Rui Nunes's thoughts and ideas

I'm the Country Manager of MediaResponse™ Group, responsible for developing our major online marketing brands to evolve at the Portuguese Market.

My primary goal with this blog is to be of value to you with my experience and insights as well to be open to your questions and different approaches. Feel free to ask me anything! ;-)

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2011 (24)
2010 (63)
2009 (48)
2008 (28)
Obox Signature Series

What Can't I Buy Just What I Want?

Office_2011

I'm really sick of it. Why can't I just be able to buy what I want instead of having to buy the entire suite that I won't be using?
This makes me crazy and I think its the main reason I like App Stores so much.

I give you an example. I want to buy the Outlook from Microsoft Office for Mac, but it's bundled in their suite. And it's even for the Business Suite which i way pricier.
So, their best product in my modest opinion is the main reason for people to buy their business suite. Otherwise, the normal user just needs to buy the Home&Student version, but if it needs a great integrated messaging and scheduling system like Outllook it needs to buy the entire pack.
Ridiculous. Well, I didn't worked for me. I really just need the iWork suite from Apple (which is way cheaper) and the Mail.app do the service.

There's no doubt about it, the Office Suite from Microsoft is way better than iWork from Apple, but for the normal user it doesn't pay. My professional work is based in email messages (a lot), Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, Dreamweaver and so on.
So, the Office tools need to be user friendly and quite stylish and iWork works just fine (pardon the double speech). 

So, sorry Microsoft, but I won't pay that price just for having the Outlook. Even if it is to a business. To explain better, it won't add so much productivity to justify that price. Now if you imagine that you need to buy to everyone in the office is just crazy. 
The Mac Store from Apple can be a great treat to get interesting apps for a nice price. Hummm... now, I like that!

Distractions and How to Avoid Them

Scream
Photo credit catalin82

We are in trouble. The amount of information that is thrown to our eyes and ears these days is amazing. Our fathers didn't had this problem. This is ours to solve.

It's our job to regain control making our day more productive and specially to save our brain from collapsing.

I'm Overwhelmed
While I was searching for a good picture to illustrate this post, I was being distracted by the Twitter app, my emails popping up, the relationship articles within sites that keeps driving me away to more compelling content, and so on.
My mind is struggling to be focused in writing these words and it's taking forever. But it's in my hand to turn around this situation.
I should be the master of my mind. Control myself. Avoid the huge TV in front of me with a great story about the Chicago Mafia (I'm a sucker for these stories), and force myself to keep punching my keyboard, spilling words like crazy and spread my idea.

The thing is, I'm a father of two young girls, have two dogs, one wife, huge TV, several screens connected to the internet and I could keep going... It's the wonderland of distractions and even though I need to keep focused and try to control what my brain is doing. Is it thinking in this topic? Then keep doing it. Is it watching the show? Then take your time and enjoy it.

Multitasking
We were instructed by the modern way of work, to be multi-tasking. To be omnipresent and knowing all about our objectives, about the recent buzz, the fresh news.
But guess what! We are not multitasking. We are just distracting ourselves and not being good at anything.

Solution
Well, we need to be more disciplined and avoid these distractions at all times. We need to do one thing at a time and being good at.
It's not that easy? Well it could be if we train ourselves right. We didn't knew how to use a keyboard before, right? We needed to learn how to do it properly. Well, this is the same.
Train yourself to be a one-thing-at-a-time-person. And then you are going to be much more productive and doing a lot more stuff than you're doing right now.

Sex Sells Almost Every Time. These Print Ads Show How!

Media_httpwwwdesignyo_wvxot
via designyourway.net

This is a great collection of Printed Ads gathered by DesignYourWay.net in a showroom on how Sex helps selling the brand, the message, the product!

It isn't linear. Sometimes can be a backlash, but if it is well done, at least it won't be indifferent. Well, if people doesn't abuse of course and then becomes almost the same scenery every time.

Enjoy! ;-)

This is What I Call a Good Peace of an Email

Media_httpwwwflowtown_pjjjn
via flowtown.com

This is an excellent graph on how Apple usually performs well designing their communication emails.

Flowtown makes great content in their blog, and this is just an example.

How To Be More Effective In Crisis Situations - Refuse Work

Crise

Sometimes, this all crisis situation can be a real pain for those struggling for survival. I'm not a magician but I can give you a few tips to improve your effectiveness when you need to be more productive than ever.
So, the trick is to be very strict about the service you choose to accept. "Wait a minute!!" - surprise - "Are you saying that for someone to survive in harsh times needs to refuse some work?"

Actually, isn't that simple, but almost. You need to be somewhat picky about the work you accept to be more effective and profitable. 

In other words, you need to occupy your time with work that has the better revenue possible and refuse the other ones that demands more time, even if it is easier. The objective is to make a standard and give the best results for you and your clients.
If you dedicate your time to your best customers you'll provide a better job, get better reputation, which makes you a better payed professional. A virtuous circle!

Most people in desperation will accept every job they can get to make some money, but if they accept everything, soon they will be all cramped with deadlines to accomplish. This results in stress, being tired and not accomplishing nothing.

The choice is yours. Do you prefer having a big meal or working to have some snacks from time to time?

Who really owns Facebook? Interesting chart from WWWery

Media_httpwwwerycomwp_sehfj
via wwwery.com

So much fuss about who really owns Facebook and who controls it. Well, this might give someone a hint.

The Cost of Delaying Decisions

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Let's face it, in this time of quick decisions and market demand, if you delay to make resolutions based at your experience, information and, frankly, your gut feeling, you're being charged a cost that you DON'T want to take.
It's vital for your business and your life to make the right decisions in the short period of time. It's risky. I don't say it won't be, but it's much more risky to stay delaying it until you're 100% sure about something. Even because you'll never be 100% sure about nothing related to your business.
It's a question of making decisions backed up by the best information you can get by the circumstances and by your personal experience. Then, try to be right more times than being wrong. ;-)

What do you think about it?

It's not the tool what matters, it's the content

Posterous

It always is.

I was thinking about it while logging in to this blog. Actually I really enjoy Posterous even though I have several blogs in Wordpress. These tools make the work more fluid, more or less quick to publish and promote it in several platforms. They make my job more productive and effective.

Nevertheless, are just tools. It cannot produce any value or content if you don't use it and share your thoughts and knowledge. This is what's important. The power of communicate and share your insight. 

Tools are great and I enjoy to play with, but without content, you end up with zero.

So, what do you think about it?