Perfect for Friday Productivity Checklist

April 7, 2006 by Liz

Productivity. Everyone wants it, thinks they have some of it, and loses it faster than they realize. Here are some things you might check and do on a Friday afternoon to feeling better about starting the week again on Monday morning.

Perfect for Friday Productivity Checklist

2. Use that half-hour to organize everything on your desk. Put things away. Lay out things that still need attending to. Mark what needs to be done. Make a to-do list, if that’s your way.

3. Make a plan for next week–at the least, decide what you will tackle first on Monday and what your three most important goals will be.

4. Do an office check. Are the things you use most closest to where you use them? If not, move them, so that they will be. Are the files you access most on your computer only one click away? If not, move them so that they will be.

5. Order the Monday tasks by putting what you can get done fastest first. Do this for two reasons. It will start your week with a quick sense of accomplishment, and you’ll be able to pass on what you finished–that means that when you move on to task two, someone else can be starting on what was your task one.

Then consider the week closed, leave the office at work, give your brain a break, and have a weekend. What a great way to promote yourself and your brand to anyone who walks by on their way home for the weekend. It says a lot for your personal brand–almost everyone wishes their office looked like it could be in a magazine . . .

Whether you work in a building away from home or in your bedroom, it’s boost to your Monday to walk back into a space that’s ready to work in.

What do you think when you see an office that looks well taken care of?

–ME “Liz” Strauss

300 Naked Women Feared Lost [Branding The Onion]

April 2, 2006 by Liz

Sunday Afternoon Reading

Chicago.

If you get to know Chicago, you’ll understand why I like it so–despite the winters. It’s the American midwest work ethic, the reason Chicago is called the City of Big Shoulders, the City that Works. It’s the people and the midwest sense of humor.

It was Sunday. I stopped by a neighborhood bar, picked up a free newspaper from the stack by the door. I ordered a glass of wine and asked for a hamburger with pickle, onion, ketchup, and mustard. Then I scan the headlines.

Immediately I saw 300 Naked Women Feared Lost . . . . I was reading the – America’s Finest News Source. A great friend to have along with a glass of wine and a hamburger on a Sunday afternoon in Chicago.

I know that you can find this free paper in other cities–it’s even online–but it’s in every neighborhood bar, bookstore, and coffee shop in downtown Chicago. We think of it as our own. Maybe it’s an onion-connection thing. Historians say the word, Chicago, means stinking onion.

The Onion is not only America’s Finest New’s Source . . . per their trademark. According to their media kit, they are also hailed by the New Yorker as “The Funniest Publication in the United States.” “A Message from The Corporate Office” attributed to “the esteemed Captain of Commerce” promises that

. . . Every one of our readers is firmly ensconced within the plum 18-49 demographic . . . we went so far as to lobby the halls of Congress . . . to make reading The Onion mandatory for this group . . . Thankfully the law passed in 1997, forever ensuring that our readers are highly paid easily persuadable young folk with money to burn. . . .

Now there’s brand-centered promotion that knows its goal and communicates its big idea–crisp, clear, sweet. It’s what I call Frosted Mini-Wheats promotion. It satisfies my adult sophisticated sense of humor and my kid-like sense of fun at the same time.

If you’re not familiar with this news source, it’s a perfect thing to try this day after April Fool’s Day, when we’ve just changed the clocks to lose an hour of sleep.

And about those naked women . . . check the story. It ran July 18, 2001. I still remember it. I still think it’s funny.

Now that’s a brand that lives up to its promise.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

New Flat Screen–I Can See the Words!!!

April 2, 2006 by Liz

Should I Have Let the MSM Provide Tools?

I guess when you’re going blind, you don’t really notice, especially when dyslexia runs in the family. Still it was getting hard to miss the fact that I was correcting mistakes over and over. Then my editor–yes, I have an editor–was finding even more. I had started to think of my writing as chili–better on the second day.

Cash flow can be a bit of a problem, especially when a most deserving son is wowwing them at an expensive school called Georgetown. Laptop blogging was my only answer–that and squinting–until I knew I was doing harm to myself and to my brand. Credibility means a lot to this writer. How could I promote my blog, my business, and my brand, when I preach one thing and deliver another?

All of you have been most gracious and forgiving of the repeated repeated repeated and ~~mispelled~~ misspelled words that have been the bane of my writing–your reading–existence. Alas, I was looking like what Tom Glocer and Trevor Butterworth would call a “citizen journalist.” Ew. I lacked the tools for these over-used eyes to see the words. Perhaps I should have spoken to Tom and Trevor about their suggestion that the mainstream media provide tools and editors? Hmmmm. No.

New Computer, New Flat Screen

Instead, waited and waited until this past week when–my tax return check arrived and THEN within what was a matter of minutes a new desktop with a wonderful flatscreen display arrived in my office. And . . .

My God! I Can Actually See the Words!!!

My thoughts on why this took so long

Only my family comes before my readers.
This new computer was an investment in my brand.
I put my brand at risk by not doing it sooner.
This is a textbook example of managing to make a decline happen.

Don’t be me. Spend the penny and save your brand. Not the other way around.

I finally followed my own branding advice. At last, I have fixed the problem. In my opinion, far later than I should have. As my friend, Nancy, often reminds me, “Liz, sometimes you’re so fast, and sometimes you are sooooo slooooow.”

My apologies to everyone who has read through the errors and skipped the multiple corrected posts in their feeds. Hopefully, this new purchase make my visual weakness a little closer to irrelevant. You should also know that transitioning computers is incredibly easier and way less painful than it was a mere six months ago.

BIG CHESHIRE CAT GRIN!!!

I’m thinking of taking a typing class next. Do you think that might be a good idea?

Smiles,
ME “Liz” Strauss

Great Find: Top Ten Desktop Diversions of 2006

April 1, 2006 by Liz

What’s most interesting about this list is that sites once unknown outside of the blogosphere are included. Wouldn’t expect to find Technorati here. Would you?

Great Find: Top Ten Desktop Diversions by Liz Ryan of BusinessWeekonline
Type of Article: List of online sites, with commentary
Permalink: http://www.businessweek.com/careers/content/mar2006/ca20060327_414798.htm?campaign_id=nws_insdr_mar31&link_position=link18
Target Audience: Anyone looking for an online diversion from work

Content: Liz Ryan writes this list as a follow up to a piece BW did last year called Top Ten Time Wasters. ( I searched but couldn’t find us a link.) The premise here is to offer informational and interactive sites that provide a break and diversion from work. Included in this list are links to sites where you can

estimate the value of your home
send an email to a monk
make a map of any number of things
publish your ideas
check your popularity on the Internet
catch a flick
make fun of pop culture
get groceries
get the 30,000 foot view

My guess is that you will know 3-5 sites on this list already. I’d be interested, if the answer for you is less or more than that many. Certainly bloggers are more Internet aware than the average magazine reader, but this is BusinessWeekonline after all. To read the article, click the screenshot.

Top Ten Desktop Diversions, 2006 Screenshot Link

A year ago, the information flow was one way only–bloggers getting ideas from the mainstream media. Have they started getting ideas from us? I think we’re seeing a trend that is growing.

Technorati? Interesting. Really.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Brand YOU–Making Your Weaknesses Irrelevant

March 20, 2006 by Liz

Identify Your Weaknesses

Often the easiest way to see your weaknesses is by looking at the flipside of your strengths. For example, if a strength is that you are detailed-oriented and accurate at checking specs, it’s likely that you’re not strong at seeing the big picture. Developing process models probably isn’t what you do best. In another scenario, if you’re innovative, you might take too many risks. If you value hard-won knowledge of the fundamentals, you might take far too few. Identifying your strengths is only half of the story. Next you need to be real about your weaknesses. Start by knowing everyone has them, and that knowing yours is the first step toward managing them effectively.

Get Curious to Shore Up Weaknesses

One of my weaknesses comes from my strength in perception. Information about people and how they think comes easily to me through normal interaction and conversation. It’s almost as if I can pick up signals from the air about who they are and what they think. Unfortunately the skill is not reciprocal, it puts the other person at a disadvantage, often making that person uncomfortable–uncomfortable being with me.Now that you’ve found your weaknesses. Look at the skills that stand behind them. If you have trouble with the big picture, get curious about it. Start asking folks who like the big picture why they go there. See what values there are in having a strength in that area. Here’s an example of how just that helped me.

My corresponding weakness is I’m the poster child for small talk. I’ve never developed the skill or the habit. Until I realized I had the weakness, I saw absolutely no purpose for it. Then I got curious. I watched and talked to people who do small talk well. I saw how it helps establish personal relationships and boundaries between people–sort of mini agreements made by conversation. I still don’t start conversations with “How’s the weather?” or “How about them bears?” But I’ve learned not to jump right in with “on page 32 you can see where I . . . ”

No matter how good I get at it, small talk will always be an acquired still not a talent, but a skill that I work on when I can. These days it’s far less of a weakness and now it’s at least an option when I need it. Folks aren’t so uncomfortable when I start talking . . . I say a few things before I get to page 32.

Then Make Your Weaknesses Irrelevant

In like manner, no one–except my oldest brother, who’ll tell you he’s perfect already–will ever be free of weaknesses. No one can make them disappear, but anyone can control and shore them up. You can minimize their impact and make them irrelevant. They don’t need to be a burden in the marketplace, in your business or in your job. Here are some ways you might do that.

Always volunteer for jobs that play to your strengths. Taking advantages of such opportunities gives you a chance to showcase your strengths in new ways–to be known for what you do well. Volunteering to your strengths is a fabulous way of promoting your personal brand.
Go into a learning mode about your weaknesses. Be honest about where you do better with support. People see that as integrity. In other words, avoid the temptation to oversell your skills. People find out soon enough what you can’t do. Overselling your skills only makes your weaknesses seem larger. That’s the quickest way to kill your personal brand.
Value people who have strengths that correspond to your weaknesses. Look first at the ones who make you crazy. Usually the reason folks drive us crazy is because they care deeply about what we hate. That fact makes them exceptional at tasks that we don’t do well. As a big-picture person, I’m wise to value detailed-oriented people, and always seek them out as partners. That makes us both stronger. It puts my big picture strength and their detail competency together and makes our weaknesses irrelevant to the task we do together.
Add extra check steps for any task that involves your weaknesses. Know that those tasks will require more time for you than they do for folks who have those skills as a strength.
Within any situation, you can probably think of several ways to keep your weaknesses in control, if you stop to assess what strengths and weaknesses you’ll be working with before you start the task.

Now you’ve established the core of your personal brand. You know your strengths and weaknesses. When you’re asked about them in a first meeting–with a client or at an interview–you can articulate how you play to your strengths and manage your weaknesses.

You can articulate the unique value of your strengths and how they meet real needs with actions and benefits. You have strategies for minimizing the impact of your weaknesses. You can talk about your competencies with competence, clarity, and confidence. That’s a dynamic personal brand.

You’re well ahead of the game already. All it took was a look in the mirror and using what you found there.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Saving the Net–Doc Searls & Walter Cronkite

March 18, 2006 by Liz

Y2K and the Media

If you’re reading this, you’re old enough to remember the media coverage of the Y2K “catastrophe.” The Y2K problem was a computer issue based in a design flaw in then-current programming, which caused certain date-related processes to operate incorrectly for dates after January 1, 2000.

The total cost of the work done in preparation for Y2K was $US 300 billion. [10] There are two ways to view the events of 2000 from the perspective of its aftermath:

The vast majority of problems had been fixed correctly, and the money was well spent. The lack of problems at the date change reflect the completeness of the project.
There were no critical problems to begin with, and correcting the few minor mistakes as they occured would have been the most efficient way to solve the problem. This view was bolstered by the lack of Y2K-related problems in the Third World, which in general had not devoted the programming resources to remediation that the industrialized West had marshalled.
—Wikipedia, Year 2000 problem, Was the expenditure worth the effort?

The media made sure we knew about this problem–every day, any place we were.
The media moved our businesses to check our systems and upgrade.
The media also made the Y2K problem larger by over-reporting on actions of fanatics.

I see no evil intent in this. I do, however, see an incredibly unfortunate result of the Y2K media coverage, and the coverage of events like it, on where we are today.

When it comes to the media, I don’t know who or what to believe.

Where’s Walter Cronkite when you need him?

The Smoke Screen

Now the media is dancing around on the subject of blogs and bloggers. “We like you. Stay in your place. We respect citizen journalists. We’ need to be in control. Let us help you. You’ll be out of the way soon enough.” The message is incredibly unclear.

At first I thought media folks were talking down to me. Now, the more I read, the more I realize how much this sounds like Y2K again.

Something is happening, but no one is saying exactly what it is. The story is replete with opinion and conjecture intertwined with the facts. Examples aren’t representative. Words are filled with subtext and connotations. Reporters and bloggers spend as much time discussing each other as they do what’s happening.

I think that all of the talk in the media about blogging is just a smoke screen.

Doc Searls’ Three Scenarios

Brian Clark pointed me to Doc Searls article Saving the Net: How to Keep the Carriers from Flushing the Net Down the Tubes. It’s not new. Doc Searls wrote it last November. Every blogger should read it to be able to speak about the future of the Internet with fluency. Doc Searls outlines three scenarios in compelling detail–any one of which is plausible.

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