…and last week, the million things got in the way, I simply ran out of time to write my T3 post.

So being a cognitive psychologist, it got me thinking… what are some ways I make myself more efficient?  It turns out it is all about maximizing your attention.

It is really helpful to reevaluate one’s work habits when you need to make every second count. Here are 3 tips that really resonated with me:

1) Block time – One of the best things you can do is segment your day into blocks of time… hardly a novel concept, I know, but in the age of chat, email, VOIP, multitasking seems like a way of life, but all the research shows multitasking is actually horribly inefficient. It takes about 15 minutes to really mentally switch your attention between topics and be fully focused on a new task. So trying to do 2 or 3 things at once or bouncing between new tasks every 15 or 20 minutes is a horrible way to be efficient. Even just quickly breaking away from what you’re doing to read and respond to an email or answer the phone can disrupt your efficiency flow.

So one obvious tip here is to make sure to block out enough time to complete a task or make meaningful progress on it. Blocks of about an hour tend to be ideal, as research shows performance and efficiency is maximal at about 45 minutes on a given task and starts to wane after that (and keep that in mind for meetings, too… ever have one of those marathon 3-hour meetings? Those often turn out to be huge wastes of time because people get burnt out… try breaking them into 3 short meeting or include breaks every hour or so… it’ll make a huge difference).

2) Avoid email – this is probably my biggest personal weakness. In fact, I’ve decided I’m slightly addicted to novelty and get a minor rush every time I get new email. Which in itself, isn’t horrible, but if you monitor how much time you spend on different tasks in your day, you’ll probably find reading and writing email takes up much more time than it should… especially since the very act of writing someone email means you’ll probably just get even more. The best thing to do on this front is do a quick scan of emails first thing, and only read and reply to mission critical or time sensitive email. Then close you reader, and only check it in between tasks you’ve blocked out and leave the bulk of your email replies to later…. which brings me to my last point….

3) Maximize productive time – It turns out that all time is not equal. Studies show people’s brains have a peak productivity time somewhere throughout their day in which they can maximally focus their attention. For most people it is actually the morning time before lunch, though for others it is late at night. In many cases, people believe this time is when they can actually be alone, undisturbed (often the late-night scenario) — it is true being undisturbed is important, though biologically your maximum biological performance may still be in the AM.

In order to be maximally efficient, you’ll want to maximize your thought-intensive tasks during these peak productivity windows when ever possible— things like strategic thinking, planning, inventing, etc. Don’t waste that precious time doing more ‘mindless’ tasks writing email or reading the news unless that is critical for your job… such mindless tasks that are best saved for the afternoon/evening when fatigue and low blood sugar make meaningful work less possible.

If you want to read more on the topic, there are, of course, a ton of famous books on the topic and IMO, Alec Mackenzie’s, The Time Trap, is one of the classics.

Good luck, now go off and be more productive… I’ve just gotten more email… must resist…

Well, it actually has 11 letters and it can be a fantastic resource if used effectively. However, if you aren’t careful, it will certainly have you spouting four-letter words… so here are some tips to make the most of your next outsource.

And if you don’t think outsourcing is important, did you know Kevin Rose used an outsourcing site, Elance.com, to create Digg.com for $200. I’d say that return on investment should keep you reading….

So what is outsourcing?

In a lot of ways, outsourcing is simply hiring someone else to do a job for you. Great synonyms for outsourcing are freelance or contract work.

It could be anything from making a website to doing your accounting. Most of the jobs you’ll see are things that translate well while working remotely, and include: software programming, graphic & web design, and writing copy.

Here, I’ll largely be focusing on web-business topics, but don’t let that constrain how you use it. Odds are, if you have something you need done, someone will do it for you, and for cheaper than you could do it yourself.

Where to begin

The first thing you do is identify what you need help with.

Ever see a website you like and say, “I wish mine looked like that?”

Do you wish you had a Wordpress blog all set up on your own server but aren’t comfortable with FTP or setting up a MySQL DB?

Want a new logo, but don’t want to pay $500 for new art software or can’t draw to save your life?

Ever wish you had someone to write 150 paragraphs to help fill out a knowledge base?

Things like that are perfect to be outsourced, and in many cases you can get quality work done in a day and for a hundred dollars.

For the first time out, start with a small task that isn’t mission critical and doesn’t have a time-sensitive deadline. Like anything else, there is a learning curve here, and don’t expect things to go smoothly.

Once you’ve done that, the best description I can come up with for the process is something like the fusion of selling (your need) and buying (the vendor’s time) on eBay:
1. First you post a job description and your budget range
2. Then get bids from vendors
3. Converse with vendors
4. Pick a vendor
5. Monitor project process
6. Pay the vendor

Where to freelance?

There are several freelance / outsourcing market places out there. I’ll add to this list if people would like to post their favorite sites. Sites I’ve used with good success are:

• Getafreelancer
• Elance
• ifreelance

Other sites suggested by readers:

• oDesk

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly about outsourcing

The Good:

• outsourcing is a great way you can get stuff done you can’t do yourself
• it’s cheap, rates are often posted $10-20/hr, but in actuality, you can often get it for much less since most projects are priced by the project, not hourly
• allows you to multi-task and get larger projects done much faster by sending pieces out
• by polling various vendors it is a good way to build consensus your approach or idea or method is a good one
• freelancing isn’t just for finding a vendor; you can also hire out your particular skill set as a vendor
• sites offer you protection for your money and some recourse in the form of a feedback system if you have a bad interaction
• you have the power to control who you hire, if anyone at all
• most sites charge nothing or very little for posting a hiring need

The Bad:

• since a lot of work is sent to other countries, sometimes a language barrier can slow or cripple a project – be ready for broken English emails and potential difficulty explaining complicated concepts
• again, there’s a good chance you might be dealing with someone half a world away, so make sure you account for dealing with things on a 12-16 hour time difference
• many vendors simply bid dozens of projects without a lot of thought about your particular project, so the onus is on you to find the right person
• odds are you aren’t going to find someone that is as passionate about your project as you are, so it is up to you to make sure it is always moving in the right direction
• at the end of the day, there isn’t much accountability on the vendor’s side other than their feedback rating. Some vendors may run into trouble and simply cut and run. A common outcome is to simply never hear from a vendor again.

The Ugly (things to be wary of:)

• bidder with little or no feedback – one or two feedback scores can be faked and no feedback should be completely avoided
• don’t bid too low- outsourcing is great, but don’t expect for someone to write the next iTunes site for you for $30
• the Re-outsource – many bidders act almost as a project manager (without telling you) and simply re-outsource the project. This means you aren’t really choosing your vendor. Explicitly inquire about and avoid this
• can be slow- inevitably you will get people that under bid or at the very least, blow their time estimate big time. Expect delays.
• paying around- just like on eBay, some vendors may ask you to pay them outside the site to save some money. It increases your risk and isn’t fair to the website where you found them.

The Tips

Screen names can protect your identity and escrow can protect your money, but only you can protect against wasting your time. So here are 20 tips to succeed at your next outsource:

1. Write a good description- vendors aren’t mind readers… the more detailed you can be in description upfront, the quicker you’ll be able to hone in on a vendor. It is much better to have too much detail than not enough
2. Break your project up into phases- the biggest suggestion I can make is for any meaningful project, is break it up into smaller projects
3. Make your first project a a trial- don’t try outsourcing for the first time in a time critical situation or for an important project
4. Define detailed deliverables- be ultra-explicit about what you expect to get…. don’t assume anything. If you are having a website designed, you’ll want to specify you want it uploaded and functioning on your server. If you are getting logo built, specify the size, image type, software package it was created in. If you don’t list it in your description, you can’t expect delivery of it at the end of a project
5. Define rigid deadlines- similarly, create firm deadlines that are defined in an agreed upon timezone
6. Do a search for similar projects- this is helpful for several reasons: (1) you can see other people’s task descriptions and find things you might have forgotten in yours (2) in many cases you can find who has bid or successfully completed a similar job and invite them to bid on your project
7. Make sure to ask for a portfolio- make sure to ask to see what they’ve done. note the variety and quality of their work
8. Ask for project-relevant example sites- what you really want to see is that they’ve created something just like you need. You’ll get lots of bids for people saying they can do your job, but you really only want to work with someone that has solved your specific problem before
9. Give examples & URLs when ever possible- one of the best things you can do is say something like, “I want my site to look like site X, with login features like site Y”. It helps the vendors and helps you explicitly define what you want
10. Ask lots of questions- most sites allow you post private messages to vendors. You can learn quite a lot by asking individual vendors how they intend to solve your problem and what relevant experience they have
11. Role play- define the description and specs, then pretend you know nothing, or better yet, give it to a friend to look over and ask them questions about what you have described. Have you really given someone enough information?
12. Use escrow payments- always use an escrow service when ever possible and try to avoid prepaying. Most issues of payment can be avoided if you simply outline what terms you want in your description
13. Use feedback system- check their feedback, skip any new vendors / people without feedback, and make sure to add to the community by leaving your feedback about your vendor and asking for feedback yourself
14. Stay connected- once you decide on a vendor, make sure you get their IM / chat / Skype contact info so you can ask and answer questions promptly. Email is often too slow, especially on short projects, and can cause needless delays
15. Lots of prototypes- this is a classic project management technique that is ultra-effective. As with almost any project, one of the best things you can do is ask for lots of prototypes along the way to make sure things are heading in the right direction. You might have thought you wrote a great description and your vendor might say they understand your vision, but without checkpoints and opportunities to redirect along the way, you might end up with something you didn’t expect. Avoid this common pitfall by building in multiple checkpoints with a tangible delivery to make sure things are progressing as you had hoped
16. Build a wall- make sure you partition vendor’s work as much as possible, ideally on a test or dev server, or at least in a different directory. Also only give vendors ftp access if possible. Don’t risk losing other data or exposing active parts of your website. You can get a shared server for a few bucks a month… it’s a small price to pay for piece of mind
17. Change login info- and don’t forget to change their password or freeze their account once they’re finished. If you have to give them broader access to your server, select an temporary password and change it once they’re done
18. Be creative- there are a ton of things you can out source. Be creative and post it… it never hurts to ask
19. Know when to cut your losses- eventually, no matter how careful you are, you will run into a bad scenario. Read your site’s terms, but usually if you don’t hear from your vendor in a few days, take the necessary action to reopen the project and find a better fit
20. Find a good vendor – one of the best things you can hope for is to find a vendor with which you have a good report and they are talented enough to help you on other projects

Good luck, and go outsource ‘em!

Welcome back!

Whether you are thinking about monetizing your blog or you’re getting a startup going, there are plenty of things to spend money on….  lawyers, advertising, you name it…. so don’t waste your money on silly infrastructure when you can get equivalent (or better) things for free.

Every dollar you save in startup costs will increase your chances of being successful down the road. So let’s save some money… and if you have a great free or cheap resource or app that’s really helping your business, comment away! Here’s the quick list with some description to follow:

1. Google Docs Word Processing
2. Google Docs Spreadsheets
3. Google Docs Presentations
4. Skype VOIP
5. Y!Messenger Web Chat
6. Flickr online photo storage and sharing
   
7. Blogger Blog
8. Google Analytics
9. Google GMail webmail
10. Craigslist web wantads
11. Amazon Simple Storage Service (S3) backup
12. Outsourcing services like Elance or GetaFreelancer or iFreeLance
13. Royalty free images like iStockPhoto
14. Web fax service like myFax
15. Nolo legal information

The run down on the freebies:

1,2, & 3 Google Docs

The first three are the holy trinity of the office: word processing, spreadsheets, and presentations — and Google Docs brings you all three… over the web, for free. So not only are you saving about $300 per computer, but they also all read and write Microsoft Office files (Word, Excel, and Powerpoint). To me, the two features that are truly awesome: first, you can use Google Docs to edit documents collaboratively online (that is, you and several distributed team members can edit a document simultaneously). Finally, no more waiting for someone to iterate a document. And second, since this is online, you can work from any machine, anywhere, also longer is there is an internet connection. No more worrying about bringing a file with you— this is the quintessential example of using the web as a platform… now that’s real Web 2.0 if you ask me! The only downside: not being able to work on Google Docs on an airplane.

4. Skype VOIP

Seriously, you should never pay for business calls again. VOIP, (voice over IP) simply stated, is moving your phone to the computer. There are lots of choices out there— you’ll find me among the 10M people at any given time using Skype… free calls to other Skype members, free voice mail, free chat, free conference calls, and ability to share files… about the only thing you’ll probably want to get if you haven’t already is a head phone with a mic… but that isn’t needed. You can also upgrade for a modest fee so you can get one or more phone numbers in any area code you want to receive incoming calls and you can also call any landline number. Sure, you will lose the ability to make 911 calls, but you can pretty much do everything else including saving loads of money.

5. Y!Messenger Web Chat

Everybody chats for free already. Web chat is great because you can do it (and bring your contact list with you) where ever you are. Lots of people, myself included, use GMail’s chat. Yahoo’s web-version of the Messenger is great for business because they are aligned with Microsoft, so you can easily chat with those business folk on MSN.  Check it out.

6. Flickr online photos

Online photo sharing is all the rage.  It’s great for showing personal photos, sure, but it’s great to use as a free  online portfolio or file conduit if you don’t have a website of your own or your large images are getting stuck in your email outbox.

7. Blogger Blog

I recently discussed the merits of Google’s Blogger and Wordpress.com.  Free blog, free hosting, free plugins, free adsense integration …. um, what’s not to like.

8. Google Analytics

If you don’t have an ecommerce site or a blog,  you don’t need to know who is visiting your site.  But if you have any kind of web presence, this free set of tools is a must.   If you do have commerce related sites and you aren’t closely tracking your website visitors you are wasting precious money.

9. Google GMail webmail

Google has 6 of the top 9 must-haves…. well they aren’t quickly becoming the worlds largest company without reason.  3GB of free email…. nice groupings of message threads…. integrated chat…. searchable everything…. and super compatible.  If you can get past the targeted ads that spin off from your email topics and  it isn’t optimized for storing in folders, it is a pretty great way to set up a work-horse email account for free.

10. Craigslist web wantads

Have a service (any service!) to sell or buy?  Need a used printer or want to hire local employees.  Check out the bay-area iconic web service that has gone global, but still stays local.

The really cheap must-haves:

11. Amazon Simple Storage Service (S3) backup

This is one of my favorite secret little services.  Everybody should be backing up their data.  Burning discs is fine, but ideally, you do a major backup offsite… just in case.  This service costs basically nothing ($0.15 GB/month + $0.10/GB transfer fees).  Simple, fast, and cheap.  Perfect.

12. Outsourcing services like GetaFreelancer or Elance or iFreeLance

Outsource it.  This is important enough that I plan to dedicate an entire entry to the ins and outs of outsourcing on a small scale.  There are plenty of pitfalls, many services to choose from, and if you can get past the stigma of getting any sized project completed on the cheap, definitely check out one of these outsourcing sites.

13. Istockphoto royalty free images

Ever wonder how so many sites get great images for their websites?  They don’t make them their selves.  They buy them.  If you need some images to lively up a website or some flashy icons or some clip art for a newsletter, you can find them for $1 each on many different websites selling royalty free images.  As long as you use the images within the license guidelines, there are lots of sites out there that can help you out.   I am a loyal Istockphoto guy because of the wide range of image types including everything from photo quality to vector art.

14. Web fax service

Why waste space or expense on a physical fax machine.  Web fax services let you fax and receive documents by simply sending and receiving email for as cheap as $10/mo…. if you have webmail, you can send or receive documents anywhere – even on your web-enabled phone… It’s sure saved me a few times.

15. Nolo legal information

I’ll forgo the obligatory joke and get to the point. There are some things only a lawyer can help you with.  There are lots of things with the aid of generic forms that you can do yourself.  And if you are a little bit adventurous, Nolo has a litany of legal resource just waiting for you.

Phew… Not sure what I’ll hit next week… but after traveling with my toddler without the benefit of preboarding, I’m pretty wiped out. Catch ya’ next week…

Favorite graphs I’ve rediscovered this week: David Sifry’s State of the Blogosphere

I always try to test things out before having to go live, so since eMoms was a WordPress-powered blog, my first move was to push my own blog from Google’s Blogger to WordPress to get a real feel for using WordPress.

If you have a blog, you probably know Blogger and WordPress are the two heavyweight tools for writing and publishing blogs – - – they comprise something between 60-75% of the market (determining blogging tools market share is more art than science— if you know of a good, comprehensive and recent report on blog usage, please comment).

As a primer, WordPress.com and Blogger.com (bought by Google in 1999) are free, easy-to-use, web-based blog publishers… if you’re thinking of making a move or getting started, here’s a good comparison…..

There is also WordPress.org, which provides free software that you need to install on a server — WP.org allows for tremendous flexibility at the cost of being more involved and requiring more technical know-how . Here’s one ex-Blogger’s rationale for switching.

Ever wonder how the two are doing relative to each other? There are a lot of Google toys out there many people don’t know a lot about and go under utilized. Here’s Google Lab’s Trends feature to compare Blogger and Wordpress based on search trends.

Anyway, word on the street is Blogger is superior to WordPress.com if you’re just getting your feet wet. If you want ultimate control and things like ftping and editing some text files don’t scare you, WordPress.org is by far the best way to go. If you know about the power of Drupal, you’ve probably already stopped reading this post.

But for a faux-hacker like me, playing with WordPress(.org) was kind of like Christmas… all the loads of free templates and plugins and widgets, all floating in freely distributed, mildly supported, and horribly commented code… yum! Sure, it was fantastic time sink, but luckily there are a ton of great resources out there. Find them, use them, and share them.

And I must say, once I did some reading and made the transition, going from Blogger to WordPress was like going from a bike with training wheels to a Ducati or like moving from Solvang to Las Vegas. Pretty much out of the box, I went from a vanilla text blog to an ultra-customized, multi-media, monetized website in nothing flat. Is it currently over-complicated? Sure… Is that a good thing? Well, we’ll see.

So what’s all this talk about 2.0?

Exactly! So in my pursuit of creating the next version of my blog, I wondered what else I could do to 2.0-ify my site… unfortunately, there really is no consensus about what it even means to be Web 2.0 anyway.

So while I was foolishly thinking Web2.0 was all about using the web as a universal platform and outlining new standards for web usability and empowering user-driven content, apparently all I had to do to make my blog web2.0 compliant was use glossy fonts, some glass badges, and call it beta, and I’d be all set.

And boy does that sure ring true, when even mainstream sites that have been around for 10 years, like BabyCenter.com, have decided to switch to slick new graphics and stick on the the moniker “beta”. Oh, OK…. I can do that.

Are you wondering if your site is 2.0? Here is a hilarious tongue-in-cheek Web 2.0 Validator. My blog got a 16/66…. I guess I have a ways to go to true 2.0 status yet.

Okay well what did you learn?

I actually learned lots from this exercise… chief among them:

• There’s a ton of rapidly evolving technology out there that can really make a difference to your online business.
• To avoid getting lost in the avalanche of new things, find a few key blogs as resources and get involved posting comments and asking questions. One of the best things about the open-source movement is there are a lot of people willing to help you.
• And ultimately, if you lose your way, there’s always things like the 2.0 validator or watching ok go on treadmills on YouTube to remind you not to take things all that seriously.

Next week I will tackle some great business resources I’ve come across in my starting up my startup.

Geekiest thing I found this week: “Visualizing people’s music listening trends” Boy do I love a good visualization.

I’m calling my post Tech Talk Tuesday, but I’m really hoping to address much more than technology (I’m just a sucker for alliteration).

I’ll be sharing my thoughts on startups and web technology (founder of an educational startup for kids and families), the science of parenting (Ph.D. in psychology with a child development blog), and life as a work-at-home dad (first time father with a darling little toddler).

Here are some of first posts I’m really excited to blogging about:

• A funny thing happened on the way to 2.0
• A day in the life of a startup father
• Lessons learned at a post-bubble startup
• 15 free (or really cheap) must-haves when starting an online company
• The power of RSS
• Putting the SAD in Stay At-home DAD.
• Discrimination isn’t just for mommies anymore

…and I’ll even try and throw in a contest or two

I’d also love to answer any questions people might have, so please post questions in a comment or send me some email and I’ll make sure to answer them in regular mailbag posts.

I’m really looking forward to this…

Favorite thing I read this week: “If there’s anything better than being the father of a little girl, I don’t know what it is.” – a line from a fellow first-time dad’s email… I couldn’t agree more.