Posted September 2, 2005 — 20 Comments
I’m dyin’ over here.
Those of you who’ve been married might know what I’m talking about. I can barely see the floor of my condo because it’s covered with boxes. Sure these boxes are filled with gifts (and popcorn! AHHH I hate the popcorn! why do we need a box full of popcorn to send a simple cookie rack? I mean it’s about 1/10 the size of the box for crying out loud) but they’re really stressing me out!
I think I’ve said before that piles and clutter can cause stress, but this takes it to a whole new level. I mean, I’m working from home now and it’s something that is almost constantly on my mind. All this stuff sticks in the back of my mind as something I need to take care of. Thing is, I literally can’t. Not right now anyway. We simply don’t have room.
(Staci, if your reading this, stop now…)
I find it ironic that people give us gifts to “get us started in life.” We don’t need any of this junk. Plus, it’s going to force us to move to a bigger, more expensive house. Any of you ever hear the George Carlin bit “A Place For My Stuff”? Well, that’s me right now.
Because of all this stuff, I need to work harder, to make more money to buy a bigger house to put all this stuff. I can feel my blood pressure rise just thinking about it. People, take my advice, before you add stuff to your life, get rid of some other stuff. One can only take so much stuff. With stuff you need a place to put it, you need to feel like you’re doing something with it. This can be very, very anti “getting things done” and cause a tone of stress.
Now, to the dumpster.
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Posted in Miscellaneous — 20 Comments
Posted August 29, 2005 — 12 Comments
So, I’m back from Mexico. Thanks to Peter (and Nathan) for doing a great job manning the ship while I was away.
To kick things back off I want to do something I’ve not done a whole lot of here at To-Done—get the reader’s perspective on something. I want to have an honest and open discussion about the whole Getting Things Done/DIY/Lifehack/Productivity movement.
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Posted in Miscellaneous — 12 Comments
Posted August 18, 2005 — 20 Comments
The response to yesterday’s post caught me quite off guard. I was a bit worried that the general response would be “well duh!”. Goes to show I wasn’t the only person struggling with getting from next-actions to actual actions.
I’m going to walk you through my process for managing my calendar. There are a couple of software specific tricks to it. I use iCal – the Mac’s built in calendar. I’m not sure what Bill packaged for my PC cousins, but I’m sure there are options available.
Let me state at the outset that this system works for me because my work CAN be planned ahead of time. Through experience, I know roughly how long certain tasks are going to take. Also, all my work is time-based. That is to say that when I write a proposal, I base my estimate on actual hours worked. Which is where we’ll start today’s journey.
I use a program called Omni Outliner to brainstorm a project’s requirements when coming up with an estimate. I simply make a list of every element I can imagine will be required to get from point a to point b. Then, I go back and put a time estimate in a column next to each item. It’s a quick and easy way for me to put a dollar value on even the most complex projects.
Now, this works for me because I have a pretty good idea how much time it’s going to take me to do each task. This comes from experience. It also comes from breaking each task down into small components.
One of the reasons I favor Omni Outliner is how simple it is to nest lists. I start by making top level tasks, then revisit the big items to break them down in a nested list. The number of levels I break something down into is a function of how complex the task is. See the example below from a recent print project.
At this point, I’ve got almost all the information I need to schedule my project. Omni Outliner and iCal play together pretty nicely. It’s possible to convert an Outliner list into an iCal to-do list, saving one the necessity to re-type each aspect of the project. (If you want to know how, just google “omni outliner to ical”)
Next, it’s a matter of creating a new calendar for each project. In iCal, it’s simply a matter of clicking a button, naming the calendar, and choosing a colour (to change the colour, make sure the info pane is open [button at the bottom right of the ical window], select the calendar you want in the calendar pane, then lick the colour next to the calendar’s name in the info pane, then choose ‘other’ to select from apple’s colour picker).
In iCal, I can simply drag a to-do item onto the calendar. Easy as pie.
This system does require a bit of maintenance. Moving items forward when they inevitably snag is a pain. I’ve gotten into the habit of simply scheduling blocks of time for a given project. Then, at the start of the week, I’ll refine the schedule to reflect specific tasks. Moving a large block of time is easy. Moving a whole bunch of little blocks is still easy, but it’s a real pain.
iCal can sync with any palm device or ipod, meaning I’ve always got my schedule with me. I do leave a fair bit of flexibility in each day though, and I think that’s key to the system’s success. For example, I rarely schedule more than 8 hours of work, yet I work more like 12 hours a day. This flex time means that I can still take care of the inevitable delays or emergencies that always come up.
This is my life schedule, not just my work schedule. If there’s something I really want to do, putting it on the schedule greatly increases the odds that it will happen.
If you’d like to see a larger view of my calendar, to get a better idea of exactly what I’m talking about, please click here.
I’ve actually written a bit about this before. If you’d like to see how my system has evolved, you can read an article I wrote at Almost Cool titled omniOutliner + iCal = my wicked work flow.
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Posted in Miscellaneous — 20 Comments
Posted August 17, 2005 — 45 Comments
I’ve got about twenty projects on the go at any one time. Some are long term, some are on hold pending outside responses, some are at the proposal stage, and some are at the wrap up stage. I’ve tried every method under the sun to stay on top of my work. But they have all failed in one important way: they never stopped my mind from wondering “What should I be working on now?”
For me, that awful feeling of being out of control is a total work killer. How can I be creative when a good portion of my brain in whirring away, trying to stay on top of next actions and deadlines?
I felt totally out of control. My next-action lists were long and my calendar was full, but I had no real idea where I was going.
Until I started using my calendar. REALLY using it. For some reason, I never made the leap from next-actions to SCHEDULING next-actions. As soon as I did that, calm returned, and productivity went through the roof.
I now schedule EVERYTHING. As a result, very little gets missed. I’m still using next-actions, but I’ve added the step of mapping them out on upcoming weeks. This way, I can relax, knowing that I’m going to get them done.
Of equal importance to me as a freelancer though, is the fact that I can feel more at ease about my availability to take on new work.
Like many of you, I have a hard time saying no to job offers. As a result, on a number of occasions I’ve wound up being way too over-committed. Now, that’s impossible.
This isn’t exactly rocket science here. I’m sure many of you do this already. But it’s amazing that a relatively intelligent, committed person like myself didn’t figure this out sooner. I’m betting I’m not the only one (gee, I’d sure feel silly if I was).
I’ve included a shot of my schedule below, so you can really see what I mean.
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Posted in Miscellaneous — 45 Comments
Posted August 15, 2005 — 14 Comments
So Keith’s away, and it’s our turn to play! A great big thanks to Mr Robinson for letting me play in his neighbourhood while he’s relaxing on the beach. It’s going to be tough filling his shoes, but I’ll do my best.
As Keith mentioned, I’m a designer and marketing guy. I have a particular interest in understanding the mechanics of branding. I’m fascinated by how our brains remember and interpret events, and how our efforts in design and marketing impact purchase decisions. (If this sounds even remotely interesting, you may want to read a post I wrote back in April titled The B Word)
This interest in making sense of my own thought patterns has led to some insight into how and why I go through periods of high and low productivity.
Like Keith, I work from home. I’m pretty new to it as well, with less than a year of full time non-commuting under my belt. I’ve managed to learn a thing or two along the way. I’d like to add my own tip to the excellent list you started a couple of days ago. It’s this:
MOVE.
Stuck on a problem? Move. Staring at the screen? Move. Not sure what to do next? Move. Brain down? Move.
When you work in an office, there are a ton of reasons to get up from your chair. When you work from home, most of those reasons disappear. I’ve found it takes tremendous effort to remember to lift my butt off the chair. As a reminder, I’ve got a post-it stuck to the side of my monitor that reads “Move your ass!”. It works! I try to get up when switching between clients too. I find it helps mentally close one file and open another.
Moving gets the blood flowing, which in turn gets the ideas going. I keep five or six blank sheets of newsprint taped to my office wall so that I can jot down notes when I’m moving around my space. It’s an incredibly effective tool, and one I highly recommend.
Moving gets my body involved a bit in my work too – forgive me if this sounds all new-agey and grosses you out – but living exclusively in my head, I find my ideas can get stale. Moving my body helps to remind me that our human motives are not purely mental; a fact that’s particularly tough to remember when I haven’t moved for 14 hours!
Finally, moving keeps me healthy. When I first started working from home full time, I was thrilled by the extra couple of hours I had saved from the evil commuting monster. I used those hours at my keyboard, where I promptly developped a nasty case of repetitive-stress injury. Moving gives me an opportunity to shake my hands out, stretch my shoulders, and give my hands a bit of a break.
Ok, I’m going for a walk!
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Posted in Miscellaneous — 14 Comments
Posted August 11, 2005 — 11 Comments
I love Dreamhost, and yeah, this post might sound a bit like a sales pitch, and in a way it is, after-all I do get a kick back on people I refer to Dreamhost. But they’re having a sale that’s almost over (end of August) and it’s such a good deal I figured I’d give y’all the pitch. First though, here’s the details on their “triple sale”:
Sign up for our Code Monster hosting plan and you’ll save 50% off our normal pricing! You’ll pay just $19.95 per month instead of the usual $39.95! (Get 20% off for two-year pre-pay too!)
These two sales will remain in effect for as long as you keep your account active with DreamHost! Sign up for two years of Code Monster and you’ll get 192GB of bandwidth and 7680MB of disk space for just $15.95/month, forever! You can’t lose!
They’ve got other deals as well, but this is what I did and it’s been great.
Having said that, let me explain why I like them. Dreamhost been a great help in making sites like this one possible as well as allowing me to spend time writing and thinking and not setting up servers and e-mail and installing CMS systems. I recommend them because I’m totally jazzed about their service and think it’s an almost unbeatable deal.
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Posted in Miscellaneous — 11 Comments
Posted August 3, 2005 — 25 Comments
As some of you may know I left my full time job last week to head out on my own and make my attempt at doing something great.. So far it’s been wonderful. I’ve had more “me” time and I’ve been able to get quite a bit of work done.
However, I’ve heard tell that it gets harder and harder to stay motivated and productive. And I am only 3 days in!
So, I figured I’d see if any of y’all had any productivity tips for the new “at home worker.” What can I do to keep my motivation going? Are there any resources out there for home-based entrepreneurs?
Anything you’ve got would be great!
Popularity: 6%
Posted in Miscellaneous — 25 Comments
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