CivicActions

What is one of the best tips to get out of the creative slump? Need to find that extra juice for your Drupal theme?

It may be simple, but I love to use Flickr for my inspiration!

Flickr has millions of photos, and thousands of groups to showcase amazing work.

Vandelay Design has compiled a list of 99 Flickr groups to help get you unstuck, such as:

http://flickr.com/groups/webdesign-inspiration/
http://flickr.com/groups/illustrationnow/
http://flickr.com/groups/psdtuts/
http://flickr.com/groups/photoshop/
http://flickr.com/groups/designtype/
http://flickr.com/groups/yourvector/

Inspired! That's the way we work!

Without a doubt, the most productive time in getting through my inbox is when I'm on an airplane, sans Internet access.

This week I'm exploring Freedom to help me accomplish the same result.

Essentially, Freedom disables all wireless and ethernet networking on an Apple computer for up to 3 hours at a time. After the time is up, Freedom will re-enable your network adapters and display a confirmation that you're back online.

If you absolutely need to pull the cord and MUST get back online, just restart your computer to reset.

Let me restate that: just stopping or quitting the Freedom application will not re-enable your network adapters - and yes, this is purposeful! Freedom is a program designed to help you get things done, away from the distractions of network connectivity.

http://www.ibiblio.org/fred/freedom/

"Who do you want to Jott?"

These simple six words have changed my life.

About four months ago, I found Jott.com, a simple and free service that lets me dictate messages into my cell phone that are transcribed instantly into txt and emails. However, the best part is these same messages can be time-delayed and you can have the Jott service send a reminder (i.e. "tomorrow at 5pm") straight to your phone.

Given that I often find myself in the car or on the run, Jott has become one of my most used tools and provides just the perfect blend of simplicity with stellar technology.

Like many Web workers and folks who spend a lot of time online, I often use my Inbox as my master To-Do list. However, I am clear that with over 400 incoming messages a day, this process is not sustainable and I've needed to find a better task management solution.

Over the last few days I've been playing with Cultured Code's Things.app for the Mac OS, and I don't know if I'm just high-in-love with this new application, or if this honeymoon stage will end soon. Still, I thought I'd post my first impressions and share my excitement with Things.app.

Now, I'm not a huge GTD advocate (the framework Things is built around), although it doesn't seem to matter. What I've needed is a way to quickly add new tasks, prioritize them, add tags and notes and sort them by my contexts, such as work, home, wedding, family, etc.

While Things has limited complexity, it still seems to be a powerful approach to task management and a perfect fit for how I organize my day.

As I dive a bit deeper with Things, I'll update the blog with some additional thoughts after a few more weeks of regular usage.

To try a free, beta version of Things (Mac OS only) check it out at http://culturedcode.com/things .

One of my favorite tools in the belt is TextExpander.

TextExpander has saved me countless keystrokes with customized shortcuts for the text I type the most.

See the screencast to get a sense of how I use this amazing app.

The Way I Work

I work primarily as a project manager at CivicActions, though I do serve in other roles as well. Being a project manager means that I am managing the schedules, workplan and budget for a number of projects at once, and that I work on one project or another with a large percentage of the whole CA team. My job requires a lot of patience, flexibility, communication, and the ability to keep track of seemingly several million details at once. It also requires a sense of humor, the ability to educate people, and sometimes, an iron will.

Physical Space

As promised last week, here is part two of "The Way We Work" with Chris Fassnacht and Stephanie Pakrul.

Gregory: Have you worked remotely before working for CivicActions?

Chris: Not really. I was doing some remote contract work for a couple of months before starting to work with CA, but for the most part I've worked in standard office and lab settings in the public and private sector.

GH: Do you work from home? or from an office? or a cafe? Do you work around other people? or alone?

In a new twist on our "Way We Work" series, I present this interview with one of our star themers, Steph Pakrul. This is sort of the first in a two-parter--Steph works very closely with her husband, Chris Fassnacht, so close, we sometimes refer to them as "Christeph".

Without further ado:

Gregory: Have you worked remotely before working for CivicActions?
Steph: Yep, I've worked remotely most of my career, at least the parts I've enjoyed the most! I started doing web design contract work in high school and have always kept it up, at least part time.

Seattle, Oakland, San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York... And the airports of those cities are just some of the places I've worked from in the last two weeks. I get through security and my eyes shoot furtive glances at the bottom 2 feet of walls searching (sometimes in vain) for a power outlet, preferably one that is next to a seat. Recently I have started seeing Samsung "charging stations" in some airports. A brilliant idea who's time is long over due: multiple outlets on a bistro hight mini table.

As part of a series of posts about 'The Way We Work' here at CivicActions, I'm first up with my work style:

Have you worked remotely before working for CivicActions?

For just over 1 year I lived worked and played in a tiny single-bedroom 35-square-metre studio apartment in Palermo, Buenos Aires (Argentina).