If you thought trick shots were only for sports, these audio jocks will show you the next level. Not recommended if you believe one day, you have an insane collection of records.
Dutch artist Stefan Van Zoggel makes sending love letters to your Wookiee easier with Star Wars-themed postage stamps. Add an extra stamp for addresses in a galaxy far, far away.
"The collision of the sci-fi futuristic world of Star Wars and the old, traditional world of postage stamps back in the day is what excited me about this project. It wouldn't be as fun to just make droid holograms, or even stamps with randomStar Wars images on [them]. I like the fact that they look like they were used a century ago to send post to another planet."
Each year, amphibious vehicle builders participate in a competition for the world's fastest amphibious "land speed" vehicle and this year's winner was a cool looking silver vehicle dubbed Sea Lion that broke the top water speed record. This year, the award went to Marc Witt, with his prototype developed beginning in 2006.
It's powered by a 13B rotary from a 1974 Mazda RX4 to run 125mph on land and 60mph in the water. The Sea Lion doesn't hold the title officially, but the amphibious vehicle has been worked on for the past six years and has remained competitively fast during the course of that time. Its asking price is $259,500.
We spend $14.6 billion to show our love and appreciation to our fabulous mamas on Mother's Day. In comparison, we spend $9.4 billion to honor dad on Father's Day. But that doesn't mean we have a favorite parent. Just like our parents definitely don't have a favorite child. (But if they did, it'd be you. Clearly.)
In our latest infographic, we take a look at Mother's Day spending vs. Father's Day spending. Enjoy.
Last Friday, the Treasury Department posted this infographic to their blog and we wanted to make sure you didn't miss it.
Today, millions of Americans who are current on their mortgage payments cannot refinance at historically-low interest rates. The President is proposing legislation that would allow more homeowners to refinance. Under the President’s plan, they would have two refinancing options.
So here's the truth - I used to suck at project management. But over the years I've determinedly turned myself into a half-decent project manager. Why? What was the driving force?
Project Management Is A Tool For Effecting Change
At the end of the day, I never have and still don't care that much for project management. But what I do care deeply about is effecting change. Driving action and results instead of talk and documentation. You can see my drive for getting things done in this whiteboard friday:
Although there are many ways of affecting change, project management is a crucial part of it. Below I'm going to outline a bunch of tools, tips, and tricks that we've discovered and implemented over the years at Distilled to get better at project management:
Project Collaboration - Trello
Personally I'm not a fan of clutter, either physical or virtual, and so I love technology that gets out of the way while you get on with getting shit done. I've tried lots of different project management solutions, and Trello is the first one I've fallen in love with. For those that saw the whiteboard friday I did with Jamie about a year ago it models the real life post-it note system very well:
I'm going to let Will explain why he likes it so much:
A lot of you will already be familiar with Google Docs. Of course. But only recently have I come to realize the extreme power behind the collaboration elements. I've always hated track changes in Word and finally Google Docs has something better to offer. This video, although cutsey, actually demonstrates the power of real time collaboration:
In particular, two features that are really making me excited are in-line comments (with easy replies and notifications) and revision history (which allows you to see when, how, and who edited a document).
We use Google Docs extensively within Distilled to craft and send around documents even if ultimately we deliver the final report as a .PDF or some other format. After all, some large corporations still like the smell of .PDFs in the morning....
I can't explain how much of a life changing experience the inbox zero methodology is. For the modern day information worker, inbox zero is fundamental to happiness and productivity. If you're not using the inbox zero system then please trust me when I say it'll change your life. Here's Merlin Mann talking about the original system at Google:
When new employees start at Distilled, we coach them in the ancient ways of Inbox Zero. Although it's a personal revelation for many (myself included), the real power comes when you have an entire organization that is GOOD WITH EMAIL. Having seen a peek inside companies that are not so efficient with email the difference is night and day.
Our Consultants Work On-site Where Possible
Life is organized chaos. Sometimes not so organized either. Project management is similar in that it's often more chaos than management. There's only so much you can really and truly work to get things done without being in the thick of it.
So, where possible, our consultants aim to spend some time on-site with our clients. The increase in results is striking. Not only are we better able to communicate our ideas, but we are also better placed to understand how the client's business works - not just the business model and mechanics, but communication, project management, hopes, and fears.
The best substitute for this if you're not able to get face-to-face with the client is to at least communicate often with many different points of contact within the client's organization. This improves the chances that you'll understand the real needs of the client as well as ensure that as many people as possible like you which is important for getting things done!
Communication Solves All Problems
We have various memes within Distilled; you can read more about them in a post I wrote for Dharmesh a little while back called Startup Culture Memes - Do You Have A Duck Of Awesomeness. One of the ones I'm most proud of is the mantra "communication solves all problems". I'm constantly amazed at the ability to solve problems by communicating effectively. Either talking to other members of the team or talking directly with the client - just having some real interaction (face to face or on the phone ideally) and explaining the situation clearly solves 99.9% of all problems.
This mantra has infiltrated all parts of Distilled, but I see two key ways that this affects project management on every project.
At the start of any project, we have a kick-off meeting which has two clear outcomes; the first is a top to bottom understanding of the client's business, and the second is a detailed understanding of what the project is going to look like. Mark wrote up our project kick-off process in a little bit more detail here: How To Kick Start SEO Projects.
Secondly, I drill into people here that it's okay to miss deadlines. Really. It is. Do people really care if you deliver something on Monday morning instead of Friday afternoon? The answer is that yes, they care very much if you don't let them know. If you let them know that you will deliver it Monday instead of Friday, then in 99% of cases, they could care less. Why is this so powerful? Because a single missed deadline without communication tarnishes your perception in the client's eyes. So long as the communication is strong, the actual dates rarely matter.
PPT Pitches
PPT? As a project management tool? Well yes. Let me explain - there are broadly speaking three types of work that you do when you're consulting and there are three different tools you use for these tasks as follows:
Activity
Tool
Research and analysis
Excel
Deliverables and specifications
Word
Pitching ideas and strategy
PowerPoint
Although this seems like a no-brainer, it's actually a very powerful mental model. Want to take a guess where setting the project vision and goals comes in? Yep - PPT. Although you won't keep track of a project in PowerPoint, you should be crafting and creating the vision and goals for the project in PPT. Without strong vision and goals, projects will fail.
So persuading a consultant to put together PPTs at the start of projects is a powerful tool to ensure we have a clear idea of where we're going, and importantly, the client is on board.
Monthly Industry Updates
As part of our monthly reporting communication, we provide a letter from Will to our clients. This is a value add that allows our clients to keep abreast of industry news and changes. I've included a sample of the letter (and supporting links) for April here:
Why is this important? Well not all of our clients are SEO junkies like us. And they like to be kept abreast of the latest happenings in the industry.
How is this a project management tool? You might think it's tenuous, but actually it's crucially important. Running SEO projects on the shifting sands of Google's algorithms means we have to keep on our toes and be prepared to potentially shift our strategy at a moment's notice. So communicating these changes to our clients allows us to be on the same page when we start talking about pandas and penguins....
What Works For You?
It's important to note that what works for us may not work for you. Hopefully this has been helpful for you to take a peek at how we manage projects and communication. I'd love to hear what you guys have to offer in the comments!
Further Reading
If you loved this psot and want to explore the subject further take a look at these:
Sign up for The Moz Top 10, a semimonthly mailer updating you on the top ten hottest pieces of SEO news, tips, and rad links uncovered by the Moz team. Think of it as your exclusive digest of stuff you don't have time to hunt down but want to read!
President Barack Obama greets supporters along the ropeline at Reno-Tahoe International Airport in Reno, Nev., May 11, 2012. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)
In Case You Missed It
Here are some of the top stories from the White House blog:
Joining Forces to Say "Happy Mother's Day!" We invited three generations of military families to celebrate Mother's Day at the White House, and some of our youngest guests told us why their moms are so special.
Weekly Address: Congress Must Act on "To-Do List" President Obama calls on Democrats and Republicans to come together and act on his Congressional “to-do list,” which will create jobs and help restore middle class security.
Today's Schedule
All times are Eastern Daylight Time (EDT).
9:35 AM: The President departs the White House en route Joint Base Andrews
9:50 AM: The President departs Joint Base Andrews en route New York City
10:45AM: The President arrives New York City
1:10 PM: The President delivers the commencement address at Barnard College
3:00 PM: The President tapes an appearance on "The View"
5:05 PM: The President delivers remarks at a campaign event
6:50 PM: The President delivers remarks at a campaign event
8:30 PM: The President departs New York City en route Joint Base Andrews
Intelligence is the combination of knowing a lot about a little while you also know a little about a lot.
Deep domain understanding helps you create analyses. Your ability to understand how a particular system (no matter how small) works allows you apply a confident analysis to new systems you encounter. Once you know everything there is to know about nuclear physics, soccer or the praying mantis, it makes it easier to understand new systems.
At the same time, it's impossible to be smart without also being aware of the wider world. That's because it's the random interactions and the surprising coincidences that help us navigate our daily lives.
The challenge of the net is that it made the large world a whole lot larger. There are the personal lives of your 1000 closest friends, on display, every day. Here is the news of the world, the whole world, not just what used to fit in the newspaper. And over there is every book ever published, every scientific discovery, every fringe political candidate.
Suddenly, it's a lot more difficult to know a little about a lot. It's tempting to spend ever more time pursuing that goal. That doesn't mean, I think, that you should give up knowing a lot about a little in order to devote ever more time to the noisy mosaic that's on your doorstep, nor does it mean you ought to give up and dive back into your hole. We've redefined worldly, but being an expert remains just as tough and important as it used to be.
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