Imagine a Samurai warrior who “kind of” understands how to use a sword. He is “somewhat familiar” with a bow and arrow. In hand to hand combat he’ll “figure it out” if allowed enough time for trial and error.

It sounds absurd when, for a Samurai, his level of proficiency determines his survival. He has no choice but to pursue mastery so, day in and day out, he trains — eventually attaining a level of intimacy with his tools that borders on unnatural (Samurai would name their swords and considered them to be part of the living world).

Anyone reading this blog post is probably classified as a “digital worker.” Operating systems and software packages are your sword and shield. Yet, in this context, similar statements are not considered absurd, but are commonplace and expected:

“I’m not great with Photoshop, but I can crop a photo if I have to.”
“I think I can do that, just give me a chance to Google it.”
“I can create a Powerpoint presentation but don’t understand all the advanced features.”

We limp along in our digital workplace hindered by our lack of familiarity with the very tools we use to create, perform, and get the job done. We tolerate mediocre capability in ourselves (and each other) seemingly because no one is holding each other to higher standards.

We are constantly struggling to get our tools to do what we want, we waste a lot of time figuring them out. This is due, most immediately, to inadequate training but it boils down to an almost universal acceptance of ignorance.

Software is not complex. In fact, a lot of thought is put into making it as user-friendly as possible. If you struggle with a certain software or performing certain tasks, it’s not because it is challenging, it’s because you haven’t invested the time to train, learn, and master your tools.

It is incredible that people spend at least 8 hours a day using software that is that is so intertwined with their livelihood yet they are okay with squeaking through the day with just enough skill and knowledge to do what they need to. They don’t concern themselves with anything more than what is necessary leaving countless, powerful features underutilized. They have constricted their performance by only learning what is necessary.

They awkwardly stumble through the day, ignorant to how they could be working faster and producing better results.

First, master your operating system.

Pick up a guide to your operating system and read it. Then pick up an advanced guide to your operating system and read that. In fact, don’t just read. Do the exercises and take notes. Then reread it six months later. When you are running up against a deadline, you don’t want to get hung up because you don’t know how to install a printer driver.

Then, master your software.

Make a list of the software that is most closely tied to your productivity. Is it the Office suite? Don’t be so arrogant to think you are proficient. You’ll be amazed what you don’t know about Microsoft Word (let alone Excel).

Read through the software’s documentation. If there is a list of keyboard shortcuts, print them out and post them somewhere in plain sight. If the software is common enough, seek out a tips and tricks guide. If it is a more obscure app, subscribe to the developer’s blog or find a user group and monitor the discussions.

Finally, master your workflow.

Define each task you complete and create a process or system for how it should be done. Put a lot of thought into it. This is where the rubber hits the road and, chances are, unless you’ve done this before, you probably aren’t doing things the best way possible.

Google for other’s tips and tricks for the best ways to handle different situations. There are very efficient ways to do even simple things like checking your inbox and voicemail that you are probably unaware of.

Work without thinking…

When you work, you want to free your mind to concentrate on the task at hand. If you constantly run into knowledge gaps that take you off that focus, you are killing your productivity, creativity, and efficiency.

You should be able to perform tasks without thinking about how to do it. It should become second nature and that only comes through study, practice, and dedication.

It’s not a difficult thing to do, you just need to hold yourself to higher standards, commit, and invest yourself in becoming a better digital worker… one who actually understands his or her tools.

Related posts:

1. Flow State and Computer Work: Get More Done, Faster, and Better.
2. Beginner’s Guide to Small Business Outsourcing – Part 1

July has been a slow month for us. Traffic to our site is down, and there has been a proportional decrease in the flow of new clients coming in. It’s nothing to panic about, it’s just enough to leave me feeling unsettled and therefore very motivated to do something about it.

It has been this uncomfortable slowness that has ultimately made this one of our more successful and productive months. In fact, the work we have done this month will be critical to our future success as we’ve been forced to squeeze more out of less. The discomfort and stress of a lull has led to a much stronger business.

Less traffic to our website forced us to focus on improving our lead capture and follow up. We’ve refined and added to our capture mechanisms and are continuing to add to our follow-up. We’ve switched over to a new CRM and follow-up service (Infusionsoft – which I’ll be writing a review on very soon) and it’s been a fantastic transition.

When traffic picks up again, we’ll get more out of it. Rather than getting 2 leads for every hundred visitors, we’ll now get 7 or more. Better follow up means that more of those leads will eventually become clients. We are talking about at least a 300% boost in lead capture efficiency and that doesn’t account for the more effective follow up. I’ll trade a slow month of sales for that.

When slow times hit, it’s a kick-in-the-pants to get things done that are easy to put off when new clients are rolling in effortlessly. The work that goes into the lean times eventually allows you to more fully capitalize on the times of plenty.

I’ve never operated a business when we weren’t in a recession (we started just as the recession was setting in) and I’m starting to think that is a blessing. When the economy picks back up, we’ll have a tight, efficient operation forged by the constant pressure of a down economy.

I guess this post doesn’t have any brilliant insight you can’t find anywhere else it’s just a reminder to see the silver lining to a tough economy, the opportunity that lies hidden in struggle, and the optimism and strength we can gather from looking at things through a positive lens when it would be easy to do otherwise.

No related posts.

Camel, the cigarette maker, has been doing some interesting things with their product line lately. They are really pushing the envelope and, dare I say, innovating. Those not addicted to tobacco may not even have noticed but over the last year or so they’ve been shaking things up. Other cigarette makers seem content with the tried and true products – “ultra light,” “light,” “full flavor,” and maybe a “menthol” for variety. For an industry that generally seems content with kicking back and letting the money roll in, Camel is really standing out.

For instance, Camel has created a cigarette that, by squeezing on the filter, switches from a regular cigarette to a menthol. You literally decide at any moment you’d rather be smoking a menthol, and, with an audible “Snap!,” you get instant minty coolness.

Camel has also released a tobacco product that isn’t even a cigarette! Camel is leveraging their brand recognition and branching out into entirely new territory. They are now selling snus, a smokeless tobacco product that is popular in Europe that does not require spitting. Now, tobacco brands don’t do this. Skoal, Copehagen, etc. have their smokeless tobacco and Marlboro, Winston, etc. make their cigarettes. Camel is marketing snus as something to use when you can’t smoke. “Enjoy tobacco anytime.”

No matter how much you dislike the tobacco industry, there are quite a few things to respect in what Camel is doing in terms of their product line (please pay attention to that statement, I am not endorsing the products or company or giving my approval, simply noting that to learn from what they are doing and admire in how they are doing it…. in light of that fact that many companies fail to).

Courage

For one thing, it takes courage to branch out and begin making new products when for almost 100 years you’ve only sold one thing (since 1913 to be exact!). Many, many companies don’t have that audacity. Hell, most companies don’t even have the audacity to seriously consider such a drastic move. It helps that Camel has so much money to toy with… but still… there is something to admire there.

Attentiveness

It takes a high level of attentiveness to listen to your market and then develop a product that seems outlandish. Few companies have their ear low enough to the ground to listen to their market, let alone act on what they are asking for with an idea that seems to be walking a thin line between innovative and silly. A cigarette that changes flavors? Seems silly but some “regular” smokers do smoke the occasional menthol just for variety, or only when drinking, etc. I’m sure this isn’t an idea a high level executive had while puffing away on his yacht, this is something Camel would only learn about by keeping their ears open and really considering the feedback they were getting.

Creativity

They are showing creativity in how they are solving the problems of their market. A smoker not being able to smoke for hours is like having a slowly intensifying itch that you are unable to scratch. Now there is a product that scratches that itch indoors, on planes, at work, etc. Not only is there no smoke, but there is no gross spitting as is required with other smokeless tobacco products such as dip and chew. This is a textbook example of creating a product the market wants: “You have this problem, we have the solution.”

Intelligence

It is smart of them to leverage the brand recognition of one offering to enter new territory. Especially with tobacco, there is brand loyalty. You won’t find too many smokers who change brands willy nilly. Further, this is a smart thing to do during a recession – to offer more products and options, to push into new niches, and give customers solutions to real problems.

While other companies are hunkering down, reducing budgets, trimming fat, and all that other “prepare for the worst” recession knee jerking, Camel is leading an industry. No matter how corrupt and despicable that industry is, we need to give credit where credit is due and emulate them if we can… let’s just hope your product doesn’t kill millions of people.

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Just how many cups of coffee do you drink a day on average? How does your weight fluctuate over time? How much sleep do you normally get?  

A new type of web service has emerged that allows you to keep track of such personal statistics. Two services, Daytum and ZeaLOG stand out as the two big players in this arena. What follows is a comparison/review of their features and functionality.

Please note that both services are in beta though you will receive an invite fairly quickly if you request an invitation.

First, a brief intro to each service:

DAYTUM: Daytum has two basic sections. A “display” section (default) and a “data set” section. In “display” you can show graphs and charts of different data sets, called “counters,” as well as put messages to yourself called “statements.” You are limited to 6 displays. In the data set section you are limited to six counters. To create a counter you give it a name and add “items.” For instance, if you were counting the color of cars you saw, you would name it “Car colors” and the items would be “Red,” “Blue,” “Silver,” etc. When a red car went past, you would add an entry to Red. Very simple. It does what it is supposed to without giving you distracting options. 

ZeaLOG: Taking a more flexible approach, ZeaLOG allows you to create “ZeaLOGs” (the Daytum equivalent of a data set) with the options of checkmarks (ex: cleaned kitchen), one chunk at a time (ex: cups of coffee), and current value (ex: my weight).

The comparison…

Ease of use: Both are drop dead simple but Daytum gets the win in this category by virtue of having fewer options. With Daytum, you decide what you are going to track, add the items you are tracking, and that’s basically it. However, its simplicity does come at the price of missing features. For instance, all the data you put on your “display” page is public – there is no option to have certain displays be private. This is unfortunate because there are some data sets I would like to see graphed but simply don’t want the world to be able to access. 

Overall aesthetics: Daytum wins this category. It has the clean-cut, refined feel of an application whose creation was influenced at every turn by a team with a keen attention to detail. In other words, I think “look and feel” was given equal (if not higher) priority than function (and that will be a recurring theme throughout this review). 

Mobile updating: Being able to update your data while “out and about” is vital to the usefulness of these apps. Updates get a timestamp and this yields a lot of useful data in itself if you are able to do updates in realtime as opposed to the next time you are at a computer. Given this, it’s surprising that both applications are lacking in this area. For the time being, both allow updates via Twitter. I’m beginning to feel as though I’m the only person who doesn’t “get” Twitter. Both apps are in need of an iPhone app or, at least, a mobile version of their site. UPDATE: Zealog has an iPhone version of their site: http://iphone.zealog.com. 

Collaboration: Zealog wins here (Daytum has no collaboration feature). It is easy to get started (create accounts and then send invites for specific “ZeaLOGS.”) and works as you would expect. 

Reporting: Daytum opts, again, for clean, classy simplicity over functionality here. For instance, it does not include numbers on the axis of it’s charts. Helps with looks, doesn’t help with comprehending the data. Daytum gets bonus points for use of spark bars. Zealog gives you email updates. This is only necessary when collaborating so it makes sense that Daytum omits this. 

Features in development (?): Daytum may be adding the ability to log your location at the time of a data update. 

The winner: I prefer Daytum over ZeaLOG. However, in situations where more robust reporting and/or collaboration are necessary, ZeaLOG wins by default. The reason I started looking into these tracking apps was that we needed a way to keep track of repeating events at work. I’ve got our team using ZeaLOG and so far it’s working great and everyone is happy with it. However, I will be keeping track of my personal life in Daytum simply because its elegance feels “right” to me.

They are both free and both excellent in their own way so it will be worth your while to test both out.

No related posts.

In his book 4 hour work week, Timothy Ferriss paints a very attractive picture of virtual assistance as the key to an automated lifestyle most only dream of. Can you really outsource most of the mundane details of your life and business creating a carefree existence rarely seen outside of the movies and a business that pours cash into your account on autopilot?

Or is it just hype to sell books?

Here, I will give you my perspective as the owner and operator of a virtual assistant company, LongerDays.com. I’ve seen firsthand how people are leveraging (or failing to) their assistants time so I feel qualified to remark on the claims made by Ferriss. First, an excerpt from the book:

“At a Glance: Where You Will Be

Here is a sneak preview of full automation. I woke up this morning, and given that it’s Monday, I checked my email for one hour after an extquisite Buenos Aires breakfast. Sowmya from India had found a long-lost high school classmate of mine, and Anakool from YMII had put together Excel research reports for retiree happiness and the average annual hours worked on different fields. Interviews for this week had been set by a third Indian virtual assistant, who had also found contact information for the best Kendo schools in Japan and the top salsa teachers in Cuba. In the next email folder, I was pleased to see that my fulfillment account manager in Tennesseee, Beth, had resolved nearly two dozen problems in the last week – keeping our largest clients in China and South America smiling – had also coordinated California sales tax filing with my accountants in Michigan. The taxes had been paid via my credit card on file, and a quick glance at my bank accounts confirmed that Shane and the rest of the team at my credit card processor were depositing more cash than last month. All was right in the world of automation.”

For most small and micro business owners, this is a page torn from a fantasy novel. Less work, more productivity, a growing bank account, and all I have to do is check my email a couple of times a week?

Yes, please!

Let me begin by saying that I do not think that what Mr. Ferriss portrays is infeasible, unrealistic, or that he is a liar. I think the lifestyle he describes is fully attainable through the use of a team of assistants.

However, I do think his is a very high-level use of virtual assistance… not something that the average Joe is going to be able to step into – not immediately and not without significant effort anyway. Most people can’t get their businesses functioning at this level with a team of inhouse employees – it’s even more challenging working with remote employees.

Timothy Ferriss is obviously gifted in the use of systems, automation, and has exquisite management skills. Combined with virtual assistance, he’s been able to create a profitable business that runs on very little input from him freeing him to travel the world and focus on self-actualization.

The key to what he has accomplished is virtual assistance combined with solid systems, automation where possible, and great management working up from the foundation of a good business model. To think that working with a virtual assistant alone will be the key to the lifestyle Tim describes is, frankly, absurd. Virtual assistance in itself will yield limited improvements until your business has clear, defined direction, is effectively using systems, you’ve eliminated inefficiencies, and you’ve honed your management and delegation abilities.

I’ve observed hundreds of people begin the process of delegating to a virtual assistant for the first time, I’ve seen most of the mistakes people make and it is frustrating to observe. Tim gives some fantastic suggestions, tips, and warnings in The 4-Hour Work Week (page 121: “Delegation Dangers: Before Getting Started”). In fact, I think he hits on most of the basic advice I would give to someone getting started. (Someday I’ll write a comprehensive post going into more detail about what new clients can do to avoid common pitfalls. For now, suffice it to say that Tim gives you the warnings and advice you need but it should have received more emphasis. Of course, it wasn’t a book about how to successfully use a virtual assistant so only so much space could be devoted to the subject.)

But, to get the results that Tim is talking about you need to do a little more reading than just The 4 Hour Work Week. Here’s my prescription:

First, to create an organized, focused, evolving small business see “The 6 Disciplines for Excellence” by Gary Harpst. This little known gem has been the only book I’ve been able to connect with – probably because it is for small business owners – very few books you’ll find at the bookstore are. This book has become my small business Bible and I can’t speak highly enough of it. It will give your company focused direction and then help you get there by breaking goals and objectives into progressively smaller chunks. Once you’ve got the direction and goals, you’ll know exactly what to put your VA to work on. Without that, you can never be sure you that your virtual assistant is working on what they should be.

Then, to become a good manager of your remote assistant, I recommend “It’s Okay to Be The Boss: The Step by Step Guide to Becoming the Manger Your Employees Need” by Bruce Tulgan. I think calling this book a step-by-step approach is a little misleading. But, what it will do is thoroughly impress upon you the need to regularly meet with the people you are managing. If there is one critical piece of managing it is regular communication. The physical distance between you and your virtual assistance makes communication even more important. Regular meetings are a MUST, not an option. I recommend that clients schedule a weekly phone call with their VA – frustratingly few heed the advice.

Creating systems is not a difficult thing to do… but it is necessary. If you haven’t already done this, perhaps you don’t appreciate what it means to your business. To gain this appreciation, I recommend the popular “E-myth Revisted” by Michael Gerber. As an added bonus to the section on systems, there will be useful guidance on the difference between working “on” and “in” your business. Once your business is systematized, it’s easy to outsource and delegate to a team of VAs.

After you learn and apply the lessons of these three books, in addition to those found in The 4 Hour Work Week, you can then effectively leverage the time of a virtual assistant or a team of virtual assistants and build the kind of hands-free empire Tim has given you the hope you can achieve. It is this knowledge that bridges the gap between virtual assistance being a time-saving convenience and it being the key to a dramatic lifestyle change and a booming, automated business.

No related posts.

“Flow” is a hyperproductive mental state characterized by complete involvement in the task at hand. Athletes, musicians, and other performance-based workers crave this “zone” that produces some of their best results with less effort. Flow state is the antithesis of multi-tasking, it is the application of all your mental and physical resources toward the accomplishment of a single task.

If you aren’t working in a flow state, you aren’t working at your potential. Digital workers – ranging from graphic designers and writers to programmers and database admins – can harness the power of this psychological state to produce better work, more of it, and in less time. You can also learn to enter this state intentionally rather than by chance and you can learn to stay in it longer.

What follows are tips and suggestions that encourage entering the flow state and staying in it till the work is done. However, keep in mind that your attention should never be on entering the flow state. This would actually make you very unlikely to enter Flow because your attention needs to stay on the task at hand and nothing else.

Remove the necessity to think about time: Have a reliable way of bringing yourself back to self-awareness when necessary. For instance, have an iCal pop-up reminder for appointments or set a timer on your cell phone. Whatever system you choose, you need to have complete confidence in it’s ability to bring you back to reality so that you can let go of any thoughts pertaining to time, your schedule, and obligations for the day.

Create a trigger: By linking the sensation of being in Flow state to a trigger, eventually the presence of the trigger alone will make you significantly more likely to enter flow state. Each time you enter flow state in the presence of that trigger, you are strengthening the connection.

• Decide on a trigger:
  • A smell: Make sure it is a smell that the company will continue to produce or buy a lot of it at once.
    • Scented candle
    • Incense
  • A ritual:
    • Stretching
    • Meditation on a particular subject
  • A sound: If you pick white, pink, or brown noise, only use that noise during flow work. In other words, don’t use it when you are falling asleep. Dedicate the noise to flow work.

Know exactly what you are doing: In order to focus, you’ve got to be clear on what you are trying to accomplish. Deciding what you are working on gives you permission to ignore everything else until later. Deciding what you are going to accomplish makes it harder for you to justify quitting until the goal is reached.

Find motivation for the task: In order to focus, you need to have sufficient reasons to begin working on the task, to devote all your mental resources to it, and to continue working on it after you’ve made sufficient progress to justify stopping.

• Where to find motivation:
  • Connect the task to a larger goal
  • Imagine what it would feel like to want to do the task
    • Pretending will create the same feeling.
    • Once you have it, get to work, don’t question the legitimacy of it.
  • Think about how nice it will be to have it done
  • Imagine what the end result will look like
  • Tie the task to your values
  • Think about what the end result will bring you
  • If all else fails, scare yourself (“If I don’t get this done…”)

Start working: Allow the transition into a deeper and deeper flow state by staying focused on the task at hand and giving yourself positive feedback as you work. 

• If searching for motivation does not naturally transition into beginning the task, start brainstorming ideas about the task.
• If this does not transition into starting the task, just start working.  
• IMPORTANT: As you work, allow yourself to become more and more energized and motivated as you make progress and produce good work. This will deepen the flow state.

No related posts.

For those unfamiliar with StumbleUpon, according to their website, it is a service that “discovers web sites based on your interests. Whether it’s a web page, photo or video, our personalized recommendation engine learns what you like, and brings you more.” Essentially, you install a toolbar to your browser, you tell StumbleUpon what subject matter interests you, and then when you click the “Stumble” button it takes you to a website related to those subjects which you can then rate as “I like it!” or thumbs down. There are currently 6,562,756 StumbleUpon accounts.

StumbleUpon generates revenue by allowing advertisers to purchase “stumbles” for $.05 a visitor. Getting started is so extremely quick and straightforward that you will probably be wondering if missed something important along the way… that is until the visitors start coming. They will start coming very quickly and there will be many of them.

You are able to specify what gender, age, country and state you want your visitors to be in. Unfortunately, they do not have time zone targeting and you cannot, as far as I could tell, select multiple states.You are also able to specify how many visitors you want a day in 100, 250, 500, 1000, 2000, and 3000 increments. Somewhat unique to online advertising, StumbleUpon allows you to see whether viewers liked or disliked your website. This aspect makes it extremely interesting to check your stats (if not addicting).

You can choose in which category your site will appear. There are too many to list here, but for our virtual assistant website, I chose the “Entrepreneur” category as our service appeals most to micro and small business owners.

To give you an idea of how quickly the traffic comes, I purchased $25.00 worth of traffic at 4.37 pm. Visitors started coming to my site within a few minutes and I got an email at 12:04 am letting me know that my funds had been depleted. So, in a little over 8 hours, I recieved 500 visitors to LongerDays.com.

Now, to get down to the nitty gritty, as far as I am aware, none of these 500 visitors signed up for our virtual assistant service – at least not during the time that StumbleUpon was driving traffic. Whether the site was bookmarked for later reference and will at some point yield a client is difficult to tell as StumbleUpon does not provide any kind of tracking code a la Google Adword’s Site Stats.

I monitored the vistors as they came to the site and could see how many of them got past our main page and explored the site and how many of them quickly navigated away. As you would expect, most navigated away within 20-30 seconds but an impressive number lingered past the one minute mark and went 2-4 pages deep into the site. I would estimate that around 5% made it past one page. This may not sound like much but at $.05 a visitor, it seems like a good value to me.

In spite of the fact that we did not get any new client’s, I would have to say that I definitely recommend the service. I think that I will probably be using it differently in the future, such as driving traffic to a specific blog post (rather than our main website on virtual assistance), as this more closely aligns with the type of content one typically finds on StumbleUpon and I think it would be better received. For instance, a blog post on “Four ways to leverage a virtual assistant to boost your small business” would probably do very well in the “Entrepreneurship” category.

In my mind, this is a great online advertising tool if you are looking to generate some buzz around a specific piece of content on your site that others would find interesting, unique, or useful – these seem to be the three things Stumblers, like Diggers, are drawn to.

Related posts:

1. Testing out Squidoo