Have you made a resolution to be more productive in the new year? Productivity is important, of course — we all want to reach our goals in a reasonable amount of time, after all! But as Daniel Anstandig points out in this episode of Innovation19, we often judge our productivity by the amount of tasks we complete in a day, regardless of the importance of those tasks. It can lead us to create ridiculously long to-do lists we have no hope of completing in a single day, leaving us feeling like a failure. But it turns out that we actually feel more productive when we complete two genuine priorities than when we do ten meaningless chores. Approaching our daily tasks with more mindfulness and intention is just one of the tips Daniel breaks down to help us feel more accomplished; he also gets into hacks for sleep, social media, diet and nutrition, and tackling the dreaded email inbox. Some of the resources mentioned include: 

- The Sleep Revolution by Arianna Huffington 

- I Am Enough: Mark Your Mirror and Change Your Life by Marisa Peer 

- Eat That Frog: 21 Great Ways To Stop Procrastinating and Get More Done In Less Time by Brian Tracy 

- Fat Chance, Hacking The American Mind, and Sugar Has 56 Names by Robert Lustig 

- The Obesity Code, The Diabetes Code, and Life in the Fasting Lane by Dr. Jason Fung 

- MyFitnessPal app 

- Freedom app and their 25-minute focus music playlists 

- Steven Halpern, focus musician 

- The Pomodoro Technique by Francesco Cirillo 

- Toggle time-tracker software 

- Email filters and folders 

- A nice, analog walk in the park 

#productivity #timemanagement #motivation #focus #business #productivitytips #productivityhacks

So many of us have been working from home since the beginning of the pandemic that it’s hard to imagine commuting to an office again. Besides saving us an average of $13,000 a year on transportation costs, research has shown that workers get more accomplished in a shorter period of time when we work from home. On the other hand, when employees are together in person, it fosters a greater sense of community and a stronger company culture than constant Zoom meetings ever could, which has an important impact on our mental health. How can we fix the commute so we can come together for at least a few days a week? Or make the virtual social experience more interactive and organic? Daniel Anstandig looks at the future of the commute on this episode of Innovation19, diving into the Virgin Hyperloop train, Uber Elevate, Tesla’s self-driving cars, and the Transatlantic Tunnel project. Plus, could virtual reality hold the key to awesome office networking again?  #elonmusk #spacex #commute #transportation #driverless #workfromhome

On this episode of Innovation19, Daniel takes a look at what Hollywood has predicted about our future over the decades to discover what they got right, what they got wrong, and what they actually helped make happen. Jetpacks and flying cars, holograms and hoverboards, gesture-based technology and targeted advertisements, neural links and brain interfaces, universal translators and food printers, AI and robots, and memory deletion or replacement were all big parts of some of our favorite sci-fi movies and television shows, and we can find examples of all of these innovations either being developed, or already a mundane part of daily life, right now. But Daniel isn’t too worried about a dystopia: As he points out, “No matter how our technology evolves, the things we need remain quintessentially human.” So fly home on an Uber helicopter, 3D-print yourself a snack, and ask your smart assistant to queue up your favorite sci-fi film, because the future is now – or at least, a whole lot closer than you may think.   

Watchlist: 

Back to the Future 

Back to the Future II 

The Jetsons 

Blade Runner 

The Fifth Element 

Rocketeer 

Minority Report 

2001: A Space Odyssey 

Her 

Black Mirror 

Gattaca 

Star Wars: A New Hope 

Fahrenheit 451 

Star Trek 

Interstellar 

Total Recall 

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind 

Terminator 

Ex Machina

Daniel spends this episode of Innovation19 with professor and author Rita McGrath, a true expert in leading innovation and growth and developing winning leadership strategies for companies of any size to thrive no matter what. This powerhouse conversation includes insights about her “continuous reconfiguration” mindset that enables leaders to always be ready for change, able to shed old business models, strategies, or practices that aren’t working anymore for new ones that will. They also discuss McGrath’s idea of “transient competitive advantage,” where CEOs can look at each project in their organization as if it’s living in different life cycles, better equipping them to make fast, firm decisions. And she stresses the human aspect above all, valuing talent as a major competitive advantage and pointing out that businesses and government have to do more to address income inequality and other issues in order to have an economy that works for everyone. 

McGrath’s most recent book is Seeing Around Corners: How to Spot Inflection Points in Business Before They Happen.

Daniel Anstandig breaks down the state of broadcast ad sales in 2021 on this episode of Innovation19. He’s joined by Tracy Gilliam, the veteran broadcast executive who founded Futuri’s TopLine sales system because she knew that “every station has a story.” Each ad client is trying to reach a specific type of consumer, and while radio and television stations could rely on gross audience numbers to sell their reach in the past, it’s a little more complicated now. Brands understand that a smaller audience of qualified buyers provides a more solid return on their ad dollars than a large audience of indifferent consumers, so they want to know exactly who your station is serving. Having the tools and the data to tell the unique story of your audience and their buying habits to maximize a brand’s advertising dollars will make you an indispensable part of their team, and win you a client for life.

Daniel and Tracy talk about predictions and expectations for 2021, and how to respond to seven trends they’re seeing develop in the broadcast space: 

Trend 1: Advertisers want targeting, audience engagement, efficiency, and accountability for performance. 

Trend 2: Agencies have to justify their ad purchases with results. 

Trend 3: It’s harder than ever to get an ad buyer’s attention. 

Trend 4: Covid is shifting and accelerating trends – which means new opportunities. 

Trend 5: Multi-platform influencer campaigns with consistent messaging are essential. 

Trend 6: Media brands are expecting more from their reps – and there are fewer reps. 

Trend 7: Local is still a huge advantage, as long as your message is tailored to meet that community’s needs.

Targeted ads and media content are convenient for users and efficient for businesses, but films like Netflix’s The Social Dilemma have raised serious questions about what they're doing to us culturally. The film argues that targeting contributes to an epidemic of division in our society, allowing everyone to live in an echo chamber of their own opinions, stifling empathy and growth. But in this episode, Daniel explains that there are plenty of benefits to targeted content; if we’re more thoughtful about curating our feeds to show us a wide variety of perspectives, and businesses are transparent about when they use targeting to find customers or clients, we can reap those benefits without feeling manipulated or controlled by algorithms. And that’s a win-win for everyone.

Resources cited in this episode include focus apps like Flipd and Forest, browser extension DuckDuckGo, and digital wellness movement Brick.

Brick - Digital wellness movement founded by Tommy Sobel: https://gobricknow.com/

Flipd - hides your apps for a set period of time: http://www.flipdapp.co/flipd-making-productivity-social

Forest - a forest grows while you work, but dies if you leave the app before your set time: https://www.forestapp.cc/

DuckDuckGo - a search engine that doesn’t store your information while you browse: https://duckduckgo.com/

Wearable tech is so commonplace now that we barely notice how our phones keep up with our heart rate, our sleep patterns, our food intake and more. But implanted neurotechnology might have even more benefits. On this episode, Daniel sits down with Taryn Southern, a VR and technology expert and the first person to create a solo pop album by collaborating with an AI program. She explains the benefits of neurotech in health and medicine – such as ameliorating the side effects of diseases, restoring mobility to paraplegics, or alleviating depression and anxiety – as well as in arts and music. What makes people uncomfortable with implanted technology? How could that tech be applied in the future? And most importantly, will that tech truly enhance human beings, or detract from what makes us human in the first place?

#neurotech #neuroscience #science #brain #neuroethics

Thanks to social media, it’s nearly impossible to be the first news outlet to break a big story these days; when celebrities like Patton Oswalt can tweet about an earthquake while it’s happening, or a local can upload a video of a tsunami, how can a more traditional newsroom keep up? In this episode, Daniel explains why news media outlets should be turning to AI systems, like Futuri’s TopicPulse, to analyze trends and predict what stories will resonate most with which demographics. This frees up talented journalists to focus on the most important part of the job: verifying the story and presenting it in a relatable and interesting way. He reveals the “Five V’s” of trends, and what the data can teach us, so newsrooms everywhere can continue to provide important coverage and perspectives on current events.

#news #headlines #breakingnews #media #datascience #ai #artificialintelligence #topicpulse

The hugely popular Disney+ original Star Wars series, 'The Mandalorian', uses an innovative technology called StageCraft to produce its episodes with an on-location feel, while saving millions in production costs. Plus, their production method enabled them to complete and release a brand-new season of television in the middle of a pandemic. In this “unapologetically nerdy” episode, Daniel explains these innovations and how they work, why it’s important to note that the show uses practical effects as well as cutting-edge tech to make the show look and feel real, and why StageCraft looks like a real solution for streaming platforms as they work to keep up with the demands of binge culture. #TheMandalorian #BabyYoda #StarWars #Disney+ #binge #technology #CGI #streaming

More on "The Mandalorian": https://disneyplusoriginals.disney.com/show/the-mandalorian

Surviving and thriving in the workplace during the seismic shifts we’re experiencing requires a willingness to think differently. Daniel is joined by Karen Semone, Senior Director in Salesforce’s Digital Transformation + Innovation group, for a discussion on the future of work. Topics include:

* Zoom fatigue: It’s real. Acknowledge it!

* How quality of life in the workforce is as worthy of focus as a business’ profitability.

* The changing face of retirement when the first person to live to be 150 has already been born.

Resources:

* Access the playbook Karen references by downloading it at work.com.

* This episode was created, published, and optimized using POST by Futuri. Learn more about why POST is used by some of the world’s top broadcasters at futurimedia.com/POST.