Organizing Creative Professionals: Sorted

Amazing Web Productivity Tools: Fun edition

Yeah, I know what you're thinking: What's productive about fun? Well, in the short term, probably nothing. But in the long term, taking time to restore your mental energy and even test parts of your brain can allow you to do your best work. And there's no substitute for the healing, energizing power of laughter. Here are some of my favorite sites for restoring my brain.

image stolen shamelessly from www.cakewrecks.blogspot.com/

One of the funniest sites I've ever seen is Cake Wrecks, a blog that captures all the messed-up magic that occurs when professional cake decorators make mistakes, take the customer's order far too literally (as shown above) or just don't care. It's updated almost every day, and also includes examples of cakes done well. Still, for my money, it's hard to top the image of partygoers responding to the sight of a cake proudly proclaiming "It a Gril!"

image stolen shamelessly from www.thechive.com

Another source of endless mirth for me is people messing up other people's photos, whether deliberately or accidentally. This practice is known as photobombing, and like all arts, when it's done well, it's a thing of beauty and a joy forever. My two favorite sites for P-bomb giggles are This Is Photobomb and the photobomb galleries on The Chive. Just be aware: not all photobombs are safe for work.

And y'all know about I Can Has Cheezburger, right?

Games can also help you unwind, but the challenge for that is: how not to get sucked into an epic, hours-long session. Fortunately, free online games tend to be short because they're just that little taste to get you to buy the whole thing. Of course, if you're on a Mac, it's unlikely the whole thing will be available for purchase anyway, so you can enjoy the short online demos, then get back to creating.

I'm a big fan of puzzle-type games, so Cubis (kinda like Tetris, only in 3D and with bright colors) is right up my alley. The online demo here has only 10 playable levels, so you're done in 30 minutes or less.

Even shorter is the online version of Galactrix, which only gives you one level to play. (How many times you play that particular level is up to you.) I'm not sure you can turn the music off, which can be a drawback in an office, but if you're by yourself, it can make you feel like Admiral Adama.

And let's not overlook the mini-games available on Facebook, which many of you probably use to unwind anyway. In fact, I invite anyone reading this to challenge me to a head-to-head game of Scramble. Let's get our pseudo-Boggle on!

What other online escapes do you use to recharge your brain so you can get back to creating? Let me know in the comments!

Quick hit: More cool online stuff for creatives

This is just a quick links post, for those of you who aren't following me on Twitter (stares at you meaningfully).

Golden Rules for Social Media: Web Worker Daily has 10 tips for making the Net a better place. I think they'd be great to apply offline as well.

I'm kind of in love with Smashing magazine lately, especially for these two posts:
Improve Your Design Workflow: If you work in Adobe products, here are 20 awesome tips to keep you working smoothly. If I were still working as a designer/production artist, I'd have tried to implement them all already.

Glossary of Web Design Terms: It's just what it says it is, but what a major resource! I've tagged it in Delicious because I'm not what you kids would call hip to the lingo.

Creative Life Coaching Series: My buddy Deb at djo Creative is offering this 12-week course for people who want to develop their creativity, whether they're just starting out or are considering starting a creative business. Looks pretty cool.

Got a link you'd like to share? Leave it in the comments!

Amazing Web Productivity Tools: Especially for creatives

I've talked a lot this month about online tools that help you do a lot of business-ish stuff more productively, but what about the creative aspect of your work? There are a few apps for that, it turns out, all available exclusively online, and for free.

Note: this post is a bit of a departure from my normal policy of "only endorse stuff you personally use on a near-daily basis." I don't use these apps myself, yet, but I've been giving a lot of thought to converting to them because my copies of Photoshop and Quark are a bit long in the tooth, and upgrades ain't cheap.

I've read some pretty good stuff about GIMP, the unfortunately acronymed GNU Image Manipulation Program. Just by looking at its interface, I can tell that there will probably be a bit of a learning curve from Photoshop. (There's a modification to the GIMP code that makes the interface resemble Photoshop more closely, but I'm not sure it'll work on my old-ish Mac laptop. Plus, I'm enough of a curmudgeon to be wary of installing something that self-identifies as a hack.)

 
I've been hearing about Scribus for over a year now, and I really should look into this one, as my current copy of Quark is simply refusing to work. I've been trying to use Microsoft Word as a layout tool, and it's just not made for that. (Hush, Microsoft. You know I'm right about this.) This Web-based desktop publishing tool started out, as most of this stuff does, for Linux back in 2003, which gives it an impressively long pedigree for a Web tool.

Are either of these going to supersede Quark/InDesign or Photoshop for professional designers? Probably not, and for good reason: those tools are rich in features, relatively stable, and customizable. If you make your living by design or photo manipulation, the investment in professional software is well worth it. But if design and photo work is a side aspect of your business (creating quick flyers for a presentation, for instance), these web tools can get you much further than the stuff that came installed on your computer could.

What other Web 2.0 creative tools are you using? What do you love about them, and what do you hope Web 3.0 improves upon? Let me know in the comments!

Amazing Web Productivity Tools: All Things Google

As I was contemplating this post, I started wondering: Do I love Google tools because they're awesome, or do I love them because they're free? Then I realized what a stupid question that was. Google offers some incredible tools that can help you get important stuff done smoothly and quickly, and they do it for free. It's a floor wax and a dessert topping!

Besides the search engine that's become a verb unto itself, the most popular service offered by Google is Gmail. And for good reason: it's easily the best of the free web-based email browsers. Until last month, I had used Hotmail faithfully for more than six years. But I finally got tired of the clunky interface and the frequent service outages. Plus, I was already using a couple other Google services, and it just made more sense to migrate my email where it could play nicely with others.

And did I mention that it has a nice variety of themes, including "Summer Ocean"?

Of course, while themes are nice, they won't do much in the way of heavy lifting. Fortunately, Google-ites keep inventing things called "Labs" for Gmail, and those are what help make it so great. I use Labs that let me create a task based on an email, create a Calendar event based on an email, see my Calendar in Gmail, create template responses for certain topics and un-send an email. Yes, I did say "un-send." "Undo send" is only valid for a couple of seconds, but think of how many times you've instantly wished you could unsend that scathing missive. Gmail is cool and all, but Gmail + Labs = Awesome.

Of course, Google Calendar is pretty cool too, for an electronic calendar. (I'm not a big fan of the genre, but it is sometimes handy to access my schedule from my iPod touch.) While Calendar could benefit from some snazzy themes, it is made much more cool by its integration with Gmail. And if you have any kind of group project going on, it's great to see your buddies' calendars too, so you can coordinate more easily.

And if you're going to be coordinating on a document, you could do a lot worse—a lot worse—than to create that document in Google Docs. For a free office suite, these tools are incredibly rich with features. You and a colleague can collaborate on the same document and chat (via Google, natch) while you're doing it. It's like being there, except nobody's leaning over anybody else's shoulder.

Of course, work isn't just about producing stuff. You've got to stay informed on what's going on in your industry and what's buzzing around the blogosphere. Enter Google Alerts and Google Reader, respectively. Enter a term in Google Alerts and Google will send you email updates on its search results on that term. You can determine the source and type (blogs, news, video, etc.) and how often you receive it (once a week, once a day or as it happens, which I do not recommend). Google Reader, meanwhile, serves up the most recent posts on the blogs you follow in one interface (instead of a ton of bookmarks), making it easy to stay up-to-date.

Of course, those tools are just the big ones; there's tons of other Google apps out there. If you have your own site, you'll want to check out Google Analytics and Google Webmaster Tools. I highly recommend Google Desktop for finding anything on your computer. Google Maps and Google Earth make it easy to see where you're going (and what it'll look like when you get there). And there's always good old Google Toolbar, making searching as easy as possible from any browser window.

It seems that Google's pretty well poised to determine the future of online activity and computing as a whole, and if these apps are a taste of the future, I'm okay with that. I, for one, welcome our Google overlords.

What about you? Are you as ga-ga for Google as I am? Tell me in the comments!

Amazing Web Productivity Tools: SendOutCards

We've talked before about the importance of growing and tending your network with LinkedIn, and about the importance of your contact management system. But a network or a contact management system won't do much on its own. What you truly need is a way to reach those folks that they'll notice and appreciate.

How about a card? Everybody likes receiving those. Yeah, but you have to get the cards, and they never have the kind you want, and you need to write something personal on there and if you mess it up, you've got to start over, and then you have to go get another card—it's just too much hassle.

Not anymore. I discovered SendOutCards a couple of months ago, and it's changed the way I keep in touch with people. Even at its most basic level, the premise is still majorly cool: you can send a card, with a personalized message, from your computer.

You select a card (they have all kinds of categories for personal and business—including my favorite, "Apology"), type in the message, enter your recipient's address, and click "Send." And that's it! The card is printed, the envelope is printed, the postage is attached and it's mailed for you. It's insanely easy, and the result is several times greater than the effort you put in, which makes it an amazing productivity tool.

But that's just the basic stuff. After all, you're a creative force unto yourself. What if you've got a design that's much cooler than the thousands of cards SendOutCards has on file? If you go beyond the basics, you can upload your own pictures for greeting cards, postcards and trifold cards. Your work could be on a card with the click of a button.

Think about it: if you'd like to send out a postcard campaign to 100 potential customers, you could create a postcard, get it printed, have address labels created, then pay for postage—or you could do all of that in one session on SendOutCards. You'll save time, you'll save money (on everything except postage, anyway) and you'll reach the people you want to reach in a way that's almost guaranteed to make them smile.

Tell you what: send someone a card on me. Click here, follow the instructions and send someone a card for free. But don't be surprised if you get hooked on it.

Amazing Web Productivity Tools: LinkedIn

If you've spent a lot of time online in the past couple of years, you know what LinkedIn is. (If not, check it out here.) But you might think of it as primarily a site for corporate folks who leverage synergies to manage risk and develop capstone markets. Or something. What you might not realize is that LinkedIn can be a tremendous help for you in your creative business. Here's why and how:

It can help you get clients and jobs. Everyone has a network, a group of folks they've worked with, gone to school with, joined associations with, etc. Not everyone in your network is in the same business as you; in fact, many of them are connected to folks who are probably looking for the very sort of thing you do. If a company is looking for a logo designer, they'll consider applicants for the position. But they very well might give a little more consideration to a designer who comes recommended from one of their managers because he remembers what a great artist she was in college.

It can serve as a mini-portfolio site. Thanks to the addition of applications like Box and Google Presentation, you can store files on your public profile page that visitors can download. This would be a great place to put images, video, or MP3s. You really want to showcase yourself on your profile page, so put work up there that you're proud of. (But protect yourself by copyrighting it.)

There's no games. On LinkedIn, you can reconnect with buddies from former jobs, school, etc. without worrying about getting distracted into a game of online Scrabble. That keeps you focused on the people rather than the bells and whistles. Look at that interface. That thing means business.

It can help you get more comfortable with networking. For some folks, networking is a breeze. For others, it can be a little anxiety-inducing. LinkedIn is a great way to get used to networking online before trying it in the real world. Like real-world networking, LinkedIn works best if you focus on the person you're connecting with and what you can help them with rather than what they can do for you.

And on that note, I'd like to invite you to join my network on LinkedIn. Because during May, I am trying to connect 31 pairs of people. No, not romantically; that's what Facebook is for! I'm trying to match up 31 pairs of businesses or peopel who need someone to do XYZ with another business or person who can do XYZ or who knows where to look. So let's get linked and maybe I can send some solutions your way.

Amazing Web Productivity Tools: The iPEP (again)

It's another month with a theme, as we delve into eight amazing (get it? a-MAY-zi—ow!) productivity tools that are available online and only online.

We're back on the iProductive Environment Platform™ (iPEP)! Yes, I know we just talked about it last week, but I promised you a little more, didn't I? I really can't get over how useful this tool is, so I'm going to expand on some of the stuff I mentioned last week.

An unbeatable tool for searching your physical files: Whether the stuff you want to index is in a filing cabinet, a storage facility across town, another studio or your garage, you can list it here. Just create a page for it, enter your keywords, add any other information or electronic resources associated with the physical asset and now you can find it in 5 seconds. (I know we talked about that last week. I just want to mention it again because it is so very cool).

A blog-like interface for adding or editing information: A blog interface is a lot like a word processor interface, but simpler and easier to use. If you can perform basic functions in Microsoft Word, you can do everything you could possibly want to do in the iPEP. And like a word processor, the iPEP includes a...

Spell checker: This might not seem like a big deal, but it can be a huge help if you tend to consistently misspell or mistype a word and didn't how to work that into the file indexing system. For instance, if you usually type a synonym for car as "veicle," you would have had to enter "veicle" and "vehicle" in the old Paper Tiger software. Not anymore. You just hit spell check and it's all good. (This also makes it much easier for other people to search your files.)

Plug-ins: Words aren't all you can enter into the page interface. You can also add a slew of plug-ins, that can vastly extend the capabilities of your iPEP files. You can add an event, a PowerPoint slideshow, a spreadsheet, a stock chart, a photo show and a chat room, and connect with Google Calendar and Google Gadgets. You can upload your own videos or embed video from YouTube (because what file is complete without the sneezing panda?).

Version tracking: This comes in incredibly handy when you're using the iPEP within a group. If someone has made a change for the worse to a file, you can identify what happened when and revert to an earlier version of the page. The penalty for saving over an old version is pretty much neutralized.

Unlimited storage space and automatic backups: I don't even want to think about the number of servers involved in offering unlimited storage, but it's good to know that you won't have to make any hard choices about what files to upload or switch to another software if your file system exceeds a certain capacity. No, you've got all the space you need to do whatever you need to. And automatic backups make sure your data stays safe.

The iPEP is just an incredible piece of software for keeping you productive, focused and organized. For ordering information, click here or contact me.

As we're kicking off a month of awesome online tools, do you have any suggestions for things to include? Let me know in the comments!