In the billions of years of time, we hopefully have 60 or 80 of those in which we can make a difference, so let's start, beginning today, with taking control over the next 150 real work hours remaining in this quarter!
Three Activities I Can Do Better Today
As anyone knows who has followed this blog, I'm a detailed kind of guy. I love really big overarching objectives. I love to restructure stuff, and I love to take on really big tasks. What I've learned about this process and about myself in three big corporate jobs, nine startups, running three business associations and now at the Tufts Entrepreneurship Center is the reality of:
- I cannot achieve any Results!
- I cannot even achieve any Objectives!
- I can only control my Activities!
At this time of year with now just 14 "Real-Days" in which to finish selling, complete our 2019 sales, marketing, fundraising and business plans, prep for various board presentations, attend too many business and Tufts holiday partiers, squeeze in two weeks of intensive travel, figure out the January kickoff review meetings with faculty, board members, students and customers, the only way that I can do this is to bring everything down to the lowest common denominator, and that is always and only...
ACTIVITIES !
As a long time strategy guy with the privilige of providing strategy facilitation for hundreds of companies ranging from very diverse big name brand names like Steinway and the Boston Police Department and extending to both middle market businesses and startup concepts, as I look into December, I need to keep totally focused not on vision or strategy, but only on Activities and the execution of specific tactics that will lead to Activities. Start today, with DAY #1. That's it, as simple as that!
10 Ideas to be "The King of You" and keep totally focused in the next 14 days:
- First, you have a choice here to totally take control of your Activities!
- Do it, or make a decision not to do it, for whatever reason, but make a stated choice.
- Today, take just 30 minutes with your calendar.
- First, check to sure that everything syncs, and you haven't forgotten anything between devices
- Cut out any meeting that could really wait until January or done in the week after Christmas
- Break down every "Real Day" into two hour "Activity Segments". Double up if you need to.
- Fill in the details for each Activity Segment including any travel
- Fill in three sections a week of phone hours, referred to as "Power Hours"
- Yes, you can work 80 hour weeks for the month December! Suck it up & Sleep in January !
- Remember- "Only You are the King of You!" ...a Dan Tyre, Director at Hubspot, quote!
So, that's it here on a Friday morning! Time to get moving, but before you do...
Tufts- "Content in Context" Marketing projects
It's that time of year again, when I go out to our greater blog, LI, FB and Twitter communities and begin the process of soliciting complex, semester-long Marketing projects for next semester.
When I began teaching at MIT 20 years ago, and then at Tufts 13 years ago, I quickly realized that the only way I was going to provide any meaningful content...and keep my students awake...was to wrap that content within the context of real companies who needed new or updated marketing plans.
Our clients for these courses range from tiny startups often looking for their first marketing plans to large public corporations who are launching new products or are looking for a different perspective from young adults.
- We're looking for six Marketing projects for the spring semester which starts mid January
- Your marketing project might be for an entire company or for a specific product
- Out clients' businesses range in size from startup companies to public corporations
- Each project will be assigned to a student team of four to six students
- At least two of each team will have solid prior marketing sales experience
- The project definitions and the syllabus are sent to the students on December 26th
- There is research work that they will need to do in January before coming to class
- The deadline for applications to be submitted to me is December 7th
If you are interested in participating, please just email me at jack.derby@tufts.com or text me (617-504-4222), and I will send you the instructions of how to participate.
Have a great day selling something today!
Please stay connected!
Jack Derby, Director, TEC-Tufts Entrepreneurship Center
Cummings Family Chair Professor of Entrepreneurship
Spark-Incubate-Accelerate@Tufts
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Cell: 617-504-4222 jack.derby@tufts.edu
Advisor, Derby Management, experts in-
-Sales & Marketing Productivity
-Business and Strategic Planning
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