I attend a lot of webinars. Learning, and brushing up on techniques is what keeps us good, and on the edge of what matters to clients.
The first thing I noticed about this webinar was the Title.
Click the image above or get the slides here: http://www.slideshare.net/wrttnwrd/time-management-for-marketers-the-mozinar
“Don’t Get Whacked Out Poo Brain.” – If you’re a fan of Adventure Time – how can you stay away from that? If you’re not, stick with it, because the context will provide the definition. Here’s a link to the recording over at SEOMoz.org/Webinars
Presented by Ian Lurie – this webinar was crammed with ideas and gems to help marketers get organized, minimize distractions, and keep track of ideas, thoughts and creative processes for a marketing campaign.
I loved it!
I am one of those people who always has ideas and thoughts crowing their brain. I think about marketing at the grocery store, when I’m trying to fall asleep, during movie with the kids. What I struggle with is recording, recalling and using those ideas when it really counts. I get distracted and interrupted and forget what I was doing, or what project I was working on. I think, as someone who works from home most of the time, this is one of those hazards. Home is distracting.
In short – I get “Whacked out Poo Brain” a lot. It’s an issue that I think many of us struggle with.
My favorite Takeaways:
- Work in Sprints – Ian uses 45 minute sprints and a modified version of the Pomodoro method. I think he said they recommend 25 minute sprints, but that wasnt long enough for him to finish many tasks. I’m going to start with 45 minutes and see how it goes. Not many of my tasks go as fast as 25 minutes.
- Ian loves Adventure Time – So Does my 11 year old…do with that information what you will.
- Sweep through your tasks and priorities every morning. Take the first 3-4 on your prioritized list and work on them in 45 minute sprints. Revisit if you have a 5 minute break to see if you’re on track.
- Every task should be classified as follows:Keep track of every question you ask an answer. Keep it in a knowledge base, either private or shared, so you can cut down on interruptions with the same question, or find your answer much faster.
- Can it be done in 3 minutes or less
- Can/should someone else handle it? Delegate it.
- Will it take longer? Create a task or a milestone and add it to your list
Tools – Check out Ian’s Tool List: http://portent.co/poobrain
- NOTE: This is not billable hours tracking, its YOU tracking. Do it right away, don’t wait and try to remember what you did that day.
