Last weekend was the Minnesota State Swim meet. It’s 90 minutes away from our home by car. Between my husband and I we took four round trips to the pool. I took three of those round trips.
During these sorts of road trips I have taken to listening to NPR TED Radio Hour via podcast with Guy Raz (@guyraz). On the last leg of the last trip, I caught How Things Spread.
At about ten minutes in, Guy interviews Seth Godin about how ideas go viral. He talked about Blendtec, a blender company and underdog brand, that came up with an idea that went viral. They started asking the question. Does it blend? You can see the videos of all the strange and wonderful things that can (or can’t) blend including markers, selfie sticks, iPhones, lighters and pina coladas.
But what about things that don’t fit in a blender – can those things blend?
How Blending Can Increase Productivity
A friend of mine on travel for a big customer meeting shared her morning with me. She woke up at 5 a.m. for an invisible workout, got partially cleaned up (i.e. dressed), found a corner in the hotel cafe (i.e. hiding spot) grabbed some coffee and got onto a 6 a.m. conference call. Then back to the hotel room to suit up for the big customer meeting and on with the rest of her day.
So can it blend? Answer is yes.
For those of us who need to be creative with time, we need to test out strategies on what can blend. To be honest, sometimes things don’t blend or shouldn’t blend.
Should you take that conference call on the sidelines of the soccer game and possibly miss that winning goal? That might not blend.
Can you get a few quick calls in while waiting at the ortho? Yes, that blends.
Can you check email while waiting in line at the DMV. For sure that blends.
But there are more complicated blends you could imagine, like my friend who did the 5 a.m. workout, then snuck in for a quick coffee and a conference call before fulling getting ready for the day.
Some moms use Uber hacks to help them blend rides to activities and work events. My colleague brings her kids to work on the weekends when she needs to prep conference rooms for big meetings. It’s a family affair as her husband also helps carry in the heavy cases of water, soda etc.
Wrapping It Up
So we all have to make things blend. The question is, what can blend and what really can’t blend. I would encourage you to share your “blend” stories so we can all learn what can’t and can blend (without destroying the blender).
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