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Productivity Lessons from Marketing People

August 7th, 2008 by Stephen

Posted in GTD, Links, Productivity |

Welcome back! It's good to see you again. Please note that I am now publishing all new material at my hub site: StephenPSmith.com

Naomi has a new post at IttyBiz , where she is making a point about target demographics and marketing. I see it as a good lesson in choosing tasks based on contexts:

Black, like many combat style video games, is arranged by mission. A mission is similar to a level. When you get to the end of the mission — as in, you got through it and didn’t die — you save. Then you can either continue playing or quit until next time.

Unlike many video games, though, in Black, you can ONLY save when you’re done your mission. Not a moment before. And the missions are an hour and a half long.

My husband, like most adult males, has a life. He has a spouse. He has a toddler. He has two cats. He runs a small business. He does not often have an hour and a half of uninterrupted time, and when he does, he doesn’t always want to spend the entire time playing video games.

So when he has only half an hour and wants to play Black, he finds something else to do.

Finding the right thing to do with the amount of time that you have available - a perfect example of using your @Contexts for the efficient and effective use of your time. Thanks, Naomi, for the example!

If you found this post useful, please share it with your friends on Twitter using the tinylink http://tinyurl.com/5vrdyp. Thanks, I appreciate it! Feel free to comment below, I enjoy discussing these ideas. ~@Stephen


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5 Responses

  1. Michael @ Awareness * Connection Says:

    I’m careful about what games I put on my iPhone. That can eat up a huge amount of time with little to show for it. I just can afford much of that sort of time, as fun as it is. I guess that was what college life was for. Wish I’d realized back then how much spare time I had, and that adult life would never be like that again.

  2. Stephen Says:

    I too wasted a bunch of time in college playing those Sierra “Quest” games, like Police Quest, etc. Of course, I didn’t really know what I wanted to be when I grew up, so …

  3. Naomi Dunford Says:

    That is so cool! Thinking about it, that really is what HDBiz is all about. Thanks for the love.

  4. Stephen Says:

    Hi Naomi, thanks for stopping by. I see these little tips and tricks everywhere.

  5. Resource Links – July ´08 (Blog Posts) | WHAKATE Says:

    […] Pitfalls Productivity Lessons From Marketing People Three Ways To Get Better At What You Do Strategic Actions For Achieving Your Goals GTD Cafe: […]

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