Briefly: A short documentary about briefs

If you’ve worked in marketing for any length of time, or worked for a marketing agency, you’ve probably encountered briefs (or creative briefs). You may even have written some. I’ve seen my fair share, and most of them have been, well, meh.

Bassett & Partners has put together a short documentary (free online!) featuring highly accomplished creative executives talking about briefs.

Briefly Teaser – Watch the full film at bassett.tv/briefly from Bassett & Partners on Vimeo.

How to come up with new ideas

A long lost Isaac Asimov essay on how to come up with new ideas, from 1959.

Isaac Asimov

A person willing to fly in the face of reason, authority, and common sense must be a person of considerable self-assurance. Since he occurs only rarely, he must seem eccentric (in at least that respect) to the rest of us. A person eccentric in one respect is often eccentric in others.

Consequently, the person who is most likely to get new ideas is a person of good background in the field of interest and one who is unconventional in his habits. (To be a crackpot is not, however, enough in itself.)

Isaac Asimov Asks, “How Do People Get New Ideas?

Six new secrets to managing your time

Here are some good insights here from Dan Ariely, a Duke University behavioral economics professor and bestselling author.

Among them: The importance of understanding the impact of your environment and the fact (yes, FACT!) that the rest of the world is not only not interested in how efficient and productive you are, but is actively working to make you less productive. Beware.

How to be efficient