Truth or Apocrypha ?

"The British created a civil service job in 1803 calling for a man to stand on the Cliffs of Dover with a spyglass. He was supposed to ring a bell if he saw Napoleon coming. The job was abolished in 1945"
- From Panic on Wall Street by Robert Sobel

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Sobel

How to Get Things Done in Business

Business Advice // Chuck Intrieri

SWOT analysis (also sometimes referred to as a SWOT Matrix) is a structured planning method used to evaluate the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats involved in a project or in a business venture. These elements of a SWOT analysis can be carried out for a product, place, industry or person. It involves specifying the objective of the business venture or project and identifying the internal and external factors that are favorable and unfavorable to achieving that objective.

Conducting a SWOT Analysis With Handy Template Guides
- read further via link -


Link:
http://cerasis.com/2013/08/19/elements-of-a-swot-analysis/?utm_source=linkedin&utm_medium=social&utm_content=Oktopost-LinkedIn-Group&utm_campaign=%28Oktopost%29Cerasis

READS: The Myth of multitasking – How doing it all gets nothing done

READS: The Myth of multitasking – How doing it all gets nothing done


Problem:
You are at the office working away on a piece of work which needs to get done, your email client suddenly pings alarming you to the fact that someone has sent you an email, what do you do? Well if you’re like most people curiosity will get the better of you and you open up the email. Then someone comes in to tell you about the latest gossip from the weekend. Someone else comes in and joins the conversation and pretty soon you’re talking about other topics which have branched off from the original conversation. You then get a phone call saying someone needs you for something in 10 minutes. Another phone call and you add a calendar item to remind you that you have another appointment in 2 hours time. Someone else comes into your office and the gossip continues so you kill ten minutes to go to the appointment as there is not much point in getting back to your original task as you won’t finish it anyway.

That’s a typical scene in an office and by no means and extreme one. Look at the scenario again and ask what has been achieved. The original task that was started at the beginning of the day has not been finished. The gossip hasn’t achieved anything. The email wasn’t attended to and within the space of an hour or two you have stressed yourself out as you have not really achieved anything for half a day and you have to work on to get some peace and finish it.

Try this exercise

To give you an illustration of how counterproductive multitasking is. try this exercise

Time yourself doing each exercise:

Exercise 1

Get your mobile phone out and open up your text messaging box. What you are going to do is spell out the words

‘Multitasking is counterproductive’

However, after each letter add a corresponding number, for example:

M1 U2 L3 T4 I5 A6 S7 K8 etc etc

Exercise 2

Now what to do, is do the task individually. For example on your mobile phone spell out the words:

‘Multitasking is counterproductive’ and after you have finished this type out the numbers 1 – 31 (that’s how many letters there are in the sentence; multitasking is counterproductive).

What you’ll notice is that the 2nd exercise was done a lot quicker than the first exercise.

Viewpoint: The Myth of Multitasking: Why Fewer Priorities Leads to Better Work

The Myth of Multitasking: Why Fewer Priorities Leads to Better Work
http://jamesclear.com/multitasking-myth

Notes:

Yes, we are capable of doing two things at the same time. ... What is impossible, however, is concentrating on two tasks at once. Multitasking forces your brain to switch back and forth very quickly from one task to another.

Switching cost is the disruption in performance that we experience when we switch our attention from one task to another.

I think we need to say no to being busy and say yes to being committed to our craft. 

If you commit to nothing you’ll be distracted by everything.