Stuff I Love is sort of like Oprah’s Favorite Things without the freebies (sorry). This is part 1 in a multi-part series, we’ll post the next one when we have more stuff we love.

Freshbooks

I love Freshbooks because they took the mundane but necessary task of accounting and made it fun and simple. I tested a number of accounting/invoicing systems and before we decided on Freshbooks—I think they nailed it. Freshbooks provides the right amount of features for the right price. Xero was also a great system with a gorgeous GUI, but it was overkill when it came to the needs of our business.Ballpark and The Invoice Machine are elegant solutions, but a little overly simplistic for us. We wanted the ability to run a variety of reports and Freshbooks had a bunch of options. If you decide to try it out, use this sticker below so I get the credit!

Basecamp

Project Management is a major part of my daily work and it is critical that the entire team is on the same page, including the client. Over the years I tested many project management tools including ones that have to be installed on the server, however, nothing comes close to the simplicity and intuitiveness of Basecamp. In fact, I’ve been using Basecamp for over 4 years and are still just as happy with it as the day we signed up. And since it lives in the cloud, they are always making updates and enhancements to the service. If you’ve never used it, take it for a spin below and see what you think.

Website Grader

Have you ever wondered how well your website is doing or if it is search engine friendly? Website Grader from HubSpot offers a great tool that allows you to run a report on your website. It gives you key information regarding your page’s title tags, metadata, alt tags, and more. I ran this on our website a couple years ago and learned a lot about what we were doing wrong. I even use it to help our clients understand how they can make their websites more effective. Click here to try out the demo version.

I have many more things I love, however, I also love my work and must get back to my clients. Feel free to tell me about the things you love and I’ll check them out. Until next time…

Today we have so many potential distractions like Facebook and Twitter, it’s easy to lose track of time and get caught up in reading posts or tweets. Even e-mail can be a “time suck” if it’s not used with discipline.

I decided to start a little experiment and track my entire day for two weeks in 15 minute blocks. This may seem granular, but what I want to find out is how much time all of those “little distractions” actually accumulate to. I have a suspicion that the sum total will be pretty high until I become more self aware of my tasks.

I also want to hear how others keep track of time? What tools or tactics do you use to stay on task? I’m providing the Time Use Matrix that I’ll be using for the next two weeks for those interested in also doing the experiment with me. I’m interested in hearing about your experience with it and if it helped or hindered you.

Previously, I wrote about Rules and Productivity which are core components to my how I feel about time management. Feel free to read those if you want to see where I’m coming from.

I will post my results after two weeks.

Good luck!

Download the Matrix Here:

time-use-matrix.xlsx

Another reason for sharing this with you is to help me organize my process and document it. It’s as much as a journal of my thoughts as it is a guide for you.

I once read the saying that went something like this: “A plan is God’s idea of a practical joke”. While I agree that you cannot predict or plan everything, no plan is planning to fail. More importantly, planning helps set my expectations for the year and becomes a great analytical tool that I can review and tweak as I go.

So let’s dive in, in no particular order:

Goal Planning 2010

1. Better Reporting: For the last couple years I wanted to move into a more thorough accounting system, one that I can access anywhere, anytime. After spending a ton of time researching different solutions, I settled on Xero, a fairly comprehensive, web-based accounting system that will allow me to view create invoices, track payments, and performs all of the functions your standard accounting package does. What I really liked about Xero was the ability to do reporting. If I wanted to see what percentage of my business was Web Design or Logo Design, I can easily run the report. Sure, I can do this in Excel, but why? For 2010, I will have better reporting. I will know how many clients I have, what projects have the longest payment milestones, which projects are most profitable, and more.
2. New Web Site: This year I’m overhauling the studio 22 design web site. My goal in the redesign is two-fold; provide a better experience for the visitor and make it easier to maintain for me. The most important area to redesign was my portfolio. I didn’t like that you couldn’t dynamically sort the portfolio by project type. This was an important feature as clients always asked me to see work relevant to their project. I wanted this to be easy for them, so I added in a JQuery script that allows dynamic filtering of the projects. It’s a slick feature that is actually quite usable. Another area I’m improving is my contact section. Currently, you have to click on contact to get phone, email, etc… The new site will have the contact info dedicated to the footer of each page including project form, newsletter signup, email, and social media links. This satisfies my goal providing better communications with my clients as well as more ways to connect.
3. Social Media: The jury is still out on how this will improve my business, but at the most basic level it will help me to interact with my clients, current and potential. And although best practices are still evolving, there is no question that it helps with branding and communications. I’m keeping an eye on this in 2010 and may do a more aggressive push in social media, but probably not until Q2.
4. New Clients: I have a very short and very specific list of potential clients I intend to convert to clients this year. Basically, my goal is to convert 3 out of 5 before 2011. These are big, bold organizations that I have a personal interest in and who, I believe, I can offer a great deal of value to. The benefit of having a short list is that it forces me to focus on making connections and building relationships rather than cold calling.

These are just a few select areas of my goal planning for 2010. Other areas include financial, new revenue sources, and scheduling goals which I’m still working on.

What’s included in your goal planning in 2010?

See, ropes saved Indy's life!

When I was in middle school, my science teacher (Mr. Miller, the best teacher ever) once gave the class the following analogy: “Rules are like ropes on a wooden plank bridge, without the ropes you have to walk slowly and carefully, maybe even crawl. There is no goofing around without ropes. With ropes, you can enjoy your walk, hang over the edge, spit, throw pennies at the alligators, etc…” What he was trying to say was that rules may seem burdensome at times, but they also allow you to be more flexible.

As a business owner, I understand how easy it is to forego the rules and and take things on as they come. But over the years I’ve realized that rules can be a tool to help you achieve your business goals.

Now, when I talk about “rules” I’m not talking about external rules like paying your taxes, or NOT WRITING IN ALL CAPS. I’m talking about generating your own rules for business success. Here’s an example of rules I use for my communications:

COMMUNICATION

1. Follow Up: we will follow up with all clients and prospects within 24 hours
2. E-Mail: we check e-mail only twice daily, 10am and 4pm (see why)
3. Meetings: participate in meetings only when it’s essential that you be there or where actual decisions are going to be made.

The above is just a small sample of some of the rules I’ve set for how I communicate. I have other rules for project management, project processes, and starting and ending the work day amongst others. I’m currently working on rules for my social media communications.

Some of these rules may seem nit-picky, but they are all important and all tied in directly with my business goals. It’s about achieving more with less (which is not so abstract considering our current economic conditions) and being efficient and effective at the same time.

What are some of the rules you have for yourself, for your business? I’d love to hear other ideas.

Remember the movie Short Circuit from the mid-80’s? An experimental robot (#5) gets electrocuted and becomes “intelligent”. It escapes from the Army base where it was designed and instead of destroying everything in its path, it looks for “inputs”. “Number 5 needs more inpuuuuts!”

Often times we focus on inputs. We read far more than we write. We watch far more YouTube videos than we upload. And we read more tweets than we post. Most of us probably fall into the 80/20 camp—80% inputs, 20% outputs (or worse!).

What if we all were to up or outputs by 10%, so 70/30? Or more?

If we focused on what we output rather than what we consume, then we are better participants, right? Think about the areas in your life were you can up your participation by 10%. Your blog, your school, your business, your social network, your friends, and your family.

If you want to make a difference, maybe you can focus more on your outputs while being more selective about your inputs?

I’m not totally sure why I get so darned excited about a magazine, but I have a hunch it has to do with the challenge. The challenge of creating something new. The magazine inspires me to create. What else can you immediately take action on no matter what time of day it is?

With food, the possibilities are endless. You can mix this with that, add a little more this…give it a little taste, add a bit more that. It’s chemistry without a Ph.D or fear of burns on 80% of your body (unless we are talking deep-fried turkey, but that is another topic).

Unlike graphic design, where you have to constantly be thinking about outcomes, cooking allows you to set your mind on auto-pilot and be 100% creative without fear of failure. Sure, if you don’t pay attention you may have a fallen soufflé on your hands, but that is it. You can start over and learn about what you did wrong (“Ah, it called for 3 egg yolks”!).

I’m writing this not because you need to know that I love to cook (and I really do!). I’m writing this because some of the lessons of cooking can be applied to everyday life and business:

Patience

Especially with baking, patience is critical. If the cake takes an hour to bake, it takes an hour to bake. You can’t turn up the heat to 500° and bake it in 15 minutes. To get it fluffy and moist, carbon dioxide has to be released. If you rush it, this reaction will not occur and you’ll have a nice stepping stone for your garden. The lesson here is wait for things to naturally occur to get the expected outcome. Don’t rush things into failure.

Recipes are meant to be rewritten

A recipe is a guideline, not a rule. Recipes are foundations which you can build upon. If you want your mousse to be more chocolate-y, add more chocolate. Better yet, add some cayenne pepper and go Aztec. In business, don’t feel like you have to conform to the status quo, in fact, you should stray away from it as much as possible if you want to stand out (and who doesn’t want to stand out?). Use basic principals and build out from there.

Use the best quality ingredients

It’s a fact, you will spend more on great quality ingredients. But why would you not buy the best? Why would you rub baby back ribs with poor quality or worse, old paprika? Why would you use imitation vanilla in your crème brûlée just to save a buck or two? Poor ingredients (or even one poor ingredient) is the kiss of death to food. Same is true for business. I’ve seen it. One bad “ingredient” can ruin and entire office. Hire people based on the quality of their “ingredients”—what’s inside, not their cost or even their experience (which can be misleading). Build teams on complimentary and even contrasting flavors and textures not homogenous view points.

Control thy temperature

One of the most important aspects of cooking is temperature control! Ribs are smoked “low-n-slow” to allow for the smoke flavor to permeate the meat and to prevent the proteins from binding too quickly (ie: stringy and tough!). We all know that when we lose control, or worry, or make decisions based on stress that we usually make poor decisions despite having the best intentions. The lesson here is to turn down the temp and slow down. Make important decisions after you’ve cooled down and relaxed. Let the positive thoughts permeate your important decisions.

Time to get back in the kitchen for me—I have more analogies to cook up.

Working 9-5 or any other similar schedule is the norm in America. It’s when America wakes up and when America comes home. It’s also happens to be the worst time of day  to be productive. Here’s why:

Traffic: Everyone needs the roadway, subway, train, or bus at the same time everyday. These are peak commute hours that cause frustration and anxiety in our culture. Look how people drive in the morning and afternoon Monday thru Friday and compare that to 1:00pm on the weekend. It’s shocking. See if you can start earlier and leave earlier to avoid the congestion. If you work from home try not to schedule meetings before 10:00am or after 2:00pm, if you do, you’ll quickly realize why you love working from home.

Noise: If you work in an office environment you are probably constantly dealing with distractions and interruptions including phone and e-mail. If you need get things done, work from home and come in late. The last thing you need is to hear about what an awful weekend your co-worker had.

Jet-stream: I like to stay, “Don’t get caught in someone else’s jet-stream, get up early and get in your own”. This is one of the most important lessons I’ve learned. It’s crucial to create your own momentum every day. Sometimes it means getting up early before everyone else and doing what’s important to you. This is your jet-stream and because you’re at 40,000 feet and moving at mach 2+, no one can pull you out of it! Set your morning goals the night before so you can jump right in come morning.

E-mail: A lot of people have written great articles about the problems with e-mail today and how to simplify your usage. We all know the problems of e-mail and its over-usage and inefficiency, but the problems go deeper. Many of us rely on e-mail to set our schedule for the day. We sit idle until a “fire” breaks out and then we have our marching orders for the day. It sets the tone and usually in a negative way. The solution is simple but takes a lot of discipline: Check e-mail only twice a day. I check it at around 11:00am and 4:00pm and that is it. No longer am I marching to someone else’s beat, I have my own jet-stream and I’m not going to let an early morning e-mail pull me out of it. I will write more about this topic in future post as it is one of the more critical elements and designing your work day.

Turn Filters On: I’ve been a big advocate for limiting your information intake everyday. This also took at lot of discipline at first but also paid huge dividends as far as time-savings. Here is what I don’t do anymore: I don’t read the newspapers or watch evening or local news. Most local news is very negative and almost 100% of it is sensationalized and not important to my day-to-day life. I’ll spend 5 minutes skimming the major headlines and that is it. I very rarely read a news article unless it’s related to my business, and guess what, “the world spins madly on”! I have only three magazine subscriptions; one business (Fast Company), one trade (Graphic Design), one pleasure (Gourmet). By limiting your daily information intake, you can keep more focused on what is important. Don’t worry about missing something, someone will tell you if a meteor is falling towards earth. Then again, maybe it’s better that you don’t know?

Chill Sessions: Get out of your work environment at least once a day. It can be hard during the 9-5 schedule to take some time to chill and recharge your batteries, but it is essential. Go grab a coffee (without work people) and while you’re at it. put the headphones on and listen to your favorite “chill” music (more on chill music in a future post). This 15 minute break will do wonders for your mind and spirit. It’s a free restart without having to go to sleep.

Avoid Debbie Downers: Remember the co-worker who has to tell you about how awful her weekend was or about how her boss is treating her? Stay away! These people are vampires and love sucking the good energy out of us to help raise their meters. Don’t let it happen. If you do get blind-sided by one of them, tell them you have a meeting or phone call and you can catch up with them later. Remember, don’t allow people to get up in your jet-stream.