Same Hours, Less Time!

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Do you keep running out of time? Not enough hours in the day? Grant Leboff explains why..

I was driving along the other day listening to the radio and Chris Evans [UK-Radio DJ] kept asking the same question, all the way through his morning program. Why do we have less time than ever before? We have all this technology that’s meant to be saving us time and yet we seem to have less hours in the day than any time in history.

I was shouting because I knew the answer!

Actually, there’s a very important lesson for yourselves and marketing here. You see, the reason why we have less hours in the day today than ever before is because everything is expanded apart from time. You see, we still have the same 24 hours a day seven days a week, as we always have. But everything else has expanded. We have more television channels to watch than we ever had. We’ve got more films to download and look at than ever before. We used to only have to respond to post and telephone calls. Today as well as post and telephone calls, we have emails and tweets and social media messages.

Everything in our lives has got bigger and more choice except the time we have to do it. We can recognise that we’re increasingly time poor. But what that means for yourselves and marketing is simply this. Unless you can cut through all that noise in a compelling way, no one will give you their attention. It’s what’s known as information architecture.

Let me explain…

When you ever pick up a copy of a newspaper this is what you never do. You don’t go straight to the body copy and ignore the headline. Of course not. You read the headline first, and if it grabs you, you might start to read the story. So, when it comes to yourselves and marketing in the first instance you have to think about crafting a really compelling message because it’s only by doing that that you will cut through, get someone’s attention, and then be able to educate your prospect further. I never did get through to the Chris Evans Breakfast Show. So Chris, if you’re watching, this is why you keep running out of …

There may be small changes to the spoken word in this transcript in order to facilitate the readability of the written English

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Comments

  1. Hi Grant, Great message as usual. One day you will sell the extra day per week we are all looking for !! Thank you. All the best Tim

    1. Author

      Thanks Tim. However much time we have, it will never be enough 🙂

  2. Hi Grant, brilliant message to read this morning. Thank you.
    Explains nicely why “time is the enemy” – all the best – Helen

    1. Author

      Thanks Helen for your kind comments. I am really pleased that the video resonated with you

  3. Hi Grant

    Very interesting and I couldn’t agree more. However, what’s equally interesting is we are also heading for a 4-day week for everyone (although maybe not the self-employed or CEOs).

    An extra day of Netflix binge-watching I guess and what good is that going to do anybody?

    Best
    Jeff

    1. Author

      Hi Jeff, thank you for your comments. Yes, the four day week is interesting. I think there are two points that come to mind:

      1. We are working under more pressure than in previous generations, there is less natural ebb & flow in a day.

      2. There was a time when people only worked at work. Of course, I suspect, that even with a four day week many more hours will be put in checking phones and laptops etc.

      It will be interesting to see how it develops.

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