Introducing Notifire 2.0 and SignalKit

Last Friday, I launched version 2.0 of Notifire, the web based application I launched back in June. Along with this new version, we're also launching a new product, under which Notifire is going to live moving forward, called SignalKit.

The idea behind SignalKit is that it's a suite of tools designed to work specifically with the products made by 37signals.

Those of you who have been reading my blog for a while know how highly I speak of them, their products, and their books. I'm really excited about what we're doing, and you can check out the first post launching the SignalKit product over on The SignalKit blog.

I'm collaborating on SignalKit with a company called Braintrust & Co, founded by a guy named TK (Tawheed Kader). This name might sound familiar to you, as I mentioned him in a post looking back on 2010. I'm extremely excited to be working with TK, and his involvement allows us to take this idea to an entirely new level.

By working together, we're both going to be able to focus on the things we're great at, play around in the things that we're interested in, and hand off some weaknesses we'd rather not work on. (Hey, it's cool, we all have them.)

I, for example, have learned there is a certain depth inside a controller that I'd rather not go.

I'll be acting as a sort of product owner & designer. I'll be working on which tools we should be building, how they fit in with the 37signals products, and how they would make sense to core groups of 37signals users. I'll be working a lot on the User Experience and making sure that things flow the way we want in and out of the various tools, and that our apps are interacting with the 37signals applications in the right way.

TK will be focusing on what he's great at. Building out awesome prototypes, integrating with others - like payment systems, messaging systems, etc., - and moving in stages towards a more refined product.

It would be very difficult for me to overstate how happy I am to be working with TK on this, and I'm really looking forward to a lot of great things.

I hope you check out what we're working on and I'll be sure to keep you posted. And don't forget to check out the SignalKit blog - where we'll be posting about what we're building, what we're thinking, and what we're learning.

Freedom?

I won't pretend to know every detail about the events leading up to the riots in Egypt right now. I don't. What I do know however is that some of the same themes that have been played out before are being played all over again. This time though, shining a brighter light than ever in recent memory on the hypocrisy of the American government.

As the people of Egypt take to the streets demanding the removal of their dictator, President Mubarak, President Obama, Nobel Peace Prize winner and supposed agent of change, sits in the White-House holding back the very thing America claims to stand for. Freedom.

The problem, of course, is that America does not support freedom in the Middle East. Not unless it comes with our soldiers, our politicians, our guns, and our bombs so that we can shape the outcome. Freedom that we can't control is considered a danger to our national interests.

And herein lies the challenge for our country. We are faced with the truth that while our soldiers are dying in Afghanistan and Iraq, supposedly in the name of spreading and protecting freedom and Democracy, our president could hep liberate a nation with nothing more than his words. And yet he remains silent.

Remember when those of us who supported Obama believed that yes, a President could make a difference with words? Turns out we were right. If only the man we supported would live up to the hope that he created.

Our Nobel Peace prize winning President cannot decide yet whether he should support the millions of people marching in the streets of Egypt so that they might be free, or whether he should help Mubarak retain power, as long as there is "meaningful change."

As if you can win a game of chess without taking out the king.

His indecision no doubt lies in the reality that indeed, a free Egypt might be terrible for America, and the American people. Maybe. Maybe not. We have no idea because we have no idea who would be in power. Scary.

The truth is, we cannot claim to support democracy, without supporting the Egyptian people. And we will no longer be able to pretend that the wars we're fighting have anything to do with freedom or democracy.

While I was writing this I came across this quote from Thomas Paine:

Those who expect to reap the blessing of freedom must, 
like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it.

It seems to be pretty relevant to America right now, and whether we're going to support the Egyptian people.

Podcast Episode Eight: Foiled Cupcakes

In my latest podcast, I interviewed Mari Luangrath of Foiled Cupcakes, a gourmet cupcake delivery company based in Chicago.  Over the course of about a year, Mari has built a fun, profitable, growing business without a storefront; leveraging Twitter and Facebook to get the word out about her company.

Big thanks to Mari for sharing some of what she's learned along the way.  You can check Foiled Cupcakes out at http://foiledcupcakes.com and follow Mari on Twitter at @foiledcupcakes.

You can listen right here in the post, and of course, subscribe to the podcast in iTunes as well.
Thanks again Mari!

Embrace opportunities to climax

No, I'm not talking about that.

What I am talking about is consciously seeking out opportunities (or making them) that require focus, effort, risk, and of course, ultimately sharing your creation with the world. I think if most of us are truly honest with ourselves, we'll find that we're not climaxing professionally nearly as much as we should be.

Often times, we make our way through the days and weeks, which can lead to months and years, without actually having a moment where we literally stand up, jump up and down, and say "Fuck yeah, I made that!"

We need to climax more.

The beauty is that this looks different for different people. For you, maybe it's starting a blog. Maybe it's launching that side business you've been thinking about. Maybe it's spending a significant amount of money placing an ad on The Deck because you think your idea is that good. Maybe it's launching another product that you think can change everything again.

I'll share a little secret with you. You know that GoFind application I made for Android phones? Well it's gotten a few pretty terrible reviews from some users. Either it didn't work correctly on their phone due to the fragmentation problems with Android, or I wasn't clear enough with the instructions and some people didn't get it, or they were inside and couldn't get a GPS signal.

But you know what I think about when I think about that app? I think about standing outside in the freezing cold, on the roof of my building, putting one phone in one corner of the roof and running to the other, and seeing the application work for the first time. Literally jumping up and down because the idea was real, it worked, and there it was, sitting in my hands.

The good feelings from that will always outweigh any negative criticism I might get. And so whatever it is that you're thinking about making, whatever you're thinking about sharing with the world, whatever idea you have that might allow you to work for yourself, you should do it.

Because climaxing feels good; and most likely, we're not doing it nearly as much as we should be.

The 3Cs workflow

I've been thinking about a new idea for managing my day to day workflow for a while, which I fully implemented today and so far it's working really great. I figured I'd share what I'm doing and then maybe in a month or so I'll provide another update to see if it works as well as I'm now hoping it will.

The 3 Cs

The "3Cs" stand for Create, Communicate, and Consume. The idea here is that pretty much anything I'm doing in a given day falls into one of these three categories. There is some slight overlap, but not much really. And sure, I could break things down more, but I think these are just about right.

If I'm building a website, writing a blog post, or even writing up notes from a discussion, I'm creating. If I'm checking or sending email, responding to IMs, or having a phone call, I'm communicating. And if I'm reading websites, checking my RSS reader, watching a TedTalk, or listening to a podcast, I'm consuming.

These are the 3Cs and I'm now modifying how I go about doing my work based on these key groups.

Implementing the 3Cs

At first, I was thinking of using the spaces feature on my Mac. The problem with this is that an open application in one space still shows up as an open application in another space. The windows are different, but the applications are not. This means that I could still get interrupted by an IM, or be tempted to read my Reader or email. So that didn't work.

Then I thought about getting different actual computers, but that seemed like overkill.

The solution? Leveraging different accounts on the Mac. (Hat tip to TK)

I'm using my main account as my "create" space - mainly because I already have a bunch of websites, apps, and other things in this account and it would have been more work than I wanted to move everything to a new account. It also means my *default* space is the creation space, which I like very much.

Then, I created an account titled "Communicate" and another account titled "Consume".

In the Communicate space I have my email, set up my Adium and Skype chat clients, along with my Basecamp projects and Campfire rooms. I also have my TeuxDeux list and Pandora open (the only two programs open in every account.)

In the "Consume" account, I have my RSS reader, any web page I want, along with Twitter and Facebook. Now, I could have had Twitter and Facebook open in the Communicate account, but there's a very good reason why I don't. While yes, it's true that I'm communicating in Twitter and Facebook, I'm mainly consuming. I'll see an interesting post, an article I want to read, or some thread I want to follow. These are distractions that generally lead to some sort of web consumption.

The last thing I want to be doing when I'm sending an important email or having an important conversation over IM is to get distracted by a Twitter feed.

The problem this solves

I think for all of us, we need to be careful how we're handling distractions, and this is a way for me to do that. This not only allows me to focus on what I've decided is important at that time, but it forces me to be honest with myself about what I'm actually doing.

If I'm working on a website and also having an IM conversation, I'm actually not doing either one of those things very effectively. And while yes, an IM conversation might be a distraction at a particular time of the day, it very well may be an important conversation that needs to be had.

And, I've learned a TON by listening to podcasts such as Mixergy; I learn about things happening in the world by checking the NY Times; and I keep up with various people on their blogs. I've been hearing about a lot of people that are consciously consuming less content, and that's great. But I think a lot of us could do well to remember that many of our creations came from the inspiration that often comes from consuming good stuff.

I have no desire to stop consuming quality content.

It's all good. It's all equal. It's just different.

What I've realized is that feeling bad about not working on a website while I'm watching a Ted talk is actually just as much of a distraction as getting an IM while I'm building an App.

What this workflow forces me to do is simply to be honest about what I'm going to be doing for a given time period. If I shouldn't listen to a podcast right now - then I don't go into the consumption account. Easy!

If I want to watch three video podcasts because I think I'll be smarter and better off after? Awesome! But thinking I'm going to check email and have worthwhile conversations during them? Not so much.

And if I'm designing a site, or thinking about how to link pages together, or writing a blog post, or doing any of the other creative things I'm doing, my communication apps are nowhere to be found. They're not hidden, they don't have notifications turned off, or anything like that. They are closed completely; 100% inaccessible unless I launch the apps themselves.

Feeling the cost of context switching

Ultimately what I think this does is it makes me really feel the cost of context switching, and so I don't do it. It's less effort to finish out the thing I'm working on than it is to jump over to another app.

So far so good

I've had a great day today, and have been more productive, communicated better, and felt like the flow to my day was better than it's been in a while.

I'll check back in a month or so to let you know how it's going. But, so far, it's off to a great start.