We’re all so busy these days, between client work, email, social networks, and our attempts to form a life/work balance that it’s really hard to add one more requirement to the mix. We’re all under a lot of pressure to keep our skills a step ahead of our clients and competitors. But how!?
I’m here to tell you that if you don’t make time to go to conferences, drink from the media fire hose, network, and just plain sit and think, you’re going to be asking “would you like fries with that” one day in the not-too-distant future.
Nothing in our educational system prepared us for the fractured attention, the constant barrage of information, the sheer noise of modern life. And even with the best of intentions, it’s hard to stay up to date, let alone ahead of the curve.
Being well-informed isn’t just about knowing what’s happening in your industry. It’s about being inspired by ideas, events, people, places and beauty. The smartest people often forget the details in favor of the concepts. Where creativity is concerned, concepts almost always trump news.
With apologies for ironically adding to the information deluge, here are some of my must-reads:
- Tweets and links from my Twitter lists (first things I read) because they lead me to links by people I follow. And those invariably lead me to search new topics.
- NY Times & Daily News print editions (yes, really. My commuting reads)
- My FriendFeed subs for interesting links by people I respect.
- Techmeme
- Email newsletters:
Going to conferences is part of my job, as is seeking potential partners for Proof to work with, and I go to at least two a month. If you haven’t been to a conference in a while, you have a lot of catching up to do in terms of new technologies, trends, and emerging media.
Keeping up and squeaking ahead takes a toll, of course, mostly in sleep. But let’s face it: sleep is over-rated. And beauty sleep is for those who need it.
How do you keep up? Please tell us in the comments.