Lynnelle Wilson's BOLDVision Blog

Information Overload

It's 5:30 in the morning; Monday morning. The first Monday of 2009 and I've already been on the computer for over an hour.

Can we ever have enough information? Can we ever know enough?

Yes.  and No. 

As I get more and more into social media and social networking (Twitter, Blogging, Facebook, etc.) the more I know - the more I know don't know. That's a familiar saying, but in a field where dramatic swings and changes happen by the micro-second, it can be overwhelming.

This will be a quick post, but I've just set a new objective for myself and I thought I would share.That is:

Keep my objective in mind and don't get lost in the weeds.

There's a difference between data and information. Information is something you can use to make a concrete decision; take a decisive action.

I want to always be learning. Without learning, you die. However, learning when you have learned enough to make an informed decision is a good lesson to get behind you. *yawn*

How do you know when that is? Be reasonable. Gather data, study, analyze and distill. Then just do it. Hit "send". Nothing will be perfect and it's better to learn sooner than later.

It's 2009. Take BOLD, decisive, creative action NOW.

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Procrastination - Only Weirdos Don't Do It.

I've been following Lucy Kellaway, management columnist for FT, for a few years. I subscribed to the FT up until a year ago and have tried to keep up with her on FT.com. Lucy has an irreverent take on important and contemporary office topics that I love. Some of her articles are:

Guide to Snoopology; Turning Customer Delight into Disgust and my favorite," The Pathological Ability to Avoid Things Is, alas, Very Normal".

The latter piece, on procrastination, was published on Monday, February 13, 2006; yes, 2006. I've been carrying page 7 of the pink FT paper around; in one notebook, bag, folder - or another for almost 3 - THREE - years. I just knew it would come in handy sometime and didn't want to forget about it.

*sigh*

Here we are; December of 2008. I think it's time I finally did something with it, and not a moment too soon.

My take-away's from the article?

1. Avoidant Personality Disorder - It's not my fault! APD; Can you even believe it? Lucy tells the story of London Barrister, Richard Deighton who used the APD as reason for not filing his tax return between '94 and '02 - 8 years. (He beats my 3-year BLOG avoidance record in spades).
   
   Judge Patience (You can't make that up) had no patience with the claim and threw Mr. Deighton in jail for 9-months. Ok; so maybe putting things off it is my fault...
   
   
2. The true weirdos are those who do NOT avoid things. Really; think about it. Who do you know that deals with everything on time? As Lucy says, she has only known one such person and is more concerned about HIS mental health than her own - and I agree.
   

But then, it does get to the point of being accountable and being reasonable. It's not a zero-sum game. One doesn't have to be perfect; just be reasonable when setting goals and priorities. Consider the consequences of not meeting the deadlines and act accordingly. Some of us have different "thresholds" than others.

For example, paying your credit card bill on time (or not). $39 late fee + increased interest rate for a late payment. How much does THAT hurt? $39 doesn't sound like a lot, but when you take your 9.99% interest rate and increase it to 17% on that $ X,000 balance - What does that mean for your 2009 budget? 

Or, how about that BLOG? Not getting the blog entries posted regularly costs you...what... clients?...web traffic...  What? Until you take personal responsibility and understand what NOT acting is costing you in ways that you care about - it'll be tough to make yourself change.  I know.

So here's the deal. You have my permission to harass me; give me s--t if (when) I don't get at least 3 posts in a week. I'm going for 5, but I'm going to ease into it. That's another thing I've learned; if I have 10 things that MUST get done, I'll set a goal for 2 of them. It's not overwhelming and I always get the 2 done and move onto the rest. If I set a goal for 10, I'm paralyzed and end up getting, at best, one thing done. So start slow - be kind to yourself - and face the music.

Take responsibility; Be BOLD and be productive.

Your Personal Creative Economy

The creative economy is a term coined by economist and sociologist Richard Florida in his book "The Rise of the Creative Class". The creative economy consists of any and all people who run businesses that involve creation and innovation and are frequently entrepreneurial endeavors. These people are artists, writers, architects, scientists, software engineers and graphic designers, among others.

That's us! That's you and that's me and that's every independent knowledge worker. We spend our days coming up with creative solutions for our clients and then help our clients turn them into results. That means we face our own critical challenges.

First, we have to make the time and find the space to be creative. We might be good at getting ideas, but we're more likely to have them bubble up when we're comfortable and doing something that doesn't really engage the mind. Those are things like taking a shower or doing the dishes or exercising or driving.

Then, we have to capture the ideas so we don't lose them. A small digital voice recorder, a pocket notebook or a stack of index cards are all good ways to make sure we remember the good ideas we get. I keep a pad of paper and a pen on my bedside table. I'm always waking up in the middle of the night with the greatest ideas!

We need to make sure that we get enough mind-food, and by that I mean idea diversity. Think about it as a cross-ideation of good ideas. This "cross-ideation" is one of the aspects that has made my Ocular Forum so successful. Bringing a problem to a group of business owners in varying businesses generates solutions you would never have thought about on your own. Good ideas spring up from the things we experience and think about. We get better ideas - and solutions - when we get information from a variety of sources.

Lastly, but not leastly, we must carve out the time to turn our good ideas into practical processes and take action. Nothing will happen if you don't do anything. Once we have good ideas we have to poke and prod and twist and combine them into something that works and makes a difference for us or our clients. Then we have to do something.

Be BOLD and take the action to improve your own personal creative economy.