You need to love your tools. If you're doing any sort of business, then time is money, as the saying goes. And to make effective use of your time, you need to throw yourself into your work. And that all stems from what tools you use.
This really started making sense to me when Apple profiled 37signals about their work. I had been thinking about loving what you work with for awhile, but 37signals really made the thought more tangible for me. They maintain that working on a Mac helps them develop code faster. I think everything revolves around finding how you work best and then focusing on that.
Work should be a joy. Or, at the very least, you shouldn't dread your work. If you're an entreprenuer or make any sort of product that others use, this should really be taken to heart. I've found that working on a Mac does that for me. I love sitting down and working in TextMate or using AppleScript to simplify my life. To me, I'll spend the extra money so that I can feel excited about work.
Another example- on Good-Tutorials, I sell advertising. For the past year or two I almost hated filling out orders. Orders brought in cash, which is always great, but I had such a lackluster system- get an email, ask for details, fill in the details in a clumsy spreadsheet, and then hope that I remember to look back at the spreadsheet from time to time to see when the advertising's term had expired. It was not a joy to use, and it impacted my business. That long process resulted in delays- not conscious delays (who wants to miss out on revenue?), but the process was lengthy and a pain for me to use. This summer I started using Blinksale, an amazing online invoicing system. I can manage recurring billing through Blinksale so those who stick with me month-to-month will automatically get invoices, and it's such a joy to use the product that it's actually fun for me to go in and fill out new invoices. This means I can get to new advertisers in a timely fashion because I now love to do it. I've cut out the cludgy middleman I used to have, and now I think it will end up in greater returns in the long term.
This doesn't have to be strictly business-related, either. I used to have problems remembering dates or meetings or things like that, and then I got a smartphone over the summer so that I can sync my dates with iCal. I really hate my phone (that's another story entirely), but I did like that I could see my day at a glance, and that led to me using the system more. The result was that I'm more in control of my day-to-day life. Finding new solutions to pains leads to me working more efficiently in life. When I start running regularly again (which will be soon, I hope!), I think I'll look into the Nike + iPod integration for this same reason: it will help me stay motivated to run and to keep improving, because I would then have a great tool to help analyze my runs and goals.
If there's one lesson that's become a no-brainer over the years, it's that you can't stay frustrated if you see a better alternative. If it'll make you more productive and enjoy your tasks more, spend the few extra dollars up front, since it will probably pay for itself many times over in the future.
Oops, I had auto-moderate comments on for a second. Should throw comments up once you submit them now.
Sometimes it's strange to look back at when you changed to a new application, for example, and notice how much of a change it really was. You might thing the switch to a new version of an app isn't that big of a deal, but in hindsight that small change might end up being your favorite part of the program. Too bad that it's sometimes hard to see that right away so you don't end up wasting time.
(By the way- what do you mean by "slight link in the colour scheme"?)
Yer I noticed about the auto-moderation, said there was no comments, and that mine was awaiting lol But for the link in colour scheme, I mean to GT, using the same sort of blues and the white. I know its rather common nowadays but with the blue header and the light blue and white pages it does give a slight resemblence to GT, if you see what I mean?
When I switched from Photoshop CS to CS2 there were some slight changes that well... didnt seem right in my mind. Such as Ctrl+Click a layer used to select layer transparency, now its to select multiple layers. Once I got round that, some of the new features of photoshop realy help sometimes.
Yeah, I can see that. I like blues in web design I guess; not too bright, not too dark. I'm sure this blog in particular will get a lot of refreshes, though, so there'll probably be new color schemes in the future.
Hey Zach - nice new blog :)
I recently started using Blinksale as well to invoice my clients for jobs - I used to use PayPal and after 15 days the invoices dissapear to never be seen again (as is PayPal's lovely navigation). It's so much less of a hassle - I get professional invoicing that I can customise using my own CSS to match my site and all in return for $10 or so a month? Worth it by a mile :)
The ability to CC the invoices to my own e-mail and to an accountant - simply brilliant. They've recently put in basecamp (or backpack, i forget) integration.. so the wonders never stop. I just can't say enough good about the service!
Exactly! Blinksale really needs to be promoted some more (I've been planning a blog writeup or two about the service). I've been noticing that I'm really digging these small services like Backpack and Blinksale- I really don't mind paying the few bucks a month for the quality product I get in return. And yes, PayPal's system is horrendous. Looking at their history section is abysmal- what a sluggish way to view ten records at a time or whatever they make you do.
I also really like the fact that Blinksale is really open- I like that I can rely on my personal backups of my data just in case I accidentally delete an invoice or - god forbid - Blinksale's servers explode accidentally one day. Getting your data locked into a service is so 1998.
I currently have a few websites on the go and also have a few on going webdev jobs and tbh I have no real system in place for billing, blinksale looks amazing and is definetly something I will try out in the next week or so. I have never kept upto date with anyones blog on the web but maybe I will visit here often, keep on posting and I will keep on reading.
Good job Zach
Luke Daly
Nice new blog Zach!
37signals have loads of useful tools!
By the way, do you have your Nintendo Wii?
lol, no, I don't. (We need to figure out a way not to double up on conversations between this blog and the Good-Tutorials blog!)
I saw a Mac a DSE Earlier and had a play around with it, to confussing, i guess you can get used to it but, as far as computer navigation what is the main difference?
That's a bit of a huge subject to touch on, but sure, I'll touch on it. OS X does take a bit of getting used to it- not because it's hard or anything, but that it's different from Windows. Just a different way of doing things mainly. It's the same sort of feeling if you pick up Linux for the first time. As far as navigation, one of the evident things is probably the lack of a taskbar in favor of the Dock down below. Just a different way of doing things.
A complete answer to "What's different about OS X" would take more than just a blog comment (maybe I'll make a post about it sometime). If you want a really quick overview about why you might want to use OS X, try checking out Apple's switch page:
Nice first post there Zach, agreed entirely. The first thing I think about when using a new product is not what it looks like, but how it performs and how nice and easy it is to use. If I'm not going to have fun using it then its going to end up somewhere at the back of some dusty cupboard. I hate my phone too... but I havent changed my phone since it does what I need it to do, and the extendability that it has helps me alot. Although I hate the phone because it big, chunky, slow and weirdly shaped, I can't fault it on functionality.
Nice blog you have here... I can see a slight link in colour scheme, but its nice and simple I bet it looks better on a Mac.