Autumn cleaning: 8 ways to 'declutter' your life

As the golden autumn days start ending earlier and the nights begin to close in, the natural tendency is to stay indoors with a warm beverage and prepare for hibernation.

But this autumn I plan to do something different: autumn cleaning.
You know how, in spring, there's that sense of new freshness when we embark on speed-cleaning to literally and figuratively get the cobwebs out? Well, although we don't have the Thanksgiving holiday in the UK that our friends in the US do, I think that autumn is still the perfect time to take stock and really evaluate our lives.

Questions to ask yourself to help 'take stock' of your life so far this year.
Here are a few questions to ask yourself if you'd like to embark on an autumn clean. (Warm beverages are an optional but beneficial accessory to the planning stage...)

1. What have I done this year that I'm proud of?
2. Who would I like to contact that I haven't spoken to recently, to say 'hi' or generally catch up?
3. What am I going to read this winter that will nourish my mind as well as feed my soul?
4. What can I plan now to do in 2015, so that I can look forward to it?
5. What's the biggest task I've been putting off for a while? How can I take 3 small steps towards getting this done. What deadline will I set myself?
6. What two things can I do right now to feel better about myself, my life or my career?
7. What clutter can I clear out of my closets? (Just when you thought this piece wasn't really about cleaning! Sorry. You were wrong.)
8. Who can I forgive?

Hopefully you were already thinking about answers to these questions as you read the along. So here's the next piece of advice.

START DOING SOMETHING NOW! 

I forget where I read it, but one management book made it so clear how to reach your goals (please let me know if you recall the source). It involved three simple steps.

3 simple steps to de-clutter

1. Know what you want.
2. Know what you need to do to get what you want.
3. Do it.

So, to apply this advice, here's how to get started.


How to apply step 1 (know what you want)
Often we don't know what we want in the first place, which makes it tricky to follow the first step. So you can use this 'autumn cleaning list' to give yourself a head start.Then move on to step 2. It's not as hard as you think.


How to apply step 2 (know what you need to do to get what you want)
If you're doing something like making a list of things you're proud of, reaching out to friends, choosing books, setting a plan to feel better about yourself or choosing to forgive someone the steps would generally be:

1. Make the list.
2. Take a quick action to get something on the list crossed off.
3. Feel proud of yourself for having taken an action.
4. Try something else if you found that easy.

But if you're planning on doing items 6-8 on the list: taking stock by re-evaluating life, literally de-cluttering - or, even more scarily, 'forgiving', there's some more practical advice below.

6. Address the 'feel better' about life question
Give yourself a day. Plan to do exactly what you want and what makes you happy for a full 24 hours. No interruptions allowed! No work, family obligations or interferences that don't contribute to a "me" day should be permitted. Or, if it's physically impossible to take a whole day, then just take an hour, or 20 minutes. But whatever you do: give yourself that uninterrupted time to think, plan, dream, forgive and recover (or, with only 20 minutes, use this time to plan an activity or place and time you can use to rest and recover).

And rather than using this time to feel sorry for yourself, use this time to list the things you're grateful for and the ways you've made life better, easier, or just happier for other people. Then think about what you'd like to do more of, and what you'd like to do less of next year. Then follow step 3 below.

7. De-clutter
Give yourself a few hours. Make 3 piles: give away, throw away, keep. But before you start, make sure you plan to include the action of actually throwing stuff away it taking it to the charity shop within the allotted 2 hours, or you'll just end up with another bag to store. (This helpful advice comes from Greg McKeown, author of Essentialism).

Also: don't worry if you don't manage to complete the task. The Chimp Paradox reminds us that we need to celebrate small wins as well as mammoth achievements: and the same goes for something as simple as making a bit more space in your life: physically or emotionally.

8. Forgive
You might even decide to do this while you're de-cluttering. And, admittedly, you might find this advice a bit odd. But it's worked for me in the past. Put a small (and non-toxic) memento of the most dangerous or damaging relationship in your life now, or from your past and BURN IT (now's a great time to sneak it onto a bonfire). Or write a letter of closure to that person and fold it into an origami boat (this wiki-how doc shows you how to do it), drop it in a river and watch as the tension and resentment you have for that place, time or person floats out of your life - and DROWNS!

Yup, there's anger as part of the forgiveness process. It's wise to get it out. But then let it go. Take away the power you have given people or events to hurt you. Realise that what happened is in the past, and that the future is in your control. And then say the words "I forgive you."

So now that we've gone through the list of all 8 ways to de-clutter your life there's only one thing left to do. Apply step three.


How to apply step 3 (do it)
Really. There's not much I can add here. Nike said it best. Just do it.


In conclusion: shake away the dead leaves of life's frustrations
These autumn-cleaning questions might not be possible to do in the time allocated, or may just seem a bit impractical, but only by giving yourself the time and space to consider that there are other ways of living than constantly rushing from place to place will you shake away the dead leaves of frustration and exhaustion, so you can start winter with a fresh mindset and be ready for the pre-Christmas rush. Because, before you know it, 2014 will be over.

But, with reflection and planning, you can make 2015 even better than 2014 has been so far, and still has the potential to be.

On prejudice... Or: why finance people aren't as boring as you think.

Prejudice is a hot topic right now.

(This blog by Gina Balarin was originally published on B2B Marketing.net.) 

Comedians are talking about it - like Tim Minchin’s comedy sketch about prejudice (it’s about a word with G,G,I,N,E,R in it – but it’s not what you think…). It’s on the tip of the BBC’s reporters tongues (like the news that one third of Britons admit being racially prejudiced). And it’s relevant in business too (like this blog from Mark Lee about 6 reasons people without accountants think accountants are boring).

Image credit: http://berto-meister.blogspot.co.uk/2012/03/tim-minchin-prejudice.html

It got me thinking about the roles that we ascribe to people, and why.

To judge people is human nature. We make sense of our world by putting ourselves into groups. By definition we are who we are, based on who we are not. I’ll explain. If you’re a married working mother of two you are not, by definition, a man, nor are you unemployed, single or childless. Every single one of these ‘labels’ carries its own baggage. But the baggage is attached to the group that you choose to be part of. It’s human nature to form groups, but it’s also human nature to assess yourself (and judge others) based on which group you are, or aren’t part of.

But some groups get a raw deal.

A few months ago I was delighted to be proved wrong about an assumption I had previously made about one group in particular: finance people. I was fortunate enough to interview 6 CFOs about the future of finance. And it was enlightening: not only because I realised that automating business processes (which, disclaimer: my employer, Concur, sells) is the wave of the future (and the present) but also because I realised that the preconceived notion I had of finance people as boring drones who live in dark corners and obsess about numbers was wrong. Well, mostly wrong. Yes, they obsess about numbers but they are not, in fact – as @BookMarkLee states – boring. Not by any means.

Cross-functional multi-tasking is the new black

It made me think that the world is changing. As Garry Cook, one of the Finance Leaders I interviewed said, “You can’t be a person-less finance person any more”. The same goes for any position where you take a senior leadership role. Those occupying positions of seniority in the business world these days have to earn it. And that means embracing multiple roles. As a marketer you have to be a data-head too these days, to analyse all the campaign results and web analytics that make meaning of your work. As a finance person you have to be a people-person these days, to translate your clever numbers into meaningful data for your business to act on.

Are we living in a world of multiplicity, where every person has to embrace a number of roles simply to function? Yes.

Is that a bad thing? Not necessarily.

Multi-tasking is the name of the game in our multi-talented, multi-cultural professional society. In addition to be a master of our trade, we have to be a jack of multiple trades.

Ass-umptions are dangerous

So the next time you think ‘boring’ when you meet an accountant – or make any assumption about a professional who’s worked damn hard to get where they are, stop and think first. The chances are, they do (and have had to do) a lot more than you think. They might even know more about your own line of work than you think…

 By thinking this way, conversations become a foundation for commonality, not division. But if you still decide to go ahead and make that judgement after you’ve had a conversation with someone, go ahead. Just remember: they’re making assumptions about you too.

The Content Marketing Striptease

Burlesque for marketers

Magicians know it as ‘the reveal’. Lovers know it as ‘the thrill of the chase’. I call it the content marketing striptease.

Why do people watch a Burlesque show?

It’s not only about the naked ladies (these days straight women watch Burlesque shows too…). It’s about the journey, the tease of the strip, the ‘what comes next’ factor. That’s what keeps the audience on the edge of their seats.

The marketing romance has gone

But when it comes to marketing, we’re so eager to share our stuff that we’ve forgotten what temptresses have known since time immemorial, and Amazon succeeds in doing with pre-release orders: sometimes having to wait for it makes you want it more.

In our frantic modern lives we are so busy that we expect instant results. The same applies for content – it must be hit our needs immediately, or it will be discarded. But marketers can learn from the mystery of the tease because people still like to be entertained… wooed… tantalised…

Antici….pation

Frankie from the Rocky Horror Picture Show knew all about it. There is an art as well as a science to making people want to buy in to what you have to give them. If we want people to really build excitement about our content the art lies in the build-up. So that by the time the reader gets to the content, they’re excited about it. They’ve been taken on a journey towards downloading this content. And the destination is even sweeter as a result.

The content marketing striptease

So how does this work for content? Quite simply – it’s about revealing each piece in a digestible chunk that builds anticipation for what’s next to come. I compare the striptease theory of content revelation to the length of the skirt:

• A Tweet is an ankle-length skirt. Not much revealed, but it can be ‘sexy’ in and of itself (ask someone from 1820 about the sultriness of a ‘well-turned’ ankle and they’ll tell you – phwoar!)
• By the time you get to a knee-length skirt you’re in blog territory. You’ve got an idea of what the legs look like, but it’s not really going to make you want to take the wearer out to dinner just yet (or buy the product immediately).
• But when you get to thigh-high content you’re talking serious value. It has to be good enough for your reader to be prepared to slip that £20 into your content garter belt. (I’m talking about giving up their details in order to download a white paper. What were you thinking?)

Burlesque lessons

In conclusion, marketers should be Burlesque artists. We should:

• Peel back the layers of content, one at a time, and carefully reveal each piece with a flourish
• Give people what they desire (not just what we think they need)
• Romance the audience (make them excited about what they’re getting)
• Dress up our content appropriately (graphics and layout make content a whole lot more appealing)
• And always leave them wanting more…

How to AMP Up Your Content

How to make truly engaging content the Dan Pink way

As content creators we’re lucky, according to Daniel H. Pink – author of the best-selling book “Drive, the surprising truth about what motivates us”. We get to do non-routine work ‘creative, conceptual, right-brain work that can’t be reduced to a set of rules’. But the risk is that the creative stuff we are lucky enough to do, isn’t always easy to produce. Sometimes, when we’re in the zone or in a state of what Pink calls ‘flow’ things are easy. They go smoothly, the writing just comes, it ‘flows’.

But sometimes things block that flow. It could be any number of reasons, or as a result of what Pink calls, a lack of ‘autonomy, mastery and purpose’ – or what I refer to as AMP.

Pink’s book is hailed as transformational – it will ‘change how you think and transform how you live’ – but to creative types (like us) who get to live in a flow-filled environment most of it isn’t new, really.

We know that when we’re writing we need to have the A of AMP – ‘autonomy’ – over the tasks we do (what subjects we choose to write about, for example). But having independent control, or autonomy, over the time, the team, and the technique we use while being creative, might be what causes us to get ‘stuck’ and frustrated occasionally.

Pink also talks about having ‘mastery’ over our areas of interest – becoming better at something that matters. Ask yourself this: if you’re a writer, paid to do a ‘creative’ task, are you working towards becoming a master of your art? Are you aware that you’re constantly striving to be better, to write better content, and to create something that meets with that personal drive within you? I know that sense of satisfaction that comes with producing a piece of work that I’m proud of (something I share with my Mom). But it doesn’t always happen. Sometimes I just have to ‘deliver the goods’ and that can be as masterful as brushing my teeth.

The last letter in AMP talks about ‘purpose’; and this is arguably the biggest missing ingredient in modern companies. Humans inherently know that life is (or, arguably, should be) about more than just plodding through, from day to day. We’re looking for something that gets us up in the morning, and that makes us satisfied to go to bed at night.

Fortunately, times are changing, and businesses are changing with them. We're entering the era of marketing authenticity and as content marketers we get to produce genuine, engaging, and authentic content. 

So what should content marketers take from Dan Pink's book?

Let’s take a lesson from Pink, and a step back from our day-to-day content activities. Let’s ask ourselves – do we have autonomy, mastery, and purpose over our writing? And if not, why not? Is there something we can change?

Pink offers some suggestions on how to AMPlify our content.

Autonomy

One of Pink’s ideas is the concept of ‘20% time’. The idea is simple, let your employees spend one day a week (20% of their time) on any problem they want. It worked for 3M – in fact, that’s where the post-it note came from. It worked for Google (we got Gmail, Google News, Google Sky and Google Translate from it), and the chances are that it might work for you. It’s a strange a scary concept, but it’s all about finding the ‘flow’ by doing something that truly motivates and inspires you. And the results are beneficial, for individuals, and for the business. If 20% seems overwhelming to you, why not try it in smaller doses – say one afternoon a week. Test it out for a few weeks and see if it helps. But choose a time when you’re most likely to be at your creative peak.

Mastery

Pink suggests that instead of being motivated by extrinsic rewards, having a desire to ‘do better’ is what really drives success. What he calls ‘Type I behaviour’ is a way of living, and working, that focuses on producing results that are meaningful – and it leads to ‘stronger performance, greater health, and higher overall well-being’ (p.207). His book is full of examples of why this works... So what does this mean for content creators? It means choosing ‘goldilocks’ tasks (that hit the sweet spot – where they are ‘neither too easy, nor too hard’ (p.209)) for yourself and your team in addition to regular, less inspiring tasks. These can help inspire ‘flow’, create a sense of pride, and provide the challenge that creative types need in order to remain inspired.

Purpose

This might be the hardest part of ‘AMPing’ your content because, as a small cog in a big machine, your ‘purpose’ is largely determined by the organisation for which you work. The good news is that more and more businesses are turning their backs on the profit-only model. However, even if you can’t always find deep meaning in the purpose of your organisation, try and find purpose in your team, or in your work. Ask yourself “Why am I writing this?” the chances are that, if you’re doing content marketing the way we know it should be done, you’re writing it to educate, inform, entertain, or empower your audience. Whether it’s by helping them understand a new feature of your product that makes their life a bit easier, or by providing advice on the subject that makes them think about things in a different way. Your writing will likely, in and of itself, have a purpose. And if you’re still struggling – try the ‘Sawyer Effect’. Remember how, in “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer” he persuaded his friends that painting the fence was desirable, not a chore? Try thinking about your content creation in a different way. Even if it’s the most routine of tasks, focusing on making it better than the last time can help you shift to a mindset of wanting to ‘master’ the task. And that, in turn, helps you find meaning in the work.

Quality Content or 'QUANTent'? Why Marketers Should Be More Picky

We deal with a flood of QUANTent every day

We all know that content needs to be inspiring, relevant, authentic and – well – good. But as the amount of content out there increases and increases, we end up with information overload and quite frankly, as Velocity Partners calls it “a deluge of content marketing crap”.

The Weidert Group, in their blog on how to build an inbound marketing team, talk about the importance of having a team with the capacity to create a large quantity of quality content; stuff like “compelling, energetic and informative blogs, profiles on social media, hard-hitting web and landing page content, and advanced content in multiple forms (video scripts, webinar outlines, e-books, etc.)”.

But with the content avalanche bearing down on all of us, it’s not enough just to produce lots of content. It has to be valuable, 100% of the time. It has to be quality content, not QUANTent.

What is QUANTent?

QUANTent is content that is produced for the sake of having content: to fill the gaps in a calendar, for example.

There are several risks, with QUANTent.

• Content starts to sound ‘all the same’
• It’s not properly edited, or is rushed through in other ways
• It doesn’t have that nugget of greatness that quality content does
• It is produced to meet the calendar’s needs (or the content monster’s needs) rather than the needs of the reader
• It’s boring.

For example, think of a blog that goes out every day. The demand for constant content can become a monster that needs feeding. The risk is that, due to the pressure for demand, the quality of content may suffer.

That’s just not good enough.

Just having sheer volumes of QUANTity content makes people bored, or worse - inclined to disconnect, or  or worse still - it makes them distrust your content, your key messages and, ultimately, your brand.

So what should marketers do?

It's so easy to turn off, unsubscribe, choose to no longer follow someone, or just stop listening. Marketers have to earn the right to keep people engaged. This means we should:

1. Create I-RATE content. Content that is
• Interesting
• Relevant
• Appropriate
• Timely and
• Entertaining/Educational.
2. Be authentic, engaging and succinct.
3. Stay relevant to what the audience demands and expects and
4. Share stuff that individual content creators are proud of!

That way, when consumers manage the QUANTent they’re exposed to by eliminating noise, your messages won’t be eliminated and will hopefully, become part of the Sweet Spot that consumers then go on to share and expand with their friends and colleagues – so that they, too, can choose whether to pay attention to it, or ignore it.

The art of saying no - 3 things to do with urgent content requests

This is the original version of the blog:

9 Questions to Help You Prioritize Content Creation [Template]

as posted on the Content Marketing Institute blog on the 21st of April 2013... I'm sharing it here as an interesting comparison with the final version which is less quirky, and a bit more Americanized...

---------- 

So you've got a great content creator (or maybe even a team of them – physical or virtual) and a content calendar; you know who the personas are that you're creating content for and you've already started writing insightful, valuable, shareable content. You're coming to be seen as a valuable part of the organisation and they're loving your content.

That's great, right?

Wrong.

This is where you need to learn the art of saying 'no' to content requests that simply don't fit within your overall business objectives, that aren't clear enough in their intention, or that are simply requested too late for you to be able to do a good job with them.

How late is too late?

This is a question that good content marketers should be asking themselves, and have answers ready to provide, based on good business reasons and a dollop of common sense. When preparing to say no, a good place to start is to write your own 'content creation rules’.

A very short (1 page is more than enough) tip sheet could include timelines, responsibilities, and what kind of content will and won’t be created. This gives you a helpful starting point that can be bent when necessary and stand strong when required. And then make sure these are communicated to the rest of the organisation.

1)      Consider using a content request form

You might also want to consider putting a content request form or process in place like the one pictured in the image, if the demands simply become too large or frequent to manage easily.

What is a content request form?

A content request form is basically a set of guidelines to help the requestor consider what they want in more detail, before they ask you to write it for them. Often requestors only have a vague idea of what they need when they ask for content to be created. Drilling down into the real nitty-gritty of the issue can help identify better ways their ideas can be used to reach their target audience.

What should a good content request form look like?

Keep it short – 1 page or less is best. It should help answer (amongst other things):

-          What people need the content

-          How it aligns with business objectives,

-          How long they think it will take to produce (then surprise them with the real timelines).

To help you decide whether it’s important, or just urgent, it’s also worth asking what the consequence will be of not producing the content – will the world end, will it critically affect a campaign, or will their boss just be unimpressed?

How do you use them?

-          Fill them in with the requestor, initially. A blank form can be a daunting prospect, and put people off. Help them understand what is involved in creating the content and identify where it should and can be used. For example, they may want to create a white paper when the content would actually be more appropriate for a blog. Explaining the whys and hows not only educates your colleagues; it also helps people understand why you are paid to do what you do.

-          Use it as a reference doc. That way, everyone knows what to expect of the final content. It keeps you all on the same page, literally.

The content created as a result of using this kind of form is more targeted, more appropriate, and often better thought-out, laid out, and therefore more likely to deliver the kind of results its requestor expects.

2)      Prioritise - is it important, or just urgent?

If you have a great content calendar, with space to put in some unexpected activities that add value and are in keeping with the business goals and objectives that's great. But what happens when there are desperate requirements that fall between the gaps. What is the difference between urgent and important?

This old phrase comes to mind: "Lack of planning on your part does not constitute an emergency on my part." But, unfortunately, sometimes it does. In business emergencies – such as PR disasters or the hacking of a social media account – it does mean that everything has to stop, so you put recovery measures in place. Hopefully, however, your business will have already put back-up plans in place for PR/social emergencies. And, if you haven’t already got a plan, maybe now is a good time to start preparing one?

3)      Pull a content rabbit out of a hat

When it comes to ‘urgent’ requests from other parts of the business that demand content resources the key is to keep the ego and emotions out of it – at the end of the day, content creation is a business function that should help get clear, trustworthy and valuable messages out to customers and prospects. Don’t dismiss a request just because you’re having a tiff with that employee, or your business groups have differing objectives.

Sometimes there’s value in pulling a content rabbit out of a hat to meet an urgent need – not only does it make you a valuable content creation resource, it also builds cross-functional relationships. And, you never know, it might even result in that huge sale that keeps your content team in work, and in demand, for another year – while boosting your reputation: a win-win situation.

5 key takeaways

So in conclusion, when it comes to managing demand for content creation some top tips are:

1)      make ‘content creation rules’

2)      develop a ‘content request form’

3)      plan for emergencies

4)      prioritise requests, and

5)      consider requests with an open-mind and a collaborative attitude.

That way saying ‘no’ when necessary, becomes much easier and much less personal.

New Year - an inspired beginning: What 9-year-olds can teach us about making a difference

I wrote this blog for my business account. But unfortunately it wasn't suitable. So I decided to post it myself - because it has a message that I think is worth sharing. Enjoy!

---------------

A few months ago a teacher friend of mine was trying to teach her kids why it’s still important to write letters when we have email – a challenging task. She told them about the amazing TED talk she watched and how a letter-writer inspired the whole of New York to start making a difference. It started with one hand-written letter and spread to an epidemic of good feeling and inspiration.

As she describes in her blog post, small ideas can blossom into great things, and this one did. The next day one of her pupils brought in a hand-written note, and hid it somewhere on the school property. It said:

“To a lovely person

You are great. There is nothing you can’t do if you put your mind to it.

Be brave.

Love from ?”

The repercussions of this small action were far-reaching. Not only did it bring tears to the eyes of the teacher who was still struggling with the death of her sister for several years, it inspired several other members of her class to start doing the same thing. The outpouring of love and healing was slow and steady and remarkable.

It made me realise that in our busy, hurried lives, we touch so many people – each of whom has their own challenges, emotions and concerns. When we travel for business, the number of people we interact with swells above our normal daily number, and we don’t even ‘see’ most of them.

So this year, I’m planning to pay more attention to the people who help make my business trips a bit easier.

1. I’m going to say thank you to the person who is scanning my bags at the airport. After, they are actually doing their job to make me safer.
2. I’m going to smile at the person who checks my passport. I can’t imagine that they have many people who feel positively towards them normally.
3. I’m going to look a cleaner in the eye, when they’re picking litter up off the floor of a train, plane, or station platform and thank them for the job they’re doing.
4. I’m going to buy a cup of coffee for the person in the line behind me at a café, just to make their day.                         And the clincher... 
5. I’m going to leave a random note, for a stranger, on my morning commuter train. Who knows, maybe I’ll make someone’s day, like the New York letter-writer, or my friend’s school pupils. However it pans out (and the chances are that I will never know what really happens) I believe that the world deserves a chance to get off to a good start in 2013, and I’m going to do what I can to help make that happen.

What will you do to make other people’s lives better in 2013? I challenge you to find a way to make someone smile today.