This is post, mostly, about the state of mind for doing effective Analytics work.

Have noticed, that, what I consider to be my best work, often gets done when I can afford to be playful with Analytics and when there’s room to focus vs. Being Diagnostic.

It’s almost as if, being present, mindful, alert, yet relaxed, at the very same moment, is that optimal “zone” from which to operate out of.

Steps to reach that place might be different for each person; tried to mentally note what did it for me.

Analytics work can often be full of dry and tedious, diagnostic details and procedures, and I suspect, the very nature of Analytics might interfear with creativity; but in some cases, it enhances it.

One case would be doing diagnostic tasks to learn how campaigns are set up and run, how a business works. The detail work can be a grounding mechinism, after a while the details gets internalized, freeing energy up to be creative with.

What I am finding is there needs to be a systematic, diagnostic underpinning to Analytics but we also need move past that, think creatively, to come up with something important, almost as if it was seen for the first time.

I guess that’s why I like watching Monk, or earlier, Colombo; a lot of Analytics is detective work, but the best detectives are creative thinkers, who use their grounding in diagnostics to take them to a new insight, new level.

That’s what I strive for, anyway.