fuzzyness

I purchased a Spanning Sync licence almost a year ago, for the promise of 2-way syncing. Not once in the whole past year have I managed to get it to work. I’ve sent error reports a-plenty (the developers have been very helpful in trying to diagnose the problem) plus reset sync data on my Mac more times than I care to think about.

So you can possibly have even half a chance of imagining my sheer JOY at discovering BusySync. Get this: this amazing application (currently just $19.95 per computer – that’s just £9.93 in old money…) syncs both. Both ways. Completely editable calendars either way. No fuss. No messing.

Bliss. It’s the only way I can describe it. THANK YOU BusySync!

UPDATE: Seems I’m not the only one to be loving at a bit of BusySync action…

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Things and the art of GTD

15·Mar·08

Things logo I’ve been this close to writing up an account of how I’m ‘doing’ GTD for many a month now. I’ve been hindered by the fact that my methods of doing GTD change as fast, frequently and furiously as it seems they do for many other willing GTD practitioners.

It’s a disease, and it’s catching!

Sure, the theory is sweet, but the practice is more difficult, especially when so much of the focus seems to be on the tools to make it happen, rather than the philosophy itself (David Allen consistently downplays the importance of the tools required to make GTD happen).

But throughout trying many, many, many, many such tools, I always suspected and fully understood that, once I’d found the dream GTD tool that worked for me, the day-to-day practice would flow (some would say like water…)

If you do GTD, and you’re on a Mac, you must grab a copy of Things – now. It’s free at the moment (and just $39 when released this Spring). Go on – go get it right now, I’ll be waiting…

It’s everything I’d ever hoped for, and more. Gorgeous, beautiful UI that I just want to be in all day. Highly intuitive in operation. GENIUS implementation of tags for contexts (or whatever you’d like, really). An eminently clickable dock icon. And just an all round ‘just right’ implementation of GTD on a computer – not too much or too little but just right.

The fact I’ve been using it for well over 5 months solidly (fully and properly with every day usefulness) speaks volumes about its effectiveness and quality. If you’re on a Mac, and have stuff to get done, get Things.

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4 day week reality

15·Mar·08

I work too hard. I work too many hours. I find it hard to fully switch off.

There – I’ve said it.

Call it the consequence of running my own business from home. Call it a consequence of always having far too much to do, and waaaaay too little time to do it. Call it a consequence of really, really loving what I do (I know – sick isn’t it?!). The fact is, I’m in danger of being burnt out and frazzled by my own enthusiasm a good deal of the time.

I first read about the 4 day working week back in 2006 in this great article by Ryan Carson on A List Apart. Ryan makes a great point – there will always be way too much to do – embrace that and find time to relax, before the endless pursuit of perfection kills you. Hmm… I gave it a half-hearted go and failed miserably.

Fast forward to March this year and up pops a timely post from Jason Fried about how 37 Signals have implemented a 4 day working week as standard. Interesting…

So I decided to give it a go, with today being my first Friday off of the new regime. Has it worked?

Well… I think ‘sort of’ is the honest answer. I actually had a very important report to finish writing that just didn’t get done yesterday, so I got up at 6am to finish it so as to actually be OFF by 9am — but actually still was writing it at 11.30am. Not good!

I’ve kind of been a little twitchy about email too, never far from totally not resisting the temptation to just quickly check in and see what might have landed on my inbox-shaped plate.

I think it’ll take a couple of attempts to ‘re-frame’ my notion of what the working week is — 4 sensible days as opposed to 6 (or 7) wildly crazy days of 10+ hours each. All in all, I’d say it’s looking promising.

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ExpressionEngine 2.0 gets me giddy

15·Mar·08

ExpressionEngine logo Having finally got a sneak preview of the goodness that will be ExpressionEngine 2.0 I have to admit that I can barely contain my excitement.

As basically a non-programmer, I chose EE as my CMS system of choice way back in 2004 as it was emerging out of the ashes of pMachine. I was really attracted to the ability to provide custom fields for clients and do pretty much anything you wanted with them across any templates.

The system has just gotten better and better ever since, meaning that at Definition we can meet just about any website content requirement you can throw at us.

The new version is set to blow all expectations out of the water.

Check out the first preview video run through here. Roll on the summer!

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Dropbox looks great

14·Mar·08

This ambitious online multi-platform syncing solution looks pretty awesome.

Link »

Freezing no more

21·Feb·08

Our boiler decided to conk out 10 days ago, taking with it hot water and heating, and leaving us with a mere coal fire to keep us warm. Sniff. Finally, new boiler in place today and our radiator system given a damn good shake out, we’re finally warming through again. Yeeeee haaaaaa!!!

Turns out our old boiler was only designed for up to 8 radiators, whereas our house carries 17 of the creaking buggers. No wonder it gave up the ghost.

So here’s a photo of the scene outside our house, just before the boilerman in shining armour arrived – no heating’s no fun with scenes like that, I can tell you. Brrrr…

Snowy garden scene

Quicksilver bezel plugin

12·Feb·08

Lovely interface bezel-style plugin for the awesome

Photos