is rather obvious: it consumes that attention of its recipients. Hence, a wealth of information creates a poverty of attention and a need to allocate that attention efficiently among the overabundance of information sources that might consume it.”
- Herbert Simon, winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics in 1978
That’s my goal. I haven’t quite figured out how to do it yet, but I have the book: The 4-Hour Workweek. Once I finish reading it…it’s only a matter of time.
Tim Ferris is the author of the book and blog. Good stuff. (Not every blog post is up my alley. We’ve all got different tastes and tolerances and there are a couple of recent posts I’m not fond of. But I still want to read whatever he writes.)
Read the book or the blog. And good luck living more and working less.
Let me know how it goes!
All you small business folk out there understand the challenge of setting priorities and spending your time doing the “right” thing.
Joel Spolsky talks about spending a lot of time focused on wrong things and how that plays out in business.
As a sole proprietor, doing all the work can get exhausting at times. Why not join forces with another business to benefit you both? Perhaps a joint marketing venture, like that discussed here at the Solopreneur’s Million Dollar Mindset or a joint venture of another sort–like sharing resources or using the relationship to break into different markets.
It’s an intriguing way to expand your offerings or your marketing. It’s something I’ve been looking into for a while now.
My new joint venture with the design firm studio;wink is just one example. There are other potential parterships on the horizon and it’s fun to think about new directions to take Alley424.
Multitasking has always been one of those things that puzzles me. Or at least degrees of multitasking, because of course there are times I’m doing more than one thing at once. When I multitask, it’s usually something along the lines of reading a book while boiling water or reviewing email while downloading my bank statements. And on the rare occasions it gets more involved than that, I notice the decrease in my attention span and in my ability to get any of the jobs done well.
So…it’s really the current trend of doing so many different things at once that I find difficult to understand. And the celebration of how cool or important it makes someone to text while speaking to someone, send emails while in a meeting, or make phone calls while driving. And the shocked and pitying looks one gets when admitting to not multitasking as a rule, as if it’s something to be ashamed of.
Apparently…singletasking is back. Like all trends, it seems the pendulum swung too far in one direction and is now trying to right itself. I, for one, applaud this and hope we can find equilibrium soon.
It’s not that I necessarily hate texting or smartphones or Twitter (although I do prefer my words spelled out fully and I don’t text or tweet or own a smartphone). It’s that I believe the proliferation of communication channels is a detriment to productivity, focus, and just living life. And these tools are just the current addictions.
Thanks to Elaine at MarketingProfs for articulating it so well: Are we too wrapped up in the next big thing?