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

A few weeks ago I “had” to justify the purchase of an iPad as a business expense. I’ll admit, rationalizing the purchase of a piece of hardware you haven’t handled, and don’t yet know the apps/capabilities it will have, is not easy.

However, I was able to come up with 10 fairly solid reasons I “need” it for work based on apps I know exist and apps I can reasonably expect to exist very soon:

1. LogMeIn on the iPad will allow me to exit my sometimes noisy office (for instance, when I need to find a quiet place for a conference call) and still have access to my desktop.
2. 3G will allow me to get work done while on the road, out to lunch, and other situations when I have no wi-fi.
3. The Wallet or 1Password iPad app will allow me to safely access sensitive information away from my desk. For instance, when I am placing an order on behalf of a client.
4. At home, the tablet form factor lends itself to a more comfortable, relaxed work style suited to half-work/half-lazy time – creating a presentation while watching movie, for instance. Also, I probably won’t be yelled at for working all the time as the iPad won’t be associated with work.
5. A dedicated place for task management. When it comes to task management, I am torn between paper and the incredible, feature-rich Mac apps (Omnifocus, Things, The Hit List). Paper is great because it doesn’t get lost in a sea of open window pollution – it sits there on my desk, in plain sight, haunting me. The iPhone apps are great but the screen-size does limit their usefulness to occasional reference and on-the-go additions. By having the Omnifocus iPad app on display at all times, it offers a best of both worlds solution.
6. Information intake, processing, and storage. Part of being a business owner is staying aware of trends, on top of the latest and greatest in technology, marketing, strategy, and constantly learning. For me, a lot of this takes place on my iPhone, in bed, as I’m falling asleep. I go through my RSS subscriptions, send what appears useful to Instapaper, from there I read through it, and anything worthwhile gets emailed to my inbox for placement in our company wiki the next morning. Inefficient? Very (but it does make me sleepy). With an iPad, this all becomes easier. No longer am I staring at a 5″ x 2.5″ screen (or whatever the dimensions are) which definitely makes reading easier but I fully expect that the additional screen real estate will be leveraged by app developers to make this whole situation easier. For instance, dragging a blog post to a “bin” for Instapaper, email, etc. rather than having to click hold, bring up a menu, select the service I am interested in, etc. A small thing? Yes. But I think we all share the problem of information overload these days and anything that makes sifting through and processing information easier, and faster helps relieve the bottleneck.
7. By having an iPad and using the apps, I will be in touch with the unique aspects of app design for the iPad making developing our own iPad app that much easier and the end result that much better.
8. It’s amazing what I remember I didn’t get done but should have – research, sending files, etc. – on the drive to an offsite meeting. Having the iPad there to play last minute catch-up – word processing, presentation tweaks, emailing files, etc. – will be priceless and save precious time over trying to get it done on the iphone. The Dropbox app, which houses all my business files, makes this all possible.
9. Networking. The iPad has gotten enough buzz and media attention that it’s on most people’s radar. It’s a great conversation piece. When I’m in public using the iPad and someone stops to gawk, it’s inevitable that the conversation will turn to, “What do you do for a living?” at some point.
10. I just really, really want one… err… it will improve my morale and job satisfaction.

More than anything, after seeing what developers have been able to do with iPhone apps, I am confident that the increased processing power and screen real estate is going to open doors to productivity and business apps I haven’t even imagined. Two days till iPad day (04/03)!!!

Related Blogs

• Apple iPad Review: Laptop Killer? Pretty Close. | Walt Mossberg …

Related posts:

1. 18 iPhone Apps for Small Business Owners and Entrepeneurs
2. This Week’s Top Three: Grow Your Business, Double Your Sales, and Improve Your Blog

Basecamp is the subscription-based, hosted 100 pound gorilla – everyone’s heard of him and he’s a crowd favorite. ActiveCollab is the one-time fee, open source, server-side, up-and-coming contender.

Distinct but balanced pros and cons make this battle too close to call in advance. It will depend on what fits the needs of your organization as one isn’t clearly better than the other.

We’ve been using Basecamp since 2007. From the beginning, Basecamp wasn’t a perfect solution for us. In our line of work as virtual assistants, clients want frequent updates on their time usage. Basecamp doesn’t allow clients to see time entries in a project – the option just doesn’t exist. So, we are forced to use a script to generate these reports for each client every evening. This is a $250/month fee in addition to what we already pay for Basecamp.

That’s frustrating in itself, but we started running into a lot of problems with Timepost which posts time entries into Basecamp. This is the only solution available for Mac OS X (we are 100% mac) so this is a major problem.

The combination of spending more than I felt we should have to and being inconvenienced by manually entering hundreds of time entries onto projects each day got me looking into other solutions. I stumbled into ActiveCollab, tried out the demo, and ended up becoming enamored with it. We are in the process of (slowly) switching our entire organization over.

Here’s a pro – con comparison to explain why:

ActiveCollab by A51 d.o.o:

- CON: You run the risk of hosting it. Your server goes down for some reason, your clients get upset.

- CON: Those clients who are already familiar with Basecamp may be annoyed with having to learn the (minor) differences between the two.

- PRO: You pay for it and you have it. No subscription fees.

- PRO: Much greater control over permissions and roles. Basecamp is extremely limited by comparison.

- PRO: “Modules” allow you to extend functionality versus more closed, Basecamp.

- Recurring tasks

- Fast planning

- Detailed reports

- Billing

- PRO: Very similar functionality is going to make it easy to switch.

- PRO: “Tickets” functionality is useful and a definite advantage over Basecamp – though not yet robust enough for larger organizations.

- PRO: Clients can access time entries and run their own reports (unlike Basecamp)

- PRO: Mobile/iPhone version means clients on the go can easily access their Client Area (project). Do note that the iPhone version allows you to access project information but not add or edit tasks, pages, tickets, etc. I was disappointed by this. It’s nice that they have it but the mobile version is crippled in terms of functionality.

- PRO: “Themes” allow you to match the look and feel of ActiveCollab to your website (Basecamp only allows you to change colors).

- PRO: Invoicing module for service based businesses and Subversion module for programmers.

Basecamp by 37signals:

- CON: No modules means you are limited to what they deem “necessary” and “unnecessary” in terms of features and functionality. Their minimalist approach means you can expect them to error on the side of “less functionality and features” in favor of “ease of use and simplicity.”

- PRO: OpenID log in and your login can be linked to other offerings in the 37signals ecosystem.

- PRO: iPhone apps can interact with it.

- PRO: Some clients are already familiar with it and so can “get up and go” with us right away.

- PRO: They host it so I don’t have to worry about getting SSL, backing it up, etc.

For our company, I like knowing that we can modify ActiveCollab’s code if needed and add new modules to extend functionality. If the functionality of Basecamp perfectly meets your needs, and you don’t mind paying a monthly subscription, the hassle of self-hosting may not be worth it.

Related posts:

1. Zealog versus Daytum: A Review of Apps That Help You Keep Track of Things

After signing up with Infusionsoft, a combination CRM, shoppingcart, autoresponder, email marketing service, I did my (backward) due diligence by seeking out some reviews on the company. I was quite excited about the service and expected to hear great things. I was shocked to find how many negative reviews there were. Complaints ranged from it being a complete scam to it being so buggy it was useless and almost impossibly confusing to set up. There were whole forum threads with people complaining back and forth about how much Infusionsoft sucks.

After using it for about two months now, I’m more than a little perplexed by the negative reviews and commentary. I don’t know if that was a much earlier release or experiences with a much younger company but, overall, I’ve got great things to say about Infusionsoft so far.

I do have two small complaints. First, the salespeople will cross lines to get you to sign up. Case in point, I asked if Infusionsoft could allow someone to have access to my calendar and book appointments with me through our website (something I am currently using BookFresh for – also a great service). My salesperson said, “Yes, I’ve seen it do that.” It doesn’t do that. What he should have said was, “Yes, you can do this but you will have to pay a programmer to add the capability using the API.”

The second is them doing away with their (rather large) upfront fees two weeks after I signed up and then not doing anything for me but that goes for any technology – I’ve had similar “screwed by not waiting two weeks” experiences with purchasing laptops and phones too so it would silly to begrudge them that. The pricing is now $199 to $399 per month depending on the package you choose. They also offer a 15 day free trial.

Now on to the positive – what’s so great about Infusionsoft?

It rolls your CRM, shopping cart, and email marketing into one integrated system so that they can communicate with one another and automate many updates and tasks that would normally need to be done manually. Most of this is done using “tags” and “action sets.”

When someone enters our sales funnel by requesting the free report from our website, they can be tagged with anything – “Free report requester,” “Receiving follow-up sequence,” and “Prospect,” for instance. Then, an autoresponder will continuously follow up with them. Nothing crazy new so far – that’s what autoresponders do. I can also create an “action set” to create a task so that when someone signs up, I get an action item automatically assigned to me, “Email prospect to ask if they have any questions.” pop up after three days. Rather than having to run a report from my autoresponder to see who signed up three days ago, a to-do is automatically generated. That’s the kind of slick automation that defines Infusionsoft.

ANALYTICS USING TAGS:

If this prospect goes on to sign up with us I can then have Infusionsoft automatically remove the “Prospect” tag and apply the “Client” tag. By looking at the tags I have a way of knowing how each client came to be a client. Did they request the free report from our website? On which page of our website did they opt-in? After which autoresponder message did they sign up? These are questions I can answer *by client* using tags. It’s true that an analytics package could tell me the paths certain visitors took through our site but they are anonymous. With Infusionsoft I can look at our best group of clients and say, “The clients we want tend to do these things while they are on our website.” That’s pretty good to know.

TASK ASSIGNMENT:

I can have Infusionsoft create tasks based on any event. When a new client signs up for our service, there are a few things we need to take care of: we need to get their client area set up, we need to create and send an NDA, etc. These tasks are automatically created, assigned, and the person responsible is notified via email and then has to check off the task when it is complete. Very handy.

NO ADDITIONAL FEES:

Their shopping cart does not have any fees – monthly or per transaction. Of course, your paying dearly for the service itself but it is nice to do away with the separate fees we were paying.

AFFILIATE SOFTWARE:

To be honest, I have not tested their affiliate software yet so I cannot speak to it’s accuracy at tracking sales. However, assuming it is up to par, having this be part of the same system is quite convenient. More than I am interested in it for rolling out an affiliate program, it can also be used to encourage and track sales from referrals. A new client can automatically become an “affiliate” and be emailed a tracking link that they can use to get referrals.

“ALL-IN-ONE,” INTEGRATED SYSTEM:

By far the biggest benefit of using Infusionsoft is doing away with the many services I was using before. I had my autoresponder, shopping cart, CRM, and email client. None of them talked to each other so I was spending time forcing them to stay on the same page. A new client signing up meant that I had to manually remove them from our marketing follow-up so that they didn’t keep getting sales material. I also had to manually go into my CRM and change them from prospect to client. And so on. To keep these disparate systems communicating was something time-consuming and tedious enough that, admittedly, I just didn’t stay on top of it which is a shame. By having all of these rolled into one, Infusionsoft can do all the work and do it automatically. They even offer a very useful Outlook plug-in. Not being a Windows user, I only tested it. I hope they come out with something comparable for us Mac users soon because it is very cool.

EDUCATION AND COACHING:

One thing that Infusionsoft does really well is push you into actually using and implementing the features once you’ve signed up. It’s obvious that they want you to use their software and this is a strong indication they believe in it which I like. After you sign up, you’ll get plenty of ideas about how to use their software to increase your sales. They are big on affiliate programs, referral programs, lead collection, and consistent follow-up. You’ll get an education on each of these and tips on how to get Infusionsoft to automate the processes as much as possible.

CONCLUSION:

It’s really something you need to use before you can see how it would benefit you. I don’t know if the sales staff there is still offering over-the-phone demos but I’d recommend getting one if you aren’t thrilled with your current CRM, autoresponder, or shopping cart. I feel strongly enough about it that I’ll be encouraging any client that can afford it to sign up with them. Once you see what it is like, your mind will probably be swimming with ideas for things it could do for you. What I’ve found is that you’ve really got to invest a lot of time getting things set up and running at the beginning. Later on, you just won’t be as motivated and months will go by without fully implementing it.

If nothing else, I recommend that you download their free report, “The Edge of Success” and see if you agree with their philosophy and approach to marketing and increasing your sales.

*** Yes, I’m an affiliate of Infusionsoft and if you sign up after clicking on a link in this article, I will get a commission. For the record, I’m only involved with two affiliate programs – Infusionsoft and Basecamp – so it’s not like I will promote anything willy nilly. This is a product I believe in.

Related posts:

1. Discover Exactly What Matters to Your Prospects

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.

“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.

In a job where multi-tasking is an inseparable part of the job, such as virtual assistance, any tool that helps you more closely focus on what you are doing becomes priceless. Obviously, eliminating distraction is a key part of focus so stumbling upon the free Think app by Freeverse was a valuable find for us.

The app does one thing and does it well – it blacks out everything except the window you are working in, the dock, and the bar at the top of the screen.

The Think app is one of those beautiful, intuitive apps that make you glad you are using Mac OS X all over again. Remarkably easy to use, it keeps things simple while doing everything that you expect it should. You can change the background color, the opacity of the background, switch between apps, and close the program all from a small toolbar that fades into the background when not needed.

I’m sure there are keyboard shortcuts for switching between apps but I have not bothered to look into it because having to mouse to the app’s toolbar in preparation for window switching prompts an important thought: “Should I really be multi-tasking right now?”

Related posts:

1. Using Fluid to save frequently used web apps as “real” Mac apps
2. Leopard’s Spaces plus Parallels equals seamless switching between OS X and Windows

We use a lot of web-based applications so an application like Fluid, which allows you to create Mac apps out of web apps, is extremely useful to us here. Especially when it works flawlessly… which it does. After testing out Mozilla’s Prism, Fluid was clearly the better app of the two though their function is identical.

At first I wasn’t sure how useful this would be but after I got used to change in my workflow I’ve become convinced that Fluid is priceless. Basically, the greatest advantage is just being able to access these web apps from the dock instead of having to pick the right browser window and then find the right tab.

Unfortunately, I have not been able to get the dock badges to work with our Gmail accounts. Perhaps because we use hosted Gmail?

Related posts:

1. Leopard’s Spaces plus Parallels equals seamless switching between OS X and Windows