Family time! -- Jun. 13, 2010
- Revise the Privacy Policy & TOC.
- Pick out the Billboards to bring with me to Toronto, which likely means flipping through most of 'em.
- If I can, take some preliminary looks at the Survey Data.
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One thing not taken into account for this weekend: the fact that I had two long family events. Yesterday was a cousin's 50th birthday. Today was a different cousin's wedding cocktail party. Both, of course, were much longer than anticipated. And hey, being a jungle gym for a couple of eight-year-olds ended up proving to be an ample weekend-workout!
Another great fringe benefit of the family functions was the sheer amount of reading time. Waiting to leave the house, the drive there, waiting for decisions to be made, the drive back, walking the dogs upon return... all of them lent amazingly well to my new reading process. Which I kinda wanted to share with you.
My mother recently bought an iPhone -- yes, it arrived the day before the iPhone 4 was announced. And yes, I warned her to wait -- so I inherited her old iPod Touch. As I may have written about before, I pretty much hadn't opened my RSS reader in months, as there's been way too much stuff going on. I had been letting good articles come to me.
Well, I declared RSS bankruptcy, cleared out some obsolete feeds from my Google Reader, installed NetNewsWire on the iPod, and threw in Instapaper for good measure.
The combination of those three applications is now my favourite thing. Ever. Flip through the headlines on Google Reader (if at my laptop) or NNW (if on my iPod and around Wifi). Instapaper the ones worth reading. Download 'em to the iPod before I leave the Wifi signal. Read, read, read. Star anything worth sharing/commenting on. While that may read as a lot of actions, it's actually a super-smooth flow.
Anyway, two things I found really gelled with what I've been up to lately:
First and foremost, there's this amazing (and short) piece from Marco Arment (lead developer of Tumblr and Instapaper), explaining how he writes and manages his time. While I'm writing this blog for mostly archival purposes (as well as giving potential investors/partners insight into how I work/think), I've used a less well-thought-out version of his writing advice before. As for the productivity advice... well, you guys should know by now how I love working into the evenings because that's when I can most effectively crank shit out.
Second, Sachin Agarwal (of Posterous fame) wrote about how accounts get in the way of startups working together. His main thesis is: if you want to partner with someone, prepare to integrate, not just link. Posterous integrates with your email, and builds its APIs around where they want to be integrated, not just how they want people to use their service. And it's brilliant, and a specific application of a more broad point I tend to help friends with: when trying to reach out to others, don't bring them into your fold... bring your fold to them.
Oh, and third (I like to give extras) is this piece by Alex Kessinger, talking about how his kids have made him more productive. The point about his incomplete to-do lists shouldn't come as any surprise to anyone who actually reads this blog...
Anyway, I head to Toronto in about 8 hours. Which means I need to be up in ~6. And I have a crapload of work to do on the bus.
I'm going to try and knock out this PP & TOS business really quick-like, then head to bed while watching tonight's episode of True Blood. (edit: DONE!)
See ya, folks!
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Lessons learned:
- Family rules.
- Reading rules.
- Well defined processes rule.
Tomorrow's homework:
- Process all of my emails.
- Follow up on fundraising pieces.
- Deal with party logistics (sound, schedule, beer)
- Review Survey results, compile a couple of neat facts.
- Prepare Launch Marketing Plan (Wednesday through Wednesday).
- Come up with a few potential sound bites for the panel.
- Deal with Finance stuffs.
