My name is Tom Smallwood and here you will find my posts and those of guests, on the positive effects of time spent outdoors.
To appease or to create peace, this ubiquitous gobstopper of a gadget has become not only a tool for learning and wasting time, in equal measure, but also somewhat of tranquilliser dart.
If you are a parent reading this and you don’t recognise anything I am saying, then you are either in complete denial or some kind of superhuman. Either way I am not sure I entirely trust you...
Read MoreVideo is already important and will continue to become more so, especially on mobile devices. Nobody with an online presence can deny this importance and all small business and brands should be looking at ways of engaging with their audience and customers through video.
One year - when I was seven years old, if memory serves me right - my brother and I set sail on a home made raft made from branches and planks nailed and lashed together with twine and strapped over some large plastic jerry cans.
We drifted out into an often limpid pool that was only a few metres across, but in doing so we lived out an adventure that few children did. We translated our imagination into reality. Alright, we had some grown-up help in the construction of this vessel but the Swallows and Amazons fantasy we lived out was all ours.
Read MoreEmma and Jatta!
I recently came across something called the "Power Thank You", courtesy of Mark Goulston (American Psychiatrist and Consultant to Major Organisations). You will find this short quotation from Goulston’s book Just Listen, all over the internet, but here it is:
"if you’re deeply grateful to someone who’s done an exceptional favor for you, you need to express that emotion by going beyond the plain words ‘thank you’ and instead offer a Power Thank You. When you do this, your words will generate strong feelings of gratitude, respect, and affinity in the other person”.
This is as valid outside the workplace as it is in, and today, back from our travels in Thailand, I would like to say a power thank you to someone who made a difference in my daughter’s life, and therefore mine.
Read MoreI am mixing work with family fun by the beach, but it seems to me that everyone else is so preoccupied with getting that Facebook profile selfie right that they can’t actually enjoy themselves.
I look at my daughter, who is 5 years old, and she is having a whale of a time splashing in the pool, flicking sand over her legs or jumping over what she describes as “massive” waves, but are, in reality, the lightly frothing ripples of a calm and benevolent Andaman sea. I am 41 years old and happy doing pretty much the same as her.
Read MoreThis morning's view.
I decided a while back that this is a subject I would revisit on a regular basis in my own time and in my own thoughts and consequently in this blog.
This week I am in Thailand with my family enjoying some winter sun and fulfilling some of the travel ambitions of my youth. Last week, however, I was at a large trade show in London. I spent a couple of days in meetings, talking with people about the industry in which I have worked for 12 years. It was great to meet up with some people and talk shop for a while. Invariably I discussed my own availability as a consultant with some, and the single refrain that I found myself saying over and over was my willingness to work on time-limited projects.
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