The Battle Between “Busy” and “Productive”

busy

Today we have unprecedented access to information anywhere and anytime. We can multitask using multiple screens, and we can connect and converse on the fly—yet there are still only 24 hours in a day. Do you think that our increased level of “connectedness” today has anything to do with being busier, yet less productive? You bet it does, and I fall victim to this just as much as anyone else. In fact, I notice more and more these days that I need to “unplug” on a regular basis in order to regain some equilibrium. Do you notice that in your life as well? Here are a few tips I’ve gleaned from personal experience that can help you stay productive without being overwhelmed with busy-ness:

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How Bad Structure Kills Creativity, Productivity and Morale ~ via @Workfront_inc

Poor work structure not only kills creativity, says Ted Rubin, but also ruins all the factors that create success.

As part of the Workfront “Structure Grows Creativity” project, we asked marketing thought leaders to give us their take on the ongoing “Structure vs. Creativity” debate. This is what Ted Rubin, speaker, strategist, and CMO at Brand Innovators, had to say…

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Disruptive Technology is Disrupting Behavior


I study disruptive technology, specifically innovative technology that gains so much momentum that it disrupts markets and ultimately businesses. In the past several years, disruptive technology has become so pervasive that I’ve had to further focus my work on studying only disruptive technologies that are impacting customer and employee behavior, expectations and values and affecting customer and employee experiences. I can hardly keep up with today let alone consider the potential disruption that looms ahead in every sector imaginable including new areas that will emerge and displace laggard perspectives, models and processes.

The image above represents the focal point of my work in 2009 – 2012. I called it the “Wheel of Disruption” (WoD) and it was meant to document and convey that the “Golden Triangle” of real-time, mobile and social, surrounded by the cloud, was inspiring incredible innovation and thus producing new and disruptive new apps, tools and services.

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IBM Delivers Online Merchants New Cognitive Capabilities That Turn Commerce Insights into More Powerful Customer Experiences

CommerceInsights_Social Tile

Watson Analytics Allows Brands to Use Everyday Language to Identify Hidden Data Connections and Drive Better Business Performance

IBM (NYSE: IBM) today (Dec 3rd) announced new commerce capabilities that help online merchants easily gain the insights needed to evaluate category and product performance and make quick and effective merchandising decisions. Leveraging cognitive capabilities from Watson Analytics, IBM Commerce Insights allows practitioners to gain a real-time view into customer behavior and market factors that are impacting their business, proactively identify opportunities and roadblocks and take informed actions to increase sales and business performance.

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