True confession: I have many interests, not just one. I am multi-dimensional, not one-dimensional. I am a creature of habit, but I love new challenges. Does that make me crazy? No. It makes me like many of my Generation X and Y peers- we are creative, destined to be the captains of our own ships and we don’t just do one thing. You don’t have to take my word for it. Next time you are on the train, during your morning commute to the office, ask the person next to you what they do. This, will be their likely response,
“I teach a business course to graduate students, I am a writer, on weekends I lead a yoga class and I also am working on a line of…” You get the gist.
Now, imagine that same person providing that answer in a job interview. Depending on the interviewer, they may be perceived as a great job candidate or a poor one. Great because they’ve demonstrated a vast skill set, that they are ambitious and possess the ability to multi-task. Or poor, because they are viewed as lacking focus and concrete goals. I agree that if one dabbles in too much, they risk being average at everything and great at nothing. The keyword is RISK. The question is, “How do you overcome that risk? You want to find an outlet for your many talents and interests, but how can you excel at everything?”
My answer is simple- productivity. If you are as productive as humanly possible in every aspect of your world, then you free up time and mental space to take on…the impossible. Here is a list of a few, free productivity tools that you should keep at your fingertips.
Tungle Me: Tungle Me syncs your calendars and provides an at-a-glance view of your availability. It provides a link that allows clients and colleagues to schedule a meeting with you. It also provides email notifications of when a meeting is scheduled and auto-reminders. Tungle Me is a great time saver.
Rapportive: This is a great add-on for Gmail. Have you ever received an email from someone and you can’t recall for the life of you who they are? Say goodbye to the days of digging through old emails. Rapportive automatically creates a detailed profile for everyone who emails you. It provides their business information, twitter updates and direct links to their social networks, directly in the email. Bye bye mysterious contacts!
Evernote: Evernote allows you to clip and organize web pages, photos and notes. It is very useful for anyone who does a lot of research. It is also a great way to catalog business cards that you collect at networking events. Every time I receive business cards, I snap the photo, Evernote scans the text and I tag it under industry and the person’s name. This makes organizing your business contacts a snap!
Productivity is the root of all success, embrace it. The world is yours, go get it!
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This post was written for the CRAVE company by Patrice N. Perkins, founder and editor of My Lifestyle ZEN, a Chicago-based blog for working professionals and entrepreneurs who value quality of life. You can visit Patrice’s website here: http://www.mylifestylezen.com/
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December 15th, 2010 at 11:43 am
CRAVE, Patricia, I just wanted to stop by and say thanks for including Rapportive in your list! Here’s to making email a better place
Rahul, CEO of Rapportive