Notes from Notchcode

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Quote of the Week:

All solitary dreamers know that they hear differently when they close their eyes.

-Gaston Bachelard

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Notes from Notchcode

5.27.2009

The Hit List: Still in Beta, but a good list-maker all the same

I downloaded The Hit List, a list-making tool in the Getting Things Done style, today. And even though I've only been using it for about five hours, it's about ten times better than the stock iCal To-Do offering, and at least as good as the Kinkless GTD system for OmniOutliner I was using a few years back (this was before OmniFocus). I expect to work up a more comprehensive review of it after I've had some time to really test drive the thing, but for now I'll leave you with these reviews.

Labels: productivity

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4.29.2009

Which workers spend the most time working at home?

Turns out it's arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media people. About 55% of our total weekly work hours are spent working from home (or from an office on a home-based property, one would assume). Not really a surprise, but still interesting to know that the Bureau of Labor Statistics is tracking such things.

A few takeaway points from this data: It looks like there's an institutional bias against letting salaried creatives work from home, compared to other service professions whose self-employed hours-worked-from-home is above 16%. Personal care, management, and sales-related workers who are wage-earners and salaried employees all get to work from home more than their salaried brethren in the legal, business & financial, and creative professions. I know that when I was a salaried employee there was strong resistance to allowing creatives the freedom and flexibility of working ex-office. Granted, that was in the late '90s, but it appears that trend has stuck around well into this decade.

The other point is how much time self-employed workers aren't working at home. Nearly 45 percent of the time, creatives are somewhere else. Where? Client offices, off-site meetings, research, and vendor locations are likely candidates. And I am wondering how many of these self-employed workers are in-house contractors, who, while self-employed, have to show up at a client's office and work there.

Here's my take on the chart from the BLS. You can also download a CC-licensed print-quality PDF of it here as well.

Thanks to Planet Money's Laura Conaway for twittering about this data!
Labels: art, design, information graphics, productivity, work

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4.28.2009

Initial design sketches of our future studio, and musings about "home-working"

Alex over at the Shedworking blog has posted a link to some initial sketches I did when we started thinking about building a separate studio space for Notchcode. He's tracking the progress of our work, which I'll admit motivates us even more to keep things rolling forward.

I wanted to mention that for graphic designers working from your home (or in our case, from just behind it) makes a lot of sense; any creative professional needs to craft a space for working that suits their creative process and methodology. Every creative is different, and is motivated differently; it's hard to get that same vibe in any kind of a structured office, no matter how creative-friendly the organization is (although I've seen it done well at some agencies and in-house divisions). That being said, Alex's blog is a great resource for people looking to relocate their work (creative or otherwise) closer to home. I'd also recommend the Unclutterer blog as a nice companion read to Shedworking, too.
Labels: advice, architecture, creativity, process, productivity, small business

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4.21.2009

Sarah Wu: Hire Her Before Your Competition Does

Ach! I thought my friends would all escape the recession unscathed. Unfortunately, it was not to be. Sarah Wu, recently married, is also now recently laid-off. Don't let her talents go to waste!

From Sarah:

The dot com and post-911 bubble bursts didn't get me, but I couldn't outrun the recession of '09! As the most productive product strategist you'll meet with success at the fastest-growing technology companies in Colorado, I'm ready for a new Product Management or Product Marketing challenge. But are you ready for me? On Twitter, DM @sarney or find me on LinkedIn.

You better hire her before your competition does.
Labels: advice, marketing, productivity, social networking, software, work

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4.20.2009

How to use MarsEdit on a Joomla SIte

I love MarsEdit. Quote possibly one of the nicest offline blogging tools out there for the Mac. And it's always played well with most of the blogging platforms out there (I'm using it right now to write this post to my blogger-based--but notchcode-hosted--blog). A tool like MarsEdit allows me to compose blog posts without having to be online, using some blogging site's wonky WYSI(almost)WYG interface. I can even tag articles, select posting times, add media to posts, and so on.

I'm making a move to update my website, using Joomla. Figured it was time to get rid of the old-and-busted tables-based layout that I put up at notchcode.com over a weekend in 2001. Joomla is a nice, free, and extensible Content Management System (CMS) that I develop about 70% of my clients' sites in, and decided it was time to drink my own kool-aid and use it for my own site.

One of the main issues I had, however, is that there didn't seem to be any built-in support to post articles to a Joomla-based blog from MarsEdit. A slightly-longer-than-normal search of the internet returned a solution, and I'm on my way toward a new site that allows me to still use my favorite blogging tool! Oh, internet, is there anything you can't provide an answer to?

You can read the step-by-step process of how to enable Joomla and MarsEdit to talk to each other in the RedSweater forum post here.
Labels: blogs, joomla, mac, productivity, software

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1.11.2009

Punchlist options for the graphic designer: opinions?

I am looking at a number of project management tools, and have been very happy with Basecamp for the last 2 years. I will be sticking with them, but am looking for a more "local" to-do list management tool...something that can track not just odd bits of project pieces, but administrative and office tasks as well. I was using Kinkless GTD integrating with OmniOutliner, but that sort of went away when the developer got sort of swallowed up in the development of OmniFocus--a product that's a bit too robust for my taste. Anyone have some suggestions? Let me know!
Labels: advice, productivity

posted at 10:35 PM Leave your comments here: 0 comments

12.29.2008

My favorite apps of 2008

Well, for those of us in the office on this last week of 2008, we may as well get more productive as we work away, oblivious to the tweets and Facebook postings of our friends and officemates as they remark upon the quality of the snow in Alta, or the lovely front-porch weather they are enjoying.

Right?

With that in mind, here is a quick rundown of a few applications that have made me, as a creative professional, more productive. I encourage you to give them a try, too!

Groundwork , by enormego, gets your Basecamp-managed projects onto your iPhone and iPod Touch. The interface is the best of the three Basecamp-porting iPhone apps I tried, and so far I'm very impressed. It's only $3.99, too, so you're not out a lot of cash to try it.

Side note: Basecamp, you say? Since I've been using it for a couple of years, I don't want to go into it too much here, but it is a productivity booster for anyone who has lots of people touching a project.

Having a good backup strategy is crucial. Earlier this year my hard drive kicked the bucket (luckily it was still under warranty). While it was being replaced, I utilized my nightly backup to keep client projects moving. iBackup is something I just started using, but it is already paying off. When my previous backup solution, DejaVu, started hogging hard disk space while processing the day's backup (rendering the Mac unusable more often than not), I started looking for another backup option.

Long ago I used Retrospect, but wanted something that added offsite storage into the mix. Offsite backups ensure that my clients' projects aren't lost even if something really bad happens to the office. The way iBackup boosts productivity over other solutions is its deference to the user (allows you to control how much bandwidth it uses when you're working on the computer, allows you to force it to pause a backup after a specified time of day, etc.). This allows me to work without worrying about the backup, while having the backup do its thing behind the scenes.

DYMOStamps are great: get yourself a DYMO Labeler and some stamp labels, and print your own postage. You still have to pay for it, but at least you don't have to run to the P.O.

1Password, from Agile Web Solutions, lets you keep all your internet and banking (and any other sensitive data) secure--and you can access it with just one password. They also released a great iPhone version, which you can, of course, sync with your Mac.

Some apps that didn't quite make the cut for me? OmniFocus (you mean I have to buy ANOTHER app to be productive? AND learn how to use it? Maybe in 2009). Jott Express (wasn't prepared to pay for the service that seemed to duplicate Evernote, another service I wasn't using enough to justify having around).

What were your favorite productivity apps for the year? I'd love to hear about them!

Labels: advice, productivity

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12.10.2008

Six marketing ideas for a recession

Now that the recession is "official", why not use it as an excuse to tighten things up?

Not tighten your belt, necessarily, but tighten up the way you use your marketing? What serves you well in a recession will serve you well when times are good, too. So, to that end, I bring you:

Six marketing ideas for use in a recession (and when things bounce back):

The amuse-bouche.

Give your clients a little something extra, that you enjoy doing and also benefits them.

Nontraditional uses of traditional marketing pathways

Forget about the coupon in direct mail. What about a "secret word" that brings your customers a discount or access to special services...that only "select" people receive via your permission-based email blasts...or getting your clients involved in an online dialog that benefits all of them (on your site, of course)...none of these suggestions are groundbreaking, but think about how much they cost, compared to traditional direct mail, etc....

Redefine what "essential" is, in relation to marketing and brand expressions

What's more important: meeting someone face-to-face, or sending ten people a direct mail piece talking about your services? Getting new clients, or strengthening ties with existing ones? Or both? Having that nice rounded die-cut corner on your letterhead, or spending that extra $250 on overhead for an informational seminar for your clients?

Now is the time to think hard about what you really need, and why you are using the marketing strategy you currently employ.

Less is more, and now's your chance to prove it

Do you really need a fax machine? Need a fax number on your business card? When was the last time you actually sent a fax versus an e-mail? Use cost-trimming as an excuse to streamline your communication pathways, clearing out the chaff of old technology and ways of thinking and replacing them with methods and channels that are relevant to your audience.

An opportunity to enter new markets or new marketing channels

How about an iPhone app that pushes relevant info to your target market? Outdoor advertising to get someone's attention focused on your issue? Permission-based e-mail campaigns to build brand impressions? If you haven't thought about these options, now is a good time to do so. Why? Because approaching people from another angle allows you to catch them off guard, and hopefully even give them information or motivation that they really need in order to get your company in their life.

Redefine your brand

Why not? If things are really going down the tubes, take a hard look at your existing brand. Is it reflective of your organization, your product, and your culture? Does it address the relationship between your organization and the public at this moment? What about in five years? Time and money spent refining your brand right now, when things are down, will get paid back in spades down the road, as other organizations play catch-up.

What are some ideas you have? Let's hear about them in the comments!

photo by jtloweryphotography
Labels: advertising, advice, b2b, b2c, branding, clients, creativity, design, graphic design, marketing, nonprofits, process, productivity, small business, web design

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12.03.2008

Still don't think that text messaging is changing our world?

From the Independent:

A doctor volunteering in war-torn Congo performed a life-saving amputation on a teenage boy using text message instructions from a colleague in London.

This is impressive because of the other circumstances involved (read the article for the specifics), AND because these two colleagues, separated by thousands of miles, even THOUGHT to communicate this way.
Labels: nonprofits, productivity

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8.11.2008

Making Time to Make: 43 Folders's series on creating

When he isn't a pottymouthed twitterer, Merlin Mann writes some other interesting things that we like over here in creative-land. He has a three-part series on making the time to create, which all us creatives, as we know, need more of.

Read it here:

part 1

part 2

part 3
Labels: advice, creativity, productivity

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7.18.2008

The List, Item Nine: Leave it Here

It's a lot harder nowadays to leave your work at work, for the simple reason that you can work pretty much everywhere.

So in honor of our national last day of the workweek, I say to you all: try actually leaving your work at work for the next 64 hours when you close up shop today. Spend the weekend NOT WORKING. Have a life apart from your office, even if your office is at home. I bet it will all be waiting for you when you get back.

This ends the list. To recap:
do the unpleasant stuff first

say no when you have to

delegate (but not only the unpleasant things)

organize--one thing at a time

give yourself uninterrupted time to do what you need to do

don't procrastinate

clean up

make lists

leave it here

Have a great weekend, everybody!
Labels: productivity

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The List, Item Eight: Make Lists

A bit self-referential, but this item has its supporters.

It's all about organizing your thoughts, people. If you have more than two things to do, write 'em down so you can see what you've got. And then you can see them again after a bout of Twittering. And then you can see them again after you got the first thing done and were deciding what to do next.
Labels: productivity

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7.11.2008

The List, Item Seven: Clean Up

I could tell you my office is spotless. Well, it's not. It is in a constant state of flux between clean and a little, um, overwhelmed.

There are some great tips and sites out there on how to unclutter and clean up your space, so I won't go into the techniques here. But the benefits are enormous. A clean space gets your mind prepared and focused on the task at hand, and makes sure there are no distractions. remember how I told you it was a really bad idea to multitask? Well, your brain is subconsciously multitasking when faced with clutter, even if you are consciously focused on one particular thing.

SO: when you finish one task, pick up the inevitable detritus that it created. And when faced with a mountain of clutter, at least organize it into little piles. It'll at least make your brain think you're cleaned up, right?
Labels: productivity

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7.09.2008

The List, Item Six: Don't Procrastinate

Hmm, you might be wondering why it has been so long since I posted. It wasn't because I was procrastinating. Well, it wasn't because I was procrastinating writing a blog post. It was, however, because I had been putting off a client project that I wasn't really excited about.

I had a bunch of things on my plate, and this one project just kept getting pushed to the bottom of the stack. I can't really say why; it was an exciting project, for a fun client. But it was in an intermediate stage; you know, one of those steps that every project has to go through before it gets done, but also one of those steps that isn't that creative, or that much fun. So that's probably it: I had funner things to do. But if I had looked at my workload objectively, I'd have seen that this thing should be at the top, or at least near the top, of the stack.

But that's the problem. People have a hard time being objective, all the time. Especially when it comes to what they want to spend their time on.

So: I say it to myself with as much conviction as I say it to you: don't procrastinate. You'll feel better in the end. I promise.
Labels: productivity

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7.01.2008

The List, Item Five: Give yourself uninterrupted time to do what you need to do.

I have a friend who is always in a rush. She seems to have about twenty things on her virtual to do list at any given time, and they all have to be done right now. For some folks, this isn't a problem; it's how they operate, no matter how much time you give them, or how limited you make their scope of action, they will always find a lot of htings to do, and try and do them all at once.

The problem with this is that it's really hard to do everything really well when you're doing them all at once. One facet of this is that your tasks aren't given the proper respect, in terms of time and attention; this leads to a poor, or at best, a mediocre, result.

Giving yourself enough time to do what you need to do is important. But how to do it?

My technique isn't new, or unique, but it works: Usually I schedule things too tightly. This goes for running errands, getting to social occasions, and even (gasp) running a project timeline. So, because I am an incorrigible optimist, I overestimate the time it takes me to do certain tasks. This offsets my optimistic viewpoint and brings my task time closer to reality. Worst-case: I have extra time to work on my task, or go to the movies, or take a nap. Sounds like a good solution to me!
Labels: productivity

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6.26.2008

The List, Item Four: Organize (one thing at a time)

Item Four on my dad's esktop list was this:

Organize (one thing at a time).

"Organize" is a pretty loaded word, because it means different things to different people. The dictionary defines it as
"to arrange into a structured whole"; from the latin root "organum", meaning instrument or tool.
Looking at the root is helpful for me, because it breaks down the whole concept of organization into something a little less terrifying. All organization should be is a tool to facilitate getting things done. It shouldn't be something to obsess about, or worry over. It's just like a computer, or a hammer, or a coffeepot. It serves a purpose in your life, and you don't need to dress it up with multiple trips to The Container Store in order to make it work for you (unless, of course, such trips make the experience better for you).

The deeper note that this list item sounds is that dad felt being organized meant doing one thing at a time. Don't multitask. As studies have shown, multitasking actually makes people less productive. Arrange your workspace (physical and mental) to deal with just one thing at a time. For a lot of folks, that means actually having a (relatively) clean space in front of you, where any relevant materials related to the One Thing You Are Working On can reside. And it helps me to shut down e-mail for a while, or at least close the mail application window. Other than that, for me anyhow, I don't need much else. What helps you to be organized to deal with just one thing at a time?

Labels: productivity

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6.25.2008

The List, Item Three: Delegate (But not just the Unpleasant Things)

Once you have minions, it's only natural to want to give them all the scut-work. But if you want loyal minions, well, then you have to treat them well. And that means giving them something other than scut-work to do.

I found (as a minion myself) that the best way to learn is by doing. And the best bosses let you do the things that you wanted to learn. Sure,m you don't always do it right the first time. And sure, it takes more supervision by the boss to make sure it gets done right, at least eventually. But the act of doing, and letting it be done, grows confidence in two directions. The doer gains confidence by successfully learning a task, and the boss gains confidence in the employee. Win-win. But if you are a control freak (designers, I am looking at you!) then it's hard to let go of anything. But it's necessary if you want a team you can rely on.

Of course, by delegating, you have the added benefit of gaining time to work on other tasks (bringing in more business, doing higher-paying tasks for clients, having a three-martini lunch).

So: delegate stuff. And make sure there's some fun, challenging stuff in there. It's one of the best ways to make your design team more successful.
Labels: productivity

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6.24.2008

The List, Item Two: Say No when You Have To.

This one is hard, especially if you're hungry for opportunities to do every new thing that comes around. Or if you need the cash. Or if you want to keep everyone happy. But Saying "NO" is just as important a task as saying "YES".

Saying "no" when you have to allows you to get the stuff that's already on your plate done. No nagging distraction of the bright shiny new thing/problem/issue/project to distract you; if you're like me, saying yes to new things in the middle of an ongoing slog of a project is a wonderfully sly form of procrastination: how could you be shirking work when you just committed to a whole additional project, you know? But all you've really done is add something to The Pile, as we call it here. And The Pile is not something we like to keep around for very long, because all it does is bring us down. Because if it's in The Pile, it's not getting done. Which has the added non-benefit of really pissing off whomever asked you to do it in the first place.

So: say no when you have to, and you'll keep yourself--and your clients and your fellow workers happier.
Labels: productivity

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6.20.2008

The List, Item One: Do the Unpleasant Stuff First

These posts aren't specifically design-related, but they do speak to a working methodology that I have learned a lot from: my dad's. He had a list in his office that served as a set of guidelines for how to get things done quickly, efficiently, and well. I have no idea if he came up with it himself, or if he got it from somewhere else (although I suspect it might be a mix of the two), but having tried out The List on my own, it certainly has helped. So I wanted to share it with you.

The first thing on the list: Do the unpleasant stuff first.

There are several advantages of tackling the things that really make you cringe right off the bat. The best thing about it is that you get it done, it's out of the way, and you can now focus on things that you are more excited about. And a lot of times, if you do that Unpleasant Thing, you find that it wasn't so bad, after all. In most cases, what's the worst that could happen? Someone getting mad at you? Be disappointed in you? I'm not discounting these things as being bad--because in some contexts, they really can sting--but as they say in the old world, "you've still got your health, right?"

What this rule does for me is it forces me to look at my list of Stuff To Do and find that one thing that I would otherwise weave my way around until there was nothing else on that list to do....and then I'd probably make a new list with a bunch of other stuff on it in order to keep avoiding doing That Thing.

The problem is, That Thing would still be there. And it's not going away. The worst case scenario is that it's actually getting worse, just like an untreated wound festers without proper attention. So you need to get up out of your comfy chair and deal with it. Ideally, you'll get the most unwanted item off your plate, and lighten your work- and psychic loads. And even in the worst of all worlds--hey, at least you won't have it hanging off your shoulder like the proverbial albatross. Forever.
Labels: performance, productivity, ROI, work

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6.05.2008

Planning the shed--er, the office.

I met with my wonderful architect Liz Biondi today to flesh out our plans for my backyard work oasis, where I plan on moving the Notchcode offices as soon as timer, construction labor, and money permits. After our first meeting where Liz had asked a lot of great questions about what I wanted in a workspace/relaxing space (because any creative process requires a certain amount of room to breathe, so to speak), Liz drew up a plan that I really liked.

The only problem was that we'd have to pull in another water tap, a sewer tap, and potentially a gas line...three items that are budget-busters. So today we looked at a smaller space (although it's still around 400 square feet...not exactly a tiny space) that nixed the bathroom and hard-plumbed coffee bar (but we're still gonna have fine coffee beverages there, because otherwise I would be unable to function in any meaningful capacity).

Some highlights (besides the coffee bar, of course): good north light, passive (and possibly active) solar, all the server/printer/storage enclosed and out of the way, guest accommodations, room for 2-3 worker bees, and a space set aside for the enormous Argus light table I plan on prying out of the hands of one of my printers, since they aren't doing as much stripping as they used to.

Plans will be posted here as they become available. I want to share my experience with the rest of the design and home-working universe and get feedback from you all to make this the best creative space it can be!
Labels: architecture, productivity, work

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5.13.2008

Repost from the desert: Hand-crafted HTML

Now, all serious beer drinkers I know prefer homebrewed beer to Duff. A more hands-on experience in creating the product results in a product that has more character, more personality, and a betterness that is hard to describe; but you know it when you see it (or taste it, in this case). In our second repost from the desert, I talk about how and why hand-coded HTML is better than what you get from a machine, like an HTML layout program (Dreamweaver, and especially FrontPage, I'm looking at you!). This post originally appeared in March 2005. Enjoy. Meantime, I am going to go out to the pool.

Here it is:

I spent the better part of this afternoon doing web production on a medium-sized site due to go live in a few weeks, so I thought I'd talk a little bit about how I like to work.

Now, there are many decent, hard-working web page composition programs out there, most notably Dreamweaver; and I have used them extensively...in the past. But I've come to the conculsion that for 90 percent of all HTML, XHTML, CSS, XML, PHP, and other acronymed web development work, I prefer to code by hand.

Old School!

Why? Well, once you learn the syntax, it's quicker. Trust me! And it allows you to create fast, clean code, without many of the pitfalls and extraneous bits that GUI-based programs like Dreamweaver can place into your pages without your knowledge. Anyone who has ever waded through Microsoft FrontPage-created webpage code will know what I am talking about.

Pretty much any text editor will do--even Microsoft Word, in a pinch--but I prefer BareBones Software's BBEdit. It's long been the de-facto standard in programming text editors, especially for web code writers. Why? Well, it's no-frills, function-specific approach to its interface is a big selling point.

And it is very user-friendly.

Case-in-point: it color-codes your code so you know if you are looking at an image source element, or a formatting element, or actual content, for example. Their motto: "It doesn't suck", says it all.

Yes, yes, Dreamweaver has a "code view" mode, so you can see the code as you mess about in GUI mode, but BBEdit also has a Preview mode, which allows you to see things as the browser will display them, so that arguement is a wash.

It comes down to this:

did you grow up in the age of learning BASIC in school?

Were you amazed when you found out that you could upgrade from a VIC-20 to a Commodore 64 and get all that extra processing power?

Did you make ASCII art with your dot-matrix printer?

If so, you will prefer to code by hand. If not, you will probably prefer something like Dreamweaver.

Not that I'm judging you.

So if you really want to understand what this web thing is all about, look at some of your favorite webpages using "View Source", borrow a copy of O'Reilly's HTML & XHTML: The Definitive Guide, and learn something new! Trust me, you'll love it!
Labels: coding, productivity, W3C, XHTML

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3.31.2008

Who Works Late?

My guess is: everyone.

Is working late the norm for you, or is it at least expected of you? I only ask because on my Basecamp site I notice a lot of clients--clients with different backgrounds, working in different industries--post responses far outside the normal "9-to-5" working hours. Most of the late--or early--posters are either in non-profit, internet-based, or startup businesses, but even some _governmental_ folks work odd hours.

What is your work schedule like? And do you work those hours because you are expected to, because you are more creative then, or because you get more done? Or is it just insomnia?

For me I simply have more time to do really creative work; I have always been on more of a musician's schedule (due to formative years spent in coffeehouses, sketching, I think) and so there's simply more creativity for design, even photography, late in the evening.

photo: Late Nights by djloche
Labels: creativity, productivity

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11.20.2007

iterative

Have you taken your design at least one step past where you feel comfortable with it today?

Iteration: it works.
Labels: advice, creativity, design, productivity

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1.04.2007

Bright and Shiny

It's another spin around the sun, folks. Here are some things that will make it a more productive and enjoyable one:

OmniGraffle. This graphical diagramming tool is a real boon to anyone who needs to visualize a complex process, system, or flow of information. Say, a website, for example. And not only that, you can create wireframe prototypes (that actually work) with them, courtesy of Michael Angeles of urlgreyhot (which is one of the most inventive web development names I've come across in the last 12 months).

Lists. Yeah, baby. As sexy as ever, make some lists. Get it off your mind, onto paper, and then look at the damn things on a regular basis. The bonus: when you cross stuff off of a list, you feel good...sort of like laughing at a good joke. Or imbibing rare Tortolan rum. Or, whatever makes you feel good. If you really need help making a list, go get one of David Allen's books, or just buy a stack of index cards and a binder clip, and get going.

Personal Days. Use them or lose your soul, bit by bit. I would recommend a day spent with the phone and computer off, perhaps waiting until everyone else has left the house to get out of bed, followed by an hour or so at the coffeehouse, with another hour in a bookstore. Then lunch, a hike, and happy hour with some friends, who will undoubtedly pour your beer all over your head when you tell them what you were doing while they were working on their TPS reports.

Smile. Corny, I know. But it makes you feel good, and makes others around you feel good, too.

That's all the advice I am willing to give, in the context of starting a new year. Let me know how it works out. As for me, I am going to go take a nap. And then get back to work on those TPS reports.
Labels: 2007, advice, new year, omnigraffle, productivity, work

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