Because of its recent return to my working methodology, I want to take a moment to single out a very low-tech web working tool for praise. I’m talking about the sketchbook, that handy little tome in which we can capture and generate some of our best ideas. Not to be confused with the writer’s notebook, mind you, which is a great tool, too, but a different kind of beast.
The sketchbook is a free space for your ideas to play, unbound by lines and ruled margins. It’s a laboratory, a playground, a testing facility and a sounding board. And perhaps best of all, it requires no batteries and can go pretty much anywhere you do. Here’s why I love mine so much, and why any web worker would do well to have their own on hand. Read the rest of this entry »
Some big news yesterday was the announcement of the Bing/Twitter/Facebook deals that will see the three services sharing info and working together in all kinds of interesting ways. One of those ways has now gone live, and it’s Microsoft’s Bing Twitter search. It looks a little like Twitter Search, only better, and much more broadly useful.
What do I mean by that? Well, for one, you have Twitter’s trending topics, but more than the 10 you normally see, and they’re arranged in a tag cloud. I also noticed that some from the official Twitter search page aren’t actually present, but it looks like it’s cut out the hashtagged, frivolous stuff, and left the more meaty subjects. Read the rest of this entry »
Web apps, computers and smartphones are all key tools in my web working arsenal, but using only those things alone, I doubt I’d ever get anything done at all. Instead, to help boost my productivity, I supplement the obvious utilities and devices with some perhaps unexpected ones, upon which my sanity largely depends. Read the rest of this entry »
Web forms can be complicated or they can be easy. For a while now, FormSpring has been in the business of making it easier for those of us who might not have a programming background or the patience to take on the daunting task of coding one from scratch.
FormSpring now has one more feature to recommend it, and it’s a big one for web workers: extensive third-party integrations. Using said integrations, you can now use any form you create in FormSpring with a laundry list of web apps that many readers of this blog will immediately recognize.
I want to take a look first at what FormSpring offers as a forms creation suite, and then go into a little more detail about the new third-party integration feature. Read the rest of this entry »
Sometimes I wonder if it’s just me, but I think it’s fair to say that a widely-experienced byproduct of social media engagement is social media disengagement. I’ve encountered it in BBS’s, forums, message boards, with IM clients, on MySpace, Facebook, and now, most recently, on Twitter. I was exasperated with FriendFeed before I even gave it a proper try, though it looks like I’ll have a second chance now that Facebook’s acquired it and will probably be integrating some of its features. It’s not that there’s anything inherently wrong with any of the services themselves, it’s just that my attention span is fleeting and their novelty wears off quickly.
When the honeymoon is over, I’m left with a well-developed network of connections, but little desire to interact with said connections, or even to find out about updates and changes to features of the service in question. At some point, it’s probably a good idea to throw off the obligations of the old in favor of the new flavor of the month, but disengaging with a social media site before it’s the right time to put it out to pasture could result in hurt friendships, burnt bridges and missed opportunities. Read the rest of this entry »
I came across an idea about keeping a one-sentence journal to improve happiness, and thought they could be helpful for improving my business, too.
I’m very intimidated by the thought of keeping a personal journal. I’ve tried to do it many times, but I can never keep it up. I always end up with a lot of (nearly) blank notebooks and journals lying around.
The one-sentence journal concept seems a lot more manageable and possibly even more helpful, at least in one sense. When I have kept a journal for any length of time, I don’t really go back through it, but it would be quite easy to flip through a one-sentence journal for ideas and inspiration. (Plus, it provides an excuse to buy several of those tiny journals in a variety of styles or colors.) Read the rest of this entry »
When it comes to promotion, the two biggest problems for most small business owners are effective planning and maintaining a consistent marketing effort. After what seems like a lot of effort attempting to drum up new business, it’s easy to get discouraged when you aren’t seeing results. But with the right lead generation plan and some helpful tools, you’ll find your efforts will pay dividends.
Set Up Your Plan
First, you have to take the time to carefully consider your options for marketing and promoting your business, rather than just taking a scattergun approach. Read the rest of this entry »
I use a lot of Google’s applications to stay organized and productive, but I’m especially fond of Gmail. In its standard form, it’s a fine email client that makes it easy to stay on top of that mountain of email, but with a little customization you can use it to become even more efficient. Here are six super ways to send Gmail into productivity overdrive.
1: Enable super stars.
You know how Gmail has the standard Gmail star, enabling you to highlight certain emails in your mailbox? Now you can make it a super star! Enable Superstars within Labs (found in “Settings”). Once enabled, you can select the super stars you’d like to use by dragging and dropping them within the “General” tab under “Settings.”
Web Work 101: How To Escape The Cubicle
