Even when I write, sketch, or draw in a notebook I never plan on letting someone else see, I have an imagined audience. I feel like someone is looking over my shoulder looking at all my crappy sketches, and stupid thoughts.
Things like this Flickr set make me feel pressure to have gorgeous creative notebooks. I feel like if I don’t, then I’ve somehow failed, or I’m not doing it right.
A while back though, I gave myself permission to use my notebooks for “junk.” Not for finished art. Not to frame. Not to brag about. But to really quickly get ideas out of my head, and thought through in a visual way.
My notebooks aren’t going to be in a museum 500 years from now like DaVinci, and that’s ok. My brain kicks out lots of ideas and 90% of them are bad. I use notebooks to record and sort those ideas, most of which aren’t worth the paper they’re written on.
Giving myself permission to treat a notebook like a tool, not something precious, has been a good thing in my life. Do you have self conscious thoughts like this that keep you from being more productive?
A question we get asked quite a bit is how to explain Jumpchart to clients… so we worked a little something up:
(Client’s name,)
You’ve probably heard us mention Jumpchart in bits of our conversations- here’s a little more information on it as we move forward.
When putting together your website, there are certain steps we take as a studio to make sure we give you the best finished product possible. The first step is figuring out what order your site’s pages will go in, and what content will go on which pages. The next steps include designing and programming. Jumpchart is an online tool we use specifically for the first step of this process.
It gives us visual access to what the site will look like from a navigational and content point of view. We understand it can be a little tricky to imagine your site without design incorporated, but Jumpchart helps us optimize the layout and content of your site: the backbone. It gives us a really solid foundation to build on.
Here’s what will happen: You’ll receive an invitation to the Jumpchart we created for your site. When you accept the invitation you’ll be able to see progress we’ve made, as well as make your own suggestions in the comments section. You can even edit content on the actual pages. It’s like a meeting room between us- but we don’t all have to be there at the same time!
If you have questions, please let us know- we’re all about collaboration and communication.
Well how are we supposed to do our jobs if we’re not at the flippin’ monitor? If your work day is anything like mine- everything takes place at the computer, leaving you few options. On that same note, our team works remote a lot of the time, so in order to communicate effectively, we need to be available… via e-mail, chat or Skype. That doesn’t leave much time for me to escape to the gym.
Turns out you don’t have to do that much exercise to tip the scale in your favor, according to this other Newser.com article.Keep Reading
I semi-religiously read the NY Times online. it’s sometimes frustrating inside of a browser, but the writing is amazingly worth the effort. Even on the iPhone, it’s worth all the pinching to get at that great content.
I have never in a decade of post-college adulthood subscribed to a physical newspaper. I have subscribed to a few printed magazines (mostly as received gifts) but for more than a year have subscribed to none.
However I’m what I would consider a voracious consumer of content. I read blogs, books (both virtual and digital) listen to podcasts, and lots of audiobooks. So it’s not that I lack the wherewithal, or the desire to read a daily newspaper. Keep Reading
This short article by Neven Mrgan reminded me of something I was always going to mention. The iPhone voice recognition system is not perfect, – but it’s the very first time I’ve ever used speech to control a device where I felt like it worked. From hands free calling, to picking playlists, it’s actually improved my life. For the record, I wholeheartedly second Neven’s additions of these new commands:
“What time is it?”
“New voice memo”
And I’d like to add to the list:
“Play Audiobook:”
Although the music selection is fantastically implemented, I always have to do a hack playlist to get an audiobook to play.
Good Job Google. For those of us who were starting to wonder if you had lost your way a bit, this is a really great thing to read about. There is a case to be made for “doing whatever good you can in a bad situation.” From an outsider’s point of view though, this seems like the move most in keeping with #6 here: http://www.google.com/corporate/tenthings.html
Paste Interactive is a small app studio that makes cool, smart tools to help next generation workers work better, simpler, and faster.
