Tag: Business

The multi-task myth

Posted on by philipdodson

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Among the many myths of the industrialised world, the ‘multi-task’ myth is one of the biggest.

We are sold and told that the ability to do several things all at the same time is some magical skill that we must aspire to.

It’s all part of the ‘hustle’ and macho bullshit that we are somehow a ‘killer’ business person if we are juggling several tasks all at once.

It is all part of the mainly shallow, dull and repetitive work that most do as cogs in someone else’s machine.

The best work comes from a deep focus on one task at a time, where we shut off the ‘multi-tasking’ also known as email consumption, social media ‘dicking about’ and instant gratification. In fact, it is just an addiction to doing ‘stuff’ regardless of it’s value to our lives.

The more we can create long periods of time shut away from distractions and multiple low-value tasks, the more we can condition our brains to do deeper, better work.

‘Single-task’ the most important thing first every day and focus on that only.

Oh look, I won a poo

Posted on by philipdodson

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So today I went with #TeamDodson to Brighton, a place I have always loved since a child.

It has a lot to offer, the pier, amusements, the beach, the Lanes, The Pavillion, and now the new doughnut on a giant stick, which is a glass pod that rises up and down a 300ft pole.

My daughter loves all the arcades, and she particularly likes the 2p game, where you drop a 2p down a chute and it falls on top other 2ps until some fall with prizes piled on top. Trinkets mainly that are worth no more than say 2p, perhaps some might be worth 10p.

That got me thinking, well instead of dropping £2-£3 of 2ps you could just go to a shop and buy 10-15 of the things you might win.

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Later, there was another stall where for £3 you can hook a duck out of a pond, not a real duck before anyone gets upset. You are guaranteed a prize, although for £3 you can only select from the prizes that no one would actually want, so you hand over another £3 to get to the next level up. At this level you can win a poo, which is what my daughter wanted, it was actually a fluffy emoji shaped poo.

It struck me again that I could have simply handed over the £6 and got the poo without the need to hook two plastic ducks out of a pool.

The thing is we part with the money and hook the ducks because it is fun. We drop the 2ps because it’s fun and there is almost an addiction to it.

Without the fun a lot less would stop to buy cheap trinkets or fluff filled poo.

If you want to sell more poo, then make it a more exciting and fun experience for your customers. If you want to get your customers to spend more, then give them an experience that makes them stay longer dropping ‘2ps’.

It can be a simple as you like. Hooking ducks for poo is pretty simple but fun.