Nicholas Bate

Managing a Business in a Crazy World, 28

Decide the numbers which matter. E.g. customer retention.

Measure them. Regularly. Ensure they are statistically valid. 

Then get behind the numbers to understand what you can do about them. That’s the key. 

On Writing, 82

As you write, keep your reader in mind. By all means surprise them. Shock them, even. But don’t lose their trust. Be consistent and build reasons for characters to act in the way they do.

The reader wants to read your novel not your preparatory jottings. Be fair, be just.

Go write.

Meet Molly: a tale of love, entrepreneurship and the hero’s tale, “Absolutely loved this book, a great story and apt for today and an inspiration. I was 'drawn in' straight away (it usually takes me a while to get into a novel). You'll want to go to St Kalla that's for sure, and - I won't spoil it but - find out what happens to Molly!!!! Hope there's a sequel” Molly and The Isle of Kasta: the sequel. “Molly and Ben have settled into their island haven and are busy making friends and building a business. Their little coffee shop has become a local hub and Molly is a sought after source of help and advice for other business owners. But there are darker forces at work on peaceful Kasta, and soon Molly will need to call on all her resources to counter the threats the community faces.This sequel to ‘Meet Molly’ is an equally delightful read; romance and adventure and a cast of quirky characters in an idyllic setting. It is a story about love, friendship and community - a book to curl up with and forget everything else for a while.”

Bram, A Spy Story: it’s 1988:  a story of coming-of-age, Queen and country and the origins of Covid-19, “Exciting story, fast paced with lots of action and a nostalgic retro setting.”

All available on amazon for the kindle app. 

Molly and Ben, the third part of the Molly trilogy is ‘finished’. It is now time to edit, edit and edit some more. I expect to release it on kindle mid-September.

What’s next? A collection of short stories including: The Time Machine; In Memoriam Mr Rock Star and Where The Star Dust is Found. 

The Most Powerful Productivity Tips, 63

Create a daily check-list of good habits you wish to achieve e.g. 

• walk for 15 minutes
• 500 words of novel
• 5 minute 1 to 1 with each of team

Type up. Print out daily. Tick off. 

The list and the tick and the daily habit are remarkably powerful in boosting your productivity. 

Points of Attention for the Week, 22

1. Strength: get strong so you don't notice pacing up four flights of stairs to skip the elevator queue, nor your heavy bags as you switch terminals at the stop-over, the stacked logs carried to the wood-burner at your Fall/Autumn breaks.
2. Curiosity: make it insatiable as Rudyard Kipling called it. Learning at its best.
3. Mobility: Less chair, more floor. Less car more walking. Oh and climb a tree like you used to.
4. Stillness: How far do you have to travel for true stillness? The forest, the mountains? Or perhaps the meditative mind?
5. Observation: what do you notice when you decide to notice? Material for your novel, sure. But also the sheer magic of Planet Earth.
6. Mastery: the easy and definitive way to feel good. Get brilliant at something.
7. Productivity: it's not busyness. It's attention in the right places.
8. Creativity: only needs practice.
9. R&R: switch off, rest and heal.
10. Courtesy: in a world of 'connection' it makes a staggering difference.
11. Be>Do>Have: you need to be before you can do before you can have. 
12. Nutrition: it's your fuel. Why would you have anything less than the best?
13. Freedom: let go of the need for the constant approval of others. Just know that you are wiser, more effective and more helpful than this time last week. All else will follow.
14. Sense of Humour: Humour heals. Humour puts things in perspective. 
15. Money: spend less, save more. Chase quality of life not standard of living.
16. Addiction Management: from coffee to the digital interrupt we all have our things. Contain and recognise them.
17. Wildness: where does your wild side get its release? Dance? Hiking? Poetry?
18. Stripped back: reduce the entropy to maximise your energy
19. Nurture your Nature: genes may guide but they needn't define.
20. Art is Life: seek art beyond the gallery. The perfect french press coffee is art in action.
21. Label Removal: you are not your job title, your age, your post/zip code.
22. Choice: observe the choice as something conscious.

E-mail isn’t free.

E-mail isn’t free. It seems free. It feels free. We’ve been living with it for several decades now and it is now totally ingrained in our lives. It’s fast, it’s ubiquitous and damn it, apparently it’s free. But only two of those three are really true: it’s not free. Every e-mail sent has enormous consequences for the recipients. In an old world of work messages had overheads: typists, time invested to ensure correct layout and spelling, time to consider courtesy. It meant that messages were considered and not wasted; they were not free and often not easy. Now they are easy and standards can become very low. Consequently for so many people time is wasted every single day coping with mails which are tricky to understand, are fragmented, to which you needn't have been copied, which are too demanding too soon... Imagine every e-mail needed a postage stamp and you had a small daily budget and thus you had to make every mail count and you could save money by sending fewer. Send fewer. To fewer. CC fewer. Build a better business. Create a better life.

The Saturday Lotto you have already won.

1. Planet Earth. Should you choose to explore its nooks and crannies.
2. Choices. Should you decide to execute a few.
3. Wealth of art, literature, friends, good food, walking, conversation, hugs. Should you choose to embrace them.
4. Creativity. Should you choose to unlock it.
5. The ability to manifest your destiny. Should you choose to get on that exhilerating path.
6. Baggage is so yesterday. Should you decide to never pick it up again.
7. Today is 100% potential. Should you decide to make it so.

 

1. Planet Earth. Should you choose to explore its nooks and crannies.
2. Choices. Should you decide to execute a few.
3. Wealth of art, literature, friends, good food, walking, conversation, hugs. Should you choose to embrace them.
4. Creativity. Should you choose to unlock it.
5. The ability to manifest your destiny. Should you choose to get on that exhilerating path.
6. Baggage is so yesterday. Should you decide to never pick it up again.
7. Today is 100% potential. Should you decide to make it so.

Managing a Business in a Crazy World, 27

Your competitors are worrying about the date of the next BBQ.

You’re planning how to take 10% of their market share this autumn.

Marketing isn’t really about The Boston Matrix, Value Chains nor Price Elasticity. It’s about stop-and-think-and-act. Now.

The Most Powerful Productivity Tips, 62

Don’t cheat on the vacation.

Relax. 

Wednesday, 36

1. 25 Mini Standards.
2. The Writing Primer.
3. Bram, A Spy Story is now out; a story of coming of age, of Queen and country and the origins of Covid-19. “Once you start reading this book, it’s difficult to put down. Initially, you are immersed in the delights of Oxford academia, only to then be exposed to the starkness and brutality of Moscow during the Cold War. Bram, a brilliant Oxford chemist, turns spy whose mission is to save the world from a highly dangerous and ubiquitous threat. This book is characterised by most of the attributes of a good spy story with action, heroic exploits by a larger-than-life protagonist and a strong plot. Well worth a read.”
   
4. How to Start your Very Own Business.
5. Instant Productivity.
6. Seven choices.
7. 22 Essentials.
8. How to Create your Home Office.
9. plus The Start Up Myths
10. Stay STRONG
11. Crazy Bold Experiments
12. Just say NO to PPT
13. The Marketing Primer.
14. Being the Best version of you, the book, back in stock.
15. Redundancy
16. Hunter-Gatherer 21C
17. Tackling Stress.
18. Manage that career
19. Be Bold 101
20. You still haven’t read Being The Best?! 
21. Things They Don’t Teach at Business School
22. the secrets of success
23. Life Tips 101
24. Zen & Art of Cubicle Freedom
25. Carnage At Kodak
26. The Very Best Drugs You Need
27. Billions of Light Years Away In Another Galaxy
28. 22 Routes To Your Non Fiction Book
29. Lists For The Life You Love
30. How To Lessen E-Mail Pain
31. Professionalism 101
32. 21 Ways to Improve your Zoom Conference Call.
33. Productivity Primer
34. 101, redux
35. The Basic Basics.
36. Not a single one made the NYT best-seller list. 

Decisions, 7

1. Think when others Copy
2. Act when others Procrastinate
3. Climb when others Descend
4. Encourage when others Judge
5. Persist when others Give Up
6. Be There when others are Too Busy
7. Zag when others Zig