment in their future performance".
Larry Kim puts it succinctly, arguing that we you shouldn't drown in the shallow end of the pool.
"When a hundred little tasks are nibbling at your brain, it's easy to feel overwhelmed and lost at sea. However, a little perspective can do you good--remember to not sweat the small stuff. If you're going to worry, worry about the big things, not the little ones".
The Take Away
It pays to remember there's always a bigger picture available. Find ways to ensure you've got the ability to climb out of the detail from time to time and check to make sure your goal still makes sense. Finding time to regain a focus on your larger goals can help you recognise when it's time to reevaluate.
References
http://fortune.com/2016/09/26/productivity-tips-40/
https://hbr.org/2015/12/9-productivity-tips-from-people-who-write-about-productivity
http://www.inc.com/larry-kim/23-best-productivity-hacks-of-the-year.html
18. Manage Your Time
Expect The Unexpected
There's always something you didn't think of, and the chances are that it will make itself known to you when it's least convenient. Murray Newlands believes the problem is caused by over-tight schedules.
"If your schedule is so tight that you do not allow for the unexpected, you drastically increase your odds of feeling chaotic throughout the day. If you must be somewhere and you're able to make it in 15 minutes, permit 25".
"Leave tiny, unscheduled time blocks all through your day in order for you to have a buffer against the unexpected."
Use Deadlines And Time Constraints As A Positive
My father used to say: "if you want to get something done, ask a busy person". Busy people don't have time to procrastinate and often keep things moving as a result. However, there's also a false busyness where we feel like we're busy when actually we are caught up in distractions. Then it's too easy to let time just slip between our fingers, particularly when the world is full of so many interesting alternatives to the task in hand. The Daily Muse offers this advice:
"Even if you don't technically have a deadline on a task, set one for yourself. Knowing that you only have two hours to get something done will help ensure you don't waste an hour of it on the internet."
The fact is that Parkinson's Law does operate. The tasks we have have a habit of expanding to fill the available space. Of course the opposite can also be true as The ITV reported:
" The work we do in the two or three hours when our attention is at its strongest, are really what defines our productivity – not the hours we spend looking busy until the boss goes home".
Manage Meeting Time
As we've already seen, there are lots of things we can do to make sure the time we spend in meetings can be as productive as possible. Here's a further tip from The Daily Muse:
"Do not schedule more time than you need. Most meetings are scheduled for a full hour, when they should be 20 minutes, 30 minutes, or 45 minutes max".
Take Time For A Break
It's true that: All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. In this context, "dull" means less sharp, weary and more liable to make mistakes or take longer to complete a task. Larry Kim suggest we should be kind to ourselves:
"Give Yourself a Break, Man! You work hard--you deserve a break! Maybe with a Kit Kat, maybe with a cup of tea, maybe with a walk in the park. It's easy to burn yourself out if you try to work at full throttle all day long. The truth is that our minds just aren't designed to work that way. For optimal productivity, try the popular and praised Pomodoro technique--work for 25 minutes, then give yourself a five-minute break".
Business News Daily took up this theme when discussing how to enhance personal productivity. It cites Kathleen Kobel, the woman behind Smart Business Mom:
"Take short breaks. Whether it's a walk around the block, a run to the nearby coffee shop, reading a magazine or visiting with a colleague, taking short breaks that are unrelated to your work can make a huge difference in your performance. Your productivity diminishes the longer you go without a break, Kobel told Business News Daily. Kobel explained that this is why it's recommended that people don't work more than 8 to 10 hours per day — at a certain point, your body and mind simply cannot produce anymore, she said".
The Daily Muse recommends you schedule plenty of breaks throughout your day. Building this into your daily schedule can be tricky, so they offer this tip for hard pressed and busy people whip struggle to male this happen:
"Try using an online timer to remind yourself to get up from your desk, grab a snack or some water, or chat with a co-worker for a few minutes before getting back to the grindstone".
For a more formulaic approach, here's Murray Newlands again, describing how he ensure that he makes time for breaks during his day:
"I utilize applied focus sessions where I do 45 minutes of focused effort, followed up by 15 minutes of something else. After 45 minutes, our ability to focus starts to taper off and we no longer optimally perform. I utilize those 15 minutes for strolling around, getting something to drink, answering calls, or anything else that distracts me from the activity at hand".
"Oftentimes, that's when my best ideas come to mind, and I wind up feeling invigorated and prepared to make things work."
Keep A Track On Your Time
There's always a possibility that time will pass without you noticing. This can be a big problem, particularly when we are concentrating hard on something. Over time these can lead to large amounts of time that we are unconsciously using. Bear in mind that time is a non-renewable commodity, it only moves in one direction. That's why so many people recommend we track our time:
"To figure out where your time is heading, attempt to keep a time log for one or two weeks. How much time is actually being lost on unimportant tasks? Where will the majority of your interruptions come from? Will they happen within specific periods of time or on certain days of the week? Once you have this data, it'll be simpler to eliminate time-wasting tasks, along with interruptions and distractions".
There are tools out there that can help you do this. They work in the background, keeping track of what you're up to. Here are are two that I've used:
Rescue Time
Toggl
If you use these tools you'll have a much better idea about how your time is being spent.
Over the course of a week or two, you'll start to get a sense of what the time-sucking culprits are—and be able to plan your attack for how you'll get rid of them.
The Take Away
Time is a non-renewable resource. To make the most of the time we are given is one of the more important productivity skills you need to master. It's also one of the productivity areas that spills over into the rest of your life. Find some ways to manage your time and you'll feel the benefits far beyond improved personal productivity.
References
http://www.inc.com/murray-newlands/11-awesome-productivity-tips-that-will-radically-improve-your-life.html
https://www.themuse.com/advice/45-productivity-tips-for-extremely-busy-people
http://www.itv.com/news/2016-01-28/top-10-tips-for-a-productive-workplace/
https://www.themuse.com/advice/45-productivity-tips-for-extremely-busy-people
http://www.inc.com/larry-kim/23-best-productivity-hacks-of-the-year.html
http://www.businessnewsdaily.com/5658-easy-productivity-tips.html
http://www.inc.com/murray-newlands/11-awesome-productivity-tips-that-will-radically-improve-your-life.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parkinson%27s_law
http://www.smartbusinessmom.com/
http://www.smartbusinessmom.com/
https://cirillocompany.de/pages/pomodoro-technique
https://www.rescuetime.com/
https://toggl.com/
19. Use Travel Wisely
Leverage Travel Time
Lots of us travel to work each day. Time spent commuting can feel like time that's lost. However there's lots of way we can leverage this time to become more productive. When driving I often listen to podcasts or Audible. Larry Kim makes the point:
"Those hours don't have to be wasted--consider scheduling calls in the morning that you can take during your drive to work".
Advice For Flyers
Flying is a whole other story. A few years back, Hughes Air West an airline that used to serve the western U.S. Made a study of the comparison between working when flying economy, first class and working in a normal office.
What they found was that one hour of uninterrupted work time in an airplane yielded the equivalent of three hours of work in a normal work environment.
As Brain Tracy explains
"The keyword was ‘‘uninterrupted.’’ If you plan ahead and organize your work before you leave for the airport, you can increase productivity by accomplishing an enormous amount while you are in the air."
See Travel As An Opportunity
Rather than thinking of travel as down time, Murray Newlands suggests we ask ourselves these questions instead:
"Can you find a method of listening to crucial data that you normally would need to read later?"
As he explains there's really no excuse for travel to reduce pour productivity.
"Have something around that you're able to do whenever you're stuck waiting around. Making use of time that normally would be wasted is an easy way to create more time for those things you have a desire to accomplish".
The Benefits Of No Distractions
As we've already discussed, the fact the airplanes enforce a restriction on connectivity on many flights, can produce a huge productivity boost.
The Take Away
Like a lot of the best productivity advice, travel is as much about our state of mind as it is about the situation we are in. If you can see your travel time as a productivity benefit you'll already be half there to improved productivity while travelling.
References
http://www.briantracy.com/blog/time-management/6-time-management-tips-to-increase-productivity-organizational-skills/
http://www.inc.com/larry-kim/23-best-productivity-hacks-of-the-year.html
http://www.inc.com/murray-newlands/11-awesome-productivity-tips-that-will-radically-improve-your-life.html
20. Use Technology
Unlock Your Full Potential
Today's digital technology is amazing. In fact there's so much of it that it can sometimes be difficult to work out what to use and how to link things together. That's why I've written up the way I use my laptop and iPad. People where I work keep asking me how it all works so I thought I'd just write it down and share it.
If you'd like to see what I do you can read about it here.
The truth is that technology can be a big help in our efforts to become more productive – to spend more of our time, our energy and out attention on our most important goals. Adam Grant, a respected Professor of Psychology at the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania writes:
"Most people type much, much slower than they think. Work on increasing your typing speed—or invest in voice recognition software. And then stop wasting time reading productivity tips."
Stop Repeating Yourself
On of my favourite tricks is to use keyboard short cuts to trigger large or small blocks of text to appear. It's one of the things that people have noticed when the see me working and it's probably the most commonly asked question I get. The Muse sums it up pretty well:
"Use canned responses to avoid typing the same things over and over again. For any email that you send regularly—or even just part of an email, like the wrap-up paragraph—create a canned response that you can pop in whenever you need it.
My favourite tool and in my opinion the best one out there is TextExpander.
Use The Cloud
There's no excuse for not having your documents, files and reference materials with you wherever you are and whatever device you're working on. There are many different cloud providers available. Some of the ones I use are:
Dropbox
Evernote
iCloud
Take a look at my setup here.
Stacia Pierce summarises the benefits:
"Take your important docs with you everywhere by using the cloud. Apps like Box.com and Dropbox enables you to access important docs, photos and music and more from any device and anywhere on the go. You can sync the files with your desktop so that you always have the latest version. Team members can comment on files, make revisions and more".
Help With Your Email Monster
Most of us have struggled with email occasionally (make that constantly - Ed.). I've written a piece about how I tamed my own beast which you can read here.
The Daily Muse has a recommendation of it's own.
"Use Boomerang to pull emails out of your inbox until you're ready to deal with them. This is useful for two reasons: First, it gets the message out of sight and out of mind, giving you space to think about other things. Second, it automatically reminds you about the email later on, giving you one less task to worry about tracking on your own".
Set up automatic filters to immediately pull emails out of your inbox and into the right folder. (This is a great option for things like newsletters that you want to come back to on your own time.) Daily Muse
Here's a great summary from Larry Kim detailing the technology he uses:
For tracking your time management, try Toggl or Yast.
Are you a savvy social manager? Go with Hootsuite, which offers a central dashboard for managing all your social media accounts. Also consider Buffer, which makes it super easy to share found articles across various social sites.
For saving articles to read at your leisure, go with Feedly, Pocket, or Evernote. These apps are compatible across devices; you can earmark a blog post on your laptop and read it later on the train via smartphone.
Sick of forgetting passwords (then resetting them, getting an email, and choosing a new password, which you'll forget again next time)? Try LastPass, which keeps tabs and secures all your various passwords for you. If you use numerous accounts in one day (and who doesn't?), this one can be a serious timesaver.
Personally, I prefer to use 1Password for keeping my passwords safe and Sprout Social for social media but this is a great summary nevertheless.
Have A Good Second Brain
Our brains evolved to think not to hold things in their short term memory.
Have a good second brain The human brain is incredible - but our brains are close to useless when it comes to short-term memory.
On average we are unable to hold more than five to seven things in this short term memory. But even this comes at a price – it takes a lot of memory power to accomplish even this meagre feat. That's why it makes sense to think of technology as a second brain – designed to be far more efficient at these sort of jobs.
ITV News reported:
"Keeping a good “second brain” – that is, a list of all the tasks we have to do, and a list of all the projects they relate to – allows us to free up our brain for the stuff it’s brilliant at, and not rely on our brain for the things it’s lousy at".
Don't Forget Your Browser Has Secret Powers Too
Bloggers have always used browser extensions to speed up their workflows. There's no reason why you shouldn't deploy the same tools to produce amazing productivity benefits during your day. Many of us spend lots of our time inside browsers, so each little moment that we save by using these tools can add up to significance numbers across the week.
Harsh Agrawal, a successful blogger offers this advice:
"Use Browser extensions Extensions or addons are great productivity tools for bloggers. Firefox is serving addons since long time. Recently Google Chrome also introduced extension. These extensions are very helpful for getting work done easily. You can use SEO tools to check website’s stats, YouTube extension to watch videos and also take notes without leaving your browser".
In my browser I have extensions for the following apps:
Instapaper
Evernote
Dropbox
1Password
The Take Away
It makes sense to deploy technology to do the jobs our brains aren't well suited to. My strong advice is to find a system and stick to it. There's plenty of good places to look for advice about how to do this. Start by looking at these websites and then make your choice.
The Sweet SetUp
Asian Efficiency
Healthy Leader Blog
References
http://fortune.com/2016/09/26/productivity-tips-40/
https://www.themuse.com/advice/45-productivity-tips-for-extremely-busy-people
http://lifecoach2women.com/main/ten-productivity-tips-for-business-owners/
http://www.inc.com/larry-kim/23-best-productivity-hacks-of-the-year.html
http://www.itv.com/news/2016-01-28/top-10-tips-for-a-productive-workplace/
https://www.shoutmeloud.com/top-10-productivity-tips-for-bloggers.html
https://toggl.com/
https://www.yast.com/
http:/hootsuite.com
https://buffer.com/
https://feedly.com/i/welcome
https://getpocket.com/
https://evernote.com/
https://www.lastpass.com/
1Password
http://sproutsocial.com/
https://www.shoutmeloud.com/top-10-productivity-tips-for-bloggers.html
https://www.instapaper.com/
https://1password.com/
https://www.dropbox.com/
http://www.asianefficiency.com/
The Sweet SetUp
21. Write It Down
Understand Your Goals
There's something particularly committing about writing things down. It's not the same as tapping the same words into an electronic device. If you really want to build a productive day then why not follow the advice given from CEO Rachel Haurwitz?
"Know what significant goals you want to work towards every day. Many days, I start the day by writing, 'How I will build the company today' on a blank sheet of paper, and then I list a small number of high value tasks or goals for the day."
Clarify Priorities
Sometimes you can feel there after just too many issues jostling for attention. If you're leading a team one of your most important responsibilities is to provide direction, making sense of competing priorities and ordering priorities. Joe Zadeh tackles this dilemma head on.
"At the start of each week I write an email to my team to share what I’m focused on and what’s inspiring me outside of work. It not only forces me to prioritize my week, but the act of writing helps organize my thoughts clearly. It also means each week I’m making deposits into the 'context bank'; my team gets early transparency into what issues I’m thinking about. I find that all of these benefits accelerate me for the week by reducing confusion and need for 1-off meetings."
Fidji Simo, Director of Product at Facebook uses this weekly practice to stay focused.
"Write down your priorities on Monday morning, and rearrange your agenda for the week to make sure it will allow you to address these priorities. If I don’t do this, I find myself reacting to what’s most urgent during the week, instead of focusing on what’s most important."
Build Your World One Day At A Time
Sam McIntire believes that it is vital to stay on track and uses his daily goals to help him do that. If you can consistently spend time on your most important goals, then you will eventually achieve them. By writing down your daily goals you are making a clear commitment to spending some of you limited time and energy on them.
"Write down your daily goals. It's not always easy to keep track of everything you need to do, so start each morning by writing down your goals for the day. When your focus is broken or you find yourself procrastinating, you can use this list to keep you on track…"
Sam McIntire told Business News Daily.
"Write your list down on a Post-it or something that's clearly visible from your desk, then return to it when you need a reminder of what you should be working on."
Inspire Yourself: Make A Note Of What You've Done
Most things in life, if they are worth having, are not easy to achieve. That's why hard won achievements feel so good when finally we can say we got them done. You can build momentum for your self, as well as get a good old endorphin rush by building a practice of noting this successes down. Here's how Michael Peggs describes it:
"If I've already finished something, I write it down and check it off the list. It always feels good to see something get done."
Break Down Complex Projects Into Smaller Steps
When you want to accomplish something complex it's important to understand that even the most complex of undertakings is really only a series of steps which have to be taken. These steps are sometimes in sequence, sometimes running parallel to the main thread of what you're doing.
Before beginning any major project, spend some time working through all the elements that must be accomplished to deliver the end result. It's much easier to do this free form on a piece of paper.
The world renowned scientist Dr. Linus Pauling once said,
"The best way to have a good idea is to have a lot of ideas."
Most leaders and entrepreneurs are visionaries who generally don't lack good ideas; however, capturing all these ideas is often a challenge for busy people. Evernote is a popular, free program for collecting ideas.
There are also a lot of digital tools that can help you. There's a great list prof resources here. Some of my favourite ones are:
Evernote
MindNode
OmniFocus
You can read my advice about how to set up your mobile device here.
It's often easier to scribble while you're thinking. When you're blocked and unable to see what you have to do to get round a problem, Murray Newlands suggests:
"Think on paper. If you feel stuck, jot the issue down. Defining the issue on paper is going to assist you in sorting it out. Create a list of as many solutions as possible. Odds are, you have just solved your issue".
It's like this article from www.lifehack.org recommends:
"Every task, every commitment should be written down. This frees your mind from the energy- and attention-sucking job of trying to remember".
The Take Away
It can be easy to overlook the simple utility of paper and pen. As these experts can testify, there are many benefits to be gained from picking up your pen. Next time you are struggling to clarify your objectives, develop a plan for your big project, or problem solve, why not clear you desk, close your laptop and start writing?
References
http://fortune.com/2016/09/26/productivity-tips-40/ http://www.businessnewsdaily.com/5658-easy-productivity-tips.html
http://www.businessnewsdaily.com/5658-easy-productivity-tips.html#sthash.tvZsA0SW.dpuf
https://www.themuse.com/advice/45-productivity-tips-for-extremely-busy-people
http://www.inc.com/murray-newlands/11-awesome-productivity-tips-that-will-radically-improve-your-life.html
https://lifedev.net/2008/08/14/idea-capture-tools/
https://healthyleaderblog.com/blog/mobile-device-hero
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The One Thing Every Marketer Should Do
email marketing high traffic academy
Marketers tend to be very reactive.
And it makes sense because every time a search engine or a social network changes their algorithm we jump as marketers.
We are conditioned to be very reactive. Whether it’s your boss who is pissed that your traffic dips or even yourself… everyone hates when sales and income drop because of something you can’t fully control.
And even when you try to be proactive, you are probably planning ahead from a 3-month period to a year max.
But that’s not how you win. You win by making bold bets that take time and can’t be done in a few months or a year… you win by doing what your competition isn’t willing to do.
So how do you come up with these bold bets?
You unplug!
Here’s how I come up with my ideas
Once a year I try to unplug. Just like right now, as I am writing this I don’t have cell reception and there is no WiFi.
I’m on a ranch in the middle of nowhere.
No matter where I look, there are no neighbors. All you have is nature in its rawest form. Just like how lightning kept going on for hours.
By unplugging and just being one with nature, you truly realize what’s important.
See, we all have problems and issues… especially in business. But how bad are your problems? Do they even matter in the grand scheme of things?
Look, I’ll be honest with you. I am not a big nature person… I’m actually quite the opposite.
I live in a modern, cold feeling house in a heavily congested city. I’m so OCD that I have a full-time cleaner come just because I’m afraid of getting dirty (seriously).
Heck, I won’t even go through airport security without having booties in my briefcase, just in the rare chance they make me take off my shoes. There is no way I can have my socks touch that dirty ground.
Yes, I am crazy when it comes to cleanliness and hygiene.
But even me, I go to places that are full of nature and wild animals… or in my case, cows, bears, deer, snakes, mountain lions, etc… being there really helps put things into perspective.
Because when you aren’t surrounded by noise caused by us humans, it allows you to clearly focus and think about what’s important.
For me, spending 3 days a year usually does the trick.
It allows me to forget about the bullshit we all have to deal with on a daily basis and come up with ideas about what I need to do over the next 5 (or even 10) years to win.
I know that sounds like a really long time… and it is. But again, to win you need to think long term and make bold bets that your competition wouldn’t dare to copy.
Just look at what I did with Ubersuggest.
I came up with that idea a few years ago by disconnecting (just like I described above).
Companies like Moz would constantly post their revenue stats and their competitors decided to also talk about their financials. So while being disconnected, I came up with an idea on how I could win and the first step was acquiring a tool like Ubersuggest.
And since then I’ve executed a few of the steps in my plan, but I still have a long way to go.
None-the-less, those steps have paid off. Just look at my traffic numbers.
So what I am going to do over the next 5 to 10 years?
I am going to turn SEO upside down again.
It hit me on this trip that we all have to go to sites like Ubersuggest, SEMrush, Ahrefs, or even Moz to get data.
But why is that?
It’s not natural in our workflow. Wouldn’t it just be easier to see this data as you browse the web?
Like when you search Google for any query sure you can use browser extensions like Keywords Everywhere to get some data or SEOquake or the Mozbar… but what you can’t get is that Ahrefs or SEMrush experience when you are just on a Google Search results page.
What will that look like? I have no clue yet, but I will figure that out over time.
Will that kill the traffic I generate to Ubersuggest over time?
Yes!!!!!!
But that is what needs to be done. I obsess about providing an amazing experience to my customers, even if that will kill off my existing business.
And no, that won’t take 5 years to do… I will probably do it over the next 6 months. I will first roll out a basic plugin like Keywords Everywhere and, eventually, I will add the functionally so you can get that type of Ubersuggest or Ahrefs experience right on Google or on your competitor’s site.
What will happen over the next 5 years though, is that I will be able to build something that gets you more traffic. Just like a light switch. Something that simple.
Why can’t we automate most of our marketing tasks? Why does SEO have to be manual when I can add a piece of JavaScript to a website and automate most of it? Why do I have to send out a blog post every time I release a new post or a push notification?
It should all be automated.
And no, I don’t mean in a templatized way. I manually send out emails every time I write a blog post because I know I can write custom copy that generates a 30% open rate and a high click rate.
But again, it should all be automated. And not just for English based sites, it should be done on a global level and work for every site in any language or country.
So how can you figure out what to focus on?
You may not be able to disconnect like me and spend the money that it costs to go to a ranch in the middle of nowhere.
And that’s fine… you don’t have to.
When I first started off, I didn’t have the resources or money, and I did just fine within my constraints.
For example, roughly 5 years ago I came up with the concept that I needed to go after global markets and compared to any of my competitors in the digital marketing realm, I’ve crushed all of them when it comes to global marketing.
Most of my competitors just translated their site or translated some of their content. Me on the other hand, I have 7 offices and teams in 18 different countries. And I’ll continue to expand so I can keep beating my competition when it comes to grabbing international attention.
But that idea didn’t come to me when I was in nature, being disconnected.
At that time, I was in my condo in the middle of Seattle and I disconnected my Internet for a few days.
Before I disconnected my Internet, I went and got food so I didn’t have to leave my house, and then I turned off all my gadgets… from my TV to phone and anything that was a distraction.
It worked well because now only 18.89% of my traffic is from the United States compared to 57% before I started to expand globally.
In other words, you can disconnect no matter where you are. You just literally have to disconnect your router, turn off your phone, and unplug your TV… it really is that simple.
If you do that for a few days, you’ll start realizing what is important and what isn’t. You’ll be able to strategize and start thinking more long term.
Conclusion
The key to winning long term isn’t by being reactive every time there is an algorithm update or even proactive and preparing for each algorithm update.
Because some of those things are simply out of your control.
Instead, you need to think long term and how you can disrupt your market to make a long-term bet that your competition isn’t willing to make.
Nike wasn’t built by SEO.
Airbnb wasn’t built through paid advertising.
American Express wasn’t built through social media marketing.
Tesla wasn’t built through content marketing.
Doing something disruptive or better than the competition is how you win.
Ubersuggest gets 1,668,233 visitors and 9,136,512 page views a month from people just coming directly. Not through SEO, marketing, or anything like that… I just focus on the future instead of being reactive.
That’s how I win.
Now, the real question is, how are you going to win?
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Text
The One Thing Every Marketer Should Do
Marketers tend to be very reactive.
And it makes sense because every time a search engine or a social network changes their algorithm we jump as marketers.
We are conditioned to be very reactive. Whether it’s your boss who is pissed that your traffic dips or even yourself… everyone hates when sales and income drop because of something you can’t fully control.
And even when you try to be proactive, you are probably planning ahead from a 3-month period to a year max.
But that’s not how you win. You win by making bold bets that take time and can’t be done in a few months or a year… you win by doing what your competition isn’t willing to do.
So how do you come up with these bold bets?
You unplug!
Here’s how I come up with my ideas
Once a year I try to unplug. Just like right now, as I am writing this I don’t have cell reception and there is no WiFi.
I’m on a ranch in the middle of nowhere.
No matter where I look, there are no neighbors. All you have is nature in its rawest form. Just like how lightning kept going on for hours.
By unplugging and just being one with nature, you truly realize what’s important.
See, we all have problems and issues… especially in business. But how bad are your problems? Do they even matter in the grand scheme of things?
Look, I’ll be honest with you. I am not a big nature person… I’m actually quite the opposite.
I live in a modern, cold feeling house in a heavily congested city. I’m so OCD that I have a full-time cleaner come just because I’m afraid of getting dirty (seriously).
Heck, I won’t even go through airport security without having booties in my briefcase, just in the rare chance they make me take off my shoes. There is no way I can have my socks touch that dirty ground.
Yes, I am crazy when it comes to cleanliness and hygiene.
But even me, I go to places that are full of nature and wild animals… or in my case, cows, bears, deer, snakes, mountain lions, etc… being there really helps put things into perspective.
Because when you aren’t surrounded by noise caused by us humans, it allows you to clearly focus and think about what’s important.
For me, spending 3 days a year usually does the trick.
It allows me to forget about the bullshit we all have to deal with on a daily basis and come up with ideas about what I need to do over the next 5 (or even 10) years to win.
I know that sounds like a really long time… and it is. But again, to win you need to think long term and make bold bets that your competition wouldn’t dare to copy.
Just look at what I did with Ubersuggest.
I came up with that idea a few years ago by disconnecting (just like I described above).
Companies like Moz would constantly post their revenue stats and their competitors decided to also talk about their financials. So while being disconnected, I came up with an idea on how I could win and the first step was acquiring a tool like Ubersuggest.
And since then I’ve executed a few of the steps in my plan, but I still have a long way to go.
None-the-less, those steps have paid off. Just look at my traffic numbers.
So what I am going to do over the next 5 to 10 years?
I am going to turn SEO upside down again.
It hit me on this trip that we all have to go to sites like Ubersuggest, SEMrush, Ahrefs, or even Moz to get data.
But why is that?
It’s not natural in our workflow. Wouldn’t it just be easier to see this data as you browse the web?
Like when you search Google for any query sure you can use browser extensions like Keywords Everywhere to get some data or SEOquake or the Mozbar… but what you can’t get is that Ahrefs or SEMrush experience when you are just on a Google Search results page.
What will that look like? I have no clue yet, but I will figure that out over time.
Will that kill the traffic I generate to Ubersuggest over time?
Yes!!!!!!
But that is what needs to be done. I obsess about providing an amazing experience to my customers, even if that will kill off my existing business.
And no, that won’t take 5 years to do… I will probably do it over the next 6 months. I will first roll out a basic plugin like Keywords Everywhere and, eventually, I will add the functionally so you can get that type of Ubersuggest or Ahrefs experience right on Google or on your competitor’s site.
What will happen over the next 5 years though, is that I will be able to build something that gets you more traffic. Just like a light switch. Something that simple.
Why can’t we automate most of our marketing tasks? Why does SEO have to be manual when I can add a piece of JavaScript to a website and automate most of it? Why do I have to send out a blog post every time I release a new post or a push notification?
It should all be automated.
And no, I don’t mean in a templatized way. I manually send out emails every time I write a blog post because I know I can write custom copy that generates a 30% open rate and a high click rate.
But again, it should all be automated. And not just for English based sites, it should be done on a global level and work for every site in any language or country.
So how can you figure out what to focus on?
You may not be able to disconnect like me and spend the money that it costs to go to a ranch in the middle of nowhere.
And that’s fine… you don’t have to.
When I first started off, I didn’t have the resources or money, and I did just fine within my constraints.
For example, roughly 5 years ago I came up with the concept that I needed to go after global markets and compared to any of my competitors in the digital marketing realm, I’ve crushed all of them when it comes to global marketing.
Most of my competitors just translated their site or translated some of their content. Me on the other hand, I have 7 offices and teams in 18 different countries. And I’ll continue to expand so I can keep beating my competition when it comes to grabbing international attention.
But that idea didn’t come to me when I was in nature, being disconnected.
At that time, I was in my condo in the middle of Seattle and I disconnected my Internet for a few days.
Before I disconnected my Internet, I went and got food so I didn’t have to leave my house, and then I turned off all my gadgets… from my TV to phone and anything that was a distraction.
It worked well because now only 18.89% of my traffic is from the United States compared to 57% before I started to expand globally.
In other words, you can disconnect no matter where you are. You just literally have to disconnect your router, turn off your phone, and unplug your TV… it really is that simple.
If you do that for a few days, you’ll start realizing what is important and what isn’t. You’ll be able to strategize and start thinking more long term.
Conclusion
The key to winning long term isn’t by being reactive every time there is an algorithm update or even proactive and preparing for each algorithm update.
Because some of those things are simply out of your control.
Instead, you need to think long term and how you can disrupt your market to make a long-term bet that your competition isn’t willing to make.
Nike wasn’t built by SEO.
Airbnb wasn’t built through paid advertising.
American Express wasn’t built through social media marketing.
Tesla wasn’t built through content marketing.
Doing something disruptive or better than the competition is how you win.
Ubersuggest gets 1,668,233 visitors and 9,136,512 page views a month from people just coming directly. Not through SEO, marketing, or anything like that… I just focus on the future instead of being reactive.
That’s how I win.
Now, the real question is, how are you going to win?
The post The One Thing Every Marketer Should Do appeared first on Neil Patel.
0 notes
Text
The One Thing Every Marketer Should Do
Marketers tend to be very reactive.
And it makes sense because every time a search engine or a social network changes their algorithm we jump as marketers.
We are conditioned to be very reactive. Whether it’s your boss who is pissed that your traffic dips or even yourself… everyone hates when sales and income drop because of something you can’t fully control.
And even when you try to be proactive, you are probably planning ahead from a 3-month period to a year max.
But that’s not how you win. You win by making bold bets that take time and can’t be done in a few months or a year… you win by doing what your competition isn’t willing to do.
So how do you come up with these bold bets?
You unplug!
Here’s how I come up with my ideas
Once a year I try to unplug. Just like right now, as I am writing this I don’t have cell reception and there is no WiFi.
I’m on a ranch in the middle of nowhere.
No matter where I look, there are no neighbors. All you have is nature in its rawest form. Just like how lightning kept going on for hours.
By unplugging and just being one with nature, you truly realize what’s important.
See, we all have problems and issues… especially in business. But how bad are your problems? Do they even matter in the grand scheme of things?
Look, I’ll be honest with you. I am not a big nature person… I’m actually quite the opposite.
I live in a modern, cold feeling house in a heavily congested city. I’m so OCD that I have a full-time cleaner come just because I’m afraid of getting dirty (seriously).
Heck, I won’t even go through airport security without having booties in my briefcase, just in the rare chance they make me take off my shoes. There is no way I can have my socks touch that dirty ground.
Yes, I am crazy when it comes to cleanliness and hygiene.
But even me, I go to places that are full of nature and wild animals… or in my case, cows, bears, deer, snakes, mountain lions, etc… being there really helps put things into perspective.
Because when you aren’t surrounded by noise caused by us humans, it allows you to clearly focus and think about what’s important.
For me, spending 3 days a year usually does the trick.
It allows me to forget about the bullshit we all have to deal with on a daily basis and come up with ideas about what I need to do over the next 5 (or even 10) years to win.
I know that sounds like a really long time… and it is. But again, to win you need to think long term and make bold bets that your competition wouldn’t dare to copy.
Just look at what I did with Ubersuggest.
I came up with that idea a few years ago by disconnecting (just like I described above).
Companies like Moz would constantly post their revenue stats and their competitors decided to also talk about their financials. So while being disconnected, I came up with an idea on how I could win and the first step was acquiring a tool like Ubersuggest.
And since then I’ve executed a few of the steps in my plan, but I still have a long way to go.
None-the-less, those steps have paid off. Just look at my traffic numbers.
So what I am going to do over the next 5 to 10 years?
I am going to turn SEO upside down again.
It hit me on this trip that we all have to go to sites like Ubersuggest, SEMrush, Ahrefs, or even Moz to get data.
But why is that?
It’s not natural in our workflow. Wouldn’t it just be easier to see this data as you browse the web?
Like when you search Google for any query sure you can use browser extensions like Keywords Everywhere to get some data or SEOquake or the Mozbar… but what you can’t get is that Ahrefs or SEMrush experience when you are just on a Google Search results page.
What will that look like? I have no clue yet, but I will figure that out over time.
Will that kill the traffic I generate to Ubersuggest over time?
Yes!!!!!!
But that is what needs to be done. I obsess about providing an amazing experience to my customers, even if that will kill off my existing business.
And no, that won’t take 5 years to do… I will probably do it over the next 6 months. I will first roll out a basic plugin like Keywords Everywhere and, eventually, I will add the functionally so you can get that type of Ubersuggest or Ahrefs experience right on Google or on your competitor’s site.
What will happen over the next 5 years though, is that I will be able to build something that gets you more traffic. Just like a light switch. Something that simple.
Why can’t we automate most of our marketing tasks? Why does SEO have to be manual when I can add a piece of JavaScript to a website and automate most of it? Why do I have to send out a blog post every time I release a new post or a push notification?
It should all be automated.
And no, I don’t mean in a templatized way. I manually send out emails every time I write a blog post because I know I can write custom copy that generates a 30% open rate and a high click rate.
But again, it should all be automated. And not just for English based sites, it should be done on a global level and work for every site in any language or country.
So how can you figure out what to focus on?
You may not be able to disconnect like me and spend the money that it costs to go to a ranch in the middle of nowhere.
And that’s fine… you don’t have to.
When I first started off, I didn’t have the resources or money, and I did just fine within my constraints.
For example, roughly 5 years ago I came up with the concept that I needed to go after global markets and compared to any of my competitors in the digital marketing realm, I’ve crushed all of them when it comes to global marketing.
Most of my competitors just translated their site or translated some of their content. Me on the other hand, I have 7 offices and teams in 18 different countries. And I’ll continue to expand so I can keep beating my competition when it comes to grabbing international attention.
But that idea didn’t come to me when I was in nature, being disconnected.
At that time, I was in my condo in the middle of Seattle and I disconnected my Internet for a few days.
Before I disconnected my Internet, I went and got food so I didn’t have to leave my house, and then I turned off all my gadgets… from my TV to phone and anything that was a distraction.
It worked well because now only 18.89% of my traffic is from the United States compared to 57% before I started to expand globally.
In other words, you can disconnect no matter where you are. You just literally have to disconnect your router, turn off your phone, and unplug your TV… it really is that simple.
If you do that for a few days, you’ll start realizing what is important and what isn’t. You’ll be able to strategize and start thinking more long term.
Conclusion
The key to winning long term isn’t by being reactive every time there is an algorithm update or even proactive and preparing for each algorithm update.
Because some of those things are simply out of your control.
Instead, you need to think long term and how you can disrupt your market to make a long-term bet that your competition isn’t willing to make.
Nike wasn’t built by SEO.
Airbnb wasn’t built through paid advertising.
American Express wasn’t built through social media marketing.
Tesla wasn’t built through content marketing.
Doing something disruptive or better than the competition is how you win.
Ubersuggest gets 1,668,233 visitors and 9,136,512 page views a month from people just coming directly. Not through SEO, marketing, or anything like that… I just focus on the future instead of being reactive.
That’s how I win.
Now, the real question is, how are you going to win?
The post The One Thing Every Marketer Should Do appeared first on Neil Patel.
Original content source: https://neilpatel.com/blog/advice-for-marketers/ via https://neilpatel.com
The original post, The One Thing Every Marketer Should Do, has been shared from https://imtrainingparadise.wordpress.com/2019/12/03/the-one-thing-every-marketer-should-do/ via https://imtrainingparadise.wordpress.com
0 notes
Text
The One Thing Every Marketer Should Do
Marketers tend to be very reactive.
And it makes sense because every time a search engine or a social network changes their algorithm we jump as marketers.
We are conditioned to be very reactive. Whether it’s your boss who is pissed that your traffic dips or even yourself… everyone hates when sales and income drop because of something you can’t fully control.
And even when you try to be proactive, you are probably planning ahead from a 3-month period to a year max.
But that’s not how you win. You win by making bold bets that take time and can’t be done in a few months or a year… you win by doing what your competition isn’t willing to do.
So how do you come up with these bold bets?
You unplug!
Here’s how I come up with my ideas
Once a year I try to unplug. Just like right now, as I am writing this I don’t have cell reception and there is no WiFi.
I’m on a ranch in the middle of nowhere.
No matter where I look, there are no neighbors. All you have is nature in its rawest form. Just like how lightning kept going on for hours.
By unplugging and just being one with nature, you truly realize what’s important.
See, we all have problems and issues… especially in business. But how bad are your problems? Do they even matter in the grand scheme of things?
Look, I’ll be honest with you. I am not a big nature person… I’m actually quite the opposite.
I live in a modern, cold feeling house in a heavily congested city. I’m so OCD that I have a full-time cleaner come just because I’m afraid of getting dirty (seriously).
Heck, I won’t even go through airport security without having booties in my briefcase, just in the rare chance they make me take off my shoes. There is no way I can have my socks touch that dirty ground.
Yes, I am crazy when it comes to cleanliness and hygiene.
But even me, I go to places that are full of nature and wild animals… or in my case, cows, bears, deer, snakes, mountain lions, etc… being there really helps put things into perspective.
Because when you aren’t surrounded by noise caused by us humans, it allows you to clearly focus and think about what’s important.
For me, spending 3 days a year usually does the trick.
It allows me to forget about the bullshit we all have to deal with on a daily basis and come up with ideas about what I need to do over the next 5 (or even 10) years to win.
I know that sounds like a really long time… and it is. But again, to win you need to think long term and make bold bets that your competition wouldn’t dare to copy.
Just look at what I did with Ubersuggest.
I came up with that idea a few years ago by disconnecting (just like I described above).
Companies like Moz would constantly post their revenue stats and their competitors decided to also talk about their financials. So while being disconnected, I came up with an idea on how I could win and the first step was acquiring a tool like Ubersuggest.
And since then I’ve executed a few of the steps in my plan, but I still have a long way to go.
None-the-less, those steps have paid off. Just look at my traffic numbers.
So what I am going to do over the next 5 to 10 years?
I am going to turn SEO upside down again.
It hit me on this trip that we all have to go to sites like Ubersuggest, SEMrush, Ahrefs, or even Moz to get data.
But why is that?
It’s not natural in our workflow. Wouldn’t it just be easier to see this data as you browse the web?
Like when you search Google for any query sure you can use browser extensions like Keywords Everywhere to get some data or SEOquake or the Mozbar… but what you can’t get is that Ahrefs or SEMrush experience when you are just on a Google Search results page.
What will that look like? I have no clue yet, but I will figure that out over time.
Will that kill the traffic I generate to Ubersuggest over time?
Yes!!!!!!
But that is what needs to be done. I obsess about providing an amazing experience to my customers, even if that will kill off my existing business.
And no, that won’t take 5 years to do… I will probably do it over the next 6 months. I will first roll out a basic plugin like Keywords Everywhere and, eventually, I will add the functionally so you can get that type of Ubersuggest or Ahrefs experience right on Google or on your competitor’s site.
What will happen over the next 5 years though, is that I will be able to build something that gets you more traffic. Just like a light switch. Something that simple.
Why can’t we automate most of our marketing tasks? Why does SEO have to be manual when I can add a piece of JavaScript to a website and automate most of it? Why do I have to send out a blog post every time I release a new post or a push notification?
It should all be automated.
And no, I don’t mean in a templatized way. I manually send out emails every time I write a blog post because I know I can write custom copy that generates a 30% open rate and a high click rate.
But again, it should all be automated. And not just for English based sites, it should be done on a global level and work for every site in any language or country.
So how can you figure out what to focus on?
You may not be able to disconnect like me and spend the money that it costs to go to a ranch in the middle of nowhere.
And that’s fine… you don’t have to.
When I first started off, I didn’t have the resources or money, and I did just fine within my constraints.
For example, roughly 5 years ago I came up with the concept that I needed to go after global markets and compared to any of my competitors in the digital marketing realm, I’ve crushed all of them when it comes to global marketing.
Most of my competitors just translated their site or translated some of their content. Me on the other hand, I have 7 offices and teams in 18 different countries. And I’ll continue to expand so I can keep beating my competition when it comes to grabbing international attention.
But that idea didn’t come to me when I was in nature, being disconnected.
At that time, I was in my condo in the middle of Seattle and I disconnected my Internet for a few days.
Before I disconnected my Internet, I went and got food so I didn’t have to leave my house, and then I turned off all my gadgets… from my TV to phone and anything that was a distraction.
It worked well because now only 18.89% of my traffic is from the United States compared to 57% before I started to expand globally.
In other words, you can disconnect no matter where you are. You just literally have to disconnect your router, turn off your phone, and unplug your TV… it really is that simple.
If you do that for a few days, you’ll start realizing what is important and what isn’t. You’ll be able to strategize and start thinking more long term.
Conclusion
The key to winning long term isn’t by being reactive every time there is an algorithm update or even proactive and preparing for each algorithm update.
Because some of those things are simply out of your control.
Instead, you need to think long term and how you can disrupt your market to make a long-term bet that your competition isn’t willing to make.
Nike wasn’t built by SEO.
Airbnb wasn’t built through paid advertising.
American Express wasn’t built through social media marketing.
Tesla wasn’t built through content marketing.
Doing something disruptive or better than the competition is how you win.
Ubersuggest gets 1,668,233 visitors and 9,136,512 page views a month from people just coming directly. Not through SEO, marketing, or anything like that… I just focus on the future instead of being reactive.
That’s how I win.
Now, the real question is, how are you going to win?
The post The One Thing Every Marketer Should Do appeared first on Neil Patel.
The One Thing Every Marketer Should Do Publicado primeiro em https://neilpatel.com
0 notes
Text
The One Thing Every Marketer Should Do
Marketers tend to be very reactive.
And it makes sense because every time a search engine or a social network changes their algorithm we jump as marketers.
We are conditioned to be very reactive. Whether it’s your boss who is pissed that your traffic dips or even yourself… everyone hates when sales and income drop because of something you can’t fully control.
And even when you try to be proactive, you are probably planning ahead from a 3-month period to a year max.
But that’s not how you win. You win by making bold bets that take time and can’t be done in a few months or a year… you win by doing what your competition isn’t willing to do.
So how do you come up with these bold bets?
You unplug!
Here’s how I come up with my ideas
Once a year I try to unplug. Just like right now, as I am writing this I don’t have cell reception and there is no WiFi.
I’m on a ranch in the middle of nowhere.
No matter where I look, there are no neighbors. All you have is nature in its rawest form. Just like how lightning kept going on for hours.
By unplugging and just being one with nature, you truly realize what’s important.
See, we all have problems and issues… especially in business. But how bad are your problems? Do they even matter in the grand scheme of things?
Look, I’ll be honest with you. I am not a big nature person… I’m actually quite the opposite.
I live in a modern, cold feeling house in a heavily congested city. I’m so OCD that I have a full-time cleaner come just because I’m afraid of getting dirty (seriously).
Heck, I won’t even go through airport security without having booties in my briefcase, just in the rare chance they make me take off my shoes. There is no way I can have my socks touch that dirty ground.
Yes, I am crazy when it comes to cleanliness and hygiene.
But even me, I go to places that are full of nature and wild animals… or in my case, cows, bears, deer, snakes, mountain lions, etc… being there really helps put things into perspective.
Because when you aren’t surrounded by noise caused by us humans, it allows you to clearly focus and think about what’s important.
For me, spending 3 days a year usually does the trick.
It allows me to forget about the bullshit we all have to deal with on a daily basis and come up with ideas about what I need to do over the next 5 (or even 10) years to win.
I know that sounds like a really long time… and it is. But again, to win you need to think long term and make bold bets that your competition wouldn’t dare to copy.
Just look at what I did with Ubersuggest.
I came up with that idea a few years ago by disconnecting (just like I described above).
Companies like Moz would constantly post their revenue stats and their competitors decided to also talk about their financials. So while being disconnected, I came up with an idea on how I could win and the first step was acquiring a tool like Ubersuggest.
And since then I’ve executed a few of the steps in my plan, but I still have a long way to go.
None-the-less, those steps have paid off. Just look at my traffic numbers.
So what I am going to do over the next 5 to 10 years?
I am going to turn SEO upside down again.
It hit me on this trip that we all have to go to sites like Ubersuggest, SEMrush, Ahrefs, or even Moz to get data.
But why is that?
It’s not natural in our workflow. Wouldn’t it just be easier to see this data as you browse the web?
Like when you search Google for any query sure you can use browser extensions like Keywords Everywhere to get some data or SEOquake or the Mozbar… but what you can’t get is that Ahrefs or SEMrush experience when you are just on a Google Search results page.
What will that look like? I have no clue yet, but I will figure that out over time.
Will that kill the traffic I generate to Ubersuggest over time?
Yes!!!!!!
But that is what needs to be done. I obsess about providing an amazing experience to my customers, even if that will kill off my existing business.
And no, that won’t take 5 years to do… I will probably do it over the next 6 months. I will first roll out a basic plugin like Keywords Everywhere and, eventually, I will add the functionally so you can get that type of Ubersuggest or Ahrefs experience right on Google or on your competitor’s site.
What will happen over the next 5 years though, is that I will be able to build something that gets you more traffic. Just like a light switch. Something that simple.
Why can’t we automate most of our marketing tasks? Why does SEO have to be manual when I can add a piece of JavaScript to a website and automate most of it? Why do I have to send out a blog post every time I release a new post or a push notification?
It should all be automated.
And no, I don’t mean in a templatized way. I manually send out emails every time I write a blog post because I know I can write custom copy that generates a 30% open rate and a high click rate.
But again, it should all be automated. And not just for English based sites, it should be done on a global level and work for every site in any language or country.
So how can you figure out what to focus on?
You may not be able to disconnect like me and spend the money that it costs to go to a ranch in the middle of nowhere.
And that’s fine… you don’t have to.
When I first started off, I didn’t have the resources or money, and I did just fine within my constraints.
For example, roughly 5 years ago I came up with the concept that I needed to go after global markets and compared to any of my competitors in the digital marketing realm, I’ve crushed all of them when it comes to global marketing.
Most of my competitors just translated their site or translated some of their content. Me on the other hand, I have 7 offices and teams in 18 different countries. And I’ll continue to expand so I can keep beating my competition when it comes to grabbing international attention.
But that idea didn’t come to me when I was in nature, being disconnected.
At that time, I was in my condo in the middle of Seattle and I disconnected my Internet for a few days.
Before I disconnected my Internet, I went and got food so I didn’t have to leave my house, and then I turned off all my gadgets… from my TV to phone and anything that was a distraction.
It worked well because now only 18.89% of my traffic is from the United States compared to 57% before I started to expand globally.
In other words, you can disconnect no matter where you are. You just literally have to disconnect your router, turn off your phone, and unplug your TV… it really is that simple.
If you do that for a few days, you’ll start realizing what is important and what isn’t. You’ll be able to strategize and start thinking more long term.
Conclusion
The key to winning long term isn’t by being reactive every time there is an algorithm update or even proactive and preparing for each algorithm update.
Because some of those things are simply out of your control.
Instead, you need to think long term and how you can disrupt your market to make a long-term bet that your competition isn’t willing to make.
Nike wasn’t built by SEO.
Airbnb wasn’t built through paid advertising.
American Express wasn’t built through social media marketing.
Tesla wasn’t built through content marketing.
Doing something disruptive or better than the competition is how you win.
Ubersuggest gets 1,668,233 visitors and 9,136,512 page views a month from people just coming directly. Not through SEO, marketing, or anything like that… I just focus on the future instead of being reactive.
That’s how I win.
Now, the real question is, how are you going to win?
The post The One Thing Every Marketer Should Do appeared first on Neil Patel.
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New Post has been published on https://shovelnews.com/29-funniest-novelty-gifts-this-year/
29 funniest novelty gifts this year
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Nov. 21, 2018 / 6:59 PM GMT/ Source: TODAY
By Aline Peres Martins
Some people are hard to shop for. Some people have very specific tastes. And others simply prefer their gifts on the, um, humorous side. This novelty gift guide is for all those people.
From the only “Harry Potter” gift a Potterhead needs to the one gift to get people who are perpetually late (we all have that friend), this list has all the funny, witty and unique gifts we could think of.
The internet is a vast place, with many, many weird and wonderful gift ideas. So, while this guide is a great place to start, if you’re looking for something maybe a little less eccentric, browse through our sortable gift guides or our brand new gift finding tool too.
Happy gifting, everyone!
When we release our 2018 gift guides, we make sure all prices are current. But, prices change frequently (yay, deals!), so there’s a chance the prices are now different than they were the day of publication.
Funny Gifts
For the champion of sarcasm
1. I Love Shoplifting Tote, $28, Human
TODAY editors, writers and experts take care to recommend items we really like and hope you’ll enjoy! Just so you know, TODAY does have affiliate relationships. So, while every product is independently selected, if you buy something through our links, we may get a small share of the revenue.
Not only should the person you get this for have a sarcastic sense of humor, they should also not mind getting stared (and maybe glared) at from time to time. This hilarious take on a tote bag is bound to get some laughs from any shopping-obsessed loved ones who don’t take themselves too seriously.
For the witty green thumb
2. The Golden Girls Chia Pet: Sophia, $20, Amazon
Everyone knows a Sophia. Her feisty, quick wit has withstood the test of time. Any true “Golden Girls” fan can recall a savage zinger or two from the matriarch of the clan … which Dorothy did not appreciate as much as we did.
If chia pets seem like a step in the right direction for the novelty gift you need, but “Golden Girls” isn’t exactly what you’re looking for, we found a few more great options:
Bob Ross, painter extraordinaire and the original ASMR king
Donald Trump, 45th President of the United States
Laughing Emoji, the indisputable queen of emojis
There’s apparently a chia pet for everyone!
For the one who is never on time
3. Whatever I’m Late Wall Clock, $16, Amazon
We all have a friend or family member who shows up an hour late to everything. In my friend group, that’s me. If your always-tardy friend happens to have a sense of humor, get this clock.
For the “cool” bookworm
4. I Put The Lit In Literature Mug, $14, Amazon
Your favorite bookworm probably already owns most of the books they plan on reading, or they just use a Kindle. Instead, get them the best mug ever to drink a tea or coffee by the fire as they curl up with their next epic novel.
For the influencer
5. “Read This If You Want To Be Instagram Famous” by Henry Carroll, $11, Amazon
Is it just me, or does it seem like every teenager nowadays wants to become an influencer? Though the title of this book is funny, it features some useful tips on how to build a personal brand for anyone looking to really become Instagram famous.
Gag Gifts
For the “Samantha” of your friend group
1. Grow a Boyfriend, $4 (usually $10), Amazon
Know someone who is tired of people asking, “So, when will you bring a boyfriend around for the holidays?” Get this. Some people, like Samantha from “Sex and the City” live the single life and have no problem with it. Samantha is known for saying, “I love you, but I love me more.” If your single friend can relate, they need this prop.
For the soccer mom
2. Big Head Cardboard Cutout, $20, Amazon
The perfect gift for parents who are completely obsessed with their little league stars, you can get a cardboard cutout of anyone’s face on Amazon. Putting one of these under the tree is guaranteed to draw out some laughs during holiday festivities.
For anyone who can’t live without Joe
My mom got my aunt these socks last Christmas because every morning, instead of making her own coffee, she asks if someone else is already on coffee duty. Sound familiar?
For the Star Warrior
4. “Star Wars” Waffle Maker, $40, Amazon
“Star Wars” fans probably already own the movies, light sabers and tons of fan gear. You know what they probably don’t have? A waffle maker.
Quirky Gifts
For the one who can’t seem to find their keys
I’m going to be completely honest with everyone reading this list: I am this person. I have locked myself out of my home on more than 10 occasions in my lifetime … and more than twice in the past month. While a welcome mat may seem like an unusual gift for most circumstances, this is the novelty gift I need to receive this year. Hey, Mom, are you reading this?
For the one who doesn’t actually appreciate novelty gifts
Always popular, these sentimental candles hit home for anyone who has transplanted from one state to another. This is an especially cute gift for folks from places like North Carolina, the land of the pines, or Vermont — known for maple syrup.
I’m from New Jersey, so I looked up what my state’s candle is meant to smell like. Surprisingly, it’s not highway congestion … it’s candy apples. I guess it’s true that we have lots of those, too.
For the entrepreneur
7. Ban.do I Am Very Busy Planner, $18, Amazon
There are people who always seem to be frazzled, running from one thing to the next. Some of them are actually busy and some of them just think they are. This planner works for both groups of people.
For the family man (or woman)
Say it with me: Most personalized mugs are tacky. These are not. Each little character reflects the personality of one family member with a slightly perplexed expression. The back of the mug has a little logo with the family’s last name. The mugs are unique, hip and cool. They’re like if the “world’s greatest dad” mugs got a facelift for 2018.
For “the city” dweller
Have you ever heard someone proudly proclaim they are from “the city” without specifying what city that actually is? They would love this.
For the brunch babe
10. Wake Me For Champagne Velvet Pillow, $50, Nordstrom
Some people abide by wine Wednesdays. Other people start their mornings with mimosas. Brunch, anyone?
For the “Rachel” of your group
11. “Friends” Central Perk Mug, $20, NBC Store
Help your favorite “Friends” fan embody their inner Rachel by serving coffee (to you) in one of these. Nothing says “I’ll be there for you,” like caffeine. Central Perk me up!
For the one who calls their dog their “child”
12. Customized Pet Pillow, $40, Etsy
Pet owners can never own enough homages to their little fur babies.
For the grown up Potterhead
13. Espresso Patronum Mug, $12, Amazon
Goodbye to faux wands, hello to punny mugs. For the uninitiated, “Expecto Patronum” is the spell Harry Potter uses to fight bad guys. “Espresso Patronum,” is the spell adult “Harry Potter” fans use to get through a work day.
Weird Gifts
For the long lost Kardashian
1. Kris Jenner 10% Unisex Sweatshirt, $22, Etsy
The Kardashians have become almost akin to American royalty, and pretty much everyone recognizes the last name. Needless to say, folks who have been following the family since 2007 are probably obsessed enough to wear a sweater featuring a caricature of Kris Jenner. I have not been following the Kardashians since 2007, and even I would wear it. Kris is a cultural icon.
For the millennial
Did you hear that millennials aren’t buying houses because they eat too much avocado toast? Whether or not that’s true, at least this avocado doubles as a heating pad.
For the Gaines’ of Thrones
3. “Game Of Thrones” Dragon Egg Candles, $25, Amazon
The subset of people who love both Joanna Gaines and “Game of Thrones” may be small … but those folks win my stamp of approval. Throners who also like to keep a well-decorated home need these candles.
For the Bey Hive
“I got hot sauce in my bag. Swag.” The iconic Beyonce line propelled hot sauce to a new level of pop culture appreciation. Now, any Beyonce fan can carry mini hot sauce on a keychain. So, they really will always have hot sauce in their bag. Swag.
Note: This also works for anyone who puts hot sauce on everything.
For the dog lover who is always cold
Know a dog lover who likes to keep their feet warm? These heated slippers look like adorable little corgis. Have you seen anything more perfect?
Unusual Gifts
For the one who’s always running on Dunkin’
1. Babycakes Mini Donut Maker, $14, Amazon
It’s cute, and it makes doughnuts. What more could anyone need?
For the vodka lover with a sweet tooth
2. Vodka Is Always A Good Idea Candy Bento Box, $28, Nordstrom
A nice bottle of vodka is always a good gift for the home bartender. But, a bento box full of vodka-infused candy is the perfect gift for those who believe in vodka-o-clock.
For the treasure hunter
The uncle who spends his weekends strolling down the beach looking for treasure, the teenager who is always asking Mom and Dad for money to go to the movies and the 6-year-old just starting a piggy bank to learn the basics of personal finance — they all have one thing in common. They could use this pocket metal detector.
For the pizza rat
Christmas pajamas are cute and all, but for pizza lovers, there’s nothing cuter than a comfy pair of joggers featuring cheesy goodness.
For the Christmas-loving cat person
5. Meowy Catmas Sweater, $18, Walmart
If you don’t know someone who is obsessed with their own cat, you probably know someone who is obsessed with cat memes or cat videos.
For the environmentalist “Office” fan
6. “The Office” Humans Are Terrible For the Environment Tote, $15, NBC Store
Dwight created a special place in most “The Office” fans’ hearts. This tote bag is perfect for wannabe Dunder Mifflin employees and environmentalists alike!
Finding the perfect present can be a challenge, but Shop TODAY’sup to the task. No matter who you’re looking for, we’ve got gift guides for everyone on your list, including:
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Source: https://www.today.com/home/29-funniest-novelty-gifts-year-t142780
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Sad summer’s over? 18 ways to keep the health, humour and happiness of your holiday alive | Life and style | The Guardian
Sad summer’s over? 18 ways to keep the health, humour and happiness of your holiday alive | Life and style | The Guardian
I t’s over. The air is cooling. School is the opposite of out. You can probably feel the holiday spirit leaving your body. But what if you could capitalise on your holiday momentum and apply some of your novelty-seeking break from routine to, well, your daily routine? Holidays are good for humans. A 40-year study in Finland that tracked the lives of 1,200 businessmen at risk of heart disease found last week that those who took three or fewer weeks’ holiday a year were more than one-third more likely to die young . The good news for those on a budget is that, according to the lead researcher, Timo Strandberg, the benefits were the same “whether you were in a holiday resort or just at home”. Before you despair that the summer holidays are over, consider that immediately after a holiday is the perfect time to make changes to your routine. The plasticity in your brain – its ability to change and adapt to experiences – will be freshly stimulated by a combination of novel experience and physical activity and ready for the idea of positive change. So, with that in mind, here are 18 ways to keep the holiday spirit alive. 1 Be a home tourist ‘There is novelty on your doorstep’ … a family of birdwatchers. Photograph: Alamy When did you last appreciate the place where you live? The chances are you researched your holiday destination, so why not apply the same rigour to your home town? Put your postcode into TripAdvisor or any other travel site and see what is nearby. (I have just discovered a clown museum, a graffiti class and birdwatching walks on my doorstep.) “Going on a guided tour may allow us to see our immediate environment from a new angle,” says Gosia Goclowska , a lecturer at the University of Bath who has studied the link between novelty and creativity. “Novelty can be found by looking at one place very deeply. There is novelty on your doorstep. Whatever street you’re in, each sunset is never the same.” 2 Re-evaluate your routine “Holidays put us in a different environment and that change to the environment is really helpful in changing our behaviours,” says Rachel McCloy , an associate professor of applied behavioural science at the University of Reading who specialises in judgment and decision-making. “When you come back from holiday, think about the things you didn’t do when you were away.” Of course, these will include laundry, going to work, cooking and possibly dropping off and collecting children from various places. But what else freed up your time? Be honest. Did you watch less TV? Use your phone less? “These activities carry an opportunity cost. They are potentially stopping you making space in your day-to-day life,” says McCloy, who saw her home with fresh eyes when she returned from a break and promptly bleached almost every surface. Re-evaluating your evenings could make time for holiday occupations, which means this a good time to … 3 Choose your autumn reading ‘September is a busy month in publishing’ … so throw yourself into your autumn reading list. Photograph: Alamy If the idea of summer reading gets you excited – all those articles on the best beach reads – then apply the same approach to your autumn reading. Read reviews , browse bookshops, ask friends for recommendations. September is a busy month in publishing, with big releases and the Booker shortlist . Apply the same enthusiasm to compiling an autumn “book wardrobe” as you would to choosing your holiday books – and clear those “must reads” that are beginning to look like “will never reads” from the bedside table. If that feels like too much work, buy a magazine. 4 Take a detour on your commute Emrah Düzel , a professor of cognitive neuroscience at University College London, is studying the health benefits of combining novel experiences with physical activity, particularly in relation to dementia and cognitive decline in old age. Combining physical activity with the exploration of novel environments or novel social interactions – even something as simple as walking around a new city – “stimulates a lot of plasticity in the brain”. Think of this as holiday plasticity, which gets lost when we return to work. But even small changes could help to keep that sensation active and let you capitalise on your “new neurons”. Try walking or cycling to work a different way, or leave home early and break your journey for a walk in a park. When we’re on holiday, we slow down. We use all our senses. We focus on one thing Miriam Akhtar 5 Devise new habits “The best way to modify habits is to replace them with a new habit,” says Trevor Robbins , a professor of cognitive neuroscience at the University of Cambridge. He has studied the impact of habit on obsessive-compulsive disorder and addiction and describes himself as “completely neophiliac” where holidays are concerned; he has just returned from Nyhavn in Copenhagen . “The idea is that if you are in a familiar environment with all these cues that elicit habitual behaviours, instead of trying to perform the behaviour that normally goes with that stimulus, you do something a bit different.” So, now that you are back home, “suppose when you wake up in the morning that, instead of jumping into your dressing gown, you put your track shoes next to the bed. Maybe you will put them on and go for a spin around the block,” he says. 6 Savour the small things “When we’re on holiday, we slow down. We use all our senses. We focus on one thing.” Whether it is watching the sun go down or leaning over a balcony to observe the woman who runs the ice-cream parlour patrolling her front step, our attention operates with vigorous curiosity. “These are techniques to bring home with us,” says Miriam Akhtar , a positive psychologist and coach. “You have started doing these things on holiday; you just need to keep up the practice.” So, I could get up in the morning and savour my routine in a way that makes it feel less routine? “You could savour your shower,” Akhtar says. (She hasn’t seen my shower.) “You could notice the changing seasons on your way to work. Maybe appreciate a friendly encounter with someone on the tube or as you go through reception.” In short, it doesn’t matter what you savour: try to transport your newly revitalised savouring habit from vacation to daily life and you will preserve a bit of your holiday mindset. 7 Buy a carafe Glass half full … buying a carafe is a cheap way to add a bit of ceremony to your quaffing. Photograph: ellepistock/Getty Images/iStockphoto No, seriously. The best €3 I ever spent went on a little glass carafe that says “quarto litro” at its neck, just like the ones in which the cheapest wine is served in my favourite holiday trattoria. Back home, it encourages restraint on the wine front, while adding ceremony. I am not alone in this. McCloy, from Reading university, says that swigging from an ale tankard makes her feel pleasantly nostalgic about festivals. 8 Schedule empty time Ambling around, frittering away time over slow drinks and long-winded games of cards, watching the clouds move or the sun drop … sometimes it is the release from obligation – including the obligation to do something interesting – that makes time pass differently on holiday. “Block out some unscripted time in your diary,” suggests Jessica Chilvers of the Talent Keeper Specialists , which advises businesses on how to maximise the potential of employees returning from a break. “It might be your lunch hour, the hour after the children have gone to bed, but schedule that time and decide what to do with it only when it arrives.” It’s easy to see how this time may get spent watching TV in the evening, as normal. “That’s fine,” Chilvers says. “Provided it’s a conscious choice.” Equally, you could pack your swimsuit into your workbag – think how nice that would feel – for a lunchtime swim. 9 Embrace your autumn wardrobe It is as exciting as a summer wardrobe, just a little longer in the arm and the leg. 10 Plan day trips “When you travel, you start to plan ahead,” McCloy says. “You get excited about the things you might do, the places you might go, the food you might eat.” Try looking at the period between now and Christmas with the same eyes with which you viewed your forthcoming holiday; plan a few trips while you are still in what McCloy calls “adventurous mode”. (If you have been back for a while, hurry.) These trips need not be expensive or to far flung places. What is important is committing to them and putting them in the diary before your risk aversion kicks in and your plasticity gets rigor mortis. 11 Recreate your holiday scent ‘Holidays are very sensual experiences’ … spices at a souk in Marrakesh. Photograph: Jean-Pierre Lescourret/Getty Images/Lonely Planet Images “Holidays are very sensual experiences,” Chilvers says. “We are more attuned to sounds and smells when we are somewhere different.” The good news is that sounds and smells are more portable than you may think. If you have been to Morocco, she says, “you could download some music reminiscent of the souks in Marrakech and play it when you cook or shower. If you’ve been to Italy and enjoyed the scent of lemons, olive oil or basil in the food, or there’s a scent from a massage you had on holiday,” then burn a candle. Or just keep applying sun cream. 12 Join a club Always wanted to tap dance, or draw, or learn to knit, or throw ceramics, or ride a horse? Sign yourself up for a short course. You will meet new people, some of whom may become friends. Even if they don’t, they will provide you with the sort of novel social interactions that will nourish your holiday plasticity. Plus, the arrival in your diary of a new fixture will upset your routine in a good way. Check out meetup.com for social groups in your area. Try walking or cycling to work a different way, or leave home early and break your journey for a walk in a park 13 Know what sort of holidaymaker you are If the idea of joining a club fills you with horror, you may not be a novelty-seeking sort of person. I say this as someone who has holidayed in the same apartment for five consecutive years. 14 Make a September resolution Düzel, the plasticity expert, holidayed in Canada “and explored wildlife: bodily exhausting – a lot of novelty exposure”. Usually, the holiday feeling deserts him pretty quickly. This year, though, keen to keep up the momentum after returning, he immediately set himself the goal of training for a marathon. This is forcing him to devise new running routes around Berlin, where he lives, to meet the distances that training requires. So, it’s the perfect combination of physical activity and novelty. He is running the Frankfurt race “at the end of October”. Only two months away. That is plasticity for you. 15 Act on your epiphanies Akhtar, the positive psychologist, says she once “had an epiphany” on a beach in Greece. She had just drunk a Greek coffee and eaten a Greek ice-cream when she looked at the blue sky and thought: “I’m going to train to be a coach.” This is not as fanciful as it sounds. I had my own epiphany, on a midweek mini-break in Surrey. I bought a big sheet of paper in the local shop and wrote down ideas for what I might do next; when I got home, I applied for a master’s in creative writing. “Holiday provides time out and a chance to reflect on what is truly important to you,” says Akhtar, pointing out that this applies to relationships as well as careers and that epiphanies can be “positive and negative”. So, if you had an epiphany while you were away, now is the time to turn your insights into action. You may change your life. Or an element of it. And that could feel like a holiday. 16 Cook with a new ingredient You could, of course, try to recreate a dish you particularly enjoyed on holiday. But hedonic adaptation – the tendency to take for granted a source of pleasure – may thwart you here. Better to set yourself a challenge with a little more longevity and potential for ongoing novelty. Pick one new ingredient to use each week. Up the ante by making your novelty ingredient seasonal. If you think you may struggle to commit, you could sign up for a food-box subscription, thus tying your hands, because you will have to use whatever you are sent. This is how I met jerusalem artichoke and I have never regretted it. 17 Eat holiday breakfast If you walked out early for fresh bread, find a baker near your home that can offer something similar. If you sat in a cafe with a croissant and the sort of old-school cappuccino that didn’t get ruined by the fifth wave of coffee-making , then find a place nearby that will make it your way. Admittedly, it may be a challenge to source fresh summer fruit at home (depending on where home is). Still, if you can’t find melon or fig, there is always fig jam . 18 Go outside “Paying attention to nature is a source of very positive experiences on holiday,” says the University of Bath’s Goclowska. It can be hard to replicate the awe inspired by the Grand Canyon or Mount Fuji back home, but awe is an experience of degree. Try to get outside. Sit on your front step or your balcony or in the garden with a drink. (The last time I did this, I saw bats in the wild for the first time – and I live in east London.) If you have no outside space, sit on a wall or be the person who gets chucked out of the local park at dusk. Even if you delay switching on the telly for five minutes to squeeze in a walk around the block, noticing the trees or people or cats down your street, maybe even saying hello to the odd one, you will be holidaying in a small way. ‘Pick one new ingredient to use each week’ … jerusalem artichokes. Photograph: Getty Images/Westend61 Topics Health & wellbeing Psychology Health and fitness holidays features
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Goals for 2018
I’m so tired of feeling like year after year passes me by without making a significant mark on the world (or at least my world). So here are my goals so that 2018 doesn’t travel down the same, unproductive road. I’m really excited about the fresh beginning of a new year; the start of the next 365 days where anything is possible if you work for what you want...right?
Wellbeing
1. Get Back to the Gym: I’ve lost a lot of confidence lately and it’s vital for my mental health to get that confidence back. I slipped out of any semblance of a gym routine these past few months and it absolutely shows. I feel flabby and thick in all the wrong ways, and so this is the year that I discipline myself all year long, carve out time to go to the gym six days a week, and regain pride in my body like I’ve never known before.
2. Make Creativity a Priority: The majority of my days are filled with scrolling aimlessly on various apps on my phone, bartending at my day job, or focusing too much thought and energy on my relationship. I love my boyfriend, but we’re in a wonderful place together so there’s no need to obsess and fixate on the status of our relationship. I need to get my head out of my ass and start nurturing my creative spirit again. I haven't performed in any way in months, and have tons of journals and notebooks that are only half-filled or not at all. So how am I going to go about doing this?
Use my love of social media and online browsing as a tool: It’s clear that I have an addiction to the internet and I don’t think I’m alone in that. So, instead of trying to cut down my time on technology, I’m going to use my habits to my advantage and commit to writing here on tumblr or more deep-diving posts on instagram. I want to write something of import at least three times a week. I’ve had ideas of starting my own blog page, but until I have a focused vision and message I think I’ll hold off.
Follow the impulse to explore photography: As someone who loves taking photographs but never took the idea seriously, I want to devote 2018 to doing all the things that I want to do. I plan on starting with a camera my parents own but never use, a Canon of some sort, and then go from there.
3. Keep drinking limited to 4 nights a week: I’ve noticed in the last 3 months or so that I’ve started to have at least one drink every day. I don’t know if that’s as big a deal as it feels, but I know that for my life it’s definitely unnecessary. It doesn’t help that Im a bartender and having a drink is my primary method of relaxing or dealing with the anxiety that comes with a packed bar. But if I’m really going to commit to the gym again then I won’t have empty calories to waste on wine every day anyway. SO I think 4 nights is a good compromise with myself. And who knows, maybe once I cut down I’ll realize even four is unnecessary and I’ll even go down to three.
4. Really start learning French: This has been a goal of mine for so long that if I don’t get serous about it now I fear I never will. And what better time than now anyway? I’m dating someone who speaks the language, who’s mother also speaks the language, and we’re planning to vacation in France for the SECOND time this summer. So what’s stopping me? Laziness and money. But this is something I truly want and have wanted for years. Ever since high school, really, when I was too insecure to do anything that my friends weren’t doing. I have another friends who speaks the language and I’m going to reach out to her about setting up lessons. If i could get a handle on the language by July I would be so proud of myself and it would be such a huge accomplishment off my life bucket list.
Career
1. Land Representation: This has been a tough one for me for a long time. Each year I say will be the year I finally sign with agents and a manager, and each year I let myself down. Not this year. I’ve just reached out to an agent who has been stringing me along for over a year, asking her to please put me in touch with another agency if she does not feel we’re a good fit for one another. She hasn’t responded yet but I’m hopeful. If that route doesn’t go anywhere then I’m going to reach out to everyone I know, audition for every single play and film I can possibly find, and hopefully get something to invite all of the agents and managers to that I’ve met in passing.
2. Go Back to Class: It’s become very clear to me lately that I still have so much to learn about technique and preparation. Maybe I’ll never be done learning about it. But I cannot sit idly by while day after day passes and I am not practicing my craft for weeks or months at a time. That’s insanity. So I think I’m going to reach out to Michael again this month about returning to taking lessons with him. It’s a gamble because of the emotional rollercoaster that accompanies a relationship with Michael, but it’s worth it if his rates are cheap and I feel artistically fulfilled each week.
3. Make a Promise to Perform Every Three Months: It doesn’t matter if its a play, student film, or finally getting the courage to write and perform slam poetry. If I don’t keep performing, I’m letting excuses and fear run my life. And I’m done with that. So. By the end of this month I am going to have a performance date of SOME SORT scheduled in the books.
Travel
This past year I got to travel a good amount. I went to several parts of France I’d never seen, Iceland, Budapest, Hudson, and D.C. What follows is a list of all the places I want to or plan on traveling to in 2018:
1. Brittany, France
2. Egypt
3. Tiny House (Catskills, NY)
4. Vermont
5. Ireland
6. Budapest
7. Montreal
8. LA/ Northern California
9. Colorado
10. Scotland
Relationships
While my boyfriend is my partner and the strongest relationship I have in my life, I want 2018 to be an exploration in strengthening and prioritizing friendships that I’ve allowed to fall by the wayside. I recently moved out of the home I shared with my best friend, and before doing so we made a pact to see each other once a week every Tuesday. However, her holiday and work schedule took priority and so now we haven’t seen one another in a month. Instead of addressing my feelings of neglect and hurt to her after canceling on me several times, I’ve allowed my frustration to fester and grow like a bacterial disease, resulting of course in me being angry to the point where I can’t text her or else it would start a fight (which of course I’m already in, in my mind). So, I would like to take the opportunity of this new year to be less passive aggressive and more communicative with those close to me when I’m feeling hurt or disrespected. I’m going to reach out to my friend tonight and tell her how I feel. It would have been more mature of me to address these feelings as they were first happening, but that time has passed and I have to start somewhere.
It’s not just this one friend that I’ve been unsuccessful at keeping up with. I find that I have very few friends that I actually see. Sometimes I try to see someone in particular and they regularly blow me off, and sometimes I get invites to see people whom I regularly blow off. I’ve decided that if someone cares enough at this point in time in our lives to make an effort to see me, then I will make an effort to see them. As far as the friendships that I value who I don't see often, I will continue to pursue and reach out to them in the hopes of having more people in my life who I consider to be “close” with.
This is the first time I’ve ever written out resolutions like this, organized and categorized in this manner, but I found it really helpful and in the last hour have gained an immense amount of clarity on what it is I’m truly looking to gain from this next cycle around the sun. I hope it inspires others who come across this post to do the same!
- Ashleen Xx
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7 Blogging Ideas For When You’re Stuck, Tired And Can’t Write A Thing
By Cynthia Dora
Every year, I greet January with new resolutions. Often, I never end up fulfilling them. But that doesn’t stop me from making new ones every year.
One of the resolutions I made at the start of 2017 – one I thought would be easy to keep – was to write a blog post every week on WordPress.
Easy, right?
But it’s May already and I am way behind schedule.
Not that there isn’t a heap to write about – there’s U.S. politics, the immigration debate, racial justice and healthcare rights. There’s easily enough to have me raring to go every morning. But like I said, I am failing miserably.
What’s the big deal about slacking off from time to time, you ask?
Well, I recently came across a WordPress statistic that says its users produce almost 80.7 million new posts every month. I will admit that made me feel pretty slack!
So a bit of introspection, research and discussion with like-minded bloggers inspired me to come up with this list of ways to motivate yourself to blog when you really don’t feel like it.
Without further ado, here are seven quick ways to generate blogging ideas when you’re seriously stuck, tired or unmotivated.
1. Choose to write on a topic that you know
If you think writing on a trending topic will help you gain followers and industry respect, think again. You won’t provide sound advice or commentary unless you know what you’re talking about, and you may get stuck at the research end of the process to boot.
Try to blog on what naturally interests and engages you – not what you think will get clicks and shares.
For instance, artificial intelligence and cloud software are concepts most marketers and technology buffs are keen to prove they’re super up to date on. But unless they’re industry leaders, they’ll probably have trouble finding anything new, informative or even original to say.
That’s not to say writing on pertinent and current issues isn’t important – but blog on topics that appeal to you as an individual.
If you are a tennis enthusiast then sharing your views on Steffi Graf and Serena Williams’ record would be an ace idea (pardon the pun!).
I am an ardent and passionate reader so both fiction and nonfiction writing appeals to me. This means writing a book review for my blog is much less intimidating than writing about artificial intelligence (and I know which one I’ll do a better job on!).
Unless you are passionate about a topic and know it in great detail, it is unlikely that you’ll have anything ‘extra’ to add to the noise on the internet. You’ll be wasting your time, other people’s time, and the creative energy that could be put to better use elsewhere!
2. Get inspiration from social media
In this article on Social Media Today, it was revealed that the average person has five social media accounts and spends almost 1 hour and 40 minutes a day browsing through their different feeds.
Turning to social media for ideas is like digging in a gold mine. People are constantly sharing, discussing and debating their views as well as enthusing about their interests and passions.
Join a few groups on Facebook that are based on your interests. You’ll not only meet like-minded people, you’ll generate ideas and views through discussion.
If you join a group aimed at writers or bloggers, you’ll also gain a channel for creative inspiration and be able to improve your online presence by actively participating in posts shared by fellow group members
It may surprise you what pops up to dislodge an idea in your brain. I’m a member of ‘Mad Over Marketing (M.O.M)’ on Facebook. They shared an image of a Nike ad a few months ago – and it actually inspired me. Take a look.
The quirky intelligence of this ad aside, it generated the gem of an idea for a blog post called ’11 Ads That Will Make You Smile’ that could easily lead into a second blog post titled ‘How Brands Inspire People To Get Fit Via Marketing’.
See? A single ad shared in a Facebook group generated two different ideas in my head for two different blogs. Impressive, but so easy!
3. Use web tools to brainstorm
Web tools exist to help people out – especially when we are stuck.
Let’s pretend you already have a pretty good idea of what you want to write. Say it’s a piece on email marketing or social media marketing. You can start by looking at sites like BuzzSumo, Alltop and SocialAnimal to see what’s trending and what’s being shared by users.
Once you have an idea of what people are clicking on, use a tool like HubSpot’s Blog Topic Generator to help you take your idea to the next level and generate some potential titles.
Personally, I don’t just use one particular site. I look up 3-4 sites until I come up with a topic or title that resonates with me.
Have a look at this topic Portent’s Content Idea Generator suggested for email marketing.
What a perfect topic! It’s catchy, it talks about something my audience wants to know about (email marketing), it contains my keyword, it cues familiarity because it mentions a celebrity and it gives me ample creative scope!
There’s absolutely no shame in using web tools to brainstorm and generate ideas for blog posts. In fact, they could provide you with just the prompt you need in dire, uninspired times.
4. Format blog posts as lists
The whole reason I’m writing this blog arose from my 2017 New Years’ Resolutions, so it’s fair to say I’m a big fan of lists.
But in this instance I’m not talking about aspirational lists, but listicles.
Listicles are articles or blog posts structured in the form of a list: for example, ‘7 Best Productivity Apps For Android Phones’.
Not only do people love reading listicles, their thematic structure makes the writing process a whole lot easier.
Next time you are stuck over what to write, contemplate whether your content could form a series of items presented as a list.
The internet is filled with listicles so just try not to make them too clickbait-y.
Also, be as specific and positive as possible. Instead of writing ’13 SEO Trends To Watch Out For In 2017′, try ’13 Things Your Business Should Be Doing For SEO In 2017′.
5. Follow people who influence your industry
Duh, right?
But following influencers, industry and thought leaders, as well as daily news sites is a great way to come up with new blog ideas and writing inspiration.
For instance, I follow Virgin Group on LinkedIn and they made the two posts below on their page.
It inspired me to explore the link between mindfulness and productivity. I knew I could either either use each idea separately or combine them into one, for example, ‘Why The Happy Employee Next To You Is 12% More Productive’ or ’11 Ways To Improve Mindfulness and Productivity At The Same Time’.
And seeing it on Virgin Group’s feed meant I knew there would be research and studies to back it up.
6. Ask questions on message boards
How else will you learn?
Take advantage of the pool of users on sites like Quora and Reddit to explore topics that interest you in depth, and no doubt pick up a few interesting and inspirational facts along the way.
Start by choosing a basic search term or keyword and looking through the conversation threads on it to see what you find.
Your natural interest in particular ideas will help you identify an appropriate topic to write on.
Then ask questions if you have them.
For instance, say you want to write about a trip to Hawaii. You can log into Quora and post a question to get an alternative point of view to your own.
Based on the response you get, you can come up with your new blog topics, such as:
Do’s + Don’ts While In Hawaii
What To Pack For Hawaii
5 Things You Will Learn In Hawaii
7. Look inside yourself
This is the part where you get to be you. You don’t have to look outside but think about your own personal insights and experiences, and how best to share them.
You can share personal insights and experiences in many forms: learning lessons, success stories, failure admissions and more.
Wrapping up
Blogging is not as easy as it is made to sound. It’s easy when you consider that it’s just words – but daunting when you think about what you want those words to mean and the ideas behind them.
My initial problem with writing is always starting.
Fortunately now, using the above steps, I usually find a way.
And I am certain that if you try them too, you will be able to wrestle yourself out of your rut.
Guest Author: Cynthia Dora. At the age of seven, I wanted to be a teacher. At 14, I wanted to be a contestant on America’s Next Top Model. Finally, at 25, I ended up being a writer! During the day, I am the Lead Content Marketer at Span Global Services, an organization specializing in building B2B email lists. The rest of the time, I am the mother of a five-year-old who shares my passion for teaching, writing and imagining.
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