Best Global Brands of 2009 Infographic

aled 27%.

Word to the Social Media Wise

I recently signed up for a YouTube account to upload videos – as opposed to signing up so I can argue in comment threads. Upon registration, YouTube suggested some other people to follow based on my gmail. Which is cool if it’s my bff Sarah, who’d selected on “Let others find my channel if they have my email address.” But there were way more people who’d selected this than I cared to know. I now know 1) their age, 2) their username (see my blog about usernames), 3) what they watch when they’re logged in, and 4) what they’ve said. In one case, I saw a comment one of them made on a video. And it wasn’t like “lol that kitteh was too cute!” More like his opinion was dumb. And now I know it.

“and the Rebirth of Unitasking”

There has been much ado about the results of this recent Stanford study that exposed folks who claim that they can ‘multitask’ at work not only can’t, but their overall quality goes down when they try. I completely agree.

A new employee emailed me while he was in the conference room doing in-processing paperwork. He asked a completely unrelated question and I responded back with “aren’t you paying attention in there?!” When he responded he could multitask with a :) at the end of his email, I shot back a link describing the study. Cute? Maybe. Multitasking? No. The result? I noticed he forgot to sign in the signature block.

I have a love-hate relationship with managing my tasks and due-outs. I like Franklin Covey’s guidance that there’s urgent things and then there’s important things; anything can be urgent if you let others set your priorities but only a few things are actually important. But ‘highly successful’ people are mum when it comes to emails and phonecalls in a role like mine where you’re the responder as much as you are the originator.

My second “real” boss taught me the concept of triage: if it’s from him, respond right away. If it’s from or CCs his boss, don’t mess anything up. People at all levels ping you for the status as if all you had to do was ‘just add water’ to the CC chain. You can have your information three ways: fast, detailed and accurate but you can only pick two at a time. And giving email updates to updates should be last on anyone’s to-do list if they’re really collaborating.

I propose a social contract of the work environment to salute the rebirth of unitasking: I’ll try to tell you my time frame for a quality response if I can’t get back to you within 48 hours. If you don’t hear back from me that day, assume I’m working on it and have aptly prioritized it to be done asap. I’ll expect the same. If it’s important and urgent, we’ll collaborate immediately.

Inc.com: How a Bromance Led to Bathtime Fun & Profit

Right here.

The best Method!

Things to Consider When Entering: The Exit

Do you often wait to make decisions until you make considerations in the case of deciding or needing to  change course? I myself find it hard to imagine that I’ve already made a bad decision and I find it especially infuriating to play devil’s advocate with my own future while trying to make a decision now. But in general, the considerations that will make me change course are the same. And buried deep in Fidelity’s own information pages, I found them spelled out.

For investment advice,  if you are so inclined to do your own research, I recommend that you check out The Motley Fool website. Or pay a tax attourney, accountant, and/or financial advisor to help you. Remember that you are responsible for the outcome and they are responsible for their advice. Big difference.

On the Fidelity webpage that tells me how to get my money out of L-3’s 401k, which is filled with information for people who’ve already decided to exit, are these three bulletpoints introduced as “considerations” for leaving the money IN:

•	You may have more restrictions than active employees (such as limited number of annual transactions)
•	You may be charged fees
•	You may have limited investment options

Points one and three are essentially the same. Fidelity lightly reminds you that you “may” want to leave your options open. And that you “may” be paying fees along the way no matter what. I assume that for most people, this info generally isn’t what you’re looking hard at the time you decided to get into this. Hey, me neither. I had just heard that Fidelity is like, the best place for a bourgeoise like myself to “invest.” Now I know that just like any other choice I make, options and fees are the main themes to get more information on when deciding what to do. It’s all the same.

So how about thinking through these sentences next time you’re deliberating:

• “This may restrict me __how_”
• “This may cause me to pay __what_”
• “This may limit my options __where__”

The use of the auiliary verb “may” is both a present and future possibility! Just keep it in mind.

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