Put Things Off Relaunches With Bigger Kitten!
by Nick Cernis | 3 June 2008
After five months of clawing at the furniture and general misbehaving, I’m pleased to announce that the much-loved PTO kitten has a fun new home. It comes in the form of a Put Things Off custom site redesign by yours truly.
As well as the fresh new look, there are some fab features, new posts and announcements you’ll want to hear about. Read on!
Bigger kitten!
It will come as no surprise: the delightful Put Things Off kitten gets more compliments than I do. Some say it’s because he’s cuter than me; others because he knits a mean cardigan. Whatever the reason, the good news is that he’s back, he’s bigger, and he’s more of a show off than ever. Who can resist those eyes? All together now: “ahhh…”
The Market
I’m proud to introduce The Market, the (soon-to-be) bustling freelance, work-from-anywhere job board that’s completely free for job seekers and posters alike.
The Market is now open for coders, designers, illustrators and writers. It’s completely free, but if you’d like to help support it and put your business in front of potential job posters, take out a 125px banner ad at the special introductory rate of US$20/month. (Buy one here.)
If you’ve got an assignment — however small — simply post a free 30-day job listing and watch those estimates and portfolio links fly in.
Snazzy new design
The new look on Put Things Off was designed to keep content fresh and make Put Things Off stand out. From the superduper homepage to the newly-organised categories, I hope you’ll agree that the facelift was worth it. Do share your thoughts in the squeaky-clean comments area.
More? You want more?
You asked. I listened. What many of you told me was this: “I love Put Things Off. I just wished you posted more often!” As well as being deeply flattered, I admit that my post frequency has been irregular at times.
Put Things Off started as a hobby, but it’s rapidly becoming so much more. I’ll be aiming to deliver shorter posts more often from now on, alongside the mammoth, once-in-a-while, read-in-the-bath style featured articles I enjoy writing so much.
Guest posts and paid writers
To help keep the content fresh, I hope to hire great writers and invite hot guest authors along for the ride. If you’re a great writer with a laid-back style who’s interested in contributing, check out my job offer in The Market — while I can only take on a limited number of people right now, all proposals (paid or guest) are welcome.
Open debate
From shunning electronic gizmos to declaring the death of productivity (as we know it), PTO is the online hang-out for the alternative, no-nonsense, laid-back view of working life.
As well as challenging the sterile, suited-and-booted clichés myself, I’m keen to invite you to share your thoughts too. Today I’m introducing a new category called “Hot Topics” that you’ll find on the front page. This section will carry the sorts of posts that encourage you to vent some steam and get talking. There will be a great new topic coming later this week, so subscribe and stay tuned.
Hire me to help with your site!
If you like what I’ve done with Put Things Off and want help building your own website or identity, I’m pleased to announce that Goburo, the design company I run with my talented and gorgeous partner, is now taking on new clients. If you want us to work some magic on your site too, get in touch with me today. Seriously: we’re really friendly and we’d love to hear from you.
More exciting news coming soon
The past few months have been an edge-of-the-seat thrill ride for me. Chatting with many of you by email has been great fun too — if you want to drop me a line just to say hi, don’t be shy!
In the meantime, let me thank you all both for your continued interest in PTO and for your kind words. There will be more great posts, news and announcements coming soon…
What do you think?
How do you rate the kitten’s new pad? Hit me with your wish lists, suggestions and glowing feedback in the comments below.
Stumble this post Get free email updates for new posts
25 comments so far:
Join the discussion:
Grab the book
Tested and approved
3 Jun 08
22:06
Joanna Young
Hi Nick
Congratulations on the new design! It looks beautiful.
I’m a bit blind when it comes to designery things (so thanks for reminding me what it looked like before, otherwise I’d have had no idea), but I do like cats a lot, so more of the kitten works for me.
I’m interested in your plans for the posting schedule. I cite you often as a shining example of someone who posts infrequently with high value content and high reader loyalty. You also get comments for ages after your posts go up - which is something most of us don’t enjoy because we displace our posts so frequently with new content.
I hope you keep writing what you enjoy anyway, rather than what blogologists say you ’should’ be doing. Seems to me like it’s working a treat.
Best wishes with all the new strands of the business as well as the design
Joanna
3 Jun 08
23:06
James Chartrand - Men with Pens
The new design rocks (oooh bigger font in the comment box!). I can’t say anything beyond that.
I’ll look forward to the future, Nick, and cheers.
4 Jun 08
00:06
Marylin
Gratz on the new design - it looks great! I do love the lil kitty :)
Looking forward to more regular postings from you!
4 Jun 08
00:06
LivSimpl
Congratulations! Looks fantastic. Although I’ve never become privy to the meaning of the kitty. Care to share?
4 Jun 08
01:06
Sunili
Great job, Nick, the site looks AMAZING! I’m looking forward to reading more fresh content from you (the FAQers were right: more! We want more!) and the Market is a fab idea. Plus, of course, that gosh-darn kitten really is the bee’s knees.
(Love the “dig” editing, to, by the way!!)
4 Jun 08
01:06
flotoonie
Well done mate! I can’t wait to read more. You have been quiet on my google reader for too long.
4 Jun 08
02:06
steph
Nick: This really looks fantastic! I’ve been watching your site for a while now because, yes, it’s damn attractive, but also I like the direction you take in your approach to work and technology and just making life simpler. I’m very happy you’re posting again; I think it’s going to be well worth the wait with all this new stuff you’ve got going on!
PS. Can the Market include editors too?
4 Jun 08
03:06
GirlPie
Great face-lift Nick — it did JUST what it’s supposed to: make you look new, but the same, only better. Without the ‘before’ shot, I too would have been hard pressed to cite specific differences — I would only have noticed that I liked it more.
Your plans for new features is smart and useful; your posting/guesting changes seem exciting too — I’d love to see your brain on the page more often, even if it’s in shorter bursts of edutainment.
Congrats on all the hard work — it really looks worth it and I’ve just configured my ‘morning coffee’ (a great app for Firefox) to load PTO EVERY morning so I can discover something new.
Keep up the good work of, uh, putting things off…
4 Jun 08
03:06
GirlPie
[And specifically: BEAUTIFUL font in the comments; lovely soft fade in the left-nav; sweet drop shadow on top of the nice french blue full-screen-background; great tabs and placement; good eye-tracking of icons that fit on your page; smart footer with the sans serif blurbs; nice mix of attention fonts, headline color, white space... really, good work -- a terrif example of your skills/talents.]
4 Jun 08
05:06
Jarkko Laine
Really nice! I love the way your blog looks now: professional, yet friendly. And yes, the kitten is beautiful :)
Keep up the great work!
4 Jun 08
08:06
Smarky
What happened to some of the older posts? I can’t find the ones on the basics of productivity, I thought that was the purpose of the site !
I’m having massive troubles in coming up with my own system, I really don’t know what to do, i’ve been tempted to buy toodoodlist for about a month now =P But I am poor student =(
4 Jun 08
15:06
Hunter Nuttall
The kitten is adorable, and I love the corrected Digg. You may be interested to know that dig.com has been overtaken by Disney.
How do you create a 125×125 ad? Do you have to hire a designer?
4 Jun 08
15:06
Joel Falconer
New design looks great. In spite of the kitten ;) Kittens destroy fly screens.
4 Jun 08
16:06
Internet Business Ideas
Hi Nick,
Congrats on the new design, it looks great, and I just love reading your blog.
Tanny
4 Jun 08
19:06
Charfish Charlie
The new look rocks my monkey!
Very easy on the eyes, interesting to play with…I love it. Especially the jelly bounce you gave your Featured Post movement. Makes me want to lick my monitor.
Well done, Nick! From one designer to another, you’ve done a superb job.
4 Jun 08
21:06
Kelly
Nick,
Lovely revamp. Clean, sharp, and relaxed, like its creator.
I always look forward to your posts, but with all the changes, I’m even more interested to see what’s around the next corner for you and PTO.
Cheers!
Kelly
5 Jun 08
07:06
Joshua Hughes
Hooray! The man is back! Long live PTO…
5 Jun 08
12:06
Selene M. Bowlby
The new design looks great! I’m so glad you’ll be writing more frequently now - I’ve missed your posts. :)
7 Jun 08
15:06
Nick Cernis
Phew! What a week. Sorry for the late response, folks, and thanks for all your kind words.
@Joanna Young - “Blogologists” is a wonderful hybrid word! I’m flattered to hear that you use me as an example of an infrequent poster. Perhaps it does have hidden merits that I’d not considered!
It’s a fine balance between churning them out for the sake of it and delivering regularly to entertain, improve my writing and build a worthwhile archive. I write because I enjoy it, so should really do it more often.
@James Chartrand - Men with Pens - typography on the web is a delicate (and restrictive) art. I think many theme authors have a tendency to let the font size creep a little too small. Or perhaps I’m just getting old…
@Marylin & @Sunili & @flotoonie & @Joshua Hughes & @Selene M. Bowlby - Thanks, all. More posts coming soon!
@LivSimpl - To me, the kitten best sums up PTO’s mantra: work smarter, play harder and live a happy life!
@GirlPie - Thanks, sweetie! You have a keen eye (and remarkably refined taste in website design).
That’s a lovely compliment. Thanks, Jarkko!
@Smarky - I’m rewriting some of the older posts. Don’t worry — they’ll be back. Re: coming up with your own system. To start with, just try keeping a simple list of tasks on paper. Don’t worry too much about systemising your life. Concentrate on living it!
@Hunter Nuttall - Yes — you can hire a designer (or post a job in The Market) to create a banner ad. Banners are normally pretty inexpensive if you’ve already got a logo to work from.
@Joel Falconer - Don’t worry, this one’s well trained! String is more his thing.
@Charfish Charlie - “Rocks my monkey” has now gone to the top of my list as the most bizarre yet brilliant phrase I’ve heard this year.
Geekout warning: the scroller bounce was inspired by Robert Penner’s easing equations, which are now available as a JQuery plugin. Thanks for noticing. It’s warming when people spot the little nuances; these things often take hours to code and fix across browsers. Sometimes you find yourself wondering why you bothered! Not this time, though.
@Kelly - Oh, Kelly. How you flatter! All sorts around the corner — if I didn’t keep on going I’d fall off, which leaves me little choice at this speed! Thanks and stay tuned…
–
The eagle-eyed amongst you will now notice the new “reply | quote” links at the foot of each comment, which should make it much easier for us to chat with each other from here on out.
8 Jun 08
06:06
Joel Falconer
@Nick Cernis - This reply feature is much more elegant than threaded comments - awesome job!
8 Jun 08
08:06
Nick Cernis
@Joel Falconer - Thanks, Joel. Can’t take full credit, though — I modified it slightly from the WP Comment Remix plugin. Well worth a look.
–
For those who applied for the writing jobs, I’m still sifting through the applications and will be in touch!
8 Jun 08
10:06
Joel Falconer
Oh, excellent - this will come in handy. Thanks, Nick.
20 Jun 08
09:06
Smarky
Is it really wrong that I keep checking the site really hoping for an update cause I need something to tell me how to do things? =P
20 Jun 08
10:06
Nick Cernis
@Smarky - Ha! Nothing wrong with a dash of enthusiasm, Smarky! More coming next week…
20 Jun 08
23:06
Smarky
you know i’ve started stripping things down, trying to do one step at a time. I’ve been looking at fundementals and I realized all I need to know is what to do when I need to do it.
From breaking things down, I had one or two proities and a few things i needed to look at written down on paper. I started to wonder about the bigger picture and what was the best system to show how everything linked together etc etc and then I started to realize no matter how simple this “system’ was it was way too complex.
Then I came to the conclusion. All you need to know is what to do next, everything else is irrelevant. This is the magic question “What next?”
Roadmaps become out-of-date almost immediately because knowledge is constantly gained and things change. There is no use mapping out everything six months in advance or more.
Instead just look out a few weeks at a time. Work on the next most important thing. What’s the point of a long list when you can’t work on everything at once anyway? Finish what’s important now and then figure out what’s important next. One step at a time.
So at the end of every week I ask myself who I am, what i would like to achive and what I have to do to get there. Then I discard everything but the stuff that is next, that is relevant to the next week. I’m liking that ’system’