Many of you know I live in Spain. I have written about it many times.
Many people I meet on the web and in real life think Spain is very old fashioned. The way to do business here is completely dependent on your network. You need family, relations and a strong network to find a job, or customers or anything to earn money. It is often called nepotism. This is the way it has been done for centuries. It seems to work, by the way.
But, since a few months I've had to rely on the internet for finding work. And after a few months I find that I am completely dependent on my network. I need family, relations and my network to find clients. Exactly the way it is done in Spain. And it seems to work.
I think about this a lot. Is the internet pushing us back in time, or is this the way things work in general? Is it that the world is now so big without boundaries that we fall back on things that served us well in the past to give us a sense of security.
Whatever it is, it is a different way of working and a challenge which I much enjoy.
In my attempt to share some of my knowledge with others, I have made a short videoclip about managing inboxes. It is one of the issues I know many people struggle with. There are tools on the market that are supposed to help with managing the inbox, such as categories and flags, but I find they are lacking in effectiveness. Rather, they make reading the inbox even more complicated. I use a system which is based on scheduling and actioning. If done right, it means an empty inbox and does away with the need to remember things. Below is a short instruction video which explains the principles of the system.
This should give you a lot to work with. If executed well, it will help you manage your email. This way of working can be transferred to other areas such as tasks lists or snail mail. If you are interested, but feel that this video hasn't given you enough, please don't hesitate to contact us.
I tweet, of course I tweet. If only to find out what Twitter is about and not to become a person who doesn't understand new media. But what is it about? I do get useful information via Twitter, it has given me a chance to connect with people in my new country. It gives me news alerts and that's great. But still, what am I doing on Twitter?
Without doing anything my followers are up to a 137 (5 November at 09.38), and they just keep on coming in - I do have to block some of them. But, why do they follow me? They don't seem to read my tweets, or are they just not interested. And if they are not interested, why do they follow me? Is it just to get to a certain number of followers/following, and if so, why?
Yesterday when I reached a 100 followers I decided to ask them why they follow me. And the best answer (IMO) would get two hours of my time. Only one person answered. And if she remains the only one, she very deservedly gets 2 hours of my time.
As much as I'm trying to find parallels with the real world, I haven't managed to find one yet. Any comments much appreciated - don't hesitate to tweet.
