A LONG TIME AGO, at a summer job far, far away, a delightfully daft coworker told me that for years she thought the chorus of a Joe Jackson song was “chicken in my head” instead of “ticking in my head.”
This anecdote is apropos of nothing, except for the fact that right now I can hear the clock ticking in my own head. As I type this, we’re hurtling into production on the May 15 issue you’re holding in your hands, and at the same time finishing up the May 1 issue and several supplements. And let’s not even mention our daily online product DIRECT Newsline (www.directnewsline.com), the Show Daily we’ll produce at Direct Marketing Days in New York this month or the other projects I’m too tired to remember at the moment.
Gripe, Gripe, Gripe I’m not complaining. Well, maybe a little.
But for the most part I’m just stating the facts. Rereading the preceding two paragraphs at this moment only reinforces my feelings. I wrote them over a week ago and haven’t had a chance to get back to finishing this since then.
Everyone who’s reading this has probably had a similar experience with a project or two.
On a recent episode of “Newsradio” the character Beth (no relation) was in trouble when a music club caught up with her. It seems she’d enrolled for 10 CDs for a penny hundreds of times, each time using a different pseudonym like “Imelda Marcos” or “Rusty Bedsprings.”
She feared jail if caught, but the club’s rep said the company didn’t want to prosecute since it would cost too much money. Instead, he offered her a check for $1,000 to stop joining the club and never tell anyone what transpired.
After viewing the show I had two thoughts. The first was that this was funny and a real music club would never act that way. (Or would it?) The second was that I would never have time to join a music club three times while at the office (where she had the thousands of CDs delivered), let alone 300 times.
Offices are constantly becoming more and more technically advanced. But are these innovations adding or taking away time?
For example, having e-mail may have cut down on the number of phone calls and snail mail one receives. But for me at least, those seconds that were shaved off my day have been replaced by minutes (and-after an extended period out of the office-hours) spent reading and answering e-mail. It’s a break-even scenario at best.
This lack of time makes us want to speed everything up, so we have more time to do even more stuff so we feel even more time-crunched.
Is It Here Yet?…Now?
I love shopping direct but get extremely impatient waiting for things to arrive. I’m not sure if having the UPS tracking number lessens or revs up my impatience. For example, on a recent order I found myself checking the UPS Web site at least twice a day to see how quickly my package from a small California company was making its cross-country trek.
If e-mail goes down, the entire office goes into a panic, because we can’t get information fast enough. Because we just don’t have the time to wait for a fax, a messenger, a FedEx package or-whoever-one-prays-to forbid-a piece of good old-fashioned snail mail.
Everyone wants their projects and campaigns ready and out the door faster and smarter than ever before. Thanks to all those wonderful technological toys, there’s an ever-increasing amount of opportunities for direct response-and not only online. Advances in database technology and personalization allow marketers to target more effectively, leading to a wealth of mail and telemarketing possibilities. We’re all finding more ways to produce, sell and promote. But there’s a problem. Last time I checked, one thing technology hadn’t found a way to do was create more hours in the day.
Q&A Time So here’s my question(s) for you: how do you deal with the chicken, er…ticking in your head? Do you feel the time crunch now more than ever, or has technology added a few more virtual hours to your day? Do you feel like an expert in time management or is a lack of time mismanaging you?
DIRECT wants to hear from you. If you have the time, let us know at 212-683-4364 (fax) or [email protected] (e-mail). We’ll print the best responses in an upcoming issue.
Do you feel the time crunch now more than ever, or has technology added a few more virtual hours to your day?
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