Never Turn on your Computer Again Without an Agenda

via GET LUCKY by Amir Lehrer on 7/29/10

When you sit down and turn on your computer, do you know exactly what you are about to do or are you just turning on your computer because it is something to do?

I constantly find myself sitting down at my computer without a clear agenda and goal in mind only to end up checking everything online that can possibly be checked.  My email, my website analytics, my stock portfolio, my social networks, and anything else that may pop into my head at the time.  What I find is that I end up using wasting a ton of time because I don’t have any agenda or plan to follow.  I could probably get away with checking my email three times per day and checking my analytics and portfolios once or twice per month.  I use social networks for a few reasons so the frequency of my using them would depend on the situation.  I use them to stay in touch with people, to network, to promote myself and to learn about new features and applications.  The point is that myself, along with much of the rest of the world gets lazy when we are in front of a computer.

Productivity is not Measured by Hours

Some people feel productive if they sit in front of a computer all day long and answer a few emails.  A great day would be when you participated in a long chain of emails that came to a conclusion.  In reality, that “productive” day could have been accomplished in a fraction of the time it took but so much time was wasted between each check of the email that it seems like you never stopped working.

Productivity is measured by accomplishments

For me, a productive day is a day where I waste as little time as possible and accomplish something that will bring me closer to a goal.  Sometimes that goal is finishing a project or a major piece of a project for a client or securing a new client altogether.  Sometimes it’s doing something to promote myself or my business.  No matter what it is, it is measured in accomplishments, not time spent on my computer or number of emails answered.

The same can be applied to your personal time.  When you come home from work, do you turn on the TV? Do you go online to surf the net?  I’m not saying that there is anything wrong with doing either of these activities but I am saying that you should know what you are getting into.  For example, instead of just turning on the TV, consciously decide “I need to relax so I’ll watch 2 shows”.  Instead of just going online, decide “I’ll check the news and then see who’s online to talk to for the next 30 minutes”.

Unless…..

Unless… you just want to “waste time”.  But, if you’re reading this blog, you probably don’t want to waste time.  This blog is about getting lucky and finding opportunity in everything that we do.  You can’t find opportunity when you keep doing the same thing over and over.  As the Albert Einstein so eloquently put it, “the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results”.  When we turn on the TV, we end up watching the same types of shows, often while zoning out.  When we spend time on social networks, we end up spending time with the same friends and sharing the same type of content with each other.  If you want to get lucky online, participate in new conversations on open networks like Twitter or finding new types of content through sites like StumbleUpon.  Just make sure that before you log on, that you decide what you will be doing and for how long you will be doing it.  Otherwise you just get sucked in.

If you have an agenda before starting something, even as simple as checking your email, you will end up saving yourself a lot of time that otherwise would have been wasted.  Then you can squeeze more activities into your day, be more productive, accomplish much more and get really lucky.

Pic: Grahambones

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Don’t Let Your Friends and the Media Luck Block You!

via GET LUCKY by Amir Lehrer on 8/17/10

Getting lucky is often about getting out of your comfort zone and opening yourself up to new and different opportunities.  You can get lucky by listening to different people’s points of view and then looking at the situation from their perspective.  You can also get lucky by putting yourself in situations and locations that are different from your norm. The internet, along with interactive maps, news from around the world and social networks that can connect you to people in countries across the globe has given us the tools to really jump out of our comfort zones but according to Ethan Zuckerman in the TED Talk below, we’re really missing out on this opportunity as a nation.

The talk is a little long but worth watching when you have the time.

According to Ethan’s talk, in the 1970′s, 35% of the news American’s consumed was international compared to only 12% in the 2000′s.   He showed a picture created by Alisa Miller that portrays the world according to the news that we consumed from each country in July of 2009.  I was able to get a similar version from February 2007 below.  Alisa claims that today, we want to know more about the world than ever before and yet, the media is showing us less and less.  In other words, the media is luck blocking us and trying to dumb us down.

The picture sort of reminds me of the old “World According to America Poster”.

With all the tools available online to reach people from around the world, people choose to spend the time with their local friends and other people they meet that share their interests.  Even when people use social networks to discuss world news, they mostly discuss it with their friends and people with the same or similar perspective.  You don’t see people friending strangers from other countries to hear their perspectives on what happens to be their “local” news.  This leads to us discussing our own thoughts and what our media wants us to know.  This can be very dangerous as we end up thinking that we are worldly and up to date but really we have no clue about what is really going on in the world around us.

Zuckerman feels that it is unfortunate that more people in North America don’t speak Chinese.  After all, it is one of the leading and most important languages in the world. He points out a Chinese organization that devotes their time to translating news and information into Chinese and feels that America should do the same.  Ethan is a co-founder of Global Voices, which aims to share news and opinions from locals in nations across the world in many languages.

Lucky people are the ones that take the road less traveled and in a world that we have the tools to reach the corners of the world, we should push through the media’s wall and pave a lucky path.  Not many people are doing it so here is your lucky break!Similar Posts:

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Get Lucky by Playing the Matching Game

via GET LUCKY by Amir Lehrer on 8/24/10

You look at your watch and with great excitement you notice that it is 5:oo PM and time to leave the office to head home to relax for the night.  You’ve got a whole bunch of new shows and movies waiting to be watched as you eat your dinner and down a few beers.  You get up from your desk, stretch and head out the door.

Wait a second.  Before you head out the door, play a little matching game with yourself.

Round One

Take out a piece of paper and a pen and fold it in half, directly down the middle.   On the left side, write down each activity you performed that day.  Then write down how long it took you to perform each particular activity.  When you are done, move over to the right side of the page and write down a list of the activities you were supposed to or wanted to perform that day.  Then write how long each of the activities should take to perform.  When you are done, try and match up the tasks on the left and right sides and see how many matches you get.  Good job, you just finished round one.

Round Two

From all of the matches that you have on your sheet, try and match up all the times (the amount of time you wrote down next to the task) between the left and right sides. If the right side is a lower number or equal to the left side, consider it a match.   For more advanced players, feel free to use accomplishments instead of activities performed.

The more points you get, the better you did.

Obviously this game will only work if you are 100% honest with yourself.  You can also play this game at home to see how much time you spend being productive and how much time you end up wasting.

Once you have played this game a few times, try playing the game in reverse by writing down the tasks on the right side before starting your day.   How do you think your day will turn out?  I’m guessing a little more productive.  What about you?Similar Posts:

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Suerte.Buena suerte

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