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TrackTime  →

My thanks to TrackTime for sponsoring the RSS Feed this week. If you’re a freelancer working from you computer then TrackTime may be perfect for you. It’s an app for keeping track of lost-yet-billable hours by adding up all the time you spend in various applications, or even based on web history or iTunes history. Which means, for example, that if you forget to “clock in” you can use TrackTime to look back and see exactly how and where you’ve been spending your time and then add it up so you can bill for that work.

You can try it out for free for 30 days, or use the code SHAWNBLANC to buy it for 15% off until tomorrow, March 26.

TrackTime

When we Work and Play from the Same Device  →

Seth Godin:

More and more, we’re finding it easy to get engaged with activities that feel like work, but aren’t. I can appear just as engaged (and probably enjoy some of the same endorphins) when I beat someone in Words With Friends as I do when I’m writing the chapter for a new book. The challenge is that the pleasure from winning a game fades fast, but writing a book contributes to readers (and to me) for years to come.

One reason for this confusion is that we’re often using precisely the same device to do our work as we are to distract ourselves from our work. The distractions come along with the productivity. The boss (and even our honest selves) would probably freak out if we took hours of ping pong breaks while at the office, but spending the same amount of time engaged with others online is easier to rationalize.

Seth proposes that we separate work devices from play devices.

It’s the exact same thing that Rick Stawarz wrote about a few days ago. He’s turning his iPad, iPhone, and MacBook into app-dedicated gadgets: iPhone for staying connected to work on the go, MacBook for doing work, iPad for play and leisure.

On my computer I do work email, personal email, website email; book-keeping and taxes and business-related tasks; reading; writing; project planning; task management; time management; research; and more…

It’s all done right here in one spot on one machine. It is certainly a distraction-prone environment — but it’s not just the bad distractions (like games or YouTube). It is so very easy to switch from work email to personal email back to work email all in the same sitting. But I don’t know if that is necessarily the best use of time.

I wrote about this somewhat last September when I wrote about how Inbox Zero is all about the outbox. I am always wanting to grow and excel in time management and living with focus, and this is something I’d very much like to write about and explore even more in the future.

When we Work and Play from the Same Device

Go J Go  →

Stephen Hackett is selling some very fun shirts. 100% of the proceeds go directly to support St. Jude Children’s Hospital, which has been treating Stephen’s son, Josiah (a.k.a. “J”), since May 2009 for a brain tumor:

St. Jude treats patients without regard of their ability to pay. That’s pretty cool. To put this into perspective, Josiah’s medical bills — after just 6 months — totaled almost a million dollars. After a year, he was at just over $2 million. Just stop and think about that. It’s pretty mind-boggling. Needless to say, St. Jude is an unbelievable blessing to families with children affected by diseases like Josiah’s.

Stephen is a stand up guy and St. Jude is an incredible blessing. If you’re looking for a new, fun shirt to wear this summer, and want your proceeds to go directly to a good cause, pick up a “Go J Go” shirt. I did.

Go J Go

Felix Salmon on The New York Times’ Paywall  →

Felix Salmon:

The pricing structure is also a strong disincentive to use the iPad app at all, of course. If you’re already paying $15 every four weeks to have full access to the website, why on earth would you pay extra just to be able to read the paper on its own dedicated app rather than in Safari? I, for one, prefer the experience of reading nytimes.com on the web on my iPad, rather than reading an iPad app which has no search, no links, no archives, no social recommendations, etc etc. If the NYT wanted to kill any incentive to read and develop its iPad app, it’s going about it the right way.

Felix Salmon on The New York Times’ Paywall