Seth Godin is the author of twelve books that have been bestsellers around the world and changed the way people think about marketing, change, and work. He recently blogged:
Go find a geek. Someone who understands gmail, Outlook, Excel and other basic tools.
Pay her to sit next to you for an hour and watch you work.
Then say, “tell me five ways I can save an hour a day.”
Whatever you need to pay for this service, it will pay for itself in a week.
So What?
Almost everyone wants to work smarter not harder. Many people spend much of the work day using a computer, yet receive little training on how best to use the tools available to them. Seth’s suggestion is brilliant in both its simplicity and its practicality.
- Would you ever consider paying someone to assist you in this way? Why or why not?
- Have you ever asked a friend or colleague to observe your work and provide a similar coaching service or to simply provide you with some suggestions of how to use varying software or search tools more effectively? If so, what did you learn from that experience? If not, who might you ask to assist you in this way?
- Whether relying on free or paid assistance (or a combination of both), how often do you think this type of learning experience would be worthwhile? Why?