The revolution

15 years ago a revolution started in people’s homes. Practically overnight, it began to shape their daily lives, remove any hope of a spare half hour, and transform public holidays into an excellent excuse to buy a laser-guided circular saw and use it to open baked bean cans.

I am, of course, referring to the international superbug called “home improvement” which seems to have infected us all like a sad kind of collective sniffle.

The woodchip blues

There is a dark well of irony to be found in dedicating every free hour to stripping 40 square metres of woodchip wallpaper, only to replace it with something much more ‘fashionable’; in our house, this means endless reams of fearsome black birds, every last one of which would perch more comfortably in a celluloid aviary from Alfred Hitchcock.

Personal feelings about wallpaper fashions aside, many of us continue to delight in refining our warped interior visions and in tweaking our living spaces, forever terrified that a fussy friend may shriek in disgust at the light fixing in the coat cupboard that we’ve neglected to ‘update’ since last Wednesday, when — between the hours of seven and eleven only — Tiffany shades were once again in vogue.

Worse still is the unique breed of man who always seems to possess more power tools than me. “What do you mean you don’t own an angle grinder?” he’ll say.  ”It’s no wonder your taps are dripping.” Bemused and dejected, I’ll slink into a corner and search for the meaning of life in a discarded Rawlplug, while Mr Tool Guy thumbs excitedly through a copy of Arc Welders Weekly, blinded by the superheated air of promise at the thought of joining two bits of discarded metal together.

The joy of the new

Silliness aside, when the sawdust settles and the off-white paint finally dries, the results are often glorious: our homes are transformed from their dingy grottoes of yesteryear and we can rest at last, content that, while we may have spent tens of thousands on ‘improvements’ and are still not sure about the purple cushions, at least the people we sell the house to will writhe in sweet ecstasy at the prospect of ripping it all down and starting again.

So why does the simple cyclic act of redecoration cause such addiction and create such contentment? Without even looking, I found answers in the words of the late Oscar Wilde, delivered in a podcast by the great Stephen Fry.

Ugly wallpaper

On a visit to the USA in the 19th century, not long after The American Civil War, Oscar Wilde was asked why he thought America was so violent:

“I can tell you exactly why,” he said. “It’s because your wallpaper is so ugly.”

While many would venture that this was a pretentious remark from a man who wore velvet with an air of unholy abandon, Stephen Fry advises otherwise. In his third podgram, he suggests that Wilde was hinting at something more:

“If you’re someone who is surrounded by badly made, ugly things, then you think ugly thoughts of yourself and the world; you think ugly thoughts of your whole species. There is nothing for you to do to but to crap in your own nest. It’s what we do when we don’t believe in ourselves.”

Crapping in the corporate nest

And so, we come to the point:

The idea that our environment shapes our health, happiness, and our quality of life is not a new one, but the desire to decorate our surroundings seems to have fallen short of the dull grey walls of the workplace. While our homes have undergone a radical revamp and our neighbourhoods are blessed with gentle gentrification, our office environments haven’t changed much for 30 years.

Today, most of us are putting up with badly designed, ugly excuses for working spaces. And yet, many of them stable us for our entire adult lives. In accepting the sad, dull, boxed-in offices — the workplace woodchip, if you will — we’re crapping in our own corporate nests. It’s affecting our health, personal wellbeing, and job satisfaction, and it’s about bloody time for a change.

Deliver us from woodchip

I’m not suggesting that repainting your office alone is enough to transform your working life and make you fall in love with you job, but, for heaven’s sake, it couldn’t do much harm. If home improvement can transform our lives and build a thousand supporting micro-industries, imagine what “work improvement” could do for us all. How about an office that perked you up instead of put you down; bosses who cheer instead of chastise?

Over the next few weeks, I’ll be mixing in some hints and tips to start a workplace revolution, using examples from companies and small businesses who are already free of the dreary workplace woodchip: the cubicles and other hopeless clichés. You’ll see how it’s changed the way they work and how it’s made some of them fall in love with their jobs again. You’ll also get some tips for talking your way around difficult bosses or budgets. 

Whether you work at home or in a corporate megaplex, I’ve got something lined up for you that will boost your productivity and happiness, so subscribe for free and see you again soon.

If you’ve ever fantasised about hiring a sorcerer to magic your home or office into shape, but were put off by the perfectly valid concern of waking up with three noses in a bed full of rabbits, then this group test of personal outsourcing options is for you.

Outsourcery: magic without the bunnies

The days when outsourcery required an old crone with a cauldron are over. There are now hundreds of affordable personal assistants scattered across the Web, each offering to manage your email, spy on your competition, or update your Facebook profile to help you feign a social life.

So, if you’re looking to hire virtual help, where on Earth do you start? Most people who need a virtual assistant don’t have the free hours to test some. In an effort to save your sanity, I’ve subjected myself to the ordeal of trying three popular choices side-by-side.

Before we start the group test, a quick note about why you might consider personal outsourcing by hiring a virtual assistant in the first place.

Why hire help?

If you want to work smarter instead of harder it makes sense to hire help. With a virtual assistant you need never worry about long-term contracts, renting an office, or struggling with the dismal idea of paying a fortune for your drinking water, only to house it in a miniature plastic temple five steps from the dripping tap in the staff kitchen: a sad offering to the ever-grinning gods of irony and small pointless artifacts.

Whether you’d like to rustle up the email addresses for the world’s top literary agents, reserve meeting rooms and restaurant tables, submit your website to the hottest 20 blog networks, or outsource your online dating, having a virtual assistant on hand can be invaluable. If you’d like some more ideas about how to use virtual assistants, the websites of the three corporations below all feature samples of the requests they receive.

LongerDays vs GetFriday vs AskSunday

I chose three popular companies who provide full admin and one-off project support, each with a one month rolling contract ranging from light use to full-time assistance.

This test is completely impartial. Like all the reviews on this site, I don’t get paid in cash or credit if you sign up with anyone. It’s not a great business model, but it is the only honest way to do it, and I hope that it makes my thoughts all the more valuable to you.

LongerDays: perfect all-round support

Good

• Friendly and personal service.
• Attentive and enthusiastic staff.
• Billed by the minute with accurate timekeeping.
• Mac and PC literate (specify your preferences on sign-up).
• Discounted rates for education and non-profit users.
• Take an active interest in you and your business.
• Have an in-house graphic designer ready for your requests.

Not so good

• Working in Eastern US time only (UTC-4) may be an issue for some non-US users.
• Would be nice to see a simple figure showing the time remaining on your account in the web-based admin panel, although a detailed timesheet is kept up to date in the same secure login area.

My LongerDays requests

1. “Please spend 2-3 hours researching the competition in the WordPress themes marketplace.” [SUCCESS: I received a detailed list of information as Mac Pages and Numbers documents, which helped us set our prices and features when we launched WordPrezzie.]
2. “Kindly create a spreadsheet showing the number of Todoodlist ebook sales per day, week, and month based on the data in my PayPal and e-junkie accounts, including the percentage of direct sales, affiliate sales, and ad-driven sales. Please update it every Friday for me.” [SUCCESS: I received a well-thought-out spreadsheet containing my sales information, and I’ve since used it to help me track and boost my income.]
3. “Please research working hours around the world and create two charts: one showing the average working week from around 1997 to the latest data, and another showing the average hours worked per week in 2006 around the world. Keep the style simple and colourful.” [SUCCESS: LongerDays trawled through some very complex data from four separate sources and compiled it into two graphics I'm aiming to make use of in a future post.]
4. “Please submit Put Things Off to the top 20 CSS and website design showcases.” [SUCCESS: A burst of traffic, links and subscribers within a week.]

AskSunday: don’t sweat the small stuff

Good

• Great for quick tasks like restaurant booking, reminders by phone, and simple research chores.
• Only company of the three to offer a courier service within New York City (Manhattan only), extending virtual assistance to physical help too. Would be great to see this rolled out further afield.
• Only true around the clock worldwide service in this group test.

Not so good

• Main assistants and “project team” are in separate offices, requiring you to contact a different team to handle jobs that take more than 20 minutes.
• Company appears set up to handle large quantities of small requests: great for busy socialites and high-fliers, but not so hot for the average user, who would probably rather book their own dinner reservations and airline tickets and save $17 a month.
• I was uncomfortable with the idea of having 10 requests of up to 20 minutes a month, instead of having 200 minutes to spend how you please. A request is currently billed at 20 minutes whether it takes 19 or three. If you pay $17 a month for 10 small jobs taking three minutes each, the effective hourly rate jumps to $34 ,which is suddenly much less of a bargain, and is sure to dissuade the more wisely economical.

Signup page and plan info

Sign up with AskSunday here: https://www.asksunday.com/signup/

My AskSunday requests

1. “Please spend 2-3 hours researching the competition in the WordPress themes marketplace.” [FAIL: I sent this to the projects department and never heard back. SUCCESS: AskSunday have recently contacted me with a copy of the completed Excel and Word files they sent to me shortly after my request to their project team; both are detailed and very useful. My apologies for misreporting that I'd never heard from them; more likely that I never saw their return message due to Gmail's aggressive spam filters!]
2. “Please book a table for 4 at [Lovely Little Local Restaurant] at around 7:30pm on Friday” [SUCCESS: Restaurant was booked at 7:30pm. It's normally very hard to get through to them, so I was pleased.]
3. “Kindly find the cheapest online source for these 8 books including delivery to my home address.” [SUCCESS: Full price including shipping and links were reported. Couldn't find it cheaper elsewhere myself. One book was reported out of stock. Great attention to detail.]

GetFriday: victims of their own success?

Good

• Come recommended by Timothy Ferriss in The 4-Hour Workweek
• Their parent company, Your Man in India, has been providing VA services since 2000.
• Offer speciality services such as paralegal support

Not so good

• Come recommended by Timothy Ferriss in The 4-Hour Workweek (result: they’ve got more new customers than they can handle)
• Slower response to emails than the others in this test
• Frustrating “gatekeeper-style” sign-up: no online joining process.
• Signup security is questionable, as they currently ask you to print out a membership form, fill in your address, personal data, and credit card details, and fax it back. I’d prefer to see a secure online signup process with card details processed by a third party.

Signup page

Sign up with GetFriday here: https://getfriday.com/inquiry.htm

My GetFriday experience

I didn’t sign up with GetFriday due to my own security concerns and frustration with the delay between responses. I dropped a note to the owners to offer my thoughts, and was told that they aim to have a secure online signup option available before the end of the year, which would make them a more attractive option for many if they can also overcome their current scaling problems.

Put Things Off recommends

I recommend LongerDays above the rest for their attention to detail, quality results, and for bringing a friendly face to a faceless service. Their free report on how to use virtual assistants (download it here) had me hooked from the start, and their service feels far more personal and focussed than the alternatives I tested.

While AskSunday were helpful for smaller jobs, I felt uncomfortable with the 20 minute limit they impose on their requests, and would prefer to have 200 minutes to be split as I choose, with a single point of contact for all projects — big or small. That said, they’re a very competitive option for those with a large number of small requests, and some may even prefer having a dedicated team for their more time-consuming projects.

If you’ve only got time to try one company out, sign up for a trial with LongerDays here.

Final notes and advice

Here are some other titbits to mentally chew on as you dabble with personal assistants.

Security

All the sites I’ve listed have their own pages detailing the security measures they take. I think it’s important that you evaluate these for yourself; your personal security is in your hands. If you don’t feel comfortable with a company having your card details on file to make one-off purchases at your request, don’t hand them over and handle your shopping yourself. Likewise, you may be perfectly comfortable with sending your credit card details by fax; as ever, please use your own judgement.

Request format

The way you present your initial requests will have a large effect on the results you get back. It may help to ask the company how they prefer your requests to be made. LongerDays were the only one to offer this information without me having to ask.

Initial time/results curve

At first it may feel like everything would be faster if you did it yourself, especially with smaller jobs. This is perfectly normal, and rest assured that it balances out once you get used to working with each other. Getting used to delegating is a challenge, especially if you’re a control freak, but learning to trust people and offload the small stuff will do wonders for your stress levels and your business.

Alternatives

There are a wide range of alternatives to the three companies I tested. If you’ve used someone that you recommend, feel free to drop a note in the comments below. If you are a virtual assistant, kindly keep any self-promotion to a minimum.

Know the limits

Naturally, I considered outsourcing this entire post and making the whole process somewhat less laborious. Sadly, doing so would have made it rather dry and free from slightly sideways jabs at the idiocy of office watercoolers. It would also have had far more pie charts in it and, frankly, they don’t do anything for me except make me feel hungry.

So, while I thoroughly recommend that you try virtual assistants for yourself and know that they will change the way you work for the better, I recommend them only with the knowledge that you continue to say please, thank you, and generally treat them like human beings. By all means, delegate jobs you don’t want to do, but don’t turn them into pet toads to be trodden on.  

After all, sometimes you have to just sit down and bloody well do the work yourself.

 When Tim Berners-Lee created the World Wide Web, he could have charged for admission.

He didn’t. Yet the Web remains an exclusive cruise ship, its decks riddled with girls with Martinis, men in mankinis, games machines, and 24-hour shopping arcades: a kind of witless pleasure cruise for the world’s richest few. 

But joining is so easy, isn’t it? Sign here. Plug in. 24-hour access is yours on a plate. Sprinkle on a dash of iPhone vinaigrette and the world’s in your pocket. Even your less hygienic friends are on board. Sheesh! These days, they let anyone in, right?

The 22% club

The “World Wide” Web is far more exclusive than it seems. Today, only 22% of the world’s population have internet access. Congratulations! Spray on some sun cream and grab a lounger next to the vol-au-vents. Isn’t life at the top fun?

I used to care deeply about things like the “Open Internet”; about preventing the Web from following a paid-for subscription model; about stopping it from becoming a gated community; a home to all but the richest few. But then I woke up to the fact that it already is.

If it wasn’t bad enough that 78% don’t share the same access to an imponderable stream of free video, live news and Yo Mama jokes, consider this: more than 70% of the world’s population have never even heard a dial tone. And that upsets me even more, but perhaps not for the reasons you think.

Look what they’re missing!

I’m not so worried that the 70% without phone access will never get to experience the joys of 27 missed calls and 14 garbled voicemail messages. I’m not concerned that the 78% without ‘net access will miss the chance to watch a morbidly obese man with highly animated chins dance to the Birdie Song on YouTube.

After all, for those areas where internet adoption is currently as low as 5% — like Africa — uptake is growing by over 1000% a year. They’ll catch up faster than you think. And, sadly, when they do, YouTube will still be there.

Plug in and switch off

So, while I think that it’s important to provide internet access for all as soon as we can, the real issue I’d like to raise today is this: if 78% don’t have Web access — something you and me consider a simple privilege — how many of those same people don’t have access to even more basic needs? Like food.

852 million.

That’s how many. While we’re living our online lives, there are hideously large numbers of people fighting tooth-and-claw for theirs. People who share the same planet and breathe the same air and who really need our help. And The 22% Club distracts us from that. By plugging in, we’re switching off.

Blog Action Day exists to help us all wake up to the reality.

All aboard the pleasure boat

For every billion dollars that the 22% Club spends on helping the world’s poorest people, they spend the same on pornography. We’ve got the spending power and means to end suffering faster, but many are too busy aboard their personal pleasure boats. The 22% Club isn’t just exclusive: it’s sick.

If George Orwell were on board, he’d remind us that “it is not possible for any thinking person to live in such a society as our own without wanting to change it.” What’s sad is that there aren’t enough thinking people on deck. Perhaps it’s time to change that.

Pass the muesli

I know. It’s tough talking about poverty when we’re facing a global recession. I’m still munching on the credit crunch too, and it’s pretty bitter muesli. But, the truth is, dips in our own economies only make concepts like extreme poverty easier to grasp. People are losing their jobs. Food prices are rising. Combine the two and add a dash of pessimism and people like you and me might not be able to feed ourselves or our families.

Imagine that.

You can help

Even in the face of bank bail-outs and repossessions, we’re a lucky bunch. After all, most of us can still feed ourselves. And, if you’re in the US, you’re suffering with less than 4.5% food price inflation instead of the 46.9% Ethiopians have to contend with.

The world’s most desperate are living with less than $1.25 a day, something the World Bank calls “extreme poverty”. In more human terms, it means that they’re chronically hungry and fighting for their lives.

The good news is that, while the Web is certainly exclusive, it connects those people with the power to help and lets us spread the word. As a member of The 22% Club, that means you.

What you can do

Please take positive action and read about the four ways you can make a difference today over at the Blog Action Day site, or scroll down on that page and check out their video.

I’ll be donating all of today’s proceeds from Put Things Off and Todoodlist to Oxfam.

Syndication used to be simple.

10 years ago, if you wanted to keep up with the neighbourhood gossip, all you had to do was twitch a curtain, peer down the street and get on the phone. With a bit of luck, the sight of Dorothy rolling in the bushes with Dirty Bertie from number 32 might raise your heartbeat just enough to count as exercise, but not sufficiently to suffer the terrible indignity of having to wear a bright green shell suit and call it a workout.

These days, our neighbourhoods are much larger: an ever-rolling landscape of blogs, news sites, social networks, podgrams, videocasts and other strange streams of interbabble. And so we are forced to battle with such inhumane concepts as feed readers, a dreaded kind of curtain twitching 2.0 for the over-connected generation.

The truth about feed readers

Feed readers are failing us. What started as an idea to push new content to interested readers has now become a giant time suck: a pull on our energy and resources. Feed readers are attention-seekers, time-hoggers, virtually benefit-free, hard to promote or evangelise, and almost impossible to scale and keep up with as our subscriptions and interests grow.

Even the phrase feed reader conjures up images of a kind of deranged parasitic creature–half vampire and half fortune teller–each cursed with the utterly joyless but self-inflicted task of sucking on an ever-pulsing artery of incoming news and user-generated drivel, just like the kind you’re reading right now, but with less naff humour and biscuit jokes.

So why on Earth do we use them? And what’s the alternative?

Ditch your news reader today

The RSS and Atom junkies, along with The Leaders of The Grand Association For Making Everything More Complicated Than It Needs To Be (TLOTGAFMEMCTINTBABC) will hate me for this, but I’d like you to consider taking a small challenge:

Ditch your news reader for one month.

Instead of all that digital curtain twitching, satisfy your itch for news and content by subscribing to your very favourite blogs by email. If they don’t offer email updates, use the BlogAlert service or drop the site owner a link to this post.

If you’re not convinced yet, stop frowning and read on to learn why I’m calling for this. If you already subscribe by email, read on anyway to discover just how jolly clever you are.

The case against feed readers

I used feed readers for over 4 years. In that time, I switched between about 5 different ones, because skimming new posts alone wasn’t putting things off enough for me. In March this year, I gave up on all of them for good. To understand why, you first need to know that I went on a one-man crusade to convince my friends and family to try news readers.

I sent a frightfully helpful mailshot explaining the key benefit as I saw it back then–that your news arrives every morning collected in your own digital newspaper–and linking to the RSS in Plain English video. Here are some of the responses I received, unedited:

“Cheers Nick. I knew about RSS and feed readers, but I’ve never really understood the advantages. What do they do better than email updates?”

“I thought you said we should all have ‘one inbox to rule them all?’ I do subscribe by email, though. Honest!”

“Yeah, I had a Google Reader account but I stopped checking it after a while. I dread to think how many new posts are waiting for me…”

What benefits?

The replies went on, but the theme was clear: nobody saw the benefits of using a news reader. I began to wonder whether there really are any. I decided to subscribe to my favourite blogs by email for a month to see how the experience differed.

After only a fortnight, I had to concede that news readers offer very little benefit over email subscription. In fact, I’d even go further and suggest that, in most cases, news readers make the experience of reading updates worse.

Not only are news readers harder to keep on top of than email, but they provide a distraction from your workflow that’s tough to resist, and they actively encourage you to subscribe to more than you can comfortably read. Plus, whether you’re managing 30 feeds or 300, the process of checking a news reader feels like a terrible chore.

Whenever something that should be fun–like reading or sex–becomes some kind of dull duty, it’s usually a sign that you need to change something.

What’s more, because the benefits are so few, they’re incredibly hard to promote. Boosting uptake becomes a real challenge, and the choice between subscribing by RSS and email continues to confuse many today. The solution is simple: offer email updates only, and let feed reader users subscribe with the buttons in their browser’s address bar.

But why are email updates any better? I’m delighted you asked.

Email updates: better for everyone

Having the writers you love deliver new posts directly to your inbox makes a whole world of sense, and has oodles of advantages over news readers. Here’s a list.

1. It scales naturally
Email has a built-in scaling system; you know very quickly if you’re receiving more mail than you can productively handle. For exactly this reason, it’s ideal for managing blog subscriptions. 

Receive email updates for your favourite blogs alongside your usual stream of email, and you’ll soon get a feeling for how much you can realistically handle, then find yourself cutting back to the ones that really interest you. 

2. It builds a healthier community
News reader junkies will tell you that they’re able to manage 300+ feeds comfortably by skimming the titles and deciding what takes their fancy. They’ll tell you they could never do the same by email. I used to think this way too. 

The sad thing is this: news readers breed disinterest. After a short time, you don’t care very much about the actual content of the sites you’re subscribed to. Instead, it becomes a crude kind of video game: you play the role of Duke Nukem, randomly clicking on new items to kill the unread post counts before finding some actual work to do, your role as Chief Eradicator of The Great Unread fulfilled.

…

I’m sorry — I just can’t write a list any more. It would scroll on forever. Instead, here’s a pretty diagram that illustrates the current feed reading ‘workflow’ to show in the flesh how absurd it really is.

Goodbye feed readers

My prediction is simple: feed readers will never reach critical mass among casual web users, because there just aren’t enough benefits in using them. So why are we still rallying for their uptake when email works just fine, everyone understands it, many feed reader users are struggling to tackle their workloads, and most of us already have an email account? It certainly beats me.

Goodbye feed readers. I’ve run off with an older model.

Goodbye orange buttons

Do we really need RSS buttons on our websites? Isn’t it enough that browser address bars have them? Can’t we wave goodbye to “click the orange thing to get updates in your news reader” prompts, followed closely by “what’s a news reader?” or “what’s RSS?” links? 

Update: apparently not! I removed the RSS button from Put Things Off and had my inbox flooded with how do I subscribe? requests. I’ve now reinstated them for the feed reader junkies amongst you…

Email updates: the new subscription standard

I feel that it’s time that more site owners championing email updates alongside their feed buttons. They’re simple. They don’t require another application or web interface. They’re easier to manage and control. They’re much quicker to stay on top of. They don’t need video explanations or heavy promotion. Compared with the mess of news readers, they’re an utter joy.

After all, if you can say get free email updates, show visitors a one-box form, and have every single soul understand exactly what you’re offering them while removing another acronym and application from their lives, isn’t that the best type of news for all of us?

Except for feed reader developers, of course. Sorry guys.

Get free email updates to Put Things Off by clicking here, and ditch your digital itch today.

Visit 44forks.com

Thanks for both of your emails asking whether I was dead or not and urging me to write more often. The good news is that you now have 3 posts to catch up on over the weekend at 44 forks, which serves you right for fretting so much.

44forks: from etiquette to netiquette

If our lives are needlessly complex, it’s probably our own fault.

As unwilling netizens of the Digital Age, we’ve inflicted a bizarre and unhealthy variety of rules and regulations upon ourselves, many of which are unwritten and known only to a select group of infuriatingly smug bastards. These curious customs silently shape our success and happiness every day of our lives at work, in our homes, and in social circles ranging from mosh pits to The Ritz.

Until today, there’s been no dependable source to look to for advice on such terrible dilemmas as whether to poke or not to poke and how to behave when meeting your girlfriend’s parents. Oh — and if you’ve ever been mortified at the sight of 44 over-polished forks aligned by your plate with inhuman care, you’ll find a solution to that on the site soon.

If only people were kinder

The goal with 44forks is to provide a central place to answer all your etiquette and netiquette queries (ask an etiquestion here), whilst poking fun at strange old customs, promoting good manners and fine taste, and giving you a chance to read me rattling on about something other than productivity. Which, in all honesty, is a blessing in itself.

Do head over to the site, drop a note in the Launch Party post to say ‘hi’, and please make my day by subscribing via email or your feed reader. Frankly, it would be rude not to.

Why am I launching this now? 

I’m pleased to be able to say that, this time, it’s not my fault.

The women you can blame are the wonderfully roguish Taylor “Tei” Lindstrom of Rogue Ink, and the ever-enchanting Kelly Erickson of Maximum Customer Experience. 

I took part in a discussion in the comments on Tei’s blog regarding the correct way to drink espresso, where I uttered the words:

“Some days I consider starting one of those social etiquette websites that shows the exact angle to tilt one’s head when passing a fellow Lord on your way to the races. Sadly, I fear that doing so would be terribly bad form.”

Tei and Kelly were both foolish enough to egg me on, and 44forks was born less than one month later.

Much more than a simple childish dare, starting 44forks perfectly demonstrates my shotgun approach to finding happiness in business and in life. I love writing, and this is just another outlet for me. I encourage everyone to experiment with projects, hobbies, and activities as much as possible, and then to fall back on the ones that make you happiest.

How you can help

Few things would please me more than your kind help ensuring that 44forks is a success. If you could take the time to blog about it, tell a friend, or phone your entire address book to tell them you’ve found someone else who cares about promoting good manners in a light-hearted way, I would be forever in your debt.

Diggs, Stumbles, and whatever else the kids are doing these days to spread their virtual seed would also be deeply appreciated.

What about Put Things Off?

I love Put Things Off to a degree that teeters ever closer to the brink of insanity. I continue to promote it (it’s now part of the 9rules network) and tinker behind the scenes. I have various posts in what I shall choose to call “refined stages of unfinishedness”, all of which will go live soon, including:

• Advice on feed reading and online subscriptions from your Gran
• The Web’s only dependable head-to-head comparison of virtual assistants 
• A glorious guest post on maximizing your ecological footprint

Stay tuned and know that I’m more grateful than ever to you for putting up with me and for pretending that you care about my little projects as much as I do.

Habari: the future of blogging

Finally, it would be cruel and senseless of me not to end this post without mentioning a free, wonderfully simple product that has made my online life a pure pleasure in the last three weeks.

The eagle-eyed and interminably geeky amongst you will notice that 44forks isn’t running on the WordPress publishing system. Instead, it’s using a breathtakingly brilliant solution called Habari, which I have absolutely no doubt will one day prove riotously popular.

Try Habari today

If you’re a blogger or website owner who’s used to navigating the great meandering tab cascade that calls itself the WordPress administration area, Habari is a breath of fresh air.

Popular publishing systems commit several crimes against human interface design by crapping every single possible option across the entire width of your screen, like some kind of giant pixel-powered blunderbuss. Habari simplifies all those options–without sacrificing usability or power–into a single, breathtakingly elegant list (click for larger version):

Want to start a new post? Hit Q and then 1. Want to edit an existing one? Q and then 3. See a list of your plugins? Q and then P. You can also click the list to select an option too, of course. Habari is free, faster, easier to use and more elegant than every other publishing platform I’ve used. It has already saved me hours with 44forks, and I suspect it would do the same for you too. 

If you’re a developer or web nerd, there are a heap of other reasons you’ll love Habari, most of which stem from the fact that it’s not linked to a multi-million dollar corporation with commercial interests in having their wicked way with its future. Many of the plugins you use with WordPress have Habari alternatives here, and more are being written every day. Get involved now and have the chance to shape the future of blogging.

http://habariproject.org

[N.B. We aim to port some of our themes at Wordprezzie over to Habari, and will continue to be involved with WordPress too: we recognise that it's popular for a reason -- we just think it's great to have such a strong alternative out there. Competition is good.]

As I ran my finger down the crumpled page, navigating past the more suspicious stains with a care unrivalled by most commercial airplane pilots, I realised with a mixture of horror and surprise that we had a lot in common.

Were I to carry an equally idiotic inventory, I suspect that I too would rank “losing a biscuit in my tea” at about seven, and that “those damn kids with the Heelys skate shoes” would come in comfortably at fifth. More surprising still is that one of my main pet hates finished in second place:

2. Bloody smart arses.

I was about to remark that smart-arses should be hyphenated because smart is a compound modifier, but I thought better of it and legged it into Harvey Nichols, knowing that they are permitted under British law to shoot on sight anyone wearing someone else’s trousers.

The smart-arse diet

Fortunately for me and my loose-fit acquaintance, the day of the smart-arse is coming to an end, helped by a phenomenon known as “information dieting”. The concept, popularised by Timothy Ferriss in his book about escaping the 9-5, can be summed up like this:

Stop reading and start working.

I’ll come sharply to the point: while I dearly love The 4-Hour Workweek and praise Tim for being single-handedly responsible for 100 thousand middle fingers of collective resignation, I think that encouraging perfectly healthy people to go on a “low-information diet” is a terrible crime.

To understand why, you need to know what tops my pet hates list, which, incidentally, is the only area where me and the generously-panted chap I was sharing a bench with differed. My number one gripe:

1. Not giving a shit about anything

For me, nothing is less sexy than being disinterested in the world around you. To suggest that intelligent people partially disconnect from a glorious stream of free speech, live news, and entertainment — all in the name of increased productivity — is a bit like saying that you should start timing your bathroom breaks in an effort to get them all under the 30 second mark, or that foreplay and dessert menus should both be banned.

I find it hopelessly sad to remove simple pleasures, informative distractions, and regular snippets of inspiration — all of which do wonders in shaping your work, play, and mental health — just to free up a few minutes a day for additional working time.

Perhaps it’s no surprise that a work-from-home Brit’s opinion of information dieting differs greatly from a busy jet-setting American writer. After all, about 3% of the British population — some 1.9 million ‘jobseekers’ — would be utterly horrified at the thought of extending their working week to 4 hours.

My low-information diet

In case you’re quietly pointing out that it’s foolish to criticise an idea without having tested it, you’ll be pleased to hear that, in May this year, I gave information dieting a shot for one month.

In 31 days I read only one newspaper and no non-fiction. I turned off my feed reader and other online subscriptions. I watched very little television online or off. I abstained from forums and instant messaging. In information dieting terms, I lost a lot of weight. If you’re fascinated by the idea, I suggest that you try it too.

Here’s what you’ll learn:

1. Information is a drug. Cutting down the dosage is tough.
2. Depending on your friends for world affairs updates assumes that they’re smart, they’re not dieting, and they give a shit too.
3. Voting based on what your friends think is how weirdoes get elected.
4. Reducing instant messaging makes your friends think you’re dead, doubling the amount of incoming phone calls and emails to check up on you.
5. While information dieting may possibly free 20 minutes a week, it will almost certainly make you feel isolated, miserable, and uninformed.

The alternative to dieting

Instead of going on a diet, I began to wonder if I could simply take in the same amount of information as I was enjoying before, but in slightly less time. I found some simple ideas and services that let you work smarter and play harder, and I’ll be sharing them here very soon. (You have subscribed for free, right?)

Until then, you’re probably wondering what our baggy friend had at the top of his hate list. It was this:

1. F*cking iPhones

He may have been wearing someone else’s trousers, but at least he had taste.

8 years ago, I longed with all my heart to become a special effects artist.

I took a degree in Computer Animation and Special Effects and, though I enjoyed eating nothing but popcorn for three years, shooting James Bond parodies, and graduating with First-Class Honours, I never went on to blow things up for a living. But I’ll save that story for another time.

Today I’d like to tell someone else’s, and drop a different kind of bomb.

Meet Patrick

During my degree course I found the work of Patrick O’Brien. Patrick is a talented and off-the-wall filmmaker and animator. Back then, he worked under the name of Transfatty and made commercials for the likes of IBM, MTV and Microsoft.

These days Patrick is still one of my favourite filmmakers, but his work has changed in style and content. Why the shift in direction? I suspect for one reason above all:

Patrick now lives with a terminal illness.

This is his inspirational story. It will teach you more about putting things off than you’ll learn from me in a lifetime.

Patrick’s story

In 2004, Patrick O’Brien noticed a strange shaking in his legs. One year later at the age of 30, he was diagnosed with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), or Lou Gehrig’s disease.

ALS patients gradually lose voluntary movement throughout their bodies until only eye control remains. It’s a horrible disease that kills one American every 90 minutes. It’s also the same illness that Stephen Hawking lives with.

On learning of his oncoming paralysis, Patrick became anything but still:

• He started The Patrick O’Brien Foundation
• He raised funds for ALS research and built awareness of the condition
• He drove a wheelchair across New Jersey
• He protested naked outside the White House and posted the pictures (tastefully shot) on Rebel Without A Stem Cell.
• He threw parties
• He became a dad
• He made a film about it all

His upcoming documentary is titled “Everything Will Be Okay”, and I’d like to share a clip with you today, firstly, because it’s brilliant and, secondly, because I’d be bonkers not to spread the word.

Everything Will Be Okay

Patrick’s film is based on a powerful idea: if you were given 2-5 years to live, what would you do? He’s currently inviting donations to help him complete it. If you’d like to give a little (or a lot), click the banner to the left. If you’re a blogger, please spread the word.

The promo clips had me teetering between laughter and — I’m not ashamed to admit it — floods of tears. The tears where a bit of a shock, to be honest. I hadn’t cried properly in years, and it made me think about what caused that reaction.

Before I tell you the answer, I’d like you to watch one of the happier clips. Don’t worry — it’s called “Party” and I promise it won’t make you cry. In fact, if it doesn’t have you smiling for 5 minutes straight, I recommend you see a doctor. Ask her to check for a pulse.

Watch Party

Visit this page, look for “Party” and click “Watch Promo”. You’ll need speakers to hear the awesome soundtrack (”I just want to celebrate” by Rare Earth). If you’re slacking off at work and can’t watch it right now, just read on and check out the clip at home, watch it in your lunch break, or find a job that lets you piss about more openly.

The clip is a simple celebration of friendship; a moving portrait of guests at a party edited by a master of his art. So here’s the bomb: Patrick edited the whole thing and cut it to music in nine nights using only his thumb.

The man with the golden thumb

When I read that Patrick had shot and edited the piece with one thumb, I was blown away. Combine the Party video with the others on the site (which show him adapting to his new way of life) and you have some powerful evidence of a talented artist who’ll stop at nothing to live his dream: the dream of creating a feature-length film.

“So why the tears, Nick?”

Partly because I’m a big softie, but mainly because there is something incredibly humbling in watching great people go through hell to live out their dreams. It’s a similar feeling to the one I get watching Olympians duck across the finish line in first place, drop to their knees, clench their fists, and scream the last dregs of air from their lungs in triumph as their eyes sparkle with tears; a celebration of being alive; 10 years of hard work recognised in 10 seconds of spine-tingling joy.

Witnessing great moments like these causes feelings so powerful that it once made me take up running. And martial arts. And the guitar. One day I’ll be good enough at these things to stir up the same brand of emotions in others. For now, I’m happy to borrow the brilliance of others for my examples.

What Patrick can teach us

I’m sometimes asked what piece of advice I’d give to those with a limited supply of time, attention, or marbles. You can read some of my answers elsewhere, most recently at the excellent PluginID blog.

While I’m always touched to be asked, nothing I say could carry the same weight as real life lessons. I could write a book on the things we can learn from Patrick O’Brien. Instead, I’ll share only one:

Putting Things Off is your greatest luxury.

A message to the thumb twiddlers

The world is full of amazing people like Patrick who don’t have time to put things off. For them, procrastination is a luxury. “Maybe one day” just won’t do. “I’ll do it next year” becomes a high-risk strategy. When faced with the ultimate deadline, action is the only option.

I’m all for taking time to find your passion; it’s what life’s all about. As Patrick’s story proves, it’s rarely too late to chase your dreams. But it’s never too early either. If you put off following your big goals because you’re banking on having time later, then you’re forgetting a simple truth:

You won’t be able to twiddle your thumbs forever.

After all, if a man can chase his dream by twiddling only one of them, what on Earth’s stopping you?

The office has become a battlefield. Whether you work from home or from a jungle of air conditioners and water coolers, today’s post will explore the dangers of the 9-5 war zone. It will also attempt to provide an early warning system for catastrophic workplace meltdown.

Welcome to the war zone

Backed up by origami F16 Falcons, a battalion of paper clip paratroopers, and a bumper box of Maltesers, rival workers are conducting desktop warfare using graffitied staple guns and rubber band bombs, their skin etched with Tipp-Ex tattoos. If John Woo made stationery commercials, this would be his film set.

Now, for the first time, there’s a way to safely determine how far towards anarchy the workplace has slipped. Let’s hope it’s not too late for yours…

The OFFCON scale

The OFFCON, or “office terror condition” scale, is a colour-coded chart showing the workplace threat level, similar in nature to the system that the US government employs to provide disco lighting at the Pentagon in the event of sudden breakdancing.

How it works

Download the OFFCON PDF, print it out, and place it in a high traffic area in your workplace or home. Once a week, mark the current threat level in the appropriate box with a pin or magnet. (5 is low risk. 1 is extreme danger.)

The scale will not only warn co-workers of the general state of alert, but also serve as an indication of whether or not your boss is likely to sign-off on that pay rise, sanction your 2-month vacation, or let you call her “sugarlips” without losing your job.

The alert signs

How do you tell which alert level your office has reached? It’s easy — just follow the signs for office or home workers below. A warning before we begin: if you’re not already a decorated workplace veteran, the following paragraphs paint images of a bleak future.

OFFCON 5: office ‘normality’

Office workers

Work is getting done, and some of it’s interesting. You like one of your clients, and you don’t really mind going into work every day. If it wasn’t for the fact that the pay was so bad, you might even feel motivated.

Surely this can’t last. Or can it?

Home workers

Things are normal. You’re getting up after 11pm and working in your pyjamas. You eat whenever you like and have topless webcam meetings with your clients. Life feels good. You’re reminded every day why you left your real job. Most days, you can smile at least once without faking it.

Don’t make any false moves. Boat-rocking will end in tears.

OFFCON 4: covert slacking-off

Office workers

This is the most common state of alert for office workers. Due to the fear of being discovered browsing eBay for cut-price sock monkeys outside of your Prescribed Lunch Break, your mouse pointer forever hovers over your browser’s “close” button. You’re as primed as Optimus waiting for the Decepticons to attack. When your boss walks through the door, you’ll spring into busy mode.

It was a close one, but you got away with it. You return to eBay to bid on an early warning alarm system that you can rig in the corridor to alert fellow slackers of future interruptions.

Next time, you’ll be ready.

Home workers

You’re weaving a web of deceit. You kissed your better half goodbye as they left for their ‘proper job’ this morning. It’s now 6pm, and you’re preparing a story about all the productive things you did today.

Should they discover that you spent 7 hours playing on the Wii, you’ll suddenly look exhausted and palm it off as ‘fitness training’ without feeling the tiniest pang of guilt. You hope they don’t see that Mario Kart is still in the drive. You make a mental note not to be so careless in future.

If you’ve not got enough work to stay busy now, you’ll struggle later.

OFFCON 3: stress balls of fire

Office workers

OFFCON 4 took its toll. Now the work’s piling up. Suddenly, everything’s an emergency. Stress levels are rising. Arguments are common. One or more stress balls, NERF guns, or mini flame throwers have appeared in the office. It’s no longer safe to ask your boss for time off, more money, or a dinner date.

If you don’t flag up the problem now or get some outside help in, you’re in for a rough ride.

Home workers

You’re busy. Your laundry is piling up. But work no longer interests you. You’ve discovered that your true calling lies in watching films and submitting continuity errors to the Internet Movie Database. Weeks pass, and even faulty plotlines fail to capture your imagination. Frustrated, you barricade yourself in your room and think of a new occupation. Assassination perhaps?

Disenchanted with the idea of killing for a living, you turn your thoughts towards happier dreams. You start planning a move to Amsterdam, where you’ll open a coffee shop that specialises in hallucinogenic cocoa. You practise grinding coffee beans and melting chocolate with your thighs. You scrawl “not crazy” on your forehead to prevent anyone asking.

Remind yourself what you loved about your work. Forget Amsterdam, and find happiness in something you love. Maybe taking up a new hobby would help fill the gap, too.

OFFCON 2: all-out warfare

Office workers

It’s all-out warfare. Your 9-5 has descended into a series of petty thefts, mindless squabbles, and general heel-nipping. Small skirmishes break out for no apparent reason. Gangs form and leaders are chosen. Territory is divided with invisible tags. The watercooler becomes no man’s land. Nobody dares enter the stationery cupboard alone, and all sharp objects are removed by office security.

Your building is declared to be on “lock down”, and chocolate biscuits become the new internal currency. In an effort to reduce the threat level, Health and Safety are called in. You promptly staple them to the wall by their safety ties, expelling a lifetime of pent-up anger for having to fill in “Form 37B: Permission to Move My Pencil Pot”.

If you can’t walk away today, at least start job hunting.

Home workers

It’s become impossible to work from home. Driven by a belief that working undisturbed is your divine right, you confront your cats to establish some ground rules. As you round the corner into their lair, you feel a soft thud as a Buzz Lightyear action figure spins through the air and hits you on the temple. Darkness falls.

When you awaken, you find yourself in the kitchen bound to a chair. A kitten sits at a distance, eyeing you menacingly and armed to the teeth with nut crackers. You look down to see the job listings pages open on the table in front of you. “Cleaners wanted” is circled in red pen. Someone is trying to send you a message.

It sounds like you need some space. Try working from the library or coffeeshop for one day a week. Make sure you earn a living too.

OFFCON 1: evacuation!

Office workers

Chaos rules the workplace. All attempts to reduce the threat level have failed. Chocolate biscuits have run out, and no further supplies are forthcoming. Fights to the death have broken out with the office smokers because they get 10 extra breaks a day. There is much talk of office privileges (such as smiling) being withdrawn for good.

Your boss escapes to the golf course, where she now spends all her working hours. All matters of importance have been delegated to you. When faced with a room full of angry board members and asked to explain why the company’s stock price has plummeted, you frantically tell them that you need more biscuits, and that you’re running low on origami air support. They don’t look impressed.

Perhaps it’s time to take up that job offer abroad or start your own gig.

Home workers

You’ve tried working from home. It’s been tough, and you’re wondering if you made the right choice. The distractions are numerous; the quality working hours few. You won’t let your dream of independence die, and you’d hate to get a job, but you’re struggling to find another option.

Perhaps you could rent a small office or lease a hot desk in some shared office space. Alternatively, convert your garage, lock yourself in, and swallow the key. Just create your own working sanctuary, and you’ll be fine.

Share your OFFCON
war stories

Is your workplace a battlefield? What level are you at? Do you have some home or office war stories to share? Leave a comment below!

Just launch it

Remember when I told you that the best way to be more productive in life is to just launch it?  This post is proof that I take my own advice.

I want to tell you about a fun new project that me and my partner Hayley launched today. It’s called Wordprezzie. I’ll explain what it is, how we made it happen in one month, and tell you how to do the same to turn your own ideas into live projects. Fast.

What’s Wordprezzie?

Wordprezzie is a growing goldmine of WordPress themes, tutorials, custom design, and coding help. We built it for gorgeous people like you with great big ideas bursting to get out on the Web fast, without spending thousands or earning a degree in Applied Hair Tearing at the University of Life.

Wordprezzie features hot illustration, great advice, and top theme ideas to buy or download for free — all in the fun, laid-back, alternative style I hope that you’ve come to expect from me.

Check out the site

Running a small biz, blogging, or freelancing? Check out Ice Cream Dream. Got a domain name but haven’t found time to do anything with it yet? Have a look at Changing Room. Running a WordPress blog but never thought about your site’s security? Read our first tutorial, WordPress Security Tips.

If you’ve never heard of the WordPress publishing system, you should know that it’s the best way to get your big idea online and keep your site looking fresh with new content. (It’s also what this site uses to drip-feed new posts to you.) If you’re thinking of launching a website soon or want a clean face for your existing one, get in touch with us for a free quote. Our clients say we’re lovely to work with, and we promise to make it easy for you too.

Ice Cream Dream is our first pro WordPress theme. It’s built with 5 colour options or ‘flavours’, together with a bold, customisable call-to-action button and a striking EasySwap logo and header. It’s perfect for businesses, entrepreneurs, and bloggers alike, and it’s packed with simple options to make it your own:

Finally, don’t forget to subscribe to Wordprezzie, and please write about us and tell your friends!

The One Month Launch

From here on it’s all about you, your big idea, and how to get it running just one month from now.

Just launch it?

Sounds easy, doesn’t it? But, on its own, “just launch it” is pretty crappy advice. Here’s what the mantra means in a way you can break down, chew up, and spit out as some actionable ideas.

The fact is this: launching a big project can be scary. The fear of failure appears dark and dirty, just like the other things on your mind. The way people deal with it is to plan instead of taking action in the hope that, one day, if they put things off long enough, the wind might change and all their problems will be carried up the chimney on the breeze, like watching Mary Poppins in reverse.

What happens instead is this: The Plan consumes them. Their business becomes the business plan. Their company, grand scheme, or trip around the world never happens, and all because someone told them they needed a watertight plan.

The problem with planning

There are times when plans are worth making. But, more often than not, they’re simply a waste of time. There is no watertight plan. Leaking is part of life.

A week after you’ve stapled your 50 pages of slaved-over manuscript complete with ‘5-year projections’, it’ll be almost meaningless. The only thing that projects reliably for that long is the Sun that shines out of Steve Jobs’ bum, and you shouldn’t be poking around in that with an expensive pen either.

So what’s the problem with planning? The problem is that it’s a dynamic thing — there is no such thing as a finished plan. You can’t print it out and be done. You have to plan while you’re running your business and adapting to the environment, not before you even know if it’s going to work or not.

A week after you’ve ‘finished’ your plan, your competition will have adapted; that ski resort will have been booked up; a new product will have changed the game; those designer stilettos you saw in Oxfam will be out of fashion. (To think — you could have enjoyed them for a week instead of absentmindedly doodling All work and no cut-price Manolo Blahniks with the metallic toe caps make Jill bitter, miserable, and rummaging in the freezer for more Ben and Jerry’s.)

The one thing you must remember

Forget great big lists. Forget what you know about business. Forget start-up school. Forget plans. Forget endless preparation. Forget the “what ifs?” and the “but what abouts?” When it comes to launching fast and reducing fear, there’s only one rule you need to remember.

To make it easier, I’ve cut it down to three words and spent four whole seconds of my life making sure that the only rule you need to remember very nearly rhymes:

Less is best.

It couldn’t be less complex, could it? But it’s true: less is best. Here’s why.

The magic of less

When you reduce your launch time to one month and force yourself to start thinking in terms of less instead than more, the magic of less flutters into life:

• Less means no excuses to sit around dreaming
• Less means you can make it better later
• Less means less unnecessary planning
• Less means less emotional investment
• Less means less procrastination
• Less means less perfectionism
• Less means less upfront costs
• Less means less to go wrong
• Less means less questions
• Less means less decisions
• Less means less features
• Less means less risk
• Less really is best

Once your business or grand idea is out there in the open, it’s much easier to gain momentum than when it’s stuffed down the sofa in a dodgy Amsterdam bar, crumpled up tight next to the guy with the dodgy beard and those other pipe dreams you hope to smoke one day.

(Less is never more, by the way. It’s why we have two words instead of one.)

The One Month Launch

You’ll notice that I used the term “unnecessary planning” in the list above. I’m not an umpalumpa. I don’t believe that you can just paint yourself orange, dye your hair green, do a little song and dance and create a world-beating chocolate factory overnight. If you could, I’d have made two by now.

While you don’t need a business plan (unless you’re trying to secure corporate funding), what you do need is to answer two simple questions:

1. What the hell am I doing?
2. What’s the absolute least that I can launch it with?

That’s it. Not “what will we do if 100,000 people sign up for our service in the first week?” Not “where will we seat all the supermodels who come for our impromptu volleyball championship?” Not “what if the taxman finds out that I’m taking home a 7-figure paycheck?” All of these are lovely problems to have.

‘Planning’ Wordprezzie:
Q: What the hell are we doing?
A: Creating the best WordPress themes and tutorials resource on the internet.
Q: What’s the absolute least we can launch with?
A: One paid theme, one free theme, and one tutorial.
That was it. Meeting adjourned. We had some tea and got cracking.

Your one month launch

Answer those two questions and then go for it. You’ll find that the rest solves itself as you go along. Take as many little shortcuts as you can. (You’ll notice that we re-used some of the design elements from Put Things Off on the Wordprezzie site. We also outsourced the support infrastructure to Get Satisfaction).

You’ve got a month to launch something. Anything! Just make it something that you love. The clock is ticking…

Less perfection, please

A final note for the perfectionists among you. Perfection is for Fairground Attraction. Go easy on the perfectionism. It can be a great asset later on, but it’s doing you no good at launch time. Trust me. I was once a perfectshionist. Now I just like annoying them.

Is Wordprezzie perfect? Of course not, but it’s out there and we’ve now got the luxury to plan as we go. It still has its tiny bugs and little typographic niggles that probably annoy me and no-one else. And if they bug you too?

Frankly, I couldn’t care less.

Put Things Off is six!

This month PTO celebrates six months of kittening around.

Before you start, I know that it’s a crime to tally up any event on a month-by-month basis but, like the fluttering hearts of the long-lost lusters whose eyes locked across a crowded metronome museum, I’ve been counting every beat.

Today I want to share my thoughts, feelings, and advice on the heady experience of going from long-term procrastinator to semi-professional blogger almost entirely by accident in 6 months. First, an offer you mustn’t refuse.

Todoodlist sale: get $6 off!

If you’ve been umming, erring, or generally putting off buying my ebook since its release late in March, I’d like to give you the chance to buy it today for just $8.

To take me up on the offer visit this special page, type the code 6months (without spaces), and hit the “buy now” button to checkout with card or PayPal. The offer is only good until midnight on 31 July 2008, so grab it today before the price goes back up. Sorry! The $8 offer is now closed. Buy the book for only $14 instead.

Todoodlist: the figures laid bare

I’ve received a lot of mail from bloggers and writers asking whether or not it’s worth scribing an ebook. Many pitch their queries subtly (’how are sales going?’). Others have been rather direct — I suspect some of you would ask for my PIN number on a first date (it’s 8792 — not that I’m easy). The short answer is yes: just write it.

To further satisfy your curiosity and fuel your enthusiasm in a suitably vague way, let me share this: Todoodlist has taken over US$5000 (but less than $10,000) in sales in just over 3 months, and opened several doors for me. I’ve been deeply honoured that a lot of you have bought, enjoyed, and supported it.

I’m also lucky to have heard from many of you. For all your emails and failed letter bombs, my heartfelt thanks. Perhaps the most wonderful note came from Italy, typed by a kind soul who said that swapping software for the Todoodlist had saved hours and released him from the chains of enforced overtime:

“I simply could go home to play with my kids.”

If Todoodlist had sold only one copy and amounted to nothing more than those 10 words, it would still have been worth it — for me, there’s no greater compliment.

On becoming a problogger

I won’t brag about problogging success, largely because — as a blogger — I’m not as successful as many of you and I have another job, which makes me a semi-problogger at best. Only six months ago, I thought that blogging was a joke. Back then, I saw it as a kind of emotional pyramid scheme, where everyone heaped praise on the people at the top and hoped that reciprocal favour and fortune would follow.

To some extent, I was right. But it turns out that many wonderful people lurk in the pyramid who’ve earned their fame for good reason and who give back generously:

People like Harrison McLeod and James Chartrand, who’ve kept me sane and given me top quality advice whether I wanted it or not. People like Naomi Dunford, who taught me that blogging wasn’t just a synonym for bitching anonymously — it can be a playful form of self-expression too. People like Tim Brownson, who is wiser and wittier than he knows (but don’t tell him I said that), and a true joy to work with. All of these generous folks have their own books and established blogs, and every one is excellent. Visit them today and give them your money.

To the great many others who I’ve bumped into along the way, bless you. When I find a way to thank you all properly and in full, I’ll write about it here.

On doing it by accident

Truth be told, whatever small successes I’ve had have been almost entirely by accident. I never saw blogging as the ticket to a world of opportunity that it’s become. If you’d told me in December 2007 that over 60% of our new business leads at Goburo would come through this blog by June 2008, I’d have spat out my tea to make way for the thunderous laughter that followed.

While finding happiness in blogging was an accident for me, it’s an accident that I saw coming. For months, I’ve gently coaxed my energies towards their inevitable rendezvous with the golden lamppost of moderate success. And, because you don’t just come here just for the repartee, it’s time I shared some tips to help make sure the same thing happens for you.

6 tips to achieve moderate success in 6 months

Not as catchy as “Earn a million in a day!” is it? If you want to achieve superfame and megariches overnight, I’m not the guy to ask.

If, however, you’d like to walk around wearing a constant glow that suggests “I might not be rich, beautiful, or athletic, but I’ve never been this happy and my pockets are full of cake”, then take my advice:

1) You need to be blogging

If you’re not blogging, you’ve probably already heard that you should be. I put it off for years because I couldn’t see the benefits, but I’ve learned that they are numerous:

• Build your business
• Meet new people
• Learn more about yourself
• Find a hobby and hidden pleasure in writing
• Create a small but welcome income stream

If you’re not comfortable calling it ‘blogging’ because of flashbacks to that dodgy diary your Mum discovered when you were 15, just use the term ‘writing’ or ‘publishing online’ instead.

Whatever you do, get some good web hosting, choose a niche you’re passionate about, buy a strong domain name, and head over to WordPress.org so you can outsource the technotwitchery and concentrate on writing. Forget the “5 posts a week” rule: even one post a month is a good start for now.

If you’re already blogging, keep going. Yes, that emotional pyramid is tall and spiky, but I’m told the view from the top is great. If you get there, throw a rope down, will you?

2) Just launch it

When I’m asked what one ‘productivity tip’ I would give, these are the three words I use: just launch it. I spent 5 years of my life meticulously planning various businesses, and drafting my master plans. It all amounted to toffee. Think about it: 5 years of my young adulthood I’ll never get back gone for toffee.

Fortunately, I did most of my boozing and law-bending in the years before those, so I’m not bitter. But in the 5 months after I decided to just launch it, put myself out there and see what happened, I’ve had more fun and greater opportunities than the 5 years I spent slaving over business plans, mooching with angel investors, and embarrassing myself in Dragons’ Den-style pitches, all while holding down a job I was growing tired of.

If you’ve got a dream — even if it seems overwhelmingly scary right now — break it down and launch a small part of it one month from today. Mark the date in your calendar right now, before you put things off.

3) Teach people (or fake it)

I’ve learned to respect teachers more than most other professions. Their goal is a humble one: to spread the knowledge. The fact that they often border on the verge of breakdown is, at worst, evidence that kids these days can be real shitbags and, at best, horribly rotten karma.

Whether or not you respect teachers, sharing your knowledge will do more for your abilities and influence than you could possibly imagine. It’s only when you start teaching that you realise how much or little you know; it forces you to close those gaps in your knowledge and develop as a consequence.

If you don’t think there’s anything you can offer, think again. At the very worst, force yourself to become an expert in something you love, and then fake the teaching bit.

4) Learn how to market and sell

Blogging has another great consequence: you’re forced to learn to promote and sell your ideas. Once you can sell an idea (a kind of ‘product’ that doesn’t even exist), selling real stuff is easy in comparison. Start by learning how to spread your ideas, continue by selling others’ products and then…

5) Create your own product

Being an affiliate (someone who sells others’ products for a percentage of the sticker price) is great, but it’s a tough job. You’ll never be as passionate about selling other peoples’ stuff as you will be about your own.

6) Learn basic graphic and web design

The power of putting your own content online without paying anyone can’t be underestimated — and that’s coming from someone who earns their core living as a web designer! Consider learning basic web and graphic design. I recommend Lynda.com for some great video tutorials that won’t break the bank.

The golden rule

To sum everything up in a single tip: work hard and be nice to people.

The future for Put Things Off

I’ve got some big ideas for Put Things Off (and a great new project launching next week!), but I’d love to hear your thoughts. What would you like to see more of? Less of? Any other ideas? Leave a comment below!