Matthew Lang

This week I subscribed to the writing blog of Wally Bock. Love what I've been reading so far from him.

Recommended!

Love the detailing on this bike. Absolutely amazing work.

via Cycle EXIF

Finding a great task manager can be a daunting affair. Aside from the fact there are so many of them, there's only so much time that you can dedicate to trying them out. You'll never pick the right one first time, so how do you find a good matching task manager?

After three years of using Todoist I know that it works for me. A week ago I dabbled with Wunderlist out of curiosity, but I couldn't adjust to the different interface that Wunderlist offered. It's nothing to do with Wunderlist itself, it's a great task manager but it just didn't work for me. That's the key thing to look for when assessing task managers. Find the right one that works for you. Here's how to do it.

Ask yourself what's the three critical features that you need from your task manager. It might be portability, it might be integration with other services, it might even be important to you to use a hand-written notes. Whatever is important to you then add it to a list.

This is important because if you're blindly testing task managers without knowing what works best for you, then you're going to find it hard to find one that works for you.

I chose Todoist because it has three features that I think are essential to how I work.

1. Todoist has great email integration. The inbox and each project includes their own email address so that I can quickly capture tasks on the go and while I work.
2. Todoist has a minimal user-interface. This is important to me because it lets me focus on reviewing tasks, picking the next one and moving on. Todoist's user-interface is simple and offers little in the way of distractions.
3. Todoist is easy to use. Click, drag, type. The hallmarks of any desktop or web based application, but Todoist makes it easy to move tasks, edit tasks and find tasks.

If Todoist was to close down overnight and I had to pick a new task manager then I would look for a new task manager that matched at least two of these requirements. Three would be a better match, but it's not essential that the task manager you pick meets all three requirements.

By identifying the features that are essential to me, I've been able to find a task manager that doesn't distract and gets the job done. Your requirements might be different though so that's what you need to look for. Find your own essential requirements and you'll find it easier to find a task manager that works for you.

Clay Bavor's large scale digital canvas is a fantastic use of technology.

Even the frame is made to make it indistinguishable from other framed canvases in the room.

Next I turned to the frame material. I wanted something that looked totally unlike anything you’ve seen around a computer monitor or television – a sort of “anti black plastic”. And that led me to a handmade, gilded wood frame, with a classic profile and a good amount of patina.

A Canvas Made of Pixels by Clay Bavor

Making the screen blend in with it's environment and adjusting to that environment is how technology should be used.

It's as simple as that.

Ana Reinert of The Well-Appointed Desk does an extensive comparison of three of Moleskine's notebooks.

First and foremost, Moleskine notebooks are available in a multitude of sizes, configurations and form factors. The overall aesthetics are streamlined and understated. While you might not love them, its hard to truly dislike them. If anything, they are plain. And they are ubiquitous. You can buy them almost anywhere: the airport, the bookstore, the coffeeshop or your favorite boutique.

— Reconsidering Moleskine by The Well-Appointed Desk

Notebook and writing fans will love this.

There was me thinking I was absolutely bonkers for not falling head over heels in love with the current trend towards towards JS web frameworks.

The web (specifically the Javascript/Node community) has created some of the most complicated, convoluted, over engineered tools ever conceived.

— The Sad State of Web Development by Drew Hamlett

I do like Drew's advice for web applications that have one or two pages with a complex user-interface.

So my advice is to use Rails Django, Play Framework, or Phoenix to develop most of the app, because they help you with most of the boilerplate stuff, and bring in the flavor of the month on a page that needs it. So when the next flavor of the month comes out you’re entire app is not knee deep in the last flavor of the month. You can just re write that one page.

— The Sad State of Web Development by Drew Hamlett

Curtis McHale continues his look into winning proposals with a look at four essentials for any proposal.

Real business owners who want to take their business to the next level aren’t interested in airy-fairy notions of how your work will help their company. They want tangible, concrete evidence by which they can measure the success of a project.

— Defining Deliverables, Outcomes, Metrics and Values by Curtis McHale

Still the best blog for freelancers in my book. It's an essential every day read for me.

Kurt's family business is ticking over nicely as the winter break comes to an end.

My wife and I joke that we operate a small business. There is the storage unit business for unused furniture, old college books, out-of-season clothing, and odd items to be collected from the attic, garage or basement at some to-be-named time in the future. There is the consulting business for reluctant “clients” who ask for advice and help just past the right time to ask. The 1:00 a.m. call from Lexington - “Derby ate a battery; what do I?” The Saturday far-away-from-home comment “the truck sounds really funny,” or the “I know” reply to “you have a tail light out” on a Saturday away from home.

— The Fleet is Out by Kurt Harden

I didn't realise it until I was a parent, but you never stop being a parent. Even when the kids have grown up and left the nest, you'll always be a parent.

Our kids are still young, but I'm now curious as to what kind of "client" calls I'm going to get in the wee hours of the morning.

Consider these gems from Nicholas Bate.

World Sketchnote Day is coming!

If you're new to sketchnotes then this is a great way to start the year. Immersing yourself in the sketchnotes of others and learning by example.

via The Cramped

Meticulously compiled by Kurt. Enjoy!

Let's start 2016 with a little old school.

via Cycle EXIF

Understanding other people is a tall order because everybody is different—but that’s what makes life worthwhile: our time on this planet would be mundane if we all had the same personalities, desires, values, and beliefs. And yet, even with our myriad distinctions, we all want the same things out of life: happiness, purpose, fulfilment.

— Understanding Others by The Minimalists

Today it seems too many people are quick to play the "I'm right, you're wrong" card. The Internet certainly doesn't make it any easier.

Last week I was toying with the idea of switching from Todoist to Wunderlist. The quick path out was to switch to Wunderlist and start afresh. After a couple of hours though, I realised that even though Wunderlist is a perfectly good task manager, I missed the simple, clean interface of Todoist. I missed the Karma feature that let me do weekly reviews and whole host of other nice features that I had become accustomed to.

The problem wasn't the task manager itself, it was because I allowed my task manager to become too complicated. In the last three months my Todoist account has become cesspool of overdue tasks, dead projects and a garbage pile of labels.

I quickly switched back to Todoist and cleared everything out of my Todoist account. I removed all tasks, labels and projects. Having a blank slate to start with meant that I could simplify my Todoist account and start again with just the essentials. The process of clearing out my task manager was exactly what I needed. I just didn't see it until I looked at the pristine list of first tasks in Wunderlist.

Starting afresh with your task manager might seem daunting at first if you've invested time and energy into getting the right workflow for yourself. I thought I had a good workflow but in fact it was just a mess of confusion and it left me being rather unproductive towards the end of last year. Simplifying my task manager by starting with a clean slate means I can get back to the process of finding out what works again and ensuring that it stays that way.

Brought to you by Tom Joyce.

I love these. Reminds me of the Slaine series from 2000AD.