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Video: “Short, sharp shocks!”
Daily Inspiration: “A measure of a day’s success? Short, sharp shocks of small activities!”
“A measure of a day’s success? Short, sharp shocks of small activities!” – #Futurist Jim Carroll
Focus is a precious resource! There is so much going on from so many different perspectives that it is exceedingly difficult to keep at any one particular task or activity for any length of time.
Right? And you probably beat yourself up about this, but maybe you shouldn’t. We were already all becoming attention-misfocused prior to this ‘thing.’
The fact is, attention spans were already decreasing prior to this crisis. I released some client pre-event videos I filmed prior to the crisis, for a retail conference now scheduled for November. Take a look:
“Seeking ‘Future Normal’: My Pre-Event Videos for the Path to Purchase Expo, Chicago, November 2020”
Seeking ‘Future Normal’: My Pre-Event Videos for the Path to Purchase Expo, Chicago, November 2020
The conference – and these videos – are all about the new world of consumer interaction in the world of retail, and how we might gain the attention of this new hyperconnected consumer in the store. (It seems quaint as we now all order groceries online….)
In one of the videos, I had some fascinating statistics – we reach for our mobile devices 1,500 times a day; our average attention span has gone from being able to concentrate on one thing for 15 seconds in 2010 to 8.7 seconds today. My oft-used quote that a goldfish has a longer attention span than a human.
I can only imagine what it is now as we flip from the news to preparedness sites to an online grocery shopping portal to yelling at our kids to keep in down. Confinement accelerates short attention spans!
How do you deal with it?
Rethink the idea of time management today! Use the phrase : structure your day around short, sharp shocks of activities. Don’t try to overwhelm yourself by tackling the big things in one go – attack them in many small bursts of time.
If you break it down into short, sharp shocks, it becomes more manageable, and perhaps, more successful!
My own success? I managed to finish this post without once looking at the news!
Video: Watching the Little Signals for the Big Transformative Changes That Are Underway!
Clearly, a futurist is not an essential service – and so I work away at the home office, doing what I do. The days are very different, but then again, sometimes not much – I’ve already been working at home for 30+ years!
But I am keeping busy cutting video, writing things, working on projects – and watching trends.
Here’s a little clip I filmed last week about ‘watching the small trends’ for signs of the big transformative shifts that are underway in society. It’s already somewhat dated – truckers are clearly an essential service! But it also gives some food for thought – teachers are REALLY learning about distance education, we are developing a new found respect for many professions and jobs; and our experience with front line critical care workers might shift the rhetoric around immigration.
Seeking ‘Future Normal’: My Pre-Event Videos for the Path to Purchase Expo, Chicago, November 2020
I was booked to be the keynote speaker for this conference in Chicago in May, with a talk on the future trends redefigning the world of retail. Obviously, that isn’t happening, and the world of retail has truly been torn asunder. Supply chains are stressed, pick-and-pack and online delivery soaring, and everything has been turned upside down.
But just prior to emergence of this global crisis, I had filmed a number of pre-event video clips for my client, designed to spur interest in the event. I’ll admit it’s been hard to stay focused on the future when so much is happening, but I managed to get them done with the awesome support of my overseas producer. We’re now busy preparing for a new world of potential professionally produced leadership videos once we get to some semblance of normal.
With that in mind, I retreated to the home broadcast studio yesterday and filmed a clip with my thoughts on this future event.
What did we come up with? Here’s the video playlist!
Daily Inspiration: “Think of the future this way: we’ve just hit a great big ‘Pause’ button. We’ll press ‘Play’ again one day!’
“Think of the future this way: we’ve just hit a great big ‘Pause’ button. We’ll press ‘Play’ again one day!’ – #Futurist Jim Carroll
Anxiety, worry, uncertainty, confusion, anger, denial – these are the emotions that likely rule your day. They’ve become the new normal.
It’s not a lot of fun not knowing what comes next….
And yet, we do know one thing – even though we are in very early days with this global ‘thing’ (as I’ve come to call it), we do know that one day will emerge into the future. We also know that it will be very different from what we had expected.
What will it look like? I’m spending a good part of my day thinking about that – I am clinging to my old life as a futurist with both hands, even though there isn’t a lot of demand for that insight right now!
One thing I have realized is this – history is being rewritten in real time – and there is so much happening from so many different directions that it is extremely difficult to predict what it might look like.
But one thing I do know is that right now, there are a lot of pretty significant trends that will shape our future.
People who have been blindly opposed to immigration are now seeing those very same individuals as the personal-care workers at nursing homes risking their lives.
Kindergarten teachers are suddenly experimenting with distance learning, forever shaping the future of education.
Truck drivers and store clerks are also becoming our new heroes as they work to keep the supply chain happening and the grocery stores full.
Medical professionals? A whole other level of courage. May we build in the future a global healthcare system that respects their beliefs.
These are significant trends, and they are happening in real time – with the result that as we come out ‘the other side,’ the world will never be quite the same.
The key point? The future is still out there – and it is being rewritten and redefined in real time!
Video: “Small Wins, Small Victories”
Redefine your concept of success to make it a better day!
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