One of the objectives I set for myself sometime last year was to keep better track of my time. Tracking time on paper or Excel made the billing process time consuming and painful. I started using Freshbooks, a fantastic web based application that is perfect for people like me who sell time. I was recently reviewing my time for the past six months and was startled not by what was on the time cards, but what was not. I have a pretty consistent work schedule. I’m normally in by 7:30 and stay at the office until 5:30 or 6 every weekday. Plus I usually work another 8 hours on Saturday and am out networking or at functions several nights a week. A realistic estimate of my work week is probably 65 – 70 hours a week.

However, my time sheet doesn’t reflect that; it typically reflects 40 – 50 hours because its missing some activities. I don’t keep track of phone calls or activities that run less than a half hour nor do I keep track of my time doing email, working at night, some of my retainer work or quick projects that are for friends of the firm.(i.e. non-billable) or non-profit. However, this only accounts for part of my missing time – let’s say that accounts for 7 – 10 hours a week. What happens to the other 10 or 15 hours of missing time?

It turns out that I am spending a lot of time educating myself by reading; on average 1.5 to 2 hours a day, which amounts to somewhere between 600 and 800 hours a year! At first I was appalled by the number – no wonder I need to spend so much time working – I’m screwing around on the web all day! However, as I thought about it, I realized that reading that much every day is absolutely critical for me. By selling my advice, I am selling my knowledge and insight. I can’t gain that knowledge and insight without constantly adding to it. That knowledge is provided from numerous sources.

The first place to begin is to look at my RSS feeds. I am currently following 37 blogs, not including a daily search of AllTop. Some of these are updated everyday (sometimes dozens of times) and others a couple of times a week. The topics are very diverse. Tech Crunch and Venture Beat keep me up to date on the latest happenings in technology. I follow Seth Godin and Guy Kawasaki to get my fill of recognized thought leaders and Chris Brogan for insight from an emerging thought leaders I follow several brand strategy focused blogs like Branding Strategy Insider, the Keyhole and the Darby O’Brien Agency Gut blog. For my social media fix I read the blogs of Fresh Tilled Soil, Groundswell and the Global Social Media Network. Beyond all the blogs I follow, I am also following the news constantly – Huffington Post, MSNBC, CNN, etc. And, when all that fails, I’ve got a twitter feed that is constantly identifying articles and posts that I might want to read. This also doesn’t include the various magazines and books that get read on a daily/weekly/monthly basis. This is where the knowledge comes from.

Determining how this knowledge is translated into insight is harder to explain, but I liken it to experimenting with blender. I’m never sure which ingredients (i.e. knowledge) I’ve secured are going to be applied, but I know that at some point, something I read and learned will be thrown into the blender and utilized to create a great strategy. A quick look at our success stories demonstrates the results we’ve achieved over the years with what I call the “blender effect”.

In another post, I’ll provide detail about how you can use the blender effect to gain critical insights into your business. Trust me – its surprisingly simple.