Inspiring (and delusional) thoughts.
Your words and thoughts have physical power - Will Smith (by MakEdwardSansom)
7 months ago
RIP Steve Jobs. You always challenged us to think differently. Bravo on a life well lived. God Bless.
- T.A. McCann on The Future Of Work
Some of these ideas are spot on. My question comes back to how we’ll break the business model of traditional payments (hourly, salary, etc.) to accomodate all this?
(Source: weekendpost, via stoweboyd)
Analysis: 14 days without email
In the past, I have tested the idea of only checking emails twice per day and did it with a fair bit of success. I have lazily gotten away from that but I just spent a better part of two weeks on vacation and have purposely stayed away from my email and wondered how many emails were actually actionable when I got back. Here’s what I found out.
I have two main email accounts (Personal & Work) with the vast majority coming into my Work account. I broke down my email analysis into three categories of priority:
- All - This includes newsletters, group emails, advertisements and other randomness that isn’t being sent to just me. Mass mailings.
- FYI - Either smaller group or just ‘for-your-information’ emails that did not require a response by me.
- Actionables - These were emails asking specifically for me to respond back to them on when I returned.
Here’s how the numbers came out:
After 14 days and 432 emails I only had 15 emails, from both accounts, that I needed to do anything. A mere 3.5%. Now, to me, this says a couple of things:
- Stop wasting your money/time - What would you rather do? Spend cumulative 4+ hours per day checking your inbox via your laptop/iPhone/iPad or twice per day at 15-30 minutes per session.
- The power of delegation - I’ve been working on delegating tasks to people that work with/for me. The ability to empower those around you to make decisions and not require me to respond is one of the best ways to ‘be a good boss’ for one and reduce the extra emails. This is a topic in itself.
- Don’t be held captive - I’m going to go back to checking email twice a day with a goal to move to once a week in the future (thank you Tim Ferriss and 4-hour workweek which I read this break!). No brainer here, back to 2x per day for me!
Also, re: newsletters. I had NO IDEA how many newsletters I had subscribed to. Since doing this rudimentary analysis I have begun unsubscribing to all newsletters and I’m easily in the 40-50 range. Its out of control and you don’t even realize how often a newsletter comes in, you quickly delete it and keep that pattern going for years even! NO MORE!
I hope this allows you all to think about your own inboxes and time spent checking them and begin making the adjustments to breaking the shackles of email.
Five most influential people in my life
Got this idea from James Gardner and thought I’d follow his lead to starting this new meme. Who would I classify as the 5 most influential people in my life? Hmmm….tough tough question but let me try.
1a) Father AKA Henry Garland - I’m wired like my Dad. Stubborn, constantly distracted, surprisingly sensitive at times, and a 100% entrepreneur at heart. He set the bar high. I have learned from his successes in business and as equally as important, his mistakes, and for that I’m incredibly grateful.
1b) Mother AKA Roz Garland - (sidebar: I know, I know, parents are so cliche but it’s true.) My mom and I have always had a strained relationship but I would say that is because we’re so much alike. We’re equally stubborn, a bit dramatic at times, and always striving for absolute perfection. My mom has taught tons of great things from my love of the arts, design, music, and doing the things that make you happy.
2) Michael Gerber (author of E-Myth) - I obviously don’t know Michael but his book changed me when I read it. It was the clarity that many people are looking for in regards to building a business. Now with that said, I don’t believe everything he says but I definitely think his organizational approach has effective be as a CEO.
3) Dr. Lori Byers AKA college professor - Lori was easily the most influential teacher of my life. She was my Communications professor from UNT. She was able to take us out of our selfish, holier-than-thou perspectives and made consider other options. From demographics, to gender, to cultural and religious differences. She always lead classes by getting out of the way and allowing us to find our own opinions instead of buying into hers. She’s a gem.
4) Courtney Treadaway - Court is an old old friend of mine. He’s also been a best friend/co-worker/roommate/employee too. My parents originally didn’t think Court was a good influence on me but turned out to be the most positive while growing up. Court has a pretty amazing story in his own right but his/our battles along the way have taught me the priority of things.
5) Al Gore - The vice-president? Well not really him specifically but what I really mean is what Al Gore helped get started. The Internet has connected me with new insights and perspectives from people around the globe that without it, I would never have even consider. People like Larry Lessig, Chris Anderson (Wired), Chris Anderson (TED curator), Clay Shirky, John Battelle, Tara Hunt, Ryan Carson, Jason Fried, Kevin Rose, Gary Vaynerchuk, Tim Ferriss, Malcolm Gladwell, Craig Newmark, Jeff Bezos, Jason Calacanis and so so SO many more. They have all been influences in my life sorry that I cheated there but if you want to single one person out (jokingly), I’d say Al Gore.
Pass it on. Who are the 5 most influential people in your life?
Also posting @bradgarland on Twitter.
I’m gonna be a daddy - again!
We knew the news for a couple of weeks now but wanted to hold off until after our 1st doctors appointment which was day and everything looks good. So Jenny is 5.5 weeks pregnant and is due around early February ‘09. We are very excited about it and I coaxed Jenny into doing a video to announce it to the world!
Thanks to everybody for the support!
