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Researcher Interview #1 Part 5 (Conclusion)
Click to Listen (6 1/2 minutes)
MT: This is Maura Thomas from RegainYourTime.com. Thanks for listening to the fifth and final part of my interview with Dr. John Dovidio, psychology professor at Yale University. You can see the previous posts by clicking the link at the top of this page and prior pages. And if you’re interested in reading up on the current research, please visit the “Research and Resources” page of this website.
What do you think about the danger that ah…I’ve read some…some research is suggesting that there is a real benefit in the…the quiet moments that we used to have, the time in between things…waiting in line, or even sitting at a red light, or…you know, just the moments in between other things that we…we used to have an opportunity for our mind to just wander and that time was…our brains sometimes used to process what we had heard, and to create connections among things and really where the learning happens. And now there is some fear that we don’t have those moments of quiet anymore because in every moment of stillness, we whip out our iPhone and check our email, or check our Facebook status, or jump on the internet, or play a game on our phone. And now that we have all this…this stimulation in our pocket, do you think that there’s a danger to losing those moments of..of “mind wandering” that we used to have?
JD: There is a lot of evidence that suggests that ah…part of learning is taking the time to consolidate, to reflect upon things, to make sure that what we know just has to reverberate enough in our head for it to stay there. That’s a simple way of saying it. There’s a lot of work that also shows that there are these times that we develop insights by ah…this kind of…not actively thinking about something, but different pieces, or different elements to the solution of a problem just appear to us through insight, and not in a logical fashion. And this insight comes usually during those periods following a period of consolidation and reflection, where you basically have to see, you have to sort of become inwardly focused to start thinking about the thoughts, and then those thoughts can become, can come to coalesce in some unique, synthetic way that becomes a creative insight. And if we’re always focused outward, we’re not going to do as much of that…we’re going to rely on creativity coming from the outside rather than from the inside. On the other hand, to give you the balance of it, is that the other thing about humans is that when we begin to feel we’ve reached a limit, we almost reflexively back off to gain at least enough solitude to be able to regroup, consolidate, and move forward. So the question becomes, not that we’re not going to have those moments of solitude, we just may have fewer and fewer of them as we go on. But if people need time to think, it’s not like we can’t turn off the machines. It’s not that we don’t go into a shower, where we don’t have our, our cell phone on and our computer on. Maybe when we start losing those private moments we’re in more trouble (laughing). But people will probably structure their day so that they’ll have those private moments at different times.
MT: Do you think that we’ll continue to recognize that we need those moments, and take them? I have people tell me all the time that their best ideas come to them in the shower, just for the exact reason that you just said. And one client even told me that he…he got some crayons…water soluble crayons, so he could write on the shower tiles because that’s when he has his best ideas and that’s what I told him, it’s because it’s the only time that you’re not interrupted. So..but…but that was a surprise to him. You know when I said that, he hadn’t thought about it. “Wow, you’re right,” he said. “Those are the only moments of quiet that I ever get.” So to me that..that raises a concern that…especially children who are constantly exposed to all the stimulation…while they may be capable of…of stepping back and taking those moments, they might not recognize that they need them.
JD: Yeah, I mean that’s…the biggest problem is with kids. I mean part of…of growing up has to do with seeking new stimulations and new information. And so kids tend not to be as reflective anyway. They…they tend not to…even if you give them that free time, doesn’t mean that they’re doing it…using the same kind of consolidation that an adult would…the way an adult would handle that. If in fact you…you don’t even allow them that time, then they’re going to be less likely to be able to do that when they become adults because they won’t know what to do with it. And so I think…again, the issue is probably…it’s not having all the media available. It has to do with things like, training people when to use it, when not to use it, having, you know…I think as adults enforcing a quiet time, a non-electronic time, is not a bad thing. Kids will resent it. Part of what we need to teach kids anyway is a little bit of self-control. “You can’t do what you want, when you want, all the time.” But part of being a kid is wanting to do what you want, whenever you want, as soon as you want.
MT: Right.
JD: So, I mean that’s the age-old challenge we have and now it’s just, the electronic media, which is more seductive, just makes it a little bit more complicated and much more difficult to do.
MT: Hmmm, great point. Well I want to be respectful of your time so while I feel like I could discuss this with you forever I will…I will call it here and say thank you very much for taking the time to speak with me. Dr. John Dovidio from Yale University, thank you very much.
JD: Well thank you!
MT: And thank you, for visiting, and be sure to check this space again for future interviews with researchers in the fields of attention, multitasking, productivity, and technology. This is Maura Thomas with RegainYourTime.com.
How to Sync Outlook Tasks with your iPhone
UPDATE: 7/28/11: This post refers to syncing Outlook for WINDOWS (all versions, as far as I can tell) with your iPhone. It covers using ToodleDo (the free way) and using ToDo by Appigo ($4.99 as of today). Since this post, I can recommend another way to sync tasks to iPhone either from iCal for Mac or Outlook for Windows, and that is 2Do by Guided Ways Technologies. It works well and there are instructions on their website. I have not yet found a solution for syncing Outlook 2011 for MAC tasks directly with iPhone. I did find this article about syncing to iCal and if that works successfully, you can then sync tasks from iCal to iPhone via 2Do or ToDo. I can not speak to how well it works. These difficulties, to me, are sufficient reason to recommend AGAINST Outlook for Mac as a productivity solution. For other suggestions of productivity tools for Mac users, see this post and this post.
I used Outlook to run my life for almost a decade, and the majority of the training I do is still using Outlook as the support tool. I am a fan and think it is a very powerful PIM (personal information manager) that can easily handle the complexity of your life. The one shortcoming is if you need to share calendars or other information, you need to be running an Exchange server and this doesn’t make sense for everyone (however you can sync your Outlook calendar with Google and share it that way).
A question I get a lot is how to sync Tasks in Outlook with an iPhone. I found an article online with detailed instructions for doing this and got permission to repost it here. It comes from Daniel B. Curran’s excellent how-to blog. Below are his instructions. I hope this helps. If you try this and run into any snags, I’d love to hear about it. And incidentally, I’m using To-Do (the app he mentions) to sync Tasks with iCal and I am VERY happy with it – well worth the $10 in my opinion. You can read about my experience with that here.)
Here is Daniel’s Post:
Let’s start with how you can sync your Microsoft Outlook Tasks to your iPhone for free.
I have read several articles about how to do this but I found the process to be convoluted. Let me make it very simple.
Step 1. Set up a free account at Toodledo.com The direct link for a new account is right here.
That should have taken you about 15 seconds. Let’s move on to step 2.
Step 2. Close Outlook, download Chromatic Dragon’s Toodledo Sync Application and install it.
Almost done! The sync application will want your Toodledo ID number. Leave it open on the tab that wants the ID number.
Step 3. Log into Toodledo and from the menu on the left select Account Settings. On that page you will see your Unique ID, simply copy and paste it into the sync program that you left open.
On the Synchronization tab you can change your Automatic Synchronization to whatever works for you. I don’t add tasks very often so once every 60 minutes is fine for me. To close the Options window select File -> Close. You will see a green checkmark icon in your tool tray. Right click it and hit Manual Sync.
Outlook is now synchronized to ToodleDo.
Ready for the iPhone part?
On Your iPhone, go to the App Store and Download ToodleDo for $3.99.
<end Daniel’s post>
Open ToodleDo on your iPhone and select “Settings” and log in to your account.
You should now see all of your tasks on your iPhone in the ToodleDo app.
Further instructions if you have been through Empowered Productivity Training from RegainYourTime.com:
In the Chromatic Dragon ToodleDo Sync Application on your desktop, open “Options.” (You may have to find ToodleDo in your System Tray in the bottom right corner of your screen, right click on that, and select “Options.”
Select the tab that reads “Mappings.” Select the following options:
Then select the “Folders” tab and click “refresh folders and enable.”
Now select “File – Manual Sync”
Your Outlook tasks should now be grouped by categories on your iPhone app by selecting “folders” from the Home Screen.
I hope you have found this helpful. Good luck!
Thinking About a New Bluetooth Headset?
Ok, so I claim that I am not much of a “techie,” and compared to many of my friends in Austin, (which feels like the tech capital of the world!) I’m not much of one. But I admit to taking advantage of cool tools, gadgets, and apps that make my life easier (for more on this, read this post and this post). One gadget I’ve found it difficult to live without is a Bluetooth headset.
Last year I decided I needed a wireless headset for my iPhone, since I often do other things while on the phone such as empty the dishwasher, fold the laundry, make coffee, etc. (I also drive while talking on the phone more often than I should. This is NOT safe and I am trying to wean myself from this habit).
So I went on CNET to check out their reviews and at the time, one of their favorites was the Jawbone by Aliph. It claimed to use military technology called “Noise Assasin” to eliminate background noise, including wind. One or two others were similarly rated, but the Jawbone came in pink so this was a no-brainer decision for me. 
I used it for just about a year and while I could always hear people on it just fine, I got many complaints that people could not hear me. I tried adjusting the size of the earpiece but the complaints continued. Sometimes I had to abandon the headset and take the call directly on the iPhone. Another problem for me was that it didn’t come with a case, and would always turn itself on in my purse, thus draining the battery and it was often dead or dying when I needed it. Since I paid over $100 for the Jawbone, I did not care to spend yet more money (about $9.99 on Amazon) for a case. I found an old snap-shut jewelry box that was about the right size for a thrifty solution to that problem.
Last week, I lost my Jawbone, jewelry box and all. I looked for about a week, all over my home, office, and locations I frequent, but it did not turn up. I found it frustrating to be without one so I bit the bullet and decided to purchase another. So back to CNET to find that Jawbone had a newer version than the one I bought last year, and CNET still gave it a high rating. But another headset with exactly the same rating was the Plantronics 975. Since I wasn’t completely satisfied with the Jawbone the first time around (even though it now comes in purple!) I decided to give the Plantronics a shot.
I was hoping that the prices of high-quality bluetooth headsets would have come down, but the Plantronics was even more than the Jawbone at $129.99 (BestBuy). However, I knew that BestBuy did offer price protection so while I was in the store, I fired up Safari on my iPhone and did a little price comparison. Amazon had the Plantronics for $107 and my helpful BestBuy representative agreed to match the price. This made the price for the Plantronics headset competitive with the Jawbone (note: yesterday I saw a Jawbone in Costco for $69.99, but I’m unsure if this was the newest model. I think they make it hard to tell on purpose). But here’s what I think makes the Plantronics a better deal: it comes with not only it’s own case (solving the turn-on problem in my purse) but it’s a charging case! When the case it fully charged, it can provide the headset with two complete charges before it needs to be recharged. Also there is a small LCD screen on the charging case telling you the charge status of both the headset and the case. And it even has a handy-dandy hook for attaching the case to a strap or your purse or clothing.
All of those things give the Plantronics 975 bonus points in my book, but the real test comes in the usability. What I’ve found is that most of my callers don’t even realize I’m on a headset, and tell me that I sound clear as a bell. No sound problems on my end, either.
If you plan to use your headset a lot, my suggestion would be to go for a higher-end model (what’s the point of having one if it doesn’t work well?), and it seems that most reviewers compare the Plantronics 975 similarly with the Aliph Jawbone. Having used both, I think the Plantronics is the hands-down winner. Even though it doesn’t come in pink.
If you’d like to share your experience with your bluetooth headset, please do so in the comments, I’d love to hear what you have to say. Thanks for reading!
Confessions of a (Highly Productive) iPhone Addict: UPDATE
Since I wrote this post, I’ve gotten an overwhelming response from people who said they found it helpful. And now that I’ve had my iPhone for even longer, and upgraded to the 3G, I use it even more than I did before. And if you read that post, you know it was a lot then. I thought I’d share some of the new things I’ve learned.
First, let me just mention how handy the camera is, especially combined with email, and now text (AT&T finally supports images & video in text messages). My husband and I have been doing a lot of decorating lately, and it’s come in so handy for shopping. We were looking for some furniture & accessories, but it’s hard to visualize how things will look inside the house. I’ve snapped pictures of furniture in different stores, so not only could I compare pieces, but I could bring them home, hold up the picture in the spot, and visualize how the piece will fit in. I took a picture of the wall color so that I could get curtains & a pillow that would complement it. While shopping at the store I hold up the picture to check the colors together. I snap a shot of something & email it to my husband to make sure he likes it before I buy it. SO handy.
I’ve also discovered several apps that facilitate meditation & deep sleep which are great to help me relax and I use them at various times, like after a difficult phone call, before an afternoon powernap, and often while drifting off to sleep at night.
If you travel at all, you’ll want to check out Tripit and Packing. Each has proven to be invaluable to me both getting ready for trips and to access useful information while I’m on my trip, so now I use my iPhone even more when I travel.
I could go on and on here, so I’ll just briefly mention a few more of my favorites:
Yelp & Around Me help me find great local businesses (& my favorite chain stores) when I’m out of my neighborhood.
Snooth (or Beer Brands) helps me pick a good wine (or beer) at dinner or to bring to a party.
Stanza is my favorite eBook & PDF reader for my iPhone – I find a Kindle unnecessary thanks to Stanza (incidentally, Stanza by Lexcycle is the brainchild of former Austinite Neelan Choksi, and was acquired this year by Amazon).
FaceBook & LinkedIn have iPhone versions that let me quickly check in with my social media connections.
Pandora & Slacker let me listen to commercial free music in my choice of genre at any time.
Pret-a-Yoga allows me to get a yoga workout even when I can’t attend a class. I’m also considering buying my yoga teacher’s DVD and loading that on my iPhone.
Bump helps me easily share contact information & files with other iPhone users.
What’s YOUR favorite, use-it-every-day, can’t-live-without-it iPhone app? I’d love to hear it! Thanks for reading!
Three Secrets to Personal Productivity
Productivity is such a big subject and there is a lot to learn, with more every day. One of the things I am working on personally, and answering a lot of questions about, is how to incorporate social media into my life. One of the biggest fears I hear, about Twitter especially, is “How do I make the time? How do I incorporate yet ANOTHER communication tool into my life?” It’s a great question. What I’m learning is that the answer is the same for Twitter and other social media as it was for email before that (which most everyone is still struggling with) as it was for the internet before that, and for the fax machine before that, and for the telephone before that. Many productivity experts have their own “big picture” points about managing the details of their lives. Here are mine…
The first is the most important, although they are all related. The secret to productivity is control. That’s why I call my process the Empowered Productivity System. There are three components to control and if you can master them, managing the details of your life will become much easier and less stressful. You need to learn to master control over information, control over the technology that information comes in on, and control over your own behavior and focus. A couple of brief points about each…
If you, like most people I meet, spend your day in reactive mode, instead of in proactive mode, then information is controlling you, rather than the opposite. If you have your Facebook and LinkedIn pages, and your TweetDeck or other Twitter stream, open all the time on your desktop, along with your email client open and messages automatically downloading, plus your notification sounds on your iPhone or Blackberry, then you are not controlling your technology, it is controlling you. Maybe you don’t leave these things open, but you can’t control your urge to check one or all of them every few minutes or less, or you find yourself almost never looking at your to-do list, or maybe you don’t even have your to-do list out of your head (more on this below). Then you are not controlling your own behavior and focus. Control is the key. It might not be easy, but it is simple.
Next tip: you hear money “gurus” saying this all the time: pay yourself first. It applies to your time as much as it does to your money. Spending your time in reactive mode all day means you are prioritizing everyone else’s questions, requests, information, etc., over your own stuff. Presumably you have put things on your to-do list, or they are floating around in your brain, because they have some significance, some importance to you. If you spend little or no time being proactive, checking things off your list…if your list gets longer more often than it gets shorter, then you are not paying yourself first. Here’s the easiest way to implement this: when you start work in the morning, resist the urge to go straight to your email. Go to your to-do list, be proactive and productive for an hour or more, and only then switch to your email messages. Anything you were going to read at 8am can probably keep until 9:30am.
Last thought, and if you know me, you’ve probably heard me say it many times: you can only truly manage things when you can see them, and you can only see them when they are out of your head. Human beings are only capable of holding one conscious, coherent thought in our heads at a time. Everything else is swirling around in that haze that causes stress. Our brains our not designed to manage the banal details of our lives. Our brains are much better at problem solving, big picture, creative-type thinking. If they worked in such a way that we could reach into our mind, and pluck out the exact piece of information, exactly when we needed it, then perhaps we wouldn’t need calendars, planners, to-do lists, contact managers, etc. But we DO need these things. So you should use them, and learn how to use them well. You need a good set of tools, that work well together, and support you in a logical, meaningful way (check out this post and this post for more on this). Having these will allow you to free your mind of the details, allowing you to do the things your brain is good at, and this, in turn, will lower your stress levels.
Just raising your awareness of these three points will put you on the path to improving your personal productivity. As always, I’m happy to hear your comments. And if you’re one of those early adopters who have found a way to work Twitter into your life, please consider following me @mnthomas. For more on why I think Twitter is useful, read this.
Confessions of a (Highly Productive) iPhone Addict
(also read the update to this post here.)
I’ve heard people say many times that they don’t want an iPhone or a “CrackBerry” because they don’t want to be that connected. “People already have too many ways to reach me, I don’t want to have to be available 24/7.” My response is always the same: you don’t. Just because you have a phone, doesn’t mean it has to be on. Just because it’s on, doesn’t mean to have to answer it if it rings. The same goes for email on your phone. In fact, you can have all the advantages of a smartphone without email. Don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater, people! It’s so handy to have all of the other features available, particularly on an iPhone because there are so many. But the fact remains, YOU can be in control. In fact, that’s the secret to productivity. Mastering control over the details of your life (including the technology they come in on) so that they don’t control you.
So let me share some details about the way I use my iPhone in a typical day. It’s a lot. But it’s for MY convenience, not other people’s. Everything mentioned below is done with no other technology besides the iPhone and Apps I’ve loaded, with the exception of my external portable speaker.
I’m often reading something, or listening to something, on my iPhone before I go to bed in the evening, so it’s usually on my nightstand overnight. However, it’s usually off, unless I’m out of town, at which point I put it in flight mode (no calls in the middle of the night) and then set the alarm to wake me in the morning to my music. When I wake in the morning, I’ll usually turn it on, check my calendar for the day’s appointments, check the weather (both help me decide what to wear), and then I’ll usually check my Twitter feed on Tweetie. All of that takes me less than five minutes. If there is a link to an article from Twitter that I think I might find interesting, Tweetie has a very convenient button that reads, “mail this link.” I can send it to myself for processing with my email later.
Then my phone comes with me, where I plug it into a portable external speaker so that I can listen to music, an audio book, or a podcast while I shower and dig through my closet to get ready for the day. It also has the time handy so that I can make sure I’m not running late, and oh yeah, let me call up the map to see how far away that appointment is.
Then it comes in the car with me, where I turn on my Bluetooth headset and make a few calls (this is not safe, and I’m trying to wean myself away. Did you know that talking while driving impairs your ability as much as drinking and driving?! Scary!). So then I plug it into my car’s audio system to continue the music, ebook, or podcast, or some mixture of all of them.
I arrive at the meeting where I am the speaker. I set up the timer on my iPhone to keep me on track (again, flight mode, ensuring no calls or texts come in while I’m speaking). Any follow-ups from the meeting I jott to myself on the way back to the car. Someone asks if I’m free next Wednesday; let me consult my calendar. Next meeting is with a potential client, so I’ll check for their website address from my contacts, and tap to review it from the parking lot before I head in. After that I head to lunch and while I’m eating I check my voicemail, email, and tweets. Really I’m just scanning email messages here for my convenience. And by the way, on my iPhone, my “Fetch” settings for email are set to manual. So my email only downloads when I instruct it to. I’ll “process” the important emails later at my computer. Twitter usually gives me great reading material for while I eat.
So then I head back to my office, and set the iPhone to play some classical music while I work for several hours. The phone rings and not only do I get a name and number, but also a picture so I can decide if I’m going to answer. When a text shows up the options are “close” or “reply.” Since I’m working, one tap on “close” and I’m back to my work, barely interrupted. Now I’m starting to think about dinner, so I check Grocery iQ to make sure I’ve noted everything I need, and I dash off to the grocery store, where I check them off as I shop. When I get home, I plug into the external speaker again to listen to an audio book, call up the recipe on Safari, and cook dinner. After dinner I walk the dog with my husband, snap a picture of the beautiful sunset, email it to a friend and post it on Twitter and Facebook using Ping.fm in Safari. I’m involved in my neighborhood association so I also snap a picture of a broken sign and email it to the chair of the maintenance committee. When we get home, we start talking about a movie tomorrow night, so I call up Movies to see what’s playing and maybe buy tickets.
I already mentioned how I use it before I go to sleep at night. All of these uses have one thing in common: they enable conveniences for me, not others. I manage all the features so that I am in control of my time, and I don’t let distractions interrupt me when I’m busy. I would suggest that there are two important things to consider when pondering a phone upgrade: how many conveniences will it add to your life, and do you have the discipline to control it, rather than letting it control you? This same logic, in case you were wondering, can also be applied to many of the other ways to communicate like instant messaging, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc. Learn the benefits that are available in participating, and then learn how to incorporate them into your life so that you are in control.
Thanks for reading! You may also be interested in the update of this post.)
(Part 2) Are Your Productivity Tools Complicating Your Life?
(There have been new developments since I wrote this. Read the update to this post here.
Ok, so yesterday I discussed my personal productivity beliefs, and the tools I used before I switched to Mac. A couple of years ago, I became a convert, drank the Kool-Aid, and now I use a Mac and an iPhone. I have to say that personal productivity with Apple tools is not as good as using Outlook and a Windows Mobile device. But really,everything else is better on a Mac, so that fact did not convince me to go back. And I’ve found ways to work around the shortcomings. (Note to Apple Computer, Inc. programmers: I would LOVE to help you solve these problems!)
For a while I used Entourage, which is basically Outlook for Mac. And actually Entourage is better than Outlook, mainly because it has the very powerful “Project Center.” However, I was warned that it was unstable, and not easy to back up, and I found this to be true. It crashes, and it takes forever to get back up and running, even if you’ve backed up. That was a deal-breaker for me. So I switched to the Mac-native tools, which are part of the operating system: AppleMail, iCal, and Address Book. I don’t think it’s quite as convenient, because of the whole “everything in one place thing.” So now I have to use at least three, and even these aren’t comprehensive enough, so they need some help. The first problem is that creating a task from an email is very clunky and not easy. So I’ve added on a program called MailTags. Well worth the $29.95 download cost and solves that problem.
Next problem: I think the ability to color-code my calendar, and categorize my to-do list, is essential, and iCal requires a little bit of overkill. You can’t just add a tag or color to a calendar event, or just select a category for your to-do’s. But I’ve found a workaround for this as well and it works fine. I created a main calendar for calendar events, with sub-calendars for every calendar category I wanted. Then I created another main calendar for Tasks, and created sub-calendars for all my Task categories.
- iCal categories
As I mentioned, it’s more complicated than it needs to be, but until iCal gets better at event and to-do list categorization, it’s necessary for me.
Notes are another problem. They aren’t very user friendly in Mail, but it leads me to the BIGGEST frustration for me with Apple tools: neither To-do’s nor Notes sync to your iPhone. What’s the matter with those Apple programmers?! Upon searching the web to see if there was a way to do this that I just couldn’t figure out, all I found was people complaining that it couldn’t be done.
There are many, many workarounds for Tasks but for me they are all lacking in one way or another, plus I’d prefer not to have to use YET ANOTHER program. But here’s what I’ve discovered: when I am away from my computer, I don’t need my tasks. If I’m away from my office/computer, it’s because I’m at a meeting, speaking, delivering training, etc., so there is no reason to be consulting my task list. Before you jump to a web-based program for task management because you can’t sync with your iPhone, consider whether you really need your tasks on your iPhone or not. If you absolutely have to have that feature, there’s Remember the Milk, Vitalist, Toodledo, and Todoist, among others.
It IS vital for me, however, to be able to sync my Notes and have them with me. I use Notes for all kinds of lists and reference information, so I need them often. Since there is no easy way to use Notes in the Mac-native suite, nor do they sync with an iPhone, I was forced to include yet another program into my personal productivity arsenal. I chose Evernote. It has a desktop application and an iPhone application, and it’s very powerful in that I can take text notes, video notes, audio notes, web clippings, etc. And they sync, via the web, where I can view them on my iPhone. But the one thing I don’t like is that they don’t reside locally on my iPhone. I can only access them when I have an internet connection on my phone and that’s not always convenient. So while it’s not a perfect solution, it’s one I can live with for now.
Using Mac native tools for productivity now has one big advantage for those who need to share things with others: you can publish to the web via MobileMe and share calendars, contacts, and view your emails online. This also allows you to keep them synced with another computer. Still doesn’t include notes and tasks, however, but most people don’t need to share those things.
So there’s my rant about Apple and productivity. If you have comments, suggestions, or questions, I’d love to hear them. You can also follow me on Twitter @mnthomas, where I try to post useful productivity information.
What I Learned as a SXSWi Newbie
o I’m still trying to come down after attending my first South by Southwest Interactive Conference. I learned a few things about the conference in general and I learned a TON from the sessions I attended.
The first thing I learned is that the conference is, in fact, attended primarily by “techies.” (If you’d like to know what led me, a mostly non-techie, to attend, read this post first). These people are definitely the hard-core technology fans and early adopters. So it seems to me that paying attention to what’s going on here can give me a glimpse into the future. And following that logic, the future is:
- Macs & iPhones
But aside from that, there are sort of three parts to SXSWi: the education, the connections, and the partying. I couldn’t do all three. In fact I found it kind of exhausting to do just one. I was there for the learning. I packed my days full of sessions, and I went home every night feeling simultaneously completely exhausted and completely motivated. I learned so much to apply to my business that I wanted to get started on all of it right away…but first I wanted a nap.
In the last couple of years I had jumped on the Apple bandwagon so at least I was caught up there. I fit right in when I took notes on my MacBook and whipped out my iPhone to check my calendar for the next session. But one thing I couldn’t NOT do was Tweet. Luckily I had been toying with the idea for a couple of weeks so I was ready to jump in at SXSW. It was really interesting how Twitter was being used to take questions at panels, to alter people’s schedules when they heard what was going on in real time, to follow other panels that you weren’t at, and to meet up with your friends (to see what I learned about Twitter specifically, read this post.)
Some new services debuted and they look really great. Here are the ones that look the most exciting to me:
- Otherinbox (I’ve actually been using this for months since they launched in beta and I’m LOVING it. The cure for email overload!)
- PeoplePond: Search Engine Optimization for People
- Animoto: Automatically produce your own professional-quality videos
- Digital Chalk: Rapidly deliver multi-media courses online
I also attended some really great sessions and learned a lot from some very smart people. Many of these are available for podcast so I suggest you check them out. My top 3:
- Change Your World in 50 Minutes: How to Make Breakthroughs Happen (Here’s a great blog post about the session, and I suggest you check out Kathy Sierra’s blog. Her talk was fantastic.) I also enjoyed the opening remarks from Tony Hseih of Zappos.com and the presentation Social Engineering: How to Scam Your Way into Anything (podcast).
I’ll be watching my email for news that tickets for SXSW 2010 have gone on-sale. Hope to see you there!