The Weekly Review

If anyone doubts the talent required to make outstanding graphic art, Jon illustrates the process for some of his latest work. Enlightening.

I love the animated GIF.

I love the design and really like the idea behind Alltop. But reality is I will never use it. NetNewsWire is simply preferable in it’s usage - I can read what I want and ignore the rest.

In an email interview with WebWorkerDaily, Alltop’s creator Guy Kawasaki said this:

We don’t compete with Google Reader, MyYahoo, Netvibes, or Pageflakes. These products are for the top .1% of Internet users who know what a feed reader and RSS feeds are. Alltop is for ‘the rest of us’.

When I read that my immediate thought was that people just need to be educated about RSS and feed readers. It’s just a more convenient way to get your news online. Aggregators are only helpful if you continually read the page.

The apple blog mentioned a vulnerability in the IPV6 networking layer in OS X’s BSD foundation today. Bob Rudis makes a good point in the post:

…it provides a clear example of how coding errors in the operating system can – and will – be exploited, which is a strong enough reason to put up defenses in other areas.

Great post by Matt Ball on the overall work of Phill Ryu and gang. He focuses on a few issues that seem to have been missed with all the criticism discussion about Macheist.

My own feelings - I love Mac software and have paid for many $30 applications. Some I don’t even use, others only rarely. But I like supporting the community. I can’t exactly put my finger on why, but as a consumer, I can honestly say I prefer to buy my apps directly from the vendor. I just haven’t felt comfortable about promotions like Macheist and My Dream App.

After 22 days since my first post, I’m still enjoying having my own blog. I was worried that the zeal would wear off quickly and my attention would wander to other projects. There have been moments where I did not feel like writing or doing any research - it is after all work to provide good content. But overall I’m still enjoying myself and have been able to keep my long term goals in mind. And hopefully I’ll improve on providing content that actually is good.

One thing I have struggled with are the little details. Even though I’m happy with the overall product, there have been a few things I’ve wished I had done differently. And once you are live, like any production environment, changes have to be well thought out to minimize risk. Without diving into a rant on change management, I’ll stop at this - even though this blog is in it’s infancy, there are a subscribers. I need to think of them before making changes that may negatively affect them.

Feeds

The item I wanted to change the most was the RSS feeds. I had two - one for the blog posts and one for my weekly links that were located in the sidebar. These links were populated from my Tumblr page using javascript. The set up was fine in the beginning. But then I noticed that most readers were subscribing to the posts feed and the numbers for the links feed were quite low in comparison. I quickly realized that I wanted all readers to get all content for this site.

As other have said of their sites, my blog gives others an idea of who I am. And to me, a reader needs all the content I provide to get an accurate picture.

So as of today I have removed the links in the sidebar and will now post all content in the same manner. I’ve also directed the weekly links feed to the main feed.

Two other items worth mentioning. These both contributed to the decision to make the change:

• I tried finding a way to keep the setup the same but combine the feeds. I looked at yahoo pipes and tried out feedblendr. Neither seemed to meet my needs (and Feedburner does not currently have this functionality). So combining the feeds did not seem like a reliable option.
• We all lead busy lives. Having five kids makes mine even more so. I don’t always have the luxury of free time to write blog posts. There were times when I wanted to post some commentary that would make a really short blog post, but were a bit too long for the sidebar links. I hope this solution will solve that issue.

Over the past year I have glanced at the login page for my Backpack or Highrise sites and wondered if I should bother trying this whole OpenID thing. Would it be useful? Maybe. Would it be a hassle? Perhaps.

I have tested a whole lot of web applications and actually use a few them regularly. I currently store all of my passwords for these accounts in Yojimbo. This setup has served me fairly well for the past year. But there were those few times when I could not remember a password for a particular site and did not have access to my secure, encrypted list of passwords. This is exactly what OpenID is meant to solve. It’s the single sign on for the web.

So when David from 37signals announced that some of the larger web presences out there were moving to support OpenID, I thought this was the time to check it out.

So I did just that. And I figured there might be a lot of people like me out there - you’ve heard of OpenID but have never taken the time to learn more or to try it out. So I compiled my findings here.

What is OpenId?

Let’s start first with a definition. Here is an excerpt from Wikipedia:

OpenID is a decentralized single sign-on system. Using OpenID-enabled sites, web users do not need to remember traditional authentication tokens such as username and password. Instead, they only need to be previously registered on a website with an OpenID “identity provider” (IdP).

And here is a short and sweet one liner from OpenID.net:

OpenID eliminates the need for multiple usernames across different websites, simplifying your online experience.

And JanRain, Inc., providers of myOpenID.com, provides this overview:

OpenID is the decentralized, lightweight protocol for single sign-on and portable identity that is causing a massive disruption in today’s internet. More than 8,000 Web sites currently accept OpenID, a figure growing by five percent week over week, and many of the world’s leading companies, including Google Blogger, AOL, VeriSign, France Telecom and Sun Microsystems have adopted or announced support for OpenID enabling over 160 million users.

This technology also has a secondary purpose that the definition from myOpenID.com above alludes to - portable identity. OpenID.org provides a good summary of this side of OpenID:

OpenID also provides you with a place to store your digital identity - a place where you can easily be found on the web.

There is a lot of information on this subject, but it can be summed up easily - the Internet is an application itself and OpenId can be your authentication to this application. Wherever you choose to go, the idea is to only have to log in once. And to be secure while doing so.

And Reality?

The description above is the high level end goal. Is OpenID there yet? In one word - no. But with the announcement of companies like Google, Yahoo and Microsoft climbing on board, it’s easy to see the majority of smaller organizations following suit.

And it’s also easy to see this technology being embraced by the technophiles and hardcore web 2.0 users. But to see widespread adoption, it’s this writers opinion that this technology needs to be dead simple to setup and use. This is exaclty the question I wanted to answer. Can my parents set this up for themselves?

Experience

I chose myOpenID.com as a provider for my new account. The sign up was simple and I was soon on my way. You can view my profile to see how id providers give options for your online presence.

My second step was to try logging in to my Highrise and Backpack accounts to see how this worked. Fail.

I was not able to log in to my accounts on the first few attempts, even though I was prompted through the myopenid site to give access to the apps that I was attempting to use. It took me a few minutes to realize that I had not enabled my Highrise and Backpack accounts to actually use an OpenID account login. So even though the login screens to both applications have the option to use an OpenID to login, you actually have to log in to your account with your original username and password and enable this functionality.

Once that was done, a simple logout was required and then I was up and running with my new OpenID. My only complaint with the whole process was that the help options on 37Signals and myOpenID.com did not make a mention of this type of issue. But overall it was an easy process.

Issues and Concerns

This technology is not without concerns. Criticisms are focused, rather obviously, around security, privacy and possible breaches of a person’s OpenID account.

Stefan Brands, a professor at McGill University has this to say in his lengthy article on OpenID:

OpenID is highly vulnerable to phishing and other attacks, creates insurmountable privacy problems, is not a trust system, suffers from usability problems, and makes it unappealing to become an OpenID “consumer.”

It is easy to see why this would frighten some away from using openID. The main selling point of this whole idea is ease of use. The fact that this would also be one of the biggest risks will stop a lot of people from adopting.

Conclusion

I said above, that to achieve widespread adoption, openID has to be simple and easy to setup and use. But after learning more about the security and privacy concerns, it seems obvious that openID could cause problems with the very people who need it to be that easy. If it’s so easy that your somewhat computer-illiterate parents can set it up, then they will also be at risk to be fooled into compromising their information. After all, these are the people who are convinced into sending sending money to Nigeria.

In the end, I myself am comfortable with starting to use openID for some of my online applications. Am I going to set it up with my bank? No. Hopefully, over time the technology will address some of the concerns it is facing in it’s infancy.

I’m constantly signing up for and trying out the latest web applications. Most of the time I stop using them after the first login. Occasionally I’ll play with one for a couple of weeks. And once in a while a new web app becomes a regular tool. Instapaper is starting to look like one of the latter.

Reading Routine

I purchased NetNewsWire (NNW) not long after purchasing my first Mac (a used PowerMac G4), mostly on the recommendation of chairman Gruber. Since then, nothing has made me want to leave NNW for another RSS reader. The only issue I’ve had is that my work machine is an HP so NNW is not an option when at work.

Keeping up with my feeds mostly happens at home. But there are days when I want to do some reading at work. I tried Google reader for a while (with the excellent greader theme from Jon Hicks). But having to keep up to date on all my feeds in two feed readers was a waste of my time.

I’ve also tried using NNW on my mac and using a synced list on NewsGator while at work. This did not last for long either - mostly due to poor performance. NewsGator is extremely slow for me and buggy to boot. I love NNW, but it seems a shame that Ranchero was bought out by a company that makes Windows software (I’ve done a comparison on this very thing before).

Suffice to say, I had a hard time finding a satisfactory solution keeping my reading in sync between work and home. That is where Instapaper has now filled in admirably.

How? First, it has allowed me to keep up with my reading when at work. I don’t always get a lot of time to read at work anyways, so going through my entire list of feeds was a waste. Now I simply have a list of items that I’m sure will be a good read. I simply choose one during my lunch that piques my interest at the time.

Secondly, it fits in with my weekend routine quite nicely as well.

The New Routine

So now with NNW and Instapaper, I can keep up with my reading wherever I am and whenever I have time. Here’s how I use them.

Most weekday evenings I get a chance to go through my feeds in NNW. But a lot of those evenings my time is limited so I really skim through the shorter content.

When I get to something longer that really interests me, if I have time, I read it. If not, I use Instapaper’s bookmarklet to save the item for later. Now when I have a free moment at work, I simply choose from my list of items on Instapaper.

I also mentioned above how it fits in on the weekends. It does so simply by giving me something to read. Most of my feeds have content published during the week, but slow to a trickle on Friday through Sunday. I used to get a bit stressed trying to keep on top of my feeds during the busyness of the week - then the weekend would come along and I’d have nothing left to read.

Now I have a list of the items that deserve a longer look available at the time when I can give them the attention they deserve. And I’m less stressed.

One last thing to mention is the feel of the application itself. It’s dead simple. It was clearly designed for use on the iPhone, but is comfortable on a regular browser. It does just what it needs and nothing more. It’s a clean tool and a joy to use.

It’s becoming an indispensable tool for this reader.

This might be odd - but the name I chose for this site is something I struggle with every week. I know how important it is to sit back and review what I have and haven’t done for the past seven days. Even more, I know it is critical to look back and evaluate whether or not my goals are still the same. And to examine my actions - for they will have proven what my true goals are.

I know it. And yet I struggle.

The Weekly Review

How many of us could benefit from this kind of reflection for even just one hour each week? In today’s typical North American lifestyle, items vying for our attention greatly outweigh our ability to do something useful with so much information. We have become information intakes, rapidly accepting input, but seem to have lost some of our ability to produce quality output.

I’ve heard it said that the successful people in this century will be those who can, not digest information, but who can filter information.

In this type of atmosphere, I think a weekly review can be a powerful tool. And I’d like to explain how.

Let’s start first with the definition a weekly review. According to Wikipedia, here is the GTD definition of a weekly review:

At least weekly, the discipline of GTD requires that all your outstanding actions, projects and ‘waiting for’ items are reviewed, making sure that any new tasks or forthcoming events are entered into your system, and that everything is up to date.

So that’s the official GTD take on this idea. But what I am stressing here is the concept. You can call it whatever you want - a weekly review, a 10 day review, reflection time. The name doesn’t matter. What does matter is that time is taken to review what has come at you, what you have done with what has come at you, and what you may have missed.

But it’s not easy.

Reality - It’s a Struggle

Visit a website that focuses on GTD and you will find no shortage of people who struggle with this concept. Why do we have such a hard time with this? I really believe a big factor is the times we live in. We have a lot of distractions things to do with our time that folks in the past did not.

Here are some other common reasons why people struggle with this:

• You have more information coming at you than you can deal with.
• For GTDers, your ’system’ isn’t working. You have no confidence in it.
• You simply have not made this time enough of a priority. You don’t ’schedule’ it in.
• You are lazy. It’s okay - we all are at times.

Most of us can relate to one of these. And there are probably more. Whatever the reason, how can we improve on this?

Make it a Habit

Why? Habitual actions take less energy and planning. How much time, energy and planning do you put into brushing your teeth or getting dressed? Habits can generally be completed while your mind is on something else. In this case, making a review a habit allows your mind to focus on your goals themselves.

And how do you form a habit? One word - repetition. Here are a few suggestions to make your weekly review a habit:

• Find\make a quiet place.
• Put it in your calendar. Book a time for this review and keep it there. Repeat this for several weeks.

That’s it. If you can discipline yourself to complete the above steps for 5 or 6 weeks, you should see the benefits. And it will begin to feel good and you will start to look forward to it.

We All Do It Anyways

Almost everyone but the schizophrenics do some type of review every week, if unconsciously. But there is benefit to making it a bit more formal and habitual.

I love GTD and it’s ideas. But the weekly review goes beyond GTD. It’s not important to your career only. What about at home? What about your significant other? Your children? And if you are spiritual, what about your relationship with God?

What areas can benefit from a weekly review? A better question - what areas can’t?

It’s clear to me that in this age of free and fast flowing information, seeking quiet is no longer a luxury, but a necessity. Make it a habit.

Since I’ve gotten the site up and running, I’ve finally been able to use MarsEdit regularly. I really enjoy this application. It’s simple and singly purposed - it makes writing for a blog more enjoyable.

But others have reviewed this in great length already, so that’s now what I’m doing here. But I was working on a post this morning and almost made the same mistake I’ve made a couple of times in the past few weeks. It’s caused simply by my penchant for fast clicking and the placement of the buttons in the toolbar:

I’ve almost posted a half written post four or five times by hitting the ‘Send to Weblog’ button which is right beside the ‘Save as Draft’ button. So in order to cover my butt, a change was necessary:

Another reason to enjoy OS X and applications written for it. Customization and personal preference are so easy to achieve.

Since I have not been able to find a really good desktop task management application for Windows, I have tried quite a few web apps to fit this need. I’ve spent a good bit of time with a few and took a quick look at some others. I finally decided to go with Highrise from 37Signals. It is not a perfect tool for GTD (does that even exist?), but it fits quite easily into my workflow and how I manage my tasks.

Now before I get too far, I have to state that if you are looking for an application that strictly follows all the concepts of GTD, Highrise might not be for you. It is designed first and foremost as a CRM (Customer Relationship Management) tool. That means it is people focused, rather than task focused. This works for me, because a good amount of my work is focused on people - tasks I perform for others or communications that I need to have with others. But there are also ways to get around a people-centric application to track projects. I’ll expand on that a little later.

But if you are looking for a good web application that is more task focused, I would suggest using other 37Signals tools: Backpack or Basecamp. These have been around for a bit longer than Highrise and are built with the same great design and usability.

One last note. Highrise offers another core element - these are referred to as Cases. Cases are basically projects. But with the free plan for Highrise you are limited to one Case. I am using the free plan, so I will not be examining how to use this functionality with GTD.

The Setup

To start, I want to mention that I still use Highrise as it is intended - I add people as contacts and create tasks for myself that are associated with those people. This still follows GTD principles as you may have lists for specific people.

However, Highrise does not allow you to easily use contexts with your tasks. You can use them - each task gets a category, which you can edit to resemble your different contexts. But the application does not let you easily view tasks sorted by these categories\contexts. Rather, each page has it’s tasks sorted by due date with the category included along side the task.

This usage is not really a problem for me. Most of my work is at the computer, or face to face with a person. So associating tasks with people works for me. I tend not to focus too much on contexts.

And lastly, the Highrise dashboard and Tasks page list all of your tasks. In both locations, the tasks are again sorted by due date. This is not perfect. Most of time I do like to see my tasks laid out as they are approaching their due date - but it would also be great to have a choice to sort by another task element.

Remember, the key with any GTD setup is to make sure your tool fits your working style. So far, Highrise works for me.

Projects

All right. We’ve covered people - but how does Highrise allow you to add projects with the free plan?

Simple. You add each project as a person. That’s it.

Then add the different tasks for each project. Each project will now have it’s own page where you can add tasks, notes, tags and summary information about the project. Each of these pages also has a timeline summary of activities that have occurred.

Using the System

Collect

Again, Highrise will not fit the strict defintion of a GTD inbox. And again for me, this is not an issue. Most of my task\information collection comes via email or is written down in my notebook (a post for another day). Both of those tools play nicely with Highrise when you begin to process.

Process

On a good day, I get the chance to process new items at least once and clear out my email and new tasks I’ve written in my notebook. Items from my notebook get added to Highrise directly from the web page. Same goes for emails.

37Signals have also done a lot of work to enable Highrise to fit in with email. Check out their help page on email to learn how to use this functionality. Generally I don’t use this - when I’m sitting at my desk I have my email open as well as my browser so items are entered manually.

Organize

This process is basically what I have mentioned above in the setup. As you are processing your tasks and have a new project to be created, it’s a simple as clicking on the ‘Add a new person’ button.

Work

Once all that is done, you can begin to impress others with your ninja-like ability to get things done and cross off tasks. Or in the case of Highrise, check off tasks. And Highrise has some very satisfactory AJAX action that occurs when you check off a task - the item is crossed through and then slowly fades off the page.

Tagging

One last item I would mention is tagging. The good news is that Highrise makes use of tagging. The bad news is that you can only assign tags to people (and in my case projects as well). Highrise does not allow you to assign tags to individual tasks.

The same goes for I Want Sandy, Joyent Connector and all of the 37Signals products. It seems to be a common missing feature from a lot of promising web applications. And in my opinion this will stop a lot of people from using some of these tools and to stick with more fully featured desktop apps.

Summary

Like I’ve mentioned, this is not perfect. If I had my way I would use Things from Cultured Code to manage all my projects. But at work, I find that Highrise meets my needs.

And it’s important to mention the feel of the application - all the 37Signals products give you a sense of good, solid user-focused design. That is a feeling that is not easily imbued in a user. Highrise also looks good - across browsers and across operating systems. It is an application that I enjoy to use.

Check it out.