Fabian Pattberg

Category Archives - Fabians Lifestream

What is Fabian doing and does he think. Fabians life.

My routine for writing a blog post

January 9, 20129:09 pm

7 Comments

This is the situation: I am home alone with the dogs tonight, my wife is away on a business trip and I am planning to spend the evening going about my business.  I want to write a blog post but I for some reason get distracted on a regular basis. Twitter updates, Google+, sports pages, Facebook, Google Reader and so on.

This seems to have happened quite a lot over the course of the past 12 months with so much going on in my life I noticed. Being a practically minded, I therefore tried to come up with a “routine”, as I call it, for these times when I am tired from a full days work but really want to write a blog post.

I hope it will also be useful for your writing. Please be aware that is my personal routine and you most likely will go about your writing in a different way. This is routine and it works for me…… icon smile My routine for writing a blog post

The routine: 

  1. When you get home from work or any other activity before writing, make yourself some food and eat. Writing with an empty stomach does not work in my experience.
  2. Once you are finished, choose the place in your house/flat where to write. Do not make the mistake of writing in the living room with a TV, stereo, etc. If you have the possibility to go to your own room or the study, do that. Any kind of distractions will only hinder your progress and will frustrate you.
  3. Make sure you take enough water with you and most importantly, take some chocolate with you. This is the kick you need when you get tired.
  4. Once you are all set up and online turn ALL social media channels off. You need the internet connection but you definitely do not need Twitter, Google+ or Facebook meddling with your attention span.
  5. Do not think about what you want to write about too much. Writing should be fun and something you enjoy. So just start to write and I am sure everything will come together at some point.
  6. Write about something interesting you have come across recently or which is important to you. Yes, consider your audience but let the writing lead you to what you want to let your readers know.
  7. Review your post progress after 2-3 paragraphs. I usually than change most of the post and title again because I somehow ended up with a slightly different topic to what I started out with.
  8. Once the post is finished take your time to check every single word of it. It is easy to just hit the “Publish” button. Wait for a while or even walk away from the computer for a few minutes to get your mind of this blog post. Then when you get back you will possibly notice something you missed or which is not writing about. This simple action will boost your quality of the blog post immensely in my experience.
  9. Hit the “Publish” button when you are proud of what you see in front of you.

It is that easy. Enjoy and have fun writing!

I wish you a Happy 2012 – Let’s make it a year to remember

January 2, 20129:16 am

2 Comments

I wanted to wish everyone a very Happy New Year and a successful 2012.

Let’s all work together to advance Sustainability and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) awareness and best practice in our world!

Although pessimism surrounds some predictions for 2012, I am sure we can make 2012 a year to remember with regards to Sustainability / CSR.

So let’s get to it!!!!!

Your CSR / Sustainability world in 2012: What could you do different?

December 21, 20113:14 pm

5 Comments

A strange title I know but the purpose of this post is very simple. What could you do as a CSR / Sustainability professional in 2012 different to 2011?

I have listed three points, which I feel are very important and useful for everyone working the CSR / Sustainability field across the globe.

Point 1 : Why not strive to learn more about CSR / Sustainability?

This is what I have set myself as a goal for 2012.  I have been working in the field for a long time now but I find that I also need to read more CSR / Sustainability related literature (books & ebooks) on a regular basis. My daily routine includes reading my favourite blogs via my RSS reader but I noticed that I am not reading enough published CSR / Sustainability literature anymore. This might sound like a very simple thing to do but I have noticed that during the daily routine I usually do not give myself the time to read books that provide me with a more in-depth viewpoint or information background.

I will now brush up on CSR / Sustainability classics such as Simon Zadek’s The Civil Corporation: The New Economy of Corporate Citizenship Your CSR / Sustainability world in 2012: What could you do different? and John Elkington’s The Chrysalis Economy: How Citizen CEOs and Corporations Can Fuse Values and Value Creation Your CSR / Sustainability world in 2012: What could you do different?, just to name two very insightful CSR / Sustainability classics.

Point 2: Write more about what you do

I assure you that once you read more about CSR / Sustainability, you would want to write more about it as well. This does not mean that you have to have a full-fledged blog. Easy does it in my view. If you do not want to have a blog then why sart email conversations with friends, colleagues, etc about CSR / Sustainability topics. This is a great way to digest the information you have just read or learned in my experience.

Point 3: Communicate more via Social Media

Communicating using Social Media is an easy thing to say, I know. But why don’t you give yourself 10 minutes each day to tweet via Twitter or post interesting information on your LinkedIn page. It does not have to be more time you spend each day or every other day. If you keep up this routine, I am assuring you that you will have a lot of fun doing this and at the same time will have the opportunity to get to know lots of likeminded people from across the globe reaching out to you and the information you are sharing.
If you are looking to get started in Social Media and do not know where to start, then this posts from a few months ago should help you with that: My current Social Media dilemma.

So what are you waiting for? Start doing something different today to change your life tomorrow for the better. icon smile Your CSR / Sustainability world in 2012: What could you do different?

Why I did not blog for two weeks

December 2, 20112:45 pm

0 Comments

Over the past two weeks I have been extremely busy. I also did not manage to write new blog posts. Sorry to all my readers for this two week absence. But I have not been inactive that is for sure. In total I travelled around 3.000 kilometres by car and spend far too many hours sitting on a comfortable chair talking to clients. I had some great meetings but I must say I missed the daily walks with the dogs.

From now until Christmas I will aim to blog 2-3 times a week in order to get back into my normal writing routine. And this is the key in my view whenever you have a certain period where you are not blogging on a regular basis.

My blogging rule when I do not have enough time to blog

If you do not feel you have anything to add on your blog, don’t. But also do not use any easy excuses not to write when you have the chance. When you have some time on your hands, use it wisely to let your readers know what you are up and share the stories / information you have about a certain topic.

For me today, this meant that I wanted to let you, my readers, know why I have bit been blogging for two weeks. Transparency is everything in blogging. When your readers know what you are up to they will understand.

Have a good weekend everyone.

Making a difference: What will change in your life for 2012?

November 16, 20114:39 pm

0 Comments

The annual changing leaf season always reminds of the changing times. It seems that Mother Nature wants us to all let go of our 2011 ballast, to plan ahead for 2012 and to prepare to change.

I am in the process of changing a lot in my life as well. Nothing drastic, but changes need to happen in order to realize my plans for 2012. In 2011 I pretty much streamlined a lot of operations in my business, on- and offline. This will continue in 2012. More is to be done offline, but streamlining will still be the motto in order to save costs and to be more effective to successfully promote CSR / Sustainability.

Let’s side-track a little here, in order to make an important point.

An example of passion and will power

The most impressive example I came across over the past years of how to change your life to make a difference was a group of three women from the London area. They were all passionate about one thing: Helping dogs which were close to being killed because no one wanted them anymore or their breed was a breed that is perceived as dangerous.

They all had their daily jobs and families, so no time to spare really. But they were so passionate about helping dogs that they simply had to find a way to make a difference as they could not bear seeing perfectly good dogs being put down for no reason. So they worked during the day and rescued dogs during night and the weekend.

This was four years ago. And now, through their sheer commitment and determination, they managed to establish a regional dog rescue charity called Rescue Remedies, which so far has been able to save and rehome close to 1.000 dogs across the UK.

Obviously saving dogs is not for everyone, but my point here is that we all can change our lives if we really want to. Somethings more and sometimes less change is possible and needed to make a difference.

So what can you change in your life this autumn in order to make a difference in 2012?

Three business lessons I learned in 2011…so far

November 3, 201111:12 am

2 Comments

Life is changing all the time around us. Even when we think it is not, our world is changing on a micro and macro level. I feel that our life has changed a lot over the past months and we will see a lot of change in 2012 again. This year I have spent a lot of time getting to know a whole new business. Getting to know this new business has already taught me a lot of new aspects how to do business. This is a post from earlier in the year to give you more details on my changes, Changes in 2011.

Despite my doubts at the start I really enjoyed the past months. Including the highs and lows as strange as it might sound. The reason for this is that these experiences have taught were very valuable lessons. Today I want to outline three of these lessons.

Use the existing business network right from the start

Use the existing contacts and relationships of your predecessor and throughout the company as much as possible. Do not shy away from the fact that you do not know these new people. Make it your goal to get to know them instead of waiting for them to come to you. Every now and then you might meet someone that is dismissive or hesitant to help you but have the courage to continue where your predecessor left off. It will show your clients and business network that you have got what it takes to continue the business.

Be respectful and show that you are different

Be nice, treat everyone with the necessary respect, do not talk about something you do not know anything about, make sure your contacts know that you are serious about making business and most importantly, that you are different to your predecessor. In my case this means that aspects of CSR / Sustainability are always incorporated into every important business decision I make. Stay true to yourself and the values you believe in. Once you do that I am sure you will be a successful.

Show strength towards your peers but be empathetic

If you have any employees or line management, then a lot of time of your working day will be spent on making sure these people are doing what their job is and are happy. I am more of an empathetic person when we talk about leadership but I had to learn this year that a leader also needs to provide the strength to lead no matter what. And this sometimes means to make difficult and unpopular decisions in order to move the business forward.

There are a lot more lessons I learned but these three stand out. But you never know what the last 2 month will bring of course.

My Twitter crackdown this week

October 30, 20118:08 am

0 Comments

I was looking for a specific Twitter update at the end of last and it took me ages to find it. This made me realize that I am simply following to many people on Twitter in order to have a good overview to find what I was looking for. I followed 3000+ people and 95% where people I did not really know or which had a lot of automated updates from their websites, etc.twitter My Twitter crackdown this week

I therefore decided to review my whole list and started unfollowing the people and organizations I felt did not provide me with continuous interesting information on CSR / Sustainability and Social Media.

It nearly took me all week to go through the list one by one but I am now seeing the updates from the people on Twitter I want to see without the large amount of noise from all other people and organizations constantly promoting their work or websites.

This is a huge problem with Twitter I feel. When I browsed the web to see whether this is something other people did, I realized that mass unfollowing is becoming common practice these day.

This is a most recent article on this topic: Unfollowing to become common practice

I am now done to around 200 people and it feels good to finally have control over the Twitter updates I am reading instead of focusing on lists and luck to find what I am looking for.

The international CSR Twitter and blogosphere

October 21, 20111:13 pm

0 Comments

I was kindly invited by a business friend of mine to talk about the relationship of CSR, Twitter and the global blogosphere at the CSR 2.0 conference held in Warsaw today. My presentation was a short one (6 slides only) but I hugely enjoyed the opportunity to share my experience regarding Twitter and blogging in relation to CSR.

This is the presentation (shared on SlideShare):

The freedom to create

October 13, 20118:30 am

0 Comments

I have been blogging for 3,5 years now and enjoyed every minute of it. Not being an english native speaker did not make it easier at the start but when I actually decided to sit done and start writing it was insignificant. I am this kind of person to actually start with the task at hand and not plan extensively beforehand (I plan a bit of course!)

I only realized sometime later why I this is the case : I have the freedom to create. This is what I enjoy the most about blogging, the freedom to voice my views and share the information / resources I find. In my case these topics mostly involve Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and Sustainability.

What are you creating at the moment?

Are you writing or doing anything else that makes you happy, every day? It is not only about blogging and is about what you enjoy doing the most. Blogging brings me joy but it is not for everyone. You have the freedom to decide what to create. I would love to hear what you do to use your freedom to create.

If you are interested in starting to blog, here are some resources / tips for you to make it easier.

Have a good rest of the week everyone and enjoy creating.