Here’s a simple little trick I came across this evening. If you create a link with “http://twitter.com/home?status=@your_twitter_handle” where “your_titter_handle” is just that, it will bring your users to twitter.com and create a reply tweet. Cool.
While you’re here, try it!
David Seah’s Emergent Task Planner has been a life saver since I became solely responsible for how I spend my time.
I fill it out at the top of each day. It helps me estimate how much time I might spend on a given project vs. how much time it actually takes, prioritize, monitor the “incidentals” that arrive in my inbox and keep things from getting out of hand.
It’s great to see the 3, 4 or 5 major tasks I intend to accomplish in black and white instead of floating in my head with all the incoming distractions.
Thanks, Dave! Your forms are wicked cool, as we say in New England.
I apologize for the lousy iPhone photo.
A great interview with Erin Doland, editor at unclutterer.com.
“I have very few regrets in my life, and I owe a great deal of that to my parents’ insistence that I Seize Life. I have always taken chances, been a bit brazen, and risked a little to gain a lot. Anyone can live this way, and the benefits are truly spectacular.”
I tried Lifetick this week after Unclutter’s Erin Doland mentioned it on Twitter. It’s pretty nice — define your goals and values plus steps to acheive them. View your progress with quite nice-looking charts.
This week, they announced an iPhone-optimized version as well as iCal integration. Check it out.
The second Microsoft ad featuring Jerry Seinfeld and Bill Gates has appeared, and Cameron Hunt makes this observation:
“Excluding their visually rich iPod ads, Apple’s commercials focus strongly on product; their Get A Mac campaign humorously illustrates the differences between Windows PCs and Macs, while the iPhone is advertised by simply showing the device’s innovative interface … The ‘Jerry and Bill’ advertisements, so far, only mention product in vague terms, usually resulting in a very stale routine of Seinfeld asking Gates about a “goldfish with a website” or edible computers.”
The interesting thing is that, for years, the opposite was true. Microsoft’s ads touted features while Apple’s were abstract. The “Window” iMac ad is a perfect example:
Today, Apple has abandoned the abstract for concrete information, and Microsoft has eliminated any mention of their products.
So what are those ads about? Well, they aren’t about Windows, and that’s the point. Vista is troublesome. XP is old. “PC,” as played by John Hodgman, is a self-conscious, out-of-touch dweeb in a drab, beige suit. Everyone (and I mean everyone) knows what Windows is. Everyone uses Microsoft products. They needn’t be told about either yet again.
The new ads are about associations. Jerry is funny, and by pairing him with Bill Gates (who, dare I say, actually seems kind of cool in these ads), Microsoft hopes that some of his snarky humor will become associated with their products in the consumers’ minds.
I like them a lot. They’re quirky, they make Bill Gates (arguably the quintessential geek), seem cool and they make me laugh. Apple fanboys will dismiss them as nonsensical, but they’re wrong. These ads are great.
No, they aren’t about Windows, Office, etc. That’s the point.
More
Michael Mistretta offers a counterpoint, while Daniel Jalkut and and Adam Lisagor agree.
Daniel Jalkut:
“…these ads are not meant to influence the immediate buying patterns of viewers, but instead to alter the long-term impression of the company that develops and markets the world’s leading desktop computer operating system.”
Exactly right.
I’m still reading The 4-Hour Work Week. Today I was stuck by Tim’s abhorrence of multi-tasking.
He’s right on this one. There’s a mindset in our culture that venorates the busy. The more you can do at once, the better.
I call bullshit.
Imagine the busy executive. Arms flailing, a phone tucked under his chin, a Blackberry clacking in one hand and a mouse in the other, he’s doing four things at once. What a machine! He is the envy of the working world.
I see a guy who’s doing four jobs poorly. Specifically, he’s giving each project 1/4 the attention it deserves. Now, I know that it’s impossible to remain laser-focued on one task all day long (for instance, I’m eating as I type this), but you can do it 90% of the time.
The middle of the book has become a business/economics class, which isn’t what I was expecting, but I’m going to stick with it.
Look, I love GTD as much as the next guy, but David Allen’s cheese has slipped off of his cracker.
While browsing the site tonight, I found the store. Check out the above package. It’s pretty nice — plastic In/Out trays, folders with a stand, some notebooks, a pen and desk tray. How much do you think this costs?
Ready?
$735.
With shipping, you’ll be pushing a thousand bucks for a freaking desk set. My goodness. For that much money, this thing better have sex with me then make a steak and lobster dinner.
Besides, desk sets are only good for one thing.
Telegraph lets you import RSS or Atom feed into your Basecamp account. Why would you want to do that?
Pretty cool. Get more details here.
It’s a hot topic, and a real dilemma for me.
Brand as an individual or brand as a business?
When I sat down last winter to consider a career as a freelancer, I thought, “What services will I offer?” Well, I had been working as an IT director for a Mac-friendly school for six years, so that’s what I knew how to do. Not to sound immodest, but I know my way around a computer, and I enjoy working with them.
I had also been blogging professionally for three years (and personally for eight). Blogging is what I genuinely love. It’s in my heart. I could do this all day, every day. If there’s a passion in my life, this is it.
Blogging is so much fun, so dynamic, so immediate and accessible. Who benefits from blogging? Families, small businesses, chambers of commerce, schools, churches, coffee houses, college students, Marines, authors, nuns … everyone!
I don’t care if you’re in it for fun or profit, business or pleasure. Your experience will be enhanced with blogging. Hand me a soap box and I’ll go off on why this is a phenomenally fantastic thing to do. And that’s the truth.
Again, I’m not being obnoxious, but I know a lot about this medium, and sharing that knowledge with others makes me all giddy. I <3 blogging.
So, I found myself on brink of self-employment with two quasi-related skill sets: IT and blogging.
Back to my question.
What do I want to do? Well, the honest answer is “both.” The practical answer is “pick one.” Obviously, that “one” ought to be IT. Saying, “I’m an IT consultant” is respectable. Saying “I’m a blog consultant” sounds like “I have a professional lemonade stand.”
As I learned several weeks ago, that only leads to confusion and uncertainty for the customer. Saying, “I do IT consulting for home and business — including repairs, network design, software installation, software training, backup system creation — plus professional blog coaching” leaves customers thinking, “OK, here’s a guy who can’t make up his mind. Which does he do well?”
Now, I’ve got evidence of people who pull this off successfully. I know a woman who is a very talented and successful career counselor. She also speaks to banking corporate types on best business practices. Those skills are related but different.
So, I went with that. I’ll do both. The next step was deciding on a name, a logo and a website.
It begins
As a person who has never had to name a business before, I found it agonizing. Everything I came up with sounded either trite, over-used, too “corporate” or too immature. Plus, what word or phrase conveys the services I described?
Finally, I decided that it’s my skills and knowledge that I’m selling. So, I registered DaveCaolo.com and bam! That was it. I was Dave Caolo at DaveCaolo.com. The company is me. The brand is me. We’re one in the same.
On the front page, I created an introductory paragraph as well as three “sections”: One for blog coaching and two for IT, one home and one business. For a logo, I put up my face. Me, me, me.
“Great,” I thought. “Potential clients will land on the home page, see the section they’re interested in and click through.”
Now I’m second guessing that decision.
It changes
Today I read an article at Copyblogger which put the fear of God into me. Entitled “Are you in personal branding prison,” it states in no uncertain terms that what I’ve done by focusing on myself as the brand is exactly the wrong thing to do. “What if you want to grow or take a break? You can’t,” says James Chartrand. When I leave the business, either to sell it or do something else, it dies. No me = no business.
Plus, I can’t ever hire employees*, because the clients don’t want John to show up, they want Dave. Dave is what they’re paying for.
Now I’m re-thinking the whole thing, and it’s exhausting. Perhaps I should brand my freelance efforts as “Kaylow” or even “Kaylow Media.” Perhaps I should leave it as it is. Perhaps I should say “F this” and get a real job like a regular person and reduce a tremendous amount of stress for my lovely wife.
What do you think, dear readers? I hope you’ll leave a comment.
*That thought is laughable, as I’m not exactly on track to become a millionaire with this venture.
Last Monday, I posted my professional goals for the week. With a little focus provided by David Seah’s Concrete Goals Tracker (CGT) forms, I did well. Here’s an update
That’s 38 Productivity Points for the week. Awesome. Here’s what I learned.
If you need a list of concrete actions, create one.
I’m a dutiful little worker, as long as I know exactly what needs to be done. My wife gives me Honey Do lists on the weekends, and I secretly love them (don’t tell her). Why? Because they describe in no uncertain terms what I’m to do.
My old day job followed a similar model. I knew exactly what needed to be done each day.
Unexpected tasks popped up, sure, but I can deal with those. Now that I’m working on my own, it’s easy to sit down at my desk at 8:00 AM and think, “OK, what do I do first?” I need a Honey Do list, and creating one for myself has helped tremendously.
Reward successive approximations
I tend to prevent myself from feeling good about a project until it’s complete. Last week, I rewarded each small step towards the goal. Filling in the little circles on Dave’s form was a part of that. You probably know how satisfying it is to strike through an item on a to-do list. Imagine if you could then “win” points for doing the same thing!
It sounds kind of silly but it was effective. So, instead of thinking, “I haven’t released the podcast yet … drat,” I can think, “So far, I’ve scheduled the podcast, gotten everyone together, registered WireTap Studio, created my outline and recorded the podcast.”
I’ll post my goals for this week soon … it’s on my list.