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Merlin Mann is the creator of 43folders.com, a popular website about finding the time and attention to do your best creative work. Merlin will be coming to Rutgers University on March 31 and April 1, 2010. All talks are free and open to the general public.
Merlin delivers practical, useful, and entertaining insight into the challenges of doing great work in an environment defined by distraction and incongruous expectations. Merlin has become recognized as an authoritative voice on how to help knowledge workers, executive teams, and all manner of creative types discover how to reclaim their attention, improve their productivity, and fundamentally reinvent their approach to doing the work that they love. (Plus, he’s really funny.)
Merlin is a sought-after speaker and presenter, who’s received rave reviews for delivering his energetic productivity talks at Apple, Google, Yahoo, Adobe, Xerox PARC, as well as many other esteemed companies and organizations. His writing has been carried in fine periodicals like WIRED, Make, Popular Science, and MacWorld, while 43 Folders has been featured favorably in The New York Times Magazine, The Washington Post, Time, and The Wall Street Journal, to name a few.
On Wednesday, March 31, 2010 at 2:00 PM he Merlin be talking on “Future-proofing your passion: The job you never knew you wanted”. This talk will discuss strategies for how to find out how to find the job you *want*, rather than the job you're scared you have to take (or that your parents want you to take). This talk will be at the Rutgers Student Center on the College Avenue Campus in Room 411 ABC.
On the same day, Wednesday, March 31, 2010 at 7:00 PM he will be talking on “Inbox Zero”. This energetic, targeted presentation will focus on the attitudes, tools, and behaviors that are critical to surviving in the age of high-volume, ubiquitous email. Topics include; Why your old email habits can’t work today; Why “catching up” with email is a myth; The five and (only five) things you can do about any email message; Strategies for processing email faster and quickly converting messages into action; Using filters and rules to automate repetitive work and; How and when to turn email off (and for how long). While starting from a context of how and why email has gotten out of control in most of our lives, the focus of this session is very practical, with an emphasis on tips, tricks, and handy “hacks” for getting email under control — ultimately for reclaiming your time and attention from the email black hole. This talk will be at the Busch Campus Center on the Busch Campus in Multipurpose Room B.
Finally, on Thursday, April 1, 2010 at 2:00 PM he will be talking on “Managing Time and Attention”. Time and attention are a knowledge worker’s most precious and irreplaceable natural resources. And, yet, most of us find our lives riddled with attention leaks that sap hours from every week. What can we do to understand where those leaks are coming from? And how we can start to command greater respect for time and attention — as well as ensuring that we respect that of our colleagues? In this talk, Merlin Mann demonstrates how digital technology and cultural changes have upset the balance of scarcity and plenty in the lives of wired knowledge workers. You’ll learn why it’s critically important to set and honor boundaries that protect your time as well as how to develop new skills to guard against unwanted or unproductive drains on your already-overwhelmed attention. This provocative and engaging presentation applies refreshing, high-level thinking to the problem of how to renegotiate and reclaim the attention you’ve ceded to others, as well as fostering discussion on the changes your team can start making today to improve work culture and create a healthier, respectful, and productive work environment. This talk will be at the Cook Student Center, on the Cook Campus in Multipurpose Room C.
For more information on these events, please contact Don Schaffner, 732-982-7475, schaffner@aesop.rutgers.edu.