The Rule of 7

Last night at the TIA workshop on Social Networking for business there was a general concern that between Facebook, youTube, mySpace, Blogging and your own website that you wouldn't have anytime to spend in your studio. That's when I mentioned my first rule of 7. I allow myself 7 minutes per day on Facebook because I know it could suck me in and never spit me out. The artists wondered why 7 minutes? Well, 5 is too little and therefore not effective, and 10 is too much and can easily be rounded up to 15 and then 20 and so on. I think I stole this concept from either Eat that Frog or The 4-hr Work Week. One of them states that by setting random times for tasks it forces you to pay attention to the clock and not allow 'creep' to happen. It's a really good concept in planning meetings, set them for 10 minutes after the hour instead of on the hour and you'll be amazed at how much you can get down in that first ten minutes.