Apps Bigger than Television?

Not yet but close.

Mobile apps has overtaken browsing on the desktop web, it’s starting to challenge television, Flurry says. The San Francisco-based mobile analytics startup says that consumers are spending 127 minutes per day in mobile apps, up 35 percent from 94 minutes a day in the same time last year. At the same time, desktop web usage actually declined slightly by 2.4 percent from 72 to 70 minutes.

This means that U.S. consumers are spending nearly two times more time in mobile apps than on the web. And this time spent is now starting to challenge time spent watching TV. Flurry estimates that the average U.S. consumer watches 168 minutes of television per day, based on data from the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics for 2010 and 2011.

App consumption

Check out www.flurry.com to learn more about mobile application.

Webman

Not Enough Resources? – Find Some!

With so much going on in the workplace today from new technologies, increasing client requirements, too much data, even more reporting, and of course the human element of wanting to know everything, we are all short of time and resources, because there are not enough hours in the day to get it all done.  Sound familiar?  It is the world in which we live.  If we continue to use legacy behavior we will not get ahead of the productivity curve.  This is the definition of insanity – doing the same things over and over and expecting different results.

What to do?  Stop going to internal meetings!  There are too many meetings, they take too long, and they get too little accomplished.

Most meetings are really not necessary. Before you call a meeting, think about whether you can accomplish your goals through email or a quick phone call. If it is information sharing only, don’t call a meeting. Meetings are needed to debate issues, develop solutions and make decisions.

Do not attend every meeting to which you’re invited. Even if you can’t avoid the meeting completely, it can give you a good excuse for bowing out after a set time limit (30 or 60 minutes, for instance).  If a meeting is necessary, invite only those people that are critical to the meeting. Take great notes and send them out to others that you need to “inform”.  Smaller meetings with less people are always more productive.

Try to get the meeting done in 30 minutes.  Make sure there are no laptops open and that people are not using their smartphones.  No one can multi-task and stay engaged in the meeting.  Have them put these devices in a drawer or box so they cannot access them during the meeting.  Take the chairs out of the meeting room; more gets done while standing up.

Be prepared. If you spend the first 15 minutes getting everyone up to speed, it gives them an excuse not to be prepared.  Send out background materials and an agenda, at least a day in advance. If you do not get the agenda and goals, don’t go. If the leader sends out advance materials, read them carefully before the meeting.

If everyone prepares, you can have a more productive meeting. Frame the need and desired state in 5 minutes, debate the issue and make decisions.  Lots of powerpoint slides? – forget about productivity – people get bored really fast these days.

At the end of any meeting, all participants should agree on the next steps, along with a deadline for each step. The leader should resist the urge to make this decision himself or herself: if participants can set their own goals, they’ll will buy into them.

You cannot eliminate meetings totally. But you can get rid of most of them, limit their size, and keep them short. You can structure the meetings to maximize their value.  It is up to use to use your time effectively to get your initiatives accomplished.  You need to find time to make that happen and following the above recommendations will save you at least 2 hours per day.  Imagine what you can get done with that time.  Stop the insanity 🙂  Make that change – and that reminds me of a song.

Enjoy the weekend.

Webman

Don’t Worry, Be Happy!

“Here is a little song I wrote – You might want to sing it note for note – Don’t worry, be happy
In every life we have some trouble – When you worry you make it double – Don’t worry, be happy
Ain’t got no place to lay your head – Somebody came and took your bed – Don’t worry, be happy
The land lord say your rent is late – He may have to litigate – Don’t worry, be happy
Look at me I am happy – Don’t worry, be happy – Here I give you my phone number
When you worry call me – I make you happy”  Don’t Worry, Be Happy – Bobby McFerrin

Another one hit wonder 🙂

Are you happy?  Do you ever think about it?  What are the things that make you happy?  Your wife, husband, boy friend, girl friend, sports, your job, money, family, friends, weather, the ocean, traveling, yourself?  Doing the right things, helping people, being generous, allocating time for special causes?  There are so many things that can make us happy, but what is sustainable happiness?

Do you belief that if we just do the right thing, happiness will follow – that additional happiness will be doled out to us because we earned it?  Happiness is a consequence of the choices we make. So what can people do to increase their happiness? Their answer is surprisingly simple: spend your time wisely.

There has been little research on the relationship between the resource of time and happiness. Perhaps not surprisingly, it is another resource – money – that has been investigated much more thoroughly as a potential key to happiness. Yet, very little research corroborates the idea that more money leads to more happiness. Money can result in individuals being less likely to engage in behaviors linked to personal happiness, such as helping others, donating to charity, or socializing with friends and family.

Why might concentrating on time get us closer to our centuries-long search for happiness? One reason is because time spent doing something, especially when compared to owning something or spending money, is associated with personal meaning and evokes emotional memories. You might not recall how much money you had in your bank account when you were 20 years old, but most people remember their first kiss. Time also fosters interpersonal connections: the camaraderie that people get from attending a baseball game with friends, for example, would be more conducive to happiness than watching it alone in front of the television.

So here are the happiness headlines:

  • Spend time with the right people – People you love and admire
  • Spend time on the right activities – Do what you like
  • Enjoy experiences without spending time actually doing them – Just think and smile 🙂
  • Expand your time – Think about now and not then or when
  • Be aware that happiness changes over time – Younger = Excitement, Older = Feeling Peaceful

Can I get an Hallelujah?

Stop the madness.  Hang out with people you like/love and don’t work for anyone you do not like.  That sucks.  Life is way too short to tolerate idiocy, incompetency, insincerity and insecurity.

Have an awesome weekend!

Webman

source: http://www.lyricsondemand.com/onehitwonders/dontworrybehappylyrics.html