Category: This is all a test

…and as producers we do not just create a company, product, service, or show but, in addition:

• Someone else’s livelihood.
  • Their mortgage payment.
  • Their monthly rent.
  • Their car payment and insurance premium.
  • Their…
• Someone else’s College or University education for their children.
  • And therefore their future.
  • Their livelihood.
  • Their…
• Someone else’s ongoing education.
• Someone else’s stature, standing a bit taller, by involving them.
• Someone else’s self-esteem by acknowledging their contribution.
• Someone else’s trust so they can get their work done a little easier.
• Someone else’s…

Producing is a more significant undertaking than one would initially think and seems to involve a lot more someone else’s beyond ourselves and what we’re doing.

We’re all producers of some sort no matter what we do or where we’re located within a company, project, or initiative.

And, if we’re all producers, leaving out all the regular stuff we do what, in our profession, business, or work are we additionally producing?

Written while listening to some Jean Michel Jarre

…Zoom whiplash, an extension of a March 21 post on Zoom Fatigue.,

Over the last year or so much of our workday consisted of moving from high cognitive audio/video conversations to ‘on our own in our space’ time then back to high cognitive video calls and then back again on our own.

A sort of Zoom whiplash so it may not just be the number of video calls we have but also how we arrange them.

This idea was spawned by an article I read, which may not be true from a scientific point of view, but is something to consider as we incorporate video calls into our workday.

In an office environment, in-person meetings provide a natural transition period whereas video meetings take place immediately and blend in with the rest of our on-screen work. Meetings (video calls) then become task and/or context switching situations that reduce our productivity by demanding unnecessary mental flexing.

When most of us run errands we try and combine them as much as possible into one outing which is called ‘task clustering’ in the cognitive science world.

This could be something to look at in more intentionally managing our video conferencing needs; cluster calls together as much as possible to reduce context, task, and/or social to alone switching.

Task clustering could be applied to all our work by breaking it into video call time, email time, deep work time etc., if we have some control over our workflow. In doing so we might be able to not only avoid some Zoom whiplash and fatigue but also end up getting better work done with some extra energy left at the end of our day.

Written while listening to Vangelis – Blade Runner Soundtrack

…and not the other way, puts us on the path of a first responder.

Walking in the direction of, or at least standing still long enough to have a good look could also work.

As a first responder we see the challenge and get to work. One way to approach this is to think of difficulties or problems, especially in our work, as projects.

Put a team together, figure out what is needed and wanted, design/build a project process and finish it off. If we can successfully do it for a marketing campaign why not a problem or difficulty.

And, if your the first responder, you may get to do it your way.

Written while listening to a Spanish guitar compilation.