So hi there…

Remember me? I hope you do…

Shamefully the 27th November was the last time I wrote a post to the blog and to be honest I have kept meaning to come back to it, but I kinda got out of the habit. Now that’s an interesting thought in its own right and maybe that’s where I should start?

To be honest with you at Xmas I just got out of the habit in all kinds of ways. With a long break over Xmas I took the opportunity to stay away from the computer, have a nice rest and spend time with my wife … I had a great Xmas by the way. Thanks for asking! With staying away from the computer I got out of the Linked In updates habit and the Twitter habit and to be honest have found it hard to get back into it. So that poses two interesting questions I think:

1. do users of social media drift in and out of it? Does Joe Normal use Twitter and Facebook and then drift away from them
2. as a digital marketing professional (which I know some of you who read this are) do you tend to drift in and out of your social networks?

So, all in all I kinda got out of the habit but am looking to pick it back up and allocate a bit more family time. I have been conciously trying to spend more time exercising and with Mrs S and less time on the computer. I’ve quit Facebook for now and listening to the commentaries on the privacy issues that’s probably a good thing.

I know that Leo Laporte has totally deleted his Facebook fan page and account saying that he feels betrayed by the way that Facebook opted him into various groups based on his preferences. Same thing though on Twitter the other week as well – did you find that you seem to have started folloowing lots of weird people on Twitter. That was a hack that someone found that allowed people to force others to follow them – of course you just unfollow and all is sorted. I really don’t want to follow David Milliband though!!!

So what prompted me to blog today?

Well as I said I have been trying to find a little more me time and I was listening today to net@night podcast in the car. It was Episode 158: The Way We’re Working Isn’t Working from a few weeks ago and they interviewed Tony Schwartz. Tony has written the book called The Way We Work Isn’t Working and he has lots of interesting stuff to say about how we work, how to work more effectively and how today’s tech is making us lose control of our time. All good interesting stuff.

Some pearls of wisdom that struck me and that I thougt I would share were that humans are only effective for blocks of 90 minutes maximum. So if you’re writing a proposal set an alarm for 90 mins at most and then take a break. If you work past that you are wasting your time. I actually did that this afternoon and I was getting tired by the end of 90 mins so I took a break.

Tony also made the point that many businesses measure employees on the time they spend at work. He contends that the energy you bring to the time you are working should be the measure and you can’t really disagree with that can you?

Final point was that to get your head in the right place and to not drown in all that is going on you need to take responsibility for putting your energy into where you can influence circumstances.

So you could say that over the last few months I’ve been focusing efforts elsewhere. Either way I’m liking the process of writing again and I think I’ll be getting back into writing and reading and sharing more stuff with you.

I’ll also get back into the habit of having something more structured to say rather than todays ramblings!

So keep the faith and send me a note if this post out of the blue suprised you. Let me know that there is still someone out there keeping an eye on the blog.