Always Multitasking? Here’s Why You Need to Stop.

Always Multitasking? Here’s Why You Need to Stop - FreshGigs

There’s a phenomenon happening with the rise of software and technology: tools designed to make us more efficient have ended up distracting us. We have become never-ending multitaskers. [Tweet This]

Multitasking is more than simply doing multiple projects at once. A “task” could be checking email or Twitter on your smartphone, and multitasking doesn’t necessary mean that each new task has to reach the completion stage.

With the sheer volume of new technology constantly released, designed for even the smallest of niches, what took 5 hours to complete in the past now may only take 30 minutes or less. This has resulted in people always feeling the need to ship things, with no room for even 5 minutes of downtime. The multitasking vortex is born.

Think about how many times you’ve been in the “zone” only to have your phone buzz and take you out of it. A task—even if it’s simply replying to a text message—is distracting.

Multitasking is often thought of as a good thing—employers love it, and multitasking is seen as an effective time management tool. Here’s why that’s wrong, and why you need to slow down your level of multitasking:

Multitasking Results in Poor Quality of Work

Being busy is not the same thing as being productive. The more you multitask, the more you spread yourself thin across each task. [Tweet This]

Focus on one task at a time instead of multiple tasks. Sort your tasks by priority: what’s most important to get done first? Put that on top of your list and work your way down. By putting all your focus and attention onto one task, not only will it result in the best work possible, but also you’ll end up finishing it faster, as you won’t be constantly stopping-and-starting.

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The 9 to 5: Joelle MacPhee, Director of Marketing at Ooka Island

Neil Wadhwa

Welcome to The 9 To 5, our new series where we highlight and interview creative professionals doing great things. Our first profile is of Joelle MacPhee, Director of Marketing at Ooka Island, and graduate of York University’s Schulich School of Business.

1. How do children learn to read using Ooka Island’s platform?

Children learn to read and become confident readers by visiting Ooka Island 30 minutes, 3 times a week for a year. As they progress through 80 hours of purposeful play and adventure, an adaptive learning program continually analyzes their performance and plots a personalized path towards mastery of the five foundational reading skills.

2. Are there any challenges in working in a small, start-up-like environment?

Growing the team is a challenge, but an incredibly rewarding one when you find the perfect fit. Each new person has a direct impact on the dynamic of the team, so you seek out people who will enhance, not hurt the culture, no matter how strong their skill-set or experience. On the flip side, making sure your work environment and culture is the right fit for them is also worth the time and effort to verify. (ps. we’re hiring!)

I try to divide my day working towards 1 big goal, 3 medium goals, and 5 small goals.

3. When did you first know you wanted a career in marketing?

In the beginning days of Ooka Island, I managed school sales, which is what made me realize that marketing’s long-term benefits are a more sustainable strategy for us. I would always be hearing stories from parents whose children were becoming confident readers by using Ooka at school. It was inspiring that they were reaching out to us, but because I was selling to schools, I rarely got to communicate with the parents that valued the program the most. So I started shifting our focus from school sales to partnering with parents. Since then, we’ve pivoted to B2C as we now know that supporting and empowering parents is where Ooka can make the biggest impact to ending illiteracy.

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How Reverse Mentoring can Close the Technology Knowledge Gap

Neil Wadhwa

How does a 24 year-old mentoring a 50 year-old sound? If you work in a large company and notice a disparity in how technology is being used among people of different age groups, it might be time to start a reverse-mentoring program.

The twenty-something lives and breathes technology, and understands that day-old technology is officially outdated. The fifty-something has a basic understanding of technology (depending on the department he or she works in), but knows a basic understanding isn’t good enough for 2015 and beyond. This isn’t to say everyone is like this—young people can have no understanding of technology, while some older people run IT teams and can code with the best of them—but it’s certainly an emerging trend.

Reverse mentoring builds upon the concept of mentoring, but flips the traditional concept of who plays the role of the mentor and who plays the role of the mentee in the relationship.

Reverse mentoring builds upon the concept of mentoring, but flips the traditional concept of who plays the role of the mentor and who plays the role of the mentee in the relationship [Tweet This]. Reverse mentoring allows people from a younger generation (mentors) with an aptitude for technology to inject new life into mentees who need help bridging their knowledge gap.

The framework of reverse-mentoring is the same as “traditional” mentoring: there needs to be constant communication between the mentor and mentee, clear expectations, patience from the mentor, a desire to learn by the mentee, and trust between both mentor and mentee. But the benefits between the mentor and mentee are different—and possibly better—with reverse mentoring:

1. Reverse Mentoring is a Two-Way Mentoring Experience

Reverse mentoring lets older employers (mentees) develop and hone their skills with various software and technology, whether it be social media best practices or learning about marketing automation software. This is knowledge that can only be gained from working closely with someone (mentor) who has years of experience and can properly, and patiently, teach the mentee—as opposed to the mentee trying to learn on his or her own.

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The Weekly Recap: Hand-Picked Articles for the Week of March 1–7

Neil Wadhwa

The Weekly Recap: Hand-Picked Articles for the Week of March 1–7

Welcome to The FreshGigs Weekly Recap. We know how busy you are, so every week we’ll help you get caught up on some of the best career related stories from around the web. Weekend reading from last week that you can apply for the week ahead.

The 6 Best Industries You’ve Never Heard of (Inc.)

Looking for a fresh start by beginning a new career? Why not look for something in the booming Meat Jerky Production industry? Revenue for the Meat Jerky Production industry is expected to reach $1.3 billion by 2019 – the time is now to grab a set on the jerky train before it leaves the station without you. If you don’t want to work with meat jerky all day long, why not enter the Prison and Jail Construction industry? In his latest article for Inc., Graham Winfrey takes a look at the 6 best industries you’ve never heard of. Read the article here.

Keep in mind that good articles provide valuable information, spark a little thought and sometimes a little debate… and most importantly draw an audience.

Article Snippet: “Sometimes the key to identifying a market opportunity requires looking where everyone else isn’t. As a part of Inc.’s annual look at the best industries for starting a business, we decided to shine a light on some of the promising but lesser-known niche sectors that aren’t getting the attention they deserve.”

25 Predictions For What Marketing Will Look Like In 2020 (Fast Company Create)

Fast Company (Create) asked innovators from different advertising/marketing companies about their predictions on how the brand landscape will evolve over the next five years. Among the predictions is that content will still be king (predicted by Matt Jarvis, chief strategy officer, 72andSunny) and that banner advertising will actually work (Spencer Baim, chief strategic officer, Vice Media). Read the article to see the full list.

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“I Don’t Have Time” Is a Terrible Excuse

Neil Wadhwa

"I Dont Have Time" Is a Terrible Excuse - FreshGigs

We’re four weeks into 2015—how are your resolutions holding up?

The running joke when people create resolutions is wondering out-loud how soon in the year the resolutions will be broken. Beyond New Year, people make decisions everyday about chasing goals or improving lifestyles, but even the smallest of ideas tends to fizzle out upon first sight of a potential roadblock.

Reaching your goals doesn’t happen unless you’re willing to make sacrifices

One of the biggest reasons people don’t see their ideas and goals come to fruition is due to the perceived roadblock of not having enough time. The fact is, “I don’t have time” is a simply a lazy excuse. People now have unprecedented access to tools that suit all budgets and that can be used nearly anywhere— everything you need is at your disposal. Here are a few things to consider if you’ve ever hidden behind the “time” excuse:

Maybe You Really Don’t Have the Time

Here’s the thing: there are 168 hours in the week. The time is there; it’s just a matter of what you do with it.

Becoming a better writer doesn’t mean writing a novel in a week—it means baby steps and gradually hitting milestones. All you need is 10 minutes a day, and you can find the opportunities everywhere: wake up 10 minutes earlier in the morning or go to sleep 10 minutes later at night, practice writing during your lunch break, practice writing on the train during your commute home. The same approach applies to nearly anything you want to achieve—you just need to undercover these small opportunities for free time throughout the day and take advantage of them.

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Creative Interview Questions – Are You Prepared?

Lori Franze

Creative Interview Questions - Are You Prepared - FreshGigs

Interviews can be nerve wracking and stressful. You spend (hopefully) hours preparing and practicing your answers to all the standard questions so that you can impress the interviewer with your experience and expertise. (If you don’t have a standard list of questions to practice answering, check out our blog post on the common but tough questions)

If you find yourself in the hot seat with a challenging and unique question just take a breathe and answer it honestly as best you can.

Have you ever be so confident and prepared until the interviewer throws you a curve ball and asks some creative question that wasn’t on your list? Adam Bryant of New York Times interviewed Mitch Rothschild, CEO of Vitals, and went through his some of the questions he uses to get candidates to “drop their interview face.” Here are the questions:

When you’re not at work, what do you do two standard deviations better than anybody else?
What am I not going to like about you in 90 days and what do you think you are not going to like about me?
What percentage of your life do you control?
If this interview were reversed and I was coming to your house and you were interviewing me because you had 16 different job offers to choose from, what would you be looking for from me?

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The Weekly Recap: Hand-Picked Articles for the Week of February 22–28

Neil Wadhwa

FreshGigs Weekly Summary

4 Signs You Talk Too Much at the Office (Entrepreneur)

There’s an office blabbermouth in every company. You know the person—the one that makes you stop in your tracks and turn right around if you hear his or her voice overflowing nearby. These office loudmouths may not realize that they talk too much, and unfortunately, talking too much can be a cause for career derailment. But… what if you are the office chatterbox?! [Que Suspense Music] Kim Lachance Shandrow provides four ways to find out if you’re the one in the office that people avoid having a conversation with—and what you can do to fix this. Read the article here.

Too many writers try their hardest to tell people what creativity isn’t, which only hurts the readers’ expectations of themselves.

Article Snippet: “If everyone everywhere you look has earbuds stuffed into their ears, or if they quickly jam them into their ears upon your approach, sorry, bud, they’re trying to avoid you. Hey, it could be worse. They could ruthlessly red light you.”

3 Ways to Make Sure Your Resume Bullet Points Will Impress Recruiters (The Muse)

There’s a lot of advice online about resume do’s and don’ts—and we certainly add to the conversation here at FreshGigs. But it’s all for good reason, as your resume is the tool that gets your foot in your door, and ultimately helps you land a job. One of the biggest problems people struggle with in regards to creating or updating a resume is what to include as “key points” under each job title. If you’ve worked at a company for 2 years, for example, how can you condense all that down to 3 or 4 bullet points? Lily Zhang provides some insight on how to strengthen your bullet points—and what recruiters look for in a resume—in her latest article for The Muse. Read the article here.

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Why You May Still be in a Job You Hate

Lori Franze

Why You May Still be in a Job You Hate - FreshGigs

It’s Sunday evening and I am working on this post and I am reminded of a time when I hated my job so much that Sunday evenings were filled with angst and misery. This turmoil was due to the knowledge that in the morning I knew I would have to get up and start a full week, 40 hours of time in a place that made me feel hopeless, frustrated and unhappy. As time went on this negative feeling of anticipation moved to Sunday morning then to Saturday night and then to Saturday morning. I knew that I had to make a change before I started feeling bad about having to come back to work before the weekend even began, but it wasn’t easy.

Put the thoughts of workplace happiness being a myth out of your head, and start to work towards the role you want and the happiness that goes with it.

Maybe you are feeling that exact same way, right now, on Sunday evening as I did back then; maybe you’ve been feeling that way for weeks or months. Your friends have probably suggested that you find a new job, make a change, but you haven’t – and here are some of the reasons why according to Kathy Caprino, a Huffington Post contributor who is a success and leadership coach:

You Don’t Know Yourself

Do you actually know what you want to be doing? What would make you happy from Monday to Friday? Kathy states that the vast majority of people she talks to don’t know themselves at all and this is can lead to feelings of being unfulfilled at work. Take the time to get to know yourself and what is at your core. Identify what your personal brand is and what you stand for [Tweet This]. This deep understanding will allow you to find something that aligns with your needs, values and interests. This step may require the support of a coach or professional.

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Work Friends Make You Happier!

Lori Franze

Work Friends Make You Happier - FreshGigs

You probably didn’t base your decision to take your current job on the likelihood of making friends or the quality of the friends you might acquire but if you think to the relationships you’ve built at work I am sure you’d admit they are pretty significant.

An infographic from Officevibe shares 11 reasons why it is important to have friends at work. The reasons not only have an impact on the individual employee but also the organization making it important for companies to focus on a culture that fosters relationships. It also highlights how important a corporate culture is for someone looking at a new role. If you don’t think you can fit in and make friends then the role may not be right for you!

Those who have friends at work are +35% likely to have a commitment to quality

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