A while back I attended Adtech in San Francisco; April to be exact. Between product launches and my family, it has taken me this long to write about one of my experiences there. Yes, there were lots of great sessions on social media, video marketing, SEO etc... but the one that I remember most was on maximizing my time. It was a session given by Adam Boettiger on Digital minimalism.
As a web marketer, I find my skills are in high demand both in and outside of the office. Which typically means I always have more items to do than time. Evidently, I wasn't the only one in the room with this problem. Here are some Adam's thoughts that I find most useful in balancing my work on the web with living my life.
1. Go dark (digitally) for 1 hour a day. Use this time for planning or working on a task you have been putting off.
2. Schedule time for solitude. Give yourself time to think.
3. Stay focused. Eliminate distractions and STOP multitasking. There have been a number of stories lately that multitasking doesn't really work. It merely means you are trying to do multiple things and doing none of them well.
4. Use email more effectively. Send less email. He had a great statistic here that I found amazing. For every email you send out plan on getting three in return. So if you want to get less email; send less. This hit home with me and has caused me to change my behavior especially with questions. IM is my application of choice for things like questions, or double checking a number etc....
5. Brevity is king for email. Try to send 6 sentences or less in your emails.
6. Use text email. No graphics.
7. Always follow up. There were a number of agency folks in the room asking about contacting clients following up etc. Adam's answer was spot on. He told a short story about how he follows up with people. Send them an email. If you don't hear back from them then call them the next day. Keep trying different ways of communicating with them and follow up promptly. I have used this since his talk and no one has complained and in some cases the folks on the other end felt relieved that I called them and we could put the issue to rest. The other take away was that when someone is contacting you don't put off getting back to them. If you aren't interested tell them that and move on. That is unless you want them to follow up with you every day. ;-)
While none of the items were revelations they are all very useful and have made a difference in how productive I am. Check out Adam's website at digitalminimalism.com and or try some of the items that stuck with me. You have nothing to lose and you could really make your work life (and possibly home life) just a little easier. Let me know your thoughts.
