what have I learned today

focus, focus and focus

I lost focus. Or better, my focus was positioned in different directions, obviously none of the directions was pointing to this blog. 

We are going through major changes in our organization right now, and I am thinking a lot about it. So I had to shift all of my attention to these new projects at my workplace.

We have also restarted a different project and I had to focus on it as well. So my focus was positioned in four major directions in late October, November and December:

1. complete restart of our old project - complete reconstruction of a regional website on voluntary basis;
2. major changes inside my workplace - new people, new projects, new start;
3. use of social networks (restart of Twitter and Facebook);
4. live interactions with friends/free time.

Blog was one of the things that fell out of my attention spam since it requires quite a lot of time.

As it turns out - IT IS IMPOSSIBLE to be a leader and a driving force in two parallel projects of big importance at the same time without losing a lot of grasp, control and quality on either of them. 

Say you have 100 units of Focus - according to my list above I will assign it:
1. 30
2. 30
3. 15
4. 25 

Of course Focus means true quality of every process inside a project, constantly evaluating everything you do etc.

As it turns out my attention has to shift at some point:
1. 50
2. 30
3. 15
4. 25

Ups. That’s 120! I have to cut cut and cut. Since I NEED something to make me feel good I have to keep my friends. I could minimize social networks, but heck, it can be quite useful at times … So what happens is that I (sub)consciously shift my focus from number 2.

1. 50 
2. 30 15
3. 15 10 (can do ok with a bit less, huh)
4. 25 

Basically, this is the concept of Focus (thorough thinking and working on some projects with a lot of input).

In order to achieve project glory, focus on small amount of projects … wait, this is old news, sorry. 

how to determine if you are doing it right? can monkey do it?

This applies to regular and maybe repetitive everyday work processes. For example filing, archiving, searching for something, compiling or assebmling data, collecting anything and so on and on. 

When you are working on it you should ask yourself: 
Could a monkey do this?

If the answer is yes you’re doing it wrong. Your work process is too simple. WTF whilt, what are you saying - too simple???

Yes. It does not require any specific skill - you are just browsing for stuff, looking for something with your arms and brain used as a simple tool. You did not plan enough. Example: you just decided to put some stuff somewhere and now you are wasting your energy on finding something.

What you should do is that you design your work process in a way that enables you to shorten time needed for making something happen.

And of course - all work processes have to be simple, but in an exquisite way.

When your chat messages aren’t delivered, where do they end up?

how many social networks can you manage?

I recently re-activated my Facebook account. Simple result: less posts on Tumblr. And this is a bitch. Ok, I was really busy lately but in any case… social networks are so fucking time consuming —> my Twitter is pretty much dead.

Anyway - Tumblr is quality, Facebook is friends, Twitter is Tumblr but shorter. Ergo, Tumblr is the best if you want quality. If you are quality, you’ll have thousands of followers. Fuck whilt, you have 18 followers. 

And if I return to the question. I’d say you can only manage one social network. In what way? In proper way. This means a lot of interaction, posting and doing some proper stuff. Can you do proper stuff on Facebook, the spam-machine? Hardly. 

Ok, you get it. Tumblr is proper quality. But, how will Tumblr monetize?

I would like to be Bullshit man

This world is so full of bullshit. I would like to be a bullshit man, like Karl Pilkington. And I would like that all people would be paying attention. And stop bullshitting around.

The best quote lately, by participant of Ocuppy movement: If you are not outraged, you are not paying attention.

That retarded Facebook without ‘go to the top of the news feed’ button. Tumblr dashboard, you rule the internets.

how to archive posters

Simple. Get yourself some tubes (length 70 cm, diameter 10 cm). Price for one in my country is next to price for a small pizza.

After your tubes are delivered, roll up 3-5 of each different poster specimen together and put them in the tube. Beacuse you’re reasonable you’ll compile a list of the posters in Excel or some other similar software. If your organisation is bigger and a lot of people need this archive you can use Google Docs.

When you roll up 3-5 posters, mark them with a number so you can see it right after you open the tube.

Define the list in Excel or GD like this:
Poster number | Poster name (event) | Date | Tube number |

After the first tube is full, mark it with number 1. 
Continue until you’re finished. 

Voilà. Your posters are now archived and in case you need them you’ll find them right away.

But, whilt, this post is so irrelevant. Your blog has no point, why, why? And where the fuck are the photo steps?
I know, I know.

In Arab spring they were cheering the emancipatory use of social networks and people standing up for their rights, now they’re doing everything to quiet people down. Who is the real Gaddafi?

skype with google docs = effective meeting

You can do pretty much everything with Skype and Google docs, right? The basic idea behind this is to write things down while you’re constantly discussing matters with your project partner.

Why?

a) It is effective because there are little or no distractions (sexy waitress, ugly wall etc.).
b) You’re working in a comfortable environment (ie. home).
c) You don’t unnecessarily lose time and when you’re done you just disconnect.
d) It is much more effective than e-mailing.
e) Everyone is looking at the same thing all the time (like a whiteboard).
f) Since you only need your computer and Skype it is really easy to schedule.
g) It is completely free.

How?

a) Have a plan what do you want to achieve with this type of meeting (to-do list would be nice, edit it directly in the Google docs!).
c) Get to the fu***ng point.
b) Unleash a joke or two. (<— c=b)

Cons?

a) No eye contact (webcams are stupid, forget about them).
b) People can easily drift away to some porn site or Facebook chat.
c) Emm… probably a few more.

My guess is that it could work with 3-4 people max. Probably more if there is strict hierarchy in the relations between people attending. Try it. I was really satisfied.

Notice how I used letters instead of numbers with no apparent reason?
Silly you. 

how to exclude yourself from google analytics visit counts

As my visit count is climbing rapidly (ok, not so rapidly) I decided that I want to exclude myself from the visit counts on Google Analytics.

The obvious solution is to use Mr. Google for this. My search query promptly returned proper data so I found out there are two options: one is to block your IP and the other is to make a cookie. Not bake, make.

Since I use dynamic IP, I went for the other option. 

Tumblr case:

1. In your Customize appearence menu you create a new page (Page menu) with Custom layout (drop down menu). Your custom HTML text is: 

<body onLoad=”javascript:pageTracker._setVar(‘test_value’);”>

Define an easy URL for you to remeber (yournick.tumblr.com/analytics for example) and save the page. Do not tick Show a link to this page.

2. Afterwards, you log onto your GA account and create a filter in your tumblr tracker. It has the following settings: 

Filter Type: Custom filter > Exclude 
Filter Field: User Defined
Filter Pattern: test_value
Case Sensitive: No 

3. After you’ve created filter simply go to the pre-designated URL. This will create a cookie, and your computer won’t give any signal to Google Analytics. Repeat on all desired computers/laptops.

I have a feeling it’s working.

The only thing that bugs me is the Google Chrome add-on “click&clean” on one of my computers which deletes everything from my Chrome after I close it. So it probably deletes this cookie as well. 

And then you’re like this.
Google info.