One thing that significantly improves my career

I have been asked multiple times: “what is the one thing that if I do it regularly, it would significantly enhance my career?”

Every time, my answer is to spend about 1 hour everyday to read.

It seems so easy,one hour a day out of 24 hours, how can anyone not able to do it?

Well actually to me, doing this consistently is no small feat. I struggle to keep it everyday, some day I win, there are certain days that I lose. There are so many things that could get in the way. It could be as simple as I wake up slightly late and have to rush to work, or some family maters, some emergencies (or not) at work, an early conference call/meeting, or simply feeling too tired to read at night etc…

So reading consistently is tough, choosing what to read with your limited time is no small thing either.

I will share with you what I read often, may not be daily but certainly weekly or at least a few times per month.

First of all I would divide what I read into three sections: reading for work, for leisure and for personal development.

  • With leisure and personal development, I would often leave them to weekend, where I have more than 1 hour to read. I find reading fiction books is a very rewarding exercise as well. To be able to appreciate a great novel, to immerse yourself in another world for a few hours is such an exhilarating experience.

For work, I would try to scan through the following everyday:

(The list below is very long so if you want to have all the feeds, please use my opml file and upload to feedly or other readers.)

1. News app:

I use the following apps:

  • The Wall Street Journal app: this is to update business news in Asia
  • Bloomberg app: business news in Asia
  • The Straits Times for iPhone: general news in Singapore
  • Techcrunch: latest update on tech news.
  • Campaign Asia: to update on marketing in Asia

2. Digital Analytics:

  • Google Analytics Blog: Google Analytics is getting to such scale that it’s important to keep up with it everyday.
  • Occam’s Razor By Avinash Kaushik: everything I learn about Analytics, I learn from reading his blog and his books.
  • comScore: they provide updates about Digital marketing landscape across the globe.
  • Numbers Rule your world & Junk charts: if you are nerdy and like to express complex insights with beautiful graphics, you need to read these blogs.

3. Industry blogs:

  • Re/code
  • Seth’s Blog
  • Marketing Land – Internet Marketing News, Strategies & Tips
  • Search Engine Watch – Latest
  • Andy Beal’s Marketing Pilgrim
  • ClickZ
  • We Build Pages
  • Posts from the Econsultancy blog
  • Copyblogger
  • Conversation Marketing: Internet Marketing with a Twist of Lemon
  • ProBlogger Blog Tips
  • Microsoft Advertising Blog
  • Quaero Blog
  • The eMarketer Blog

4. Search Engine marketing updates

  • Search Engine Roundtable
  • Search Engine Land: News About Search Engines & Search Marketing
  • SearchCap: Daily Search Engine News Recap
  • Inside AdWords
  • Kenshoo
  • John Battelle’s Searchblog
  • AdWords Agency Blog
  • DoubleClick Search
  • MediaPost | Search Insider

5. Search Engine Optimization

  • WebmasterWorld
  • Online Marketing Blog
  • SEOmoz Daily SEO Blog
  • Aaron Wall’s SEO Book.com –
  • SEO by the Sea
  • Official Google Webmaster Central Blog
  • Matt Cutts: Gadgets, Google, and SEO
  • Michael Gray – Graywolf’s SEO Blog
  • Stone Temple Consulting Articles on SEO Topics

6. Social media:

  • Mashable!
  • AllFacebook
  • Inside Facebook
  • Likeable Media – A Social Media and Word of Mouth Marketing Firm
  • Facebook RSS Feed
  • Socialmedia.biz

7. Biddable Display and Paid Social:

  • AdExchanger: News and Views on Data-Driven Digital Advertising
  • Twitter Advertising
  • DoubleClick Advertiser Blog
  • Microsoft Advertising Blog
  • RTM Daily (MediaPost)

8. Updates about China and Southeast Asia

  • Tech in Asia
  • PEdaily Latest News
  • Digital Marketing Inner Circle
  • TechRice

9. Entrepreneurship & Venture Capital

Again all of my feeds could be found here. It’s in .opml format so you need to use readers like feedly to import the file.

Cheers,

Chandler

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