Alastair Cartwright’s posterous

I have just downloaded Broadbean’s latest advert distribution report for 2009.

Number of ads distributed by Broadbean fell by 32.2%. The industry worst hit was Building/Construction which saw volumes drop by 67.8%. Social Care was the least affected sector, in fact their volumes grew by a staggering 81.3%.

A full breakdown of the results can be found at http://broadbean.us1.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=1aba5e099ce8a039b47a3a5cf&id=8b89fc27b5

The results really don’t contain any surprises.

Now what would be really interesting if Broadbean published data from each of the 1,100 job boards which it posts to, and their application data too please.

So come on Broadbean, spill the beans!

Happy New Year everyone. Very glad to see the back of 2009, but very nervous for 2010, let's hope my reservations for 2010 are unfounded.

Anyway to kick off the New Year thought I would make some predictions of my own...

Recruitment

1. Social Media recruitment will not take off as many expect it to. Twitter, Facebook et al will not become mainstream recruitment channels.

2. Linkedin will develop their job board offering further. Linkedin will be the de facto tool for recruitment consultancies and in-house recruiters and it will continue to take business away from established job boards.

3. I think job boards are in for another rough year. Job board revenues fell to £121m for the first half of 2009, this is a whopping 33% drop from the first half 2008. I expect these figures to continue to head south. Niche sites and sites that also carry relevant editorial content will be best placed to deal with the continued downturn. Recruitment consultancies will further reduce their spend on job boards, as will large employers, who will both seek to develop their direct hiring strategies. 

4. Fish4jobs will change ownership.

5. As will Totaljobs.

6. Large Cornwall employers will experience an upsurge in the adoption of recruitment technologies. In fact I predict a better year for recruitment technology providers.

7. I fear another major recruitment advertising agency will go into administration.

8. In order to survive, successful companies will differentiate themselves by being fanatical about service, measurement and providing results based solutions.

The Economy and Politics

Let me share with you my worst case scenario...

The general election produces a hung parliament, the UK loses its 3 star credit rating, markets will be in total turmoil and September 2008 will seem like a late summer garden party.

However what I hope and think will happen is the Conservatives win by a majority of (at least) 80 seats, a lot of civil servants will unfortunately lose their jobs, but the markets will hold and we will miraculously avoid a double dip recession.

Sport

1. England lose to Brazil (on penalties of course!) in semi-final of World Cup. Capello resigns as England Manager and takes over SAF at Old Trafford.

2. England beat Australia on Boxing Day test in Melbourne and to go on and win the Ashes.

3. Europe beat a Tiger-less USA in the Ryder Cup.

4. Wheels come off Newcastle's season and they lose in play-offs. Mike Ashley walks away from the club. WBA crowned champions of The Championship.

So there you go wish I could be more positive, but think we are in for another very difficult year. 

https://sites.google.com/site/experimentsindigitalcreativity/

Came across this in my Google docs folder today.  As we come to the end of the year I think it provides us with an excellent reminder on how far digital creativity has come in the last 12 months.

Some of the slides and videos on here are very very inspiring.

Enjoy!

OK I have to admit straight up here that I feel a bit of a fraud posting about time management. After all my time management skills are limited. But I hope what will be apparent is that I can talk a good game...

Basically I wrote this in response to Intuit (QuickBooks) who are writing a “12 days of Christmas guide” for small businesses and entrepreneurs, more information can be found at http://www.smarta.com/blog/2009/12/12-days-of-christmas

So to make the most of the time I spent writing the email, thought it could also double up as a post on my blog.

Anyway here are my top tips on time management....

1.       Organise your to-do list at the end of each day

If people are organised they will sit down at the start of each day and write a to-do list. However to be super organised, people should always write their to-do list at the end of each day. At the end of each day it should be clear what needs to be done tomorrow. You also don’t waste the first 30 minutes of your day writing a list. I’ve also found stress levels have decreased and I am sleeping better, no longer worrying about what I need to do tomorrow.

2.       Group your to-do lists

Organise your to-do lists into groups such as 1. Admin 2. Accounts 3. Emails 4. Business Development 4. Research 5. Blog 6. Telephone calls 7. Personal tasks etc. It’s then much easier to have a clear overview of all the jobs in hand and from there you can prioritise your tasks.

3.       Prioritise your tasks

Understand the difference between urgent and important. I prioritise tasks in terms of what must be done by the end of the day, what should be done by the end of the week and what you'd like to do by the end of the week.

4.       Avoid multitasking – especially if you are a man (Ho! Ho!)

Every time I attempt to multitask, I wind up doing each task with a lower level of quality than I would have if I had focused on just that task. In the end, I’m left with tasks done in a mediocre fashion and, quite often, no time saved at all. That, to me, is a lose-lose.

Here’s the way to solve it: focus on only one task at a time. Let the rest slide. Work on that one task in bursts – at most an hour in length. Then stop and catch up on any incoming messages you need to deal with, take a break, and so on.

When I begin a big task, I shut off everything. I turn off my phone, I close my email, I shut my office door. I choose music (or similar audio) that’s conducive to concentration. I set the clock to an hour maximum. When I stop and step back, I usually realise that I’ve completed what seems like a lot of work, far more than I would have achieved with interruptions.

5.       Allocate specific times of the day to specific tasks

Allocate specific times of the day for telephone calls, emails, written work, online work (Twitter, Linkedin etc.), and research. By doing this you will minimise the amount of time wasted on emails and other non-essential work, you will also be less likely to be distracted from the task in hand. For example my day (assuming I don’t have external meetings) works something like this:

8am – 9am          Catching up on emails + Twitter / Linkedin

9am – 10am        Written work (Blogs, proposals, articles)

10am – 12pm     Business development calls + call backs

12pm – 2pm       Exercise / lunch / emails/ research / reading work

2pm – 4pm          Business development calls + call backs

4pm – 6pm          Written work (Blogs, proposals, articles) / online research / emails

6.       Practice 4 Ds of email management

Very often the emails are the cause of the most time wasted in a day. We can spend up to half our working day going through our email inbox, making us tired, frustrated and unproductive. A recent study found that one-third of office workers suffer from e-mail stress.

Making a decision the first time you open an email is crucial for effective time management. To manage this burden effectively, Donaldson-Feilder advises practising the 4 Ds of decision-making:

1.       Delete: half of the emails you get can probably be deleted immediately.

2.       Do: if the email is urgent or can be completed quickly.

3.       Delegate: if the email can be better dealt with by someone else.

4.       Defer: set aside time at a later date to spend on emails that require longer action.

7.       Finally last but not least – for all accounting tasks use Quick Books and ditch any excel based systems you have. This will save a lot of time!