"Every 18 months, for the last decade,"  says marketing expert Seth Goodin, "the world has doubled the data it pushes to you."  The math is  simple. You now receive twice as much email, twice as many friend requests, twice as many sites to check. You now have two - three as many devices. 

Consider the impact on your concentration levels, your ability to keep up, and even your ability to think. Seems to me that the more we exchange action for stimulus and then stimulus for action, the more we chip away at pieces of who we are and how we function both at home and at work.

This post though is about the latter, productivity at work in an age of being constantly switched on and the successful strategies being used  to allow us to make the most of our day. This is important because these startegies can be linked to job satisfaction, the amount to time we  spend  at our desks and of course the work itself.

One of my favourite productivity tips is unplugging from the Internet.Yes. I mean literally turning  off my wireless router,  or taking off the cable when I work from home. Because my firm is connected on all social media platforms I find myself constantly being pulled in by the urge  to be part of the various conversations. The fact is once I  have my browser up and running the temptation is there to check in. And so I unplug, when  I am doing my client's work, strategising, writing my column or a proposal,  I block off the time that I won''t go online and I  just focus. 

Another tip is to carve out  your email repsonse time. I actually got this tip from one of our consultants at Mango Media Caribbean who juggles a full time writing and tv production schedule. Sue has three check in times for  emails: 7:00 am. 2:30 pm amd 8:00 pm. She answers every email, slowly and methodically. She responds to questions, she sends off projects, she  emails inquires. She has never missed a deadline. I asked  her about this tactic  once and her answer is that people get clued in to her repsonse times pretty easily and they accept the hours that they will and won't hear from her. "Expectiaons can be  managed fairly well once deadlines are met."

The lesson here maybe if you get caught up in answering every time intensive email that comes your way instantly, you just won't be able to serve people the same way (and everybody suffers).

Shonali Burke of Women Grow Your Business  writes the worst thing you can do is to make your iPhone or BlackBerry your de facto computer which you carry everywhere. I think this has terrible reprecussions in the work place that borders on the rude especially when you start  answering your phones  during meetings and texting and emailing incessantly as you work. .

Productivity at work in an age of being constantly connected comes down to having self control, applying a layer of filtering, managing epectations and switchng off. As an entrpreneur,  it's important  to keep your eyes on the people who are keeping your cash register clicking  (clients)  and God knows that is hard enough in and of itself.

It was in January, several week before their big press conference when my (new) client called to say they had received over US $1,000,000  in international funding and wanted to launch the second phase of a public education programme.  

But this new client had been without a public face for many years, had gone through several corporate communications managers  and had been virtually silent when it received funding during Phase 1 of the project. "We preferred to work quietly with our stakeholders rather than seek publicity," said the CEO. 

When I told my client that holding a press conference was the least effective way to get his news out, he almost had a heart attack. He had held on to the notion of a press conference as a way of making a big splash, the same way a hungry baby does his mother's  nipples.

But we had three major issues and I told my client just that:

1) No one knew who they were, they had been quiet for too long

2) In the news cycle too many distracting and competing things were going on, their news would be pushed to the bottom of the media totem pole

3) We needed to embrace the fact that journalists liked to be briefed exclusively, this was one case where I thought we could make it work if we stripped away the press conference niceties and got the stakeholders talking.

I outlined a strategy for igniting as many conversations as possible in a very short timeframe.

I am not sure why I wasn't fired immediately but somehow I  convinced my client to find stories, real stories  of people who had benefitted from their programme, real stories and real voices from folks  who were creating successful and unique work but also had their hardships to share. We promised editors opportunities for one-of-a kind photography, no reporter was given the same pitch.

My client got extraordinary results from understanding a fundamental rule about Public Relations and that it is  our jobs as professionals to discern stories that the market actually wants to hear and to help journalists write stories that tell the truth and which bring people into the conversation rather than keep them at the periphery.

 What’s more important than content.   

Finding, winnowing, sorting and organising information should be given as much priority as creating it. 

After all NALIS (library) wouldn’t be much value if all the books were piled on the floor.

The way information is organised and presented is as important as content. 

Happy 2010, blog readers! Wow. We survived a troubling 2009, but I believe even with the  economy as bad as it was (and  those in the know say we are by no means over the doom and gloom) the signs that PR is as  credible and worthy profession were abundant.

Sure, communication budgets were trimmed and slashed. Yes, there were too many pay cuts, buyouts. But I think the economic woes forced us to rethink how they we brand our organisations, connect with shareholders and uphold reputations using tools that previously we had sneered at.

During  the end of every year, I get introspective, this year I was even more so with the passing of a decade. So I came up with a list of my five hopes for communicators in 2010. I look forward to you sharing yours as well. 

Network: I hope as communicators we continue to keep our networks alive. It’s difficult I know, and  between 12 hour days, too little time at home and too much hours  commuting in traffic, who has the time? But communicators must continue to keep professional connections alive. I have a perfect example. When the economic fall out happened in the financial industry in Trinidad, every communicator I know that was affected was able to land jobs within a 3 month span. Why? Their networks were strong. Friends gave them leads, spoke of hidden job openings and provided coaching. I think the recession was a great wake up call to see the importance of a valuable network. This year we need to engage and use them more.

Brand yourself: This  follows up from  Point 1. But too often we have been so consumed with branding our organisations that we forget that behind it is a communicator doing some terrific work. It’s like the communicator was a ghost. Today, I think communicators must create their own persona online. We all need a blog, a Facebook page, a Twitter account. And please, use  real names and pictures. So yes, support your  organizations’ brand, but  get your own as well. 

Stop using facebook as only a maco book: To do so is to perform a great disservice.  It represents a shame and a missed opportunity. Facebook and the likes are new social way of crowd sourcing, sharing news, gaining business insights, connecting for business and winning contracts.  I recommend Twitter and Linked In too. These tools are no longer oddities they are part of our pedestrian lives but they can also be used as powerful business tools once we spend less time macoing and more time sharing, observing, learning. To me, these concepts converge. 

Speak the lingo: Nothing will make our profession seems as ancient and out-of-touch, than not understanding the current technologies and speaking about the profession in terms of anecdotes. To say your event was well attended, to not know how to relate every tactic in terms of a measurable ROI is simply not good enough. And forget the excuse about not be mathematically inclined, it will simply make you seem lazy and a communicator not plugged into the profession’s heartbeat.

Brag about and love PR:  2009 was a tough year and whenever I talked to my colleagues too many of us were under the gun, fatigued, overwhelmed with work and underwhelmed by our budgets. We were just plain tired and fed up. I hope in 2010 we take more frequent breaks and that it gives us the energy to have  re-started 2010 with passion and praise. I mean what profession do you know, carries you from managing a crisis, to planning a helluva a party, to dealing with the press, to thinking critically about a business problem, assisting a community or planning budget. That’s PR and there is no profession like it. Let’s be passionate again, by God, our companies and clients need us. 

My colleague, Dexter Charles, communications manager over  at First Citizens once said that there was only one thing people feared more than death, and that was delivering  a presentation. 

I think he may have been on to something. 

And I am not referring to the sweaty palms or the palpitating heart beats that anyone gets when they stand in front of strangers, these are just signals that point to the fact that people generally 1)  hate giving presentations and 2) are pretty bad at it.

I had cause to think about this deeply when we got a call saying  that our firm was to compete for a significant account that placed us up against some of the biggest names in the advertising world. 

We weren't phased for a second. 

In fact, we thought we would do the request justice and designed what everyone (forgive the bias of our team) thought was a winning campaign. 

There was one caveat, on our team of 8 we had just 3 strong presenters.

Our designers, a  super talented duo, balked at the idea of standing up and talking. Our creative director, like a turtle,  always pulls his head into a  shell anytime there is a hint of creative sales pitch in the air.  

Of course, I understood the reticence.

In 'Why Bad Presentations Happen to Good Causes' writer Andy Goodman points out is that boring presentations are  a disservice to the audience and the presenter.  And that presenters need to think about how to make their  information [feel] fresh and come alive for the audience. "I think we owe our audience respect, to give them presentation that is solid, good and interesting," Godman writes.

That's sound advice.

But it made the predicament that we were  in no less real, that is until I figured a way to turn our presentation into a non-presentation. We would ditch the power point.

On D-day we walked  into the room with no projector, no slides, no power point, and no bullet points to hide behind.

Instead, we carried  big design books (25 x 19) with all our creatives (print, tv, web, social).

"Let's have a conversation instead," I said when I entered the room.

I figured that we should position ourselves less as experts and  more  as  a team of professionals willing to share some great ideas but also grateful for the opportunity to listen.

Instead of standing in front of the prospective client we sat around the table with them. When we handed  each member of the team their individual design book we told them to regard them as pads  that could be marked and  written upon. We assured them we wouldn't be offended. As for our team of non-communicators, we honoured their preferences by having them lend their expertise in the Q&A session, where conversation and not presentation was again the rule of engagement.

Did it make a difference. Heck yes. The folks in the room never zoned out. They asked questions, we felt an enthusiasm and a connection to our ideas. More importantly their eyes never glazed over, you know that dazed look people in a room get when they wish they were elsewhere. Well, it was never there. 

We were in the room for an  hour-and-a-half and yet we never felt the seconds drag by. We'll know next week if our campaign ideas won but I have to tell you ,we left that room feeling like winners.

Oh!  And as for those design folders?  They became  the  outcome of our working session. 

We left them behind when we exited the room.

...Well from everywhere. From observing life and  participating in it. 

In the streets. 

On Twitter.

In my office. 

Under my bed.

Anything that crosses your mind could probably be a story, it just requires time and stamina to store the idea, retrieve it and then commit it to the page. 

That’s a discipline I acquired from my father, a lifelong journalist who recorded his thoughts, including banal tidbits, he heard on TV in copy books. At the time of his death he had  scores of such books in his bedroom. They are the only things I kept that I regard as sacred.

I am driven visually. I keep a story file and on weekends I pour through magazines and old books and clip and paste  photos, paragraphs, a headline, a fashion statement. It’s like an inspiration book that  I turn to  provoke ideas and turn on the creativity tap.

Stories are also generated from real life. Like this weekend when after my husband went to the cashier  to pay a $600 brunch bill at Crews Inn and grabbed a handful of mints, he was told he could have only two. 

The amount  of our bill and the cost of the mints didn’t compute and we walked out of the  restaurant with a bitter taste in our mouths. But  it immediately became a story we passed on about service to our friends Nikola and Jacks, who we met for drinks moments later.

I think stories become stories because you live them. The creation happens in your head but the best stories you take from your own life.

The trick is to keep curious. Ask questions. Look at trends. Explore. Laugh. Cry. Doubt. Scream.  The story creates the work. The work creates the story. 

It’s okay to pick up the phone.

Sometime ago I found  online  a gorgeous  pair of high heeled spectator pumps but before I  clicked the purchase button I wanted details about  the colours  that  were available.

Turns out that the site had  all kinds of information  except what I wanted. The cost of the shoes was there, so too information on the height of the heel  and the discount I could get if  I  purchased  another  pair as a gift. 

But no information on the colours was available.  And then, as if to compound my frustration, when I sent off an email inquiry the  site promised to respond to me in 3 working days. I suppose that had  I called the store’s  number  which was splashed across the site, it  would have taken me  3 minutes to get the information I wanted.

I remember this  online shopping fiasco only because last week a colleague mentioned that  she wanted to make a fast decision about whether to proceed with organising  an event  but  needed the consent of  her committee members.  

“ I sent an email,” she said, “ but no one responded.”

Nowadays sending an email no longer  guarantees that  you’re going to get the quickest response. Here’s what you’re doing when you send one.  

You assume that everyone has a blackberry, is connected to the internet the same time as you are  or has the time or inclination  to open the email, digest the information  and respond.

That’s a tall order. 

Sometimes, as in my experience with the shoes, or in my colleague’s need for a quick time decision, high tech isn’t always the most efficient.  The dazzle and convenience of it sometimes  blinds us to the dowdy but perhaps speedier solutions. 

So tell me again, why don’t you just pick up the phone?

In the catalogue of family values how would you rate a situation  like this?

A friend, Indra Sammy replies to her daughter's e-mail, asking her not to substitute the word "coz" for because, or "luv ya" for love you. She's concerned that if  her daughter continues expressing herself in  the English  of convenience she'll  forget about the art of writing.  I suppose what  Indra wants from her daughter, even in an e-mail, is real communication not just mere contact. She wants an expression of feelings. She doesn't just want to stay in touch.  

But I wonder, would you consider my friend overbearing, ornery, not au courant with the times? 

Now to answer that question first consider this. In the catalogue of business values, how would you rank an occasion like this?

A high ranking businessman  is asked to deliver the feature address at a gala dinner and awards function. He brings a script but departs from the text, preferring  instead to ad lib.  I believe that an ad lib has its place but certainly  not ad nauseum and this is a perfect example. What comes out of this top executive's mouth is a string of badly pronounced words, and poorly constructed sentences, green verb too.

I have two questions: Would you question this executive's ability? Would you want him on your board?  

More and more at different corporate functions, I 've begun to see a disturbing trend, the decline of the written word. University graduates wouldn't know how to  begin writing  a long, thoughtful letter, the kind that requires reflection, effort and time.  More disturbing is the fact that some business executives have no idea how to condense and distill information-using the art of speech writing.  

That particular evening at the gala awards dinner, the CEO was in the company of his peers. "How was it possible," I thought as I sat through many badly written speeches, "that the heads  of these large, mostly successful companies did not how to communicate?" The reputation of that particular feature speaker surely  died a thousand deaths when he boasted  about his company's success: "My company have seen profits...." 

Perhaps the decline of the written word, has much to do with the times  that we live in. This, after all, is the age where we communicate more but write less. Hyper busy executives don't read articles as they once did, if they can get the  story in one paragraph, then forget the rest. If they can derive  the essence of a twenty minute speech in a ten second sound bite, they'll consider themselves  informed. But it does not stop there. More and more we rely on commercial poets and cartoonists to express our thoughts for us.  We sign off our sentences with a shrug and a bright yellow faced smile.  

 But we need not degenerate the English language any further before we think about its rescue. So to the businessman that night who went in a drunken state to the podium, and to you, yes you, the one with the green verbs spilling forth from your script  like a broken WASA main, here are some  tricks of the trade to help you get through those dreaded moments of speech writing.  

First, never think that  your first  draft will be anything  but  silly. Don't be discouraged, the draft  is  just a way of getting you to write the things you want to say.  

Second, reject the notion that honesty and candour demand that you "let it all hang out." That's not honesty, that's intellectual laziness. Tuck some of your words  in and edit some of them out. Remember composition is a discipline that forces you to think, put your thoughts in order and  give them a purpose. 

Remember too that your audience will expect  you to give them some thing to think about. A speech demands some sense of occasion,  you may want to use your ten minutes to uplift, inform and even inspire. Business leaders should use words full of meaning, that bind thoughts together with purpose, that holds a  promise of understandable progress. Avoid empty word and false promises.  

Like my friend Indra, I believe the written word needs a renaissance of clarity.