Multitasking and Believing the Lie

What is it about us humans? Can we convince ourselves of just about anything? Let’s look into one of the biggest lies we tell ourselves: “we are great multitaskers!” Before we get going here, let’s define multitasking as more than just walking and chewing gum, or listening to the radio while driving. What I’m talking about here is the attempt at juggling important tasks – each deserving our full attention – and maintaining the fiction that we can do them efficiently and effectively. We can’t. And as a result, all of the tasks in question suffer.

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Leveraging Resources – or Moving Beyond the Confines of Ego

The most successful people I’ve met in the business world seem to share one important quality – the ability to leverage the talents and experiences of others. This applies to businesses of all sizes. But for sole-contributor entrepreneurs and small companies, that quality can sometimes be elusive. I’ve heard many reasons, or excuses for it. The most common being a rather limited resource pool. But is it? What’s the real problem?

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What Now?

With the election behind us, we can all take a deep breath and expect stability now, right? Well, it would be an understatement at the very least to say “maybe not.” As expected, the Corona virus is surging again, we’re still arguing about whether people should be wearing masks during a global pandemic, the economy is preparing for more lockdowns, and the current president has not conceded to the president elect. It’s going to be a long couple of months, for sure.

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The Age of the Short-Term Business Plan

We have entered the age of the short-term business plan. Of course, long-term planning  is still an important aspect of your over-all business strategy and trajectory. However, survival reflexes and immediate reactionary responses have moved front-and-center. Before we can worry about the future, we need a way to get past the present. Right now, it’s all about problem solving.

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The Death of The Blog

I have heard many people give this advice to others; “write a blog, get out there, fill it with keywords, and be more visible.” I’m sure that advice was offered with the best of intentions, but that kind of thinking has led to an onslaught of empty business blogs seemingly targeted to search engine bots instead of a human target audience. Let’s kill those old blogs off, starting now.

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Under the Spell of Overtime

For many entrepreneurs, the concept of working overtime is a contradiction of terms. Some of us are seemingly always working. When 5:00 PM rolls around, we’re just getting started. If you’re a sole proprietor, chances are you’ve experienced this on a regular basis. We convince ourselves there’s always something to do and it’s always urgent. The problem is productivity.

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The Art of Failure

I run a think-tank for entrepreneurs called Thinking Out Loud. We often discuss pressing topics including business development, marketing, creativity, and current events. Of course, the recent months have kept us busy interpreting a changing world and the resulting challenges for businesses and consumers. We recently discussed the concept of missteps and failures. We’ve all been there. – and more times than not. But have you considered how important these missteps are to our overall trajectory? Is there an art to failing?

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