A little reminder from Michael Wade that even with ten minutes, you can do a lot.
But for small tasks - the "next actions" that David Allen writes about - 10 minutes can be a nice chunk of time. Each minute is valuable. Those portions eventually accumulate and result in the completion of the project.
— The Power of Ten Minutes by Execupundit
I’m ashamed to admit it, but I don’t have enough of my code for others to see. I’m not talking about finished websites and applications for clients. I’m talking about ideas, prototypes, and other stuff—things I have just hacked into or built for fun. I can’t remember adding or updating any projects on my GitHub account for a long time.
Being a web developer means all my work, or at least the bulk is visible on the web. This isn’t always going to be the case, though. Most of the work I do is for the back end of websites—the wiring and plumbing side of it—the parts you don’t see. That’s no excuse, though, for the lack of code I have published.
The web is my playground. I should use it and publish more of my ideas in code form. Writing code and fixing problems is how I earn money. Perhaps showing problems that are being fixed with my code is a better way to market myself.
I'm writing this blog post on the web application, Draft. It's been a while since I used it. I stopped using it a while back in favour of Byword, but the problem with Byword is that it just isn't sticking as an app that I like using. Functionally it works like a dream, but there's something about it that I don't like.
So I'm giving Draft another go and already I'm enjoying using it. Yes it does do a few things extra than Byword, but that's not why I am using it again. Is it the preference for a web application over a native application? I don't know, it could be.
All I know is that if you're not happy with the tools you have then you should find the tools that do make you happy while you work.
I mentioned yesterday that the web can be a great platform for communicating and change, but is often misused. I gave an example of such a misuse, a petition that lacked worthy content. Not worthy of your time, which to you is precious. And that's another problem with the web. There's so much of it. How do we filter the signals, the content that you should be consuming, from the noise, the content that isn't worth even looking at?
Searching the web can yield some real finds like topical blogs, forums and e-books. This takes time though, and once we find an interesting source of content, we then need to spend some time validating the content. In my experience I have found that the best content is the content that is referred to you others. Two examples of this are content that is referred to you from others in your network and content from curated newsletters.
Over time I've built up this network of bloggers around me who put great content on their blogs. Michael Wade, Kurt Harden, Curtis McHale andNicholas Bate to name a few. I've been reading their blogs for a long time now, and when I see something interesting on their blogs that I would like to share, I link to it from my own blog.
It also works the other way. When any of these bloggers find something interesting on my blog they pass it on to their readers. This network of blogs is a great source of vetted content that I can be assured will interest me. Building a network like this can take time, but it's worth it in the end.
I subscribe to a number of newsletters. Some for programming, some for writing and there's plenty of others. Email newsletters were once the crowning glory of the internet but then RSS came along. People found it easier to manage a feed reader than their burgeoning inbox. However newsletters have recently made a comeback.
The great thing about newsletters are that they are curated by someone else. Thought and time has been put into ensuring that the newsletter contains relevant content for its subscribers. And it's for this reason that I subscribe to a fair few newsletters. I don't want to invest time in searching for content when someone else can provide it for me.
These are two of the main ways in which I filter the best content for myself. There are others ways, but these two methods I find yield the best content for me.
The internet is an amazing platform for the world to communicate and innovate on. It can provide volumes of information at our finger tips, allow us to communicate with others on the far side of the world and if you're brave enough, it even allows you to publish your own creations such as books, music and more.
And yet, it is continually misused the world over. Where most people see it as an open communication tool, some see it as a surveillance system. Where most people see it as an e-commerce tool, others see it as a tool for defrauding and cheating. Where most people see it as a tool for change, others see it as a tool for control.
Unless you have been living under a rock for the last few days, you'll know that Ben Affleck was chosen to play Batman in the next Batman/Superman movie. It's been met with mixed opinions, but the decision to cast Ben Affleck has prompted a petition on Change.org to have Ben Affleck removed as Batman. It hardly seems a worthy use of the tools that the internet provides.
I've signed a number of petitions on Change.org that I have identified as being of benefit to individuals or whole populations. In each case, the petitions that I have signed would be of worthy benefit to others if action was to be taken as a result of the petition.
I refuse to sign a petition that calls for a casting choice for a movie to be removed. It simply doesn't rank as important enough a topic for me to get upset or passionate about it. And it shouldn't even have got as far having a petition on Change.org.
I'm not saying that the internet can't be used for debate and entertainment. I frequent a lot of websites on a daily basis where discussions take place over the best programming languages, the best text editor and other topics. Yes these are discussions that aren't a priority, but the debate is entertaining.
What I find wrong is when perfectly good tools for helping people are mis-used.
All around the world there people that require your help. As an individual you may feel powerless to do anything on your own but by taking the right positive action, you could be another cog in the wheel that will eventually turn and provide people with the beneficial changes they really need.
So with that in mind, why not be a good responsible netizen and use your web tools wisely. Used correctly, they can bring good to others.
Start with Steven Pressfield's Foolscap Method to get yourself started.
Working as a freelancer can be lonely. When it comes to celebrating client and project success, Curtis McHale shares his successes with his wife and daughter first.
I remember sharing my first paid freelance invoice with my family. I haven't done it since then. I must rectify that when the next success comes along.
NB is off the grid for the moment, but Kurt Harden has a great place to start if you want to start reading some of NB's many great books.
Just a few more e-books that I am considering purchasing or they're not released yet.
Some additions to my current reading list involve a couple of new e-books that I have purchased recently.
That's the problem with e-books. They're so damn easy to buy!
Since I went Google free, I’ve been using DuckDuckGo as my primary search engine. It wasn’t really the accumulation of your search history that made me move to DuckDuckGo. I just wanted to try something different.
That said, one of the key things that makes DuckDuckGo different from Google is that your search isn’t tracked. When you search on DuckDuckGo, you remain anonymous. I’m not too concerned about Google archiving my search history; I just wanted to reduce my Google search footprint and see less advertising on my search results.
I have noticed that the search results differ vastly from Google’s regarding the number of results. Google simply offers more results than DuckDuckGo. It is simple numbers. Google has been around longer and has had time to build the most popular search engine. However, I can find what I am looking for on DuckDuckGo most of the time. Where the results haven’t been successful on DuckDuckGo, I can append the !g operator on my search to tell it that I want to search Google. I don’t use this often now, but having it is nice.
A benefit of DuckDuckGo is that the search results can be ad-free. None at all. I love this. Search results that are just search results and nothing more.
You need to change this in the settings, but seeing a search engine give you this choice is refreshing. For a while, it seemed that Google was hell-bent on pushing as many ads down your throat as possible on a single page.
DuckDuckGo does offer a few extras to help with other tasks besides searching. Aside from the typical math calculations you can enter, you can also do the following:
expand [bit.ly/a](http://bit.ly/a), which will show you the expanded URL on a search results page.on rails will search the Hacker News website for stories and comments containing ‘rails’. password 15 strong will generate a strong password of 15 characters.DuckDuckGo also provides operators that you can use in your searches. It simply means that you can search through other sites right from DuckDuckGo. I use it often for searches on Amazon using !a and Wikipedia using !w. Couple these with searching DuckDuckGo from Alfred, and I have a fast and easy way of searching DuckDuckGo and other sites.
Since I started using DuckDuckGo, I’ve been impressed with its results and capabilities as a search engine. Every day, I learn new shortcuts and ways of searching. That means less mouse clicks for me and less time spent tracking down the search box on other websites. It’s flexible and fast and well worth checking out if you’re looking for an alternative to not just Google but also Yahoo and Bing.
Meet my son Ethan.
He loves playing golf. He's also quite good at it. He might not be the next big thing in golf, but he's better than most kids his age. He attends golf lessons for one hour a week and this year we even got him in as a junior member at a golf club in the area where most of his family play. A chance for him to meet other kids his age and also to get out onto a proper golf course for a change.
Now as parents we all want the best for our kids. It's natural. The best criteria though is interpreted different by different parents though. My interpretation is that I want my kids to be happy and do what they enjoy the most.
Me and Jen don't do the pushy parent thing. He plays golf when he wants to play golf. We don't make him practice for hours on end at home, nor do we make it his exclusive hobby. Just for variety he goes swimmming, plays tennis and wants to up upgrade his bike to a mountain bike for Christmas so that he can go mountain biking with me.
He also does all the usual things kids do, watches television, plays video games, plays outside with his friends and a whole heap of other things that kids are supposed to do (and sometimes not supposed to do!). Quite a good mix for any kid if you ask me.
I'm hoping that this no pressure approach to his golf gives him enough breathing space to be himself and not be put under pressure. He's still a kid and needs to experience his childhood. Sure we still give him a gentle nudge now and again, but that's all it is, a nudge.
When I first started considering the idea of freelancing a couple of years ago, I started to subscribe to a number of blogs of already established freelancers. It was during this time that I discovered Curtis McHale and his excellent blog.
Currently based in British Columbia, Canada, Curtis writes openly about the trials and tribulations of freelancing, writing and products he's working on as well as family life and of course cycling. Just the right mix of categories I would say that almost mirror my interests.
His blog has become a valuable tool in my freelancing career. When I struggled at the start, Curtis provided some great advice for me during that first month and continues to do so today through his blog. I've even signed up for his new book on running a viable freelance business.
It's great to have someone like Curtis there, writing about his freelance career. He's proof that while freelancing is hard work, it's also very rewarding work if done correctly. And that's why I'll continue to read his blog on a daily basis.
I'm in my mid-thirties now. 36 years living on this blue marble in space.
In that time I've had bits of knowledge passed to me by my wife, my kids, my grandparents, my parents, my extended family, my friends, the schools and universities I have attended, the newspapers, magazines and books I have read, the films, television shows and screencasts I have watched, the countless blog posts I have read on the web, my carefully curated daily reading list, the podcasts I have listened to and even the places I have visited around the world.
I have and continue to learn new things almost every day. And that's a good thing, because where would the fun be in life if everyday wasn't a school day.
I've been using Pinboard for sometime now for managing my bookmarks. I can't complain about the service. As bookmarking services go, it's the best out there. However, the other day I seen a screenshot of a private bookmarking service that someone else was using. This person will remain anonymous as they're trying to keep their own bookmarking application low key.
What I loved about the screenshot of their application though was the wealth of information available to you when you viewed a single bookmark from the collection. It contained list of bookmarks with similar tags as well as text from the link itself.
It got me thinking about Pinboard and what contextual information is offered when you are viewing a single bookmark.
Not a lot really. This isn't a complaint against Pinboard, it's a great service and one that I recommend, but it got me wondering about the type of information I would like to see relating to a particular bookmark on the same page.
Here's some things I managed to think of:
I wondered if I should be rolling my own bookmarking application. I'm a developer, and it sure wouldn't be a wasted project to do. I'm always on the look out for something to keep me practicing towards being a skilled developer.
I then wondered if there was anything else I would like my bookmarking application to do. Besides offering more information on a single bookmark, I would like to save notes, but I would like these notes to be written in Markdown and then rendered in nice HTML markup. I have a ton of notes written in Markdown that I have on my MacBook, but I would like them to be viewable on the web by only me.
I suppose my ideal is bookmarking application is more than just for bookmarking. It would be for notes, clips, images and notes. Evernote I hear some of you cry! Yes, I could do all this in Evernote, but that's not the point of this. It's about my ideal bookmarking application, and it doesn't exist ... yet.
On my recent trip to Toronto to visit my in-laws, I noticed something on the flight as we flew over the Atlantic Ocean and into Eastern Canada. Almost no-one was looking out the window. As I got up from my seat to stretch my legs for a walk down the aisle, I looked about the rows of passengers on the flight. Each row contained at least two people with tablets or laptops in their hands with the majority of people left tuned into the on-board movie.
I know that not everyone is blessed with window seats, but the majority of people within the vicinity of a window were not even looking out of the window. During a couple of trips to the back of the aircraft over the course of the flight I noticed that very few people took the opportunity to look out the window. A missed opportunity in my book.
There are some parts of flying that I don't enjoy like queues, security checks and of course the waiting to board, but the one part that I do enjoy is the views from the aircraft. It's a rare opportunity to see the world from the highest point most of us can get to. Only a select number of people around the world manage to make it to higher altitudes like some military pilots, astronauts and of course Felix Baumgartner.
I remember flying to Las Vegas from Toronto a number of years ago and seeing the changing landscape of the American Midwest below us. Having only really flown trans-atlantic flights before, the new landscape was amazing to see. It was startling to see the change from urban sprawl to grassy pastures and then onto mountains and desert.
Flying is also one of the few remaining places where many of us can disconnect from the digital world. I know that some airlines are offering wifi on their flights, but given the choice I would rather fly without wifi. Free from email, social networks and other distractions online, flying is a great opportunity to reflect, catch up on some reading or simply appreciate the view.
For a lot of people air travel doesn't have the same wow factor that it had in the past. Perhaps they've flown so many times, they've simply become acustom to not looking out the window as they have seen it all before. Maybe they're simply not interested in the world below.
With the increased availability of technology on flights perhaps it's time to consider a windowless airplane. Very few people look out of the window these days anyway. I hope it never comes to that, as I do enjoy the view looking down from the skies.
... where you are.
... have been proven to work. So why not use them?
Thanks Curtis.
... with Adam Keys.
Not all tricky problems are complex. Some are presented in a complex way, some are complex because of restrictions that are simply worked around, and some are complex because of an adjoining social problem. Find the simple problem, or the social problem, and solve that instead. It often works for me.
— The Simple Problem Inside the Complex One by Adam Keys
An idea is nothing unless you can tell it to someone else. With the world on the web at your hands, your ideas can now be seen by millions of people in a matter of minutes. Here's a few ways I have tried out communicating various ideas in the past. Each had a degree of success, but I can't recommend one over the others. In the end, they all have their place in getting your ideas out there as they do suit different levels of knowledge, you just have to decide which one will suit you.
Just write about it. Like I said yesterday. Your ideas are perhaps best spread by yourself in the way you describe it through your own words. Publish the idea in your blog and look at the number of views for the idea over time and see if it's maintaining a certain number of views. If your idea is maintaining a steady number of views maybe over a week then your idea could be worth developing further.
This is the simplest but least accurate way of validating an idea. Measuring the popularity of the idea in terms of page views is a simple measure, but what we lack here is the ability to see how many people are genuinely interested in our idea.
Even before you build something around your idea, it's a good idea to get feedback on the popularity of the idea. Landing pages with a signup are a great way to gauge the initial interest in your idea. So even before you have started work on your idea, you can determine if it's worth pursuing.
A landing page gives the benefit of allowing you to get your first set of customers for your idea. Not all the people that signup will actually buy into your idea, but it's fair to say that a percentage of them will consider your idea if your idea will offer some form of value that is worth paying for.
Services like LaunchRock can have a landing page up and running for you in minutes, but it is better to spend the time in getting the landing page right. A little bit more time spent on getting the landing page right can mean a big difference in the number of sign ups you get.
A prototype of your idea is probably the best way to show it to the world, but it is also the most time consuming to put together. You might spend just an hour putting together a blog post, maybe a couple of hours getting a landing page up and running, but a prototype might take you at least a day to put together depending on how much of the idea you want to implement.
The first prototype for Journalong was a spectacularly simple affair. It was just a page with a textbox and a button. No fancy styling, validation or even tests. I was merely testing the idea of submitting my journal entries from a web site to my Dropbox. I showed the idea to a few developers in the team I was working in at the time and they liked the idea. It gave me the confidence to pursue the idea further.
A point to remember when building a prototype is that you should really focus on making it show off the primary value that your idea will give people. For Journalong the value was writing your journal to your Dropbox from anywhere. Web connectivity is almost available everywhere we go, and armed with a smart phone most people are no more than a few clicks away from writing to their journal.
So there you go. Three ways you can communicate your idea to the world. Most people shouldn't have any problem in writing a blog post or even using LaunchRock to put a landing page together. A prototype is a bit more technical and requires more time and effort if you are not familiar with web development.
Next time you have an idea, why not tell a few people? You might just be onto the next big thing.
Every time I write a post for my blog, I ask myself this question:
What if the majority of my readers already know what I'm writing about in this post?
I've purposely held back on a number of ideas for blog posts in the past due to this. I get myself into the mindset that the idea for the blog post will be invaluable to the majority of my readers and therefore I dismiss the idea.
However loooking over my analytics for previous posts I have written that I have questioned but went ahead with, I have been surprised by the number of times the posts I thought would quickly disappear into the archives are still being read by more than a hanful of people every day. Even though I had the belief that the post would only be relevant for a limited time and to a limited number of people, these posts are still drawing in new readers every week.
So my advice to you is this. Even if you think your readers won't find any value in your idea for a blog post, write that blog post anyway. Chances are that someone will find value in your blog post rather than no-one.
Yesterday I told you about the second part to my grass roots productivity approach which is to sort your master list. Today we're going to look at the last part of the series and probably the most important one, working through your list. All the preparation in the world counts for nothing unless we're actually going to work through our list.
I've tried in the past to pick off items from the top of the list at the start of the day, but it often leads to confusion and the wrong things getting done. I've learned now that scheduling actions into my calendar ahead of time is a better way to get things done and more importantly get that item off my master list.
I was prompted to do this after reading 18 Minutes by Peter Bregman. In the book Peter mentions the importance of using a calendar to schedule the items on your list:
If you really want to get something done, decide when and where you are going to do it.
— 18 Minutes by Peter Bregman http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/0446583405/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1634&creative=19450&creativeASIN=0446583405&linkCode=as2&tag=mattlang-21 18 Minutes %}
How many times have you picked three things off your list to do during the day and reached the end of the day and not one of those things gets done? That used to happen to me all the time, until I started scheduling my items in my calendar and removing them from my master list. After they were removed from my list, I found it easier to complete the actions in my calendar.
Scheduling items in your calendar also means you are working to your strengths, the times when you are most productive. We all have different times in the day when we are most productive. I'm more productive in the morning, so I usually schedule difficult tasks in the morning and leave the mundane jobs to the afternoon.
That's it for my grass root productivity series. Being productive doesn't mean you need to have any kind of complicated system, multiple applications and countless reminders. The simplest thing you can do is work through a single prioritised list at the times that suit you the best. That's all there is to it.
What I have outlined over the last three days is what is working best for me right now and don't see any benefit to changing it. I'm not saying this is the best system to use, but it is the simplest thing you can do that will work. There's lots of other workflows out there that others will advocate. You just need to find what works best for you.
via FGGT
