Are you keeping up to date?

Staying up to date with information can be very hard to do.

This morning I was on the motorway driving to meet a new client. It was raining and generally not very pleasant. Fortunately most of my fellow drivers were adjusting their speed to suit the poor conditions. There are several overhead gantry signs along this stretch of the M27. When these first came into service I thought they were a great idea. I believe they still are - sometimes.

Unfortunately, the messages displayed are often out of date. The accident they refer to was cleared an hour ago. The heavy or wide load is long gone. The suggested speed restrictions of 40, 50 or 60 miles an hour are confusing when you can see way ahead that everything is moving freely.

Yesterday, I was invited to attend a workshop about Website optimisation. I know the chap who is delivering it and the information he delivered at his last workshop was out of date. The internet moves so quickly it is difficult to keep up and you simply have to have the latest news to use on your website. I won't be going to this workshop.

I used to think that reading newsletters and blog postings every day was being a bit lazy and self-indulgent (indeed it's easy to spend a lot of time on them if you're not careful). I've now worked out a system to skim everything quickly and keep the really interesting stuff to go back to later. I now know that reading this information is useful, both for me and for my coaching clients. I can pass on the little nuggets I pick up to help them in their businesses. If I didn't spend the time keeping up to date, I wouldn't be able to do this. It's an additional service that my clients appreciate - and it makes me look good!