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Often I get the question: “How did you learn all about this?”  The answer is by reading and doing. In order to be able to understand positive and negative trends in any industry, it’s imperative that you read often about related topics and events. This is because being successful in any industry is a process, not a singular event that suddenly clicks with you after one game changing event.

Simply put, staying on top of your game enables you to be in position to rise above your competition faster and quicker. Knowledge is power…  How do I stay on top of the digital marketing industry? By reading at least the following-

• Twitter status updates at the end of each day, and clicking through to interesting links.
• The Web List – aka every top social media story of the day from the front page of Digg, Delicious, Reddit, etc. (By # of clicks)
• Affbuzz.com for affiliate marketing news.
• Google Reader to group related RSS feeds.

That’s it really. In order to stay on top of the digital marketing industry I take around thirty minutes each day to read, be informed, and think critically about the material presented.

The controversial thought here though is that many online marketers say “Stop reading!”. The reason for that is because many new people to an industry will only read, and not actually do anything… resulting in negative productivity.

Lastly, staying on top of your game can most literally be seen in sports, where a day off is a day that you lost. So, I want to share an advertisement that I clipped out of a magazine a while back:

“Me and running don’t always see eye to eye. Some days it hurts more than others. But it doesn’t mean I don’t do it. Ideal with it and I keep running because not everything that is good for you always feels good for you. Every day is the day.” – Lance Armstrong

Internet usage among all age groups and professions is increasing each year, along with activities that distract you from getting things done online. This past summer I have been learning a lot about increasing efficiency participating in a work lifestyle that maximizes your ability to focus on making things happen. My guide has been the book Getting Things Done by David Allen and the Action Method by Behance. Getting  Things Done makes an attempt to change the way you work and deal with your “stuff”. Meanwhile, the Action Method aims to change the way you manage and execute your ideas. Both examine two vital parts of your work, with the intentions that by practicing the methods, your productivity and efficiency will be maximized.

We always have “stuff” to do. David analyzes what all of this “stuff” really is to us, and how we can work through it:

Here’s how I define “stuff:” anything you have allowed into your psychological or physical world that doesn’t belong where it is, but for which you haven’t yet determined the desired outcome and the next action step. [pg. 17]

In short, the method helps you turn “stuff” into tasks that you can take action on, or get rid of. One part of Getting Things Done that I liked in particular is David’s idea of scheduled times to review and re-examine what you have gotten done and what needs to get done. I think this is very important to maintain the confidence that you are on top of things, or if  not you can prioritize to catch up. Throughout the book David identifies how we can manage our stuff and get rid of our stuff. In other words from 43folders.com, David explains how to “do your stuff in a way that honors your time, your energy, and the context of any given moment”.

I believe that good ideas are a dime a dozen. What I value is the ability to take the idea you have and execute it. The Action Method helps people take a big idea that when thought about seems complicated, and turns it into simple actionable steps. This way the big idea is not the focus, but instead the critical small steps to get there are the primary focus. They have both an online version and a physical book version, both simple and easy to use. I think the best use for the Action Method is right after a brain storming session, when you are thinking big and have an idea, and then you need to figure out how to execute the big idea.

These two productivity and efficiency tools should reduce the stress when you work, and eventually allowing you to take more action and get more things done!