February 18, 2008
There is so much information to be found on the internet. A lot of this information is about how to get things done on a personal level. How to lose weight, how to manage your time, how to make money online, even how to raise your children.
Most of these tips are just things we already know. They may be a reminder for you at the time you read them again.
A word of advise
Please, do not expect all of these tips to work for you! Actually, be happy if one or two of them really worked. Tips like these should theoretically work, because they are driven by common sense. But the problem is that the circumstances differ.
For instance: monetizing your blog is easier for people in developed countries, especially in the US, than for people in third world countries. Most of the options are not available for every country. Then there are banking and money transfer issues.
The type of monetizing also depends on your niche. Monetizing option that work for a photography site won’t all work for a web development site. Those of a school site may not work for a skateboarding site.
Frustrations
It can be very frustrating when the desired results are not met. This is mostly because people tend to expect a lot from what others have to say. But in most cases, they forget to compare them to their own situations first, before they try them out.
Going back to the roots
One way of limiting frustrations, is to first find out what it is exactly that you need a solution for. If you want to make money online, do you have any idea what you want to do to make that money? Do you know what is involved? If you want to lose weight, do you know what’s causing you to gain weight? If you look for help with time management, do you know exactly what causes problems with your time?
Are you ready?
Sometimes the tips could work perfectly, but the problem is in the mind of the person. You may know many reasons why you should stop smoking, but are you ready? You may know that your constant craving for chocolate chip cookies is a roadblock for your progress in weight loss, but are you ready to give it up?
Are you ready for change? Because if you’re not, following “how to” advise will be easier said than done.
Posted in Blogging, Monetizing, Personal development 
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February 14, 2008
Today I take a break from everything to spend some extra time with my wife.
This morning I woke up to find a very nice card on my keyboard. Little did she know that I’ve been planning a nice romantic dinner with her today.
So by the time this post is published, we’ll probably be dining.
Oh, and a happy Valentine’s day to you too!
Posted in General chatter No Comments »
February 13, 2008
Yesterday I wrote about getting rid of distractions on your computer while doing important stuff.
There are also distracting factors in your surroundings, that you need to control. I am don’t have them all under control yet, but writing about them really helps to focus on what to do, while sharing it with others.
Common distractions
- Loved ones - In my case, my wife. Yesterday, for instance, I explained to her what I was doing and how I can get benefits from it. That set the base for me now explaining to her that I sometimes need to concentrate, and that I will need to take the time to finish the current process. In this case, I will need to let her know in advance when I start and also let her know when I’m done.
- The telephone - When you really need to concentrate, it’s good to turn off your mobile phone and the ringer of your land-line phone. If the call is really important, the caller will leave a voice mail message, which you can listen to and answer later.
- Co-workers/friends - Same as loved ones. You can even put up “Do not disturb” signs and let them know in advance that it means that your are busy with something and cannot be distracted at the moment.
- Things happening right outside your immediate space - A gardener mowing the lawn, a co-worker breaking a glass, a postman… there is a lot that fits in this group. One way I avoid being distracted by this group is to close the curtains in my office and put on some music. If you can’t do this, just use headphones.
Note: When ever you expect your loved ones to give you the space to concentrate, make sure you also spend enough quality time with them.
Not too much
Be careful close all doors to the outside world. You should always be on alert to respond to something extremely urgent. That’s why I don’t use headphones. If something happens to my wife, I should be aware of it. If something happens to my server, i need to know as soon as possible. If the neighbors house is on fire, I need to know to prepare evacuation. And so forth.
In short
Get rid of distractions that are not important and not urgent, but be on alert for important and/or urgent distractions.
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February 12, 2008
Over the last couple of days I’ve noticed that there have been a lot of things that call for my attention when I’m writing. Or doing anything important, for that matter. And every time I’d given my attention to it, and I went back to what I was doing, I had to take a couple of seconds to see where I left off. Sometimes it takes a couple of seconds more to remember what the next thing, I was going to say or do, was.
Get rid of them…
… while you’re doing something important. Don’t delete your chat accounts, but just turn them off when you need to concentrate. And turning off is better than setting your status to “unavailable”. I tried setting my MSN to “Appear offline” once. The funny thing was that no one was talking to me, but I was looking at all the notifications of people coming online, one by one! Then I may even feel the urge to click on one of those notifications if it’s someone to whom I’ve not spoken for a while.
These distractions include:
- Chats
- Twitter
- New Mail Notifications of unimportant accounts
- Feed readers with notifications
- Websites that have popup notifications, even if the website is not in focus
- And the list goes on…
Whatever it is that is not important and not urgent, get rid of it while you need to concentrate.
… but not all of them!
Different people have different circumstances. I have read somewhere online that it’s best to turn off everything, including your mail client, when you need to concentrate. For me that would not work.
I run a small hosting company which provides services to small (and some not so small) businesses and individuals in Suriname. It’s extremely important for me to be notified whenever there is something wrong with the servers or if one of my customers has urgent problems. I need to be able to limit downtime to a minimum, and without those notifications, I cannot do that.
So I leave my mail client running, with notifications enabled for the most important accounts. The rest of the notifications I will see whenever I’m done. If people need me urgently, and they don’t see me in the chat, they will send me an email. And they usually don’t, because it is usually not THAT urgent.
The right environment
It is important to try out some different working environments on your computer to see where you can concentrate the best. Right now, I’m experimenting with using my laptop with nothing but a text editor and an empty browser. This seems to work nicely.
Next, I’ll experiment with different surroundings, which is content for a different post. I won’t have you waiting too long for this one: I’ll write about it tomorrow.
Posted in Blogging, Personal development 1 Comment »
February 11, 2008
I am at a point in my life where I need to make decisions on my career. However, there is on dangerous factor that can mess everything up: New possible commitments!
Opportunities… They keep coming!
Right when I decided to scratch some of the opportunities I have from the list, there are suddenly a couple of new opportunities. These usually seem very innocent, so I easily start thinking “I can do this quickly!” I start thinking of either the money you could make with this quick commitment or the long term benefits it could have for me.
It’s kinda hard not to, when, for instance, you get the opportunity to work on an international project that will be running until 2011. Just thinking of the exposure…
Then you have some quick job for a friend, who is willing to pay up front, just so he can get this work done as soon as possible.
Not ready for new commitments
I start thinking of taking on a new commitment, by thinking of the possible benefits, while I should be asking myself a different set of questions:
- How much influence (time, energy, money, dedication) will this quick project have on the rest of my projects?
- How long will this project have this influence on the rest of my work?
- Do I even have time in my schedule to take on new commitments?
Please note that, at this point, I’m not even done with my evaluation of the current opportunities I have. I do have a better view at what I have in front of me, but the decision is not made yet.
Just say ‘No’!
I really need to learn to say ‘No’. And I’m starting now!
Although there may be some very nice benefits to the long term project mentioned above, committing to it would just help me dig a bigger hole for myself, while I’m in the process of getting rid of some holes. So I’m letting these people know that I won’t be able to help them with this part. Maybe in the future, but not at the moment. I can help with area’s where there’s not too much of my specific attention required, such as hosting.
Saying ‘No’ can be very difficult when there seem to be great benefits. But in the end, saying ‘No’ can guard you against a lot of problems in the (near?) future.
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February 8, 2008
I am one of those persons who is capable of doing almost anything with their lives. I am gifted in many ways.
But that brings other problems. The biggest problem is to decide which of the possible paths to enter. These people usually “taste” something of everything they can do. They can do a lot, but they are expert in nothing.
I have tried so much in my life: web development (which is split up in PHP, Ruby, CMS design and so on), landscaping, computer repair, cooking, running a hosting company, blogging, marketing, consultancy, even shoe repair. The list is a lot longer than this.
Fear
It wasn’t until 2 weeks ago that I realized that I was afraid of picking one thing to do and stick to it. I was afraid that I would miss all the opportunities the other areas would present if I was concentrating on just one.
As a result, the only thing I am really good at is PHP (a scripting language used for web development). But I never really made money with it as I would expect, because I’ve been afraid to research the possibilities. Maybe not only fear, because trying out other things, like Ruby on Rails, took up the time that was supposed to me concentrated on PHP.
Overcoming fear
What I realized is that it’s actually kinda stupid to think that you won’t be able to do other stuff if you concentrate on one field. You just have to learn to concentrate on one thing at a time. When you have achieved your main goals in that field, there is always time to do something else.
Make the decision
After overcoming this fear, you now need to make sure you know exactly what it is you want to concentrate on first. These simple steps helped me to get a better oversight of what it is I want:
- Take a couple of sheets of paper.
- On each sheet you start by writing the title of one specific thing you think you could be doing.
- Write down the steps that you would have to take to bring that opportunity to a success. You can be brief, but going a little deeper in detail can be more helpful in the end.
- Do this for every possible opportunity you have
Maybe it’s advisable to look at the one opportunity that will be the easiest, least time consuming of them all, and pick that one to start off with. This way, you can have a successful business in a lot less time then it would take with the others, which would give you some more time to concentrate on other opportunities.
For me, becoming a chef is the easiest and quickest to do. So right now I’m researching different ways to get into the cooking scene. This doesn’t mean that I already made my decision. I’m still researching some of the other opportunities; who knows if one of them can be more worthwhile on the long run.
Posted in Personal development 1 Comment »
February 8, 2008
I have read so often about burning out and such, and I never thought it could happen to me. But it’s very easy to get sucked in.
I let the move influence my blogging. I found that, instead of blogging I was finding other things to do. I was getting distracted too much by my life.
No, I will not look for excuses. I just didn;t keep my promise to myself to keep blogging no matter what. So now, I’m taking charge again.
Waking up
Two weeks ago I was explaining the power of blogging to a friend. As usual, I opened Darren Rowse’s Problogger website. We were greeted by “A Reality Check about Blogging for Money“. That article really got my attention. I went back and read it a couple of times.
This article made me realize that this blogging thing was not an easy job. I was seriously starting to think about what I want to achieve with my blogs. I decided that quitting is not worth the effort I’ve put into my blogs. I am going to pick up blogging again.
Awake… now what?
It took me 2 weeks before I started writing again. All this time I’ve been thinking of what I have to go through again. My blog traffic went from 1000+ visitors daily to 50. I would have to start again on building a network. I would have to make a schedule. I would have to … The list of things that kept me back was constantly growing. Then, last night, I decided to just break lose and just start writing.
Nature has a strange way of doing things. As I was trying to find Darrens previously mentioned post I stumble upon “Blogging Fatigue - 8 Tips to Get Over Your Blogging Blues“. Yet another amazing article! Just what I needed right now.
My first goal is to try to follow this advise to get back on track.
Please feel free to share your thought on this matter. It may help my drive to hear some motivating comments.
Posted in Blogging No Comments »
October 29, 2007
On Rehuel punt kom I write about web development related topics. I decided to add a glossary of terms I use in my posts, so my readers can find an explaination of what those terms mean.
I didn’t think too much of it, so I didn’t update the glossary regularly. I forgot that I heard people talk a lot about limiting technical jargon to a minimum. And if you have to use technical terms, explain them.
Definitions on Google
When you search for definitions on Google, Google gives you a list of “Definitions of XYZ on the Web”. From what I could figure out is that Google gathers these definitions from online sources like glossaries, wikis etc. If it’s a word that is not specifically defined a lot on the web and you have it in your glossary, it might show up in the list of definitions.
I just discovered how important this is, when I was checking my stats. I found some hits to Rehuel punt kom that came from define:ubuntu. When I followed that link I found that my definition of Ubuntu in my glossary was one of four listed definitions of Ubuntu. And it brought a couple of hits to my site.
Conclusion
Maybe it’s a good idea to make a glossary for your site. These definitions may just bring a little more traffic to your site from a corner you didn’t expect.
Posted in Blogging 1 Comment »
October 28, 2007
Right now, Barbara and I are still staying in the aparthotel. After looking for a house for a while, we found one. The only problem was the tenants are moving out on the 31st of October, so we had to extend our stay here.
Less fun
This is actually a lot less fun than I thought. This apartment has the basics of a home cramped in a 5 by 8 meter space. A kitchen/dining room/living area in front with a bedroom, with queen size bed, and the bathroom in the back.
Now, living in this space can be fun for a week or two, in a foreign country, or an unknown part of your country. But after that the fun gets drained out more and more.
Less privacy
Needless to say that privacy is virtually nonexistent compared to in our own home. Walking around (half) naked, making loud intimate sounds, leaving the windows and curtains open for fresh air and sunlight… Forget about them. You’ll need to find a way to live without them.
The phone conversations are “semi-monitored”, as in, they know who you are calling. Again: no too much fun with privacy.
Less… Everything!
Everything is present in a lesser form. I actually have no control over a lot of things around me at the moment. If Internet gets interrupted, I can do nothing about it. If they run out of hot water, I can do nothing. If cable tv is not available, and the local channels are boring (especially on Sundays), there’s noting I can do.
Effect
This situation really effects Barbara and I. Everything we do happens in this small room. When I work late (which is often) I need to be careful not to shake the bed too much. Working, or watching television, later than when Barbara goes to bed effects her, because it’s hard for her to sleep with the lights on. When she gets up in the morning she needs to be quite, because I do’t need to be up that early.
I can’t concentrate on my work as much as I would want to. The television is in this same room and there are a lot of factors to help you to loose it.
Moral
Now I understand what people mean when they say: “There’s no place like home!”.
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September 19, 2007
I have been creating to-do lists for a while, but they didn’t really work. Why? Because they were just lists of work I still have to do. I only listed the names of the companies and persons whose work I was doing.
I decided to expand my to-do list. Now, instead of just listing the jobs I have to do, I am going to list briefly what there still is left to do on that particular project.
The moral
I personally always thought I can remember everything. So when I wrote “Raoul”, I expected myself to know exactly what there still is to be done for Raoul. Bit if there are 4 or 5 other names on the list, it can start to become confusing. And it is this confusion that makes it look like I never get done with my work, forcing me to work late at night.
With a list of unfinished work for Raoul, it gets a lot easier to finish it step by step, knowing what there is to do. This creates an overview of the work that still needs to be done in total.
Maybe, just maybe, if I could pull up a calendar, I could do some planning…
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