Category Archives: Personal

The Danger of Swinging For The Fences

Posted on May 1, 2012 by Michael Schechter • 4 Comments

When we get close to the end of a project, we worry about having a strong finish. We torment ourselves about achieving our initial goal. When we’re not far enough along and a deadline is rapidly approaching, we look for a way to close the gap. Occasionally we allow ourselves to become desperate. When we get desperate, we get stupid. When we get stupid, we make a last-ditch effort and swing for the fences.

This works out sometimes and we do what needed doing, but usually we just make a fool out of ourselves. We say things we wouldn’t normally say, do things we wouldn’t normally do. And not in the, “stretching what we’re capable of.” Our ambition gets in the way of our integrity.

Have big goals. Work hard. Just don’t ever let yourself get desperate in how you achieve them. You’ll regret it. Trust me, I’m talking from experience here. If you find yourself coming to the end of a project and you don’t know what to do, I want to make an unconventional suggestion: seriously consider “failing” this time around, then regroup and try again.

Don’t just quit because you think you’ll fail. Work until the end of any obligation (self-imposed or otherwise), do whatever you can to get where you need to go, but stay true. Being disappointed with a short-term failure is far easier to overcome than a long-term disappointment in yourself. This isn’t only true for the end of a project, it’s just as often that we’re not as far along in a project, a career or our lives for that matter. Long-term course correction and continuing to foul off might not seem like enough, especially as a deadline approaches, but doing things the long, hard, stupid way (as Frank Chimero put it) has its benefits.

Tomorrow I come to the end of a year-long project here on the site. I had specific goals and through trial and error (emphasis on the error), I came to specific ways that I wanted to achieve them. As the end approached and that inevitable fear that I wouldn’t achieve some of my goals set in, the urge to swing for the fences set in. I wanted to forgo what I had decided along the way in order to end on a high note. I’m glad I didn’t and I look forward to sharing both what I learned and how things played out over the next two days.

Filed Under: Personal

Welcome to the World

Posted on July 21, 2011 by Michael Schechter • 30 Comments

Speaking of things that really matter…

Emily Margaret Schechter

I could not be more excited to introduce my daughter, Emily Margaret Schechter1 to the world!

  1. 8lbs 2oz and 20.5″ for those keeping score. [↩]
Filed Under: Personal

Five Strangers Who Have Changed My Life

Posted on July 4, 2011 by Michael Schechter • 15 Comments

Note: While I usually use Mondays to share a tool or workflow to help you get more done, I wanted to take advantage of the holiday to share some of the folks who have helped me. Happy 4th!

I’m always a fan of sharing good things and good people. Looking under rocks, and finding new and unusual things is a bit of a life-long habit. I tend to find and share a lot (probably too much) and occasionally the people I truly want to highlight get lost in the shuffle1.

With that in mind, I wanted to take a break from what I usually ramble on about to either turn you on to or simply thank five people who have fundamentally impacted me. These are guys worth following, worth listening to and worth learning from. I say this with none of my usual sarcasm; they’ve changed my life.

Seth Godin – My love affair with Seth started with The Dip*. I read it alongside Tribes * in the same weekend and I think that both books have informed pretty much every thought I’ve had since. I also begin nearly every day with Seth’s blog, which has done so much to encourage me to think critically about absolutely everything. Scanning my RSS feeder for worthwhile posts and reading them on my way to work is a big part of what helps me get going in the morning and even when they are only a few lines long, Seth’s daily offerings always get my wheels turning.

Hugh MacLeod – I actually discovered Hugh through a video of Seth’s Tribes presentation. I fell in love with his work and actually spend my days surrounded by this and this and this. His two books, Ignore Everybody* and Evil Plans* have done so much to encourage me to 1) Write more and 2) Talk about my struggles with creativity. I don’t know about you, but I’ve always hated motivational posters. You know, the ones with a picture of five rowers and the word “Teamwork”. MacLeod’s art, which often begin as drawings on the back of business cards, takes this age-old convention and gives it a set of balls. Each one of his daily drawings are an inspiring shot in the arm. If you are trying to unlock your creativity and don’t Subscribe, you are missing out.

Merlin Mann – I talk about him a lot on this site (A LOT), mostly because a good part of what I’m writing about is likely (ok, definitely) rehashed or boiled down iterations of many of his ideas. His Inbox Zero talk was the thing that kicked off my productivity kick. His episodes of the Mac Power Users fundamentally changed the way I use a computer. Everything from his session with John Gruber, to his Time and Attention talk and his recent weekly podcast with Dan Benjamin have had a major impact on my being. I tend to get in my own way and Merlin has become an internal 2×4 to the side of the head for getting out of it. He gives an ADHD mess like myself something to strive for!

Marco Arment – With Marco, it is a bit of a different story. I’ve already written about how I use his product, Instapaper, but I really don’t think I’ve fully expressed how much that product has made me a better me. It has helped me learn so much more about my industry and about my interests. It has helped me fill every free minute, including two 40-minute commutes a day with exactly what I want to read. His former project, Tumblr, was also the thing that finally helped me get into the rhythm of posting to the web with regular frequency (especially when paired with Instapaper, something I plan to geek out on soon here on the site). I also happen to love his blog where he offers a tremendous amount of insight into how he approaches his business.

Danny Brown – While Danny is no longer a stranger (and though he’d never admit it, I’d even go as far to say that we are friends), I will truly be eternally grateful to how supportive he was when I was just getting started on the web. He has an immense amount of patience and a great way of boiling things down so that even I can understand them. Danny writes about what he does, managing to be a better human (and business person (and business for that matter)) in an increasingly digital world. He has a wicked sense of humor, a keen insight into a lot of the changes happening around us and a Scottish accent that makes him utterly indiscernible in conversation.

While these are all names that likely mean a lot to those of you in the Social Media and tech bubbles, I tend to spend a lot of my time out of those worlds and thought I’d share with the rest of the class. If you haven’t checked out what any of these five are up to on the web, it will be well worth your time and your personal development to do so! Enjoy!

**This post includes affiliate links, ’cause I’m shameless and stuff…*

  1. I’m the boy who cried awesome… [↩]
Filed Under: Personal

Create Your Own Newspaper With Instapaper

Posted on June 6, 2011 by Michael Schechter • 1 Comment

The Techie Scheky series offers tips and tactics for being more productive and creative through technology (especially with a Mac).

All day long, we are bombarded with things to read. Distractions come at us from every direction: things our friends send us, things our bosses send us, things we come across on Social Networks, things we find in our RSS feeds, things that we want to read, but that will take us away from what we really need to stay focused on. Now, there are two options (well really, three). We can stop what we are doing (not ideal), remember to read it later (a fallacy) or find a place to put it. Sure, you can use bookmarks or you can schedule a to-do, but these aren’t ideal solutions, especially when you are on the go. Thankfully a wonderful man1 by the name of Marco Arment has given us all an elegant solution: Instapaper

What on earth is Instapaper?

Explaining Instapaper is easy. Visit their homepage, drag their bookmark onto your browser and create an account. After that, click the bookmark every time you come across an article or a webpage that you would like to read later and like magic, it will be added to your account. Better yet, it will strip out everything on the website, including annoying advertisements, except for the content you want2 in an easily readable format. Best of all, everything is synced through your Instapaper account, meaning that all of these articles are available across all of your devices. Speaking of your devices, you have two ways to read your content, for free on the web or for $4.993 through Instapaper’s iPhone and iPad application.

  • Instapaper.com – This is probably the weakest part of the Instapaper experience (see the Geeky Quick Tip below for a way to improve this), but it is still a passable way to read the articles in your account. It is feature light, but you can still get quick access to all of the articles and websites in your account. You can use Instapaper for free on their website, but if you really want the service to come alive, you need to try it out on your iPhone or iPad.

  • Instapaper for iPhone and iPad – This is tied with Reeder as both the most useful and most elegant applications on my iPhone. Both are simple, but both are exceptionally powerful for staying on top of the latest news. In fact, I use them in tandem as Reeder makes it exceptionally easy to send articles to Instapaper. Reeder (and Google Reeder) serve as my inbox and the best articles go to Instapaper, my action box for reading. Instapaper for the iOS is everything Instapaper for the web is not. It is as feature rich as you would want it to be, while remaining easy to use. It is a pleasure to read on and makes sharing your favorite stories a breeze. It also syncs and stores all of your articles so you can stay up on your reading, even when you don’t have cell service. This is an essential feature for anyone who has a Wi-Fi only device, who flies often, or who, like me, is stuck on the subway for nearly an hour two times a day. The application will cost you $4.99 and works on both the iPhone and the iPad. I know I keep saying this, but I assure you, it will be the best five bucks you spend this year.

Only The Things You Want To Read

While there is some truly amazing content out there on the web, there is also a lot of crap. This crap can keep you from reading what you want or even need to learn. Every day, I have a newspaper of my own making in the palm of my hand. No filler, not fat. A perfectly curated reading experience with content hand selected by someone with exactly my taste: me. Every subway ride, every Saturday morning, any free minute I find you will find me firing up Instapaper because I always know that there is something there I want to read and want to learn. And for the few moments where I find my good friend [Instapaper] empty, their Friends and Editors features always offer something worth devouring.

Geeky Quick Tip

This one is for all of you Safari users out there. As I mentioned earlier, the web experience leaves a lot to be desired4, but thankfully Brett Terpstra comes to the rescue with Instapaper Beyond. This Safari Extension adds keyboard shortcuts, which a geek like myself requires, and a slick interface that allows you to move through your articles a lot faster.

To learn more, subscribe for free by Email or RSS to automatically receive future Techie Scheky posts from MichaelSchechter.me.

  1. I’m guessing here. [↩]
  2. Don’t worry, Instapaper makes it easy to quickly get back to the actual website if you actually like distractions or hate yourself… [↩]
  3. The best fiver you will ever spend. [↩]
  4. I get it, Marco’s got to make a living. [↩]
Filed Under: Personal

Capture Inspiration with Simplenote and Notational Velocity

Posted on May 23, 2011 by Michael Schechter • 0 Comments

The Techie Scheky series offers tips and tactics for being more productive and creative through technology (especially with a Mac).

One of the “best” byproducts of my ADHD is an utterly disorganized memory, a memory that from time to time feels much like that of a goldfish. 30 seconds and whatever was in my head was gone. Sometimes the thoughts come back, but oftentimes things get lost. It is something that I am almost always combating and thanks to the always odd, yet utterly wonderful Merlin Mann and his four hours1 of Mac Power Users Episode 1 and Episode 2, I think I finally have something that works. With the combined power of Notational Velocity2 and Simplenote I am now able to ubiquitously capture ideas instead of constantly losing them.

What on earth does that mean?

The idea behind ubiquitous capture is to have a method for capturing things, and by things, I mean anything: an idea, a though, a list, a task, a quote, a blog post… you get the gist. I need to be able to capture ideas quickly and access them even faster. For many, this is as simple as keeping an index card or a notebook3 in your pocket. This is not for me. One of the wonderful byproducts of my ADHD (or my own laziness) is terrible handwriting. Mine is so bad, that when I’m rushed, I can barely read it. Pair that with a general ambiance of disorganization and it quickly becomes obvious that paper is not the right tool for the job (again, at least not for me). Paper aside, I was constantly losing ideas, tasks, and book suggestions and wanted to see if the available technology offered a solution.

Your apps are your friends…

Thanks to Merlin, David and Katie over at the MPU Podcast, I’ve found my system in the form of two free apps, one for the iPhone/iPad (or the iOS) and one for my Mac4. They work flawlessly together to give me complete access to my thoughts and a rapid mechanism for capturing new ones. And did I mention, they are free5!

  • Simplenote – This is the note-taking application that Apple should have put on the iOS6. It is one of those “does one thing well” apps, meaning that it is really only good for taking text-based notes7. You might be saying to yourself, well that doesn’t sound very different from the Notes app on my iPhone or iPad, but here is where things differ. Using their free Simperium platform8, all of your notes are stored in the cloud (Read: on the web) and can be accessed on your iPhone, iPad, through their web portal or better yet, through several text-editing programs, which brings us to our next application…

  • Notational Velocity – Specifically Brett Terpstra’s nvALT 2 is a free and minimal text editor9 that blends seamlessly with Simplenote. I could geek out more on this, but the bottom line is that when you type something in Notational Velocity, it shows up in Simplenote; when you add something to Simplenote, it shows up in Notational Velocity. It has become my default application for writing. So much so, that I no longer use bloated word processors like Microsoft Word since switching over. This means that almost all of my writing projects, with the exception of a few larger projects (more on this another day), are always at my fingertips, be it at my computer on Notational Velocity or on-the-go with my iPhone or iPad on Simplenote.

But how do I find my crap?

The biggest adjustment for many will be the lack of a folder structure10 that many of you know, love and depend on. This may be the deal breaker for some of you, but thankfully Merlin taught me a rather excellent and lightweight taxonomy (Read: method) that makes it exceptionally easy to access my files. Both Simplnote and Notational Velocity have excellent search capability and finding files is easy as long as you are smart about how you name the file.

Now, this is about to get geeky, but it’s important. With Merlin’s method, the file title is one of several keyword of your own choosing, then a one-to-five word description and finally the date. After that, you use the body of the document as you please11. I know this sounds confusing, so here are a few examples from:

  • Blogx – Blog Post Title – 11-05-20 
  • Workx – Any work meeting or writing project – 11-05-20 
  • Ideax – Actionable idea – 11-05-20 
  • Thoughtx – Tangent for blog or idea – 11-05-20 
  • Runx – Running lists of books, unprocessed to-dos, calls, etc (no date)
  • Quotex – Name of Quotee for SmarterThanIAm.com – 11-05-20 

And so on. For those who are wondering why I place the x at the end, it is so that when I use the built in search, I don’t pull up the files with my keywords in the body of unwanted notes (another Merlin tip). There are no additional tags and no folders. It is super lightweight, but it makes a hell of a lot of data manageable.

Geeky Quick Tip

Be warned, this one is really geeky… Always one to make things easier (Read: Lazy), I’ve started creating TextExpander snippets (more on this in a previous episode of Techie Scheky) for my frequently used note categories. For example, when I come up with a new post for this blog, I use the following snippet:

Shortcut: Bx

=

Snippet: Blogx – %| – %y-%m-%d

=

Text: Blogx – Type Your Awesome Idea Here – 11-5-20

This gives me a new file name on either Notational Velocity or Simplenote with my Blogx keyword, the current date and places my cursor directly in between the two dashes to type in the description. It’s a great way to get past the headache of file creation and into the actual creation.

Update: For those worried about TextExpander getting in the way of search, remember iOS automatically capitalizes the first letter. As long as you make your snippet case sensitive, you can use an uppercase first letter to trigger your snippet and a lower case to search your notes.

To learn more, subscribe for free by Email or RSS to automatically receive future Techie Scheky posts from MichaelSchechter.me.

  1. Yes, four hours, but it will change the way you use a Mac. [↩]
  2. Well, Brett Terpstra’s awesome nvALT 2 fork of it anyway. [↩]
  3. I refuse to say Moleskin… crap! [↩]
  4. Simplenote also works with applications for Windows and Android, you can find more on this here. [↩]
  5. Although I strongly suggest donations to both of these amazing services. [↩]
  6. Similar to how people say Dropbox is the hard drive iOS is missing. [↩]
  7. If you upgrade to their Premium version for $20 a year, you can also use it for lists. [↩]
  8. You can also use Dropbox if you are a Premium user. [↩]
  9. Text Editors are all about writing, where Word Processors like Microsoft Word are about both writing and formatting your text (Read: making it look pretty). [↩]
  10. You know, where you hit Save and then find a proper file to store your document. [↩]
  11. That sounded dirtier than I meant it. [↩]
Filed Under: Personal

Wafer Thin Decisions

Posted on May 18, 2011 by Michael Schechter • 5 Comments

Oh sir, it’s only wafer thin! – John Cleese

I have a guilty habit: when walking home I often stop off at one of the 25 delis that I pass on my walk to and from the subway and grab a package of those delicious, vanilla-filled wafer cookies.

This usually happens at the end of a busy day and the snack always helps to take the edge off before jumping on the train to head home. Today was definitely one of those days and after stopping off at the bodega, I managed to approach the station just as the last car of the train was leaving.

As I chowed down on the wafery goodness, a blatantly obvious thought occurred to me. Not only is this keeping me from getting my weight back under control1, but what seemed like an minor decision at the time would have major implications on the rest of my day.

By missing the train, I added at least 10-15 minutes to my commute, which keeps my wife from leaving for her well-deserved night out and takes time away from enjoying the last bits of daylight with my three-year-old in our backyard.

Did the delay change my life in any kind of dramatic way? No. But it’s not the dramatic changes that make the difference at the end of the day.

Oftentimes, I get so obsessed with big decisions that I ignore the cumulative impact of my smaller choices. This tends to be especially true when we are talking about a decision that will incrementally detract from my life while exponentially adding to my waistline.

Lately, I’ve been looking at the larger choices in my life. Maybe, just maybe, I am going about it all wrong and I’d be far better off examining the little missteps that I continue to make every single day.

It’s a lot to digest2 over a train ride, but one thing is for sure: it’s time to start walking past the wafers…

  1. Something I desperately need to do. [↩]
  2. I disgust even myself with that pun… [↩]
Filed Under: Personal

Three Words for 2011

Posted on January 2, 2011 by Michael Schechter • 0 Comments

My_3_words_for_2010

New Years Resolutions have never been particularly useful for me.  Quite frankly, they’ve always felt vague.  Something along the lines of “lose more weight” or “do better at work” has never been helpful to me.  Sure, I could go about making these a bit more refined: “lose 10 lbs. in a month” or “launch a new project by Q1” but these always feel more like goals than resolutions to me.  Even though 2010 will go down as the first year I’ve ever kept to a resolution (I rid myself of my soda addiction), it would be hard to argue that a 1-in-30 track record is anything to be proud of.

Thankfully, a blogger named Chris Brogan has suggested a path that I have been using as my guide to plot each new year.  The idea is to pick three words to act as a pillar or a lighthouse for your year.  These three words should embody what you hope to accomplish; they are ideals that you weave into all of your actions.  Last year, I used Action, Cement and Team (see the image above for my reasons why).   This idea of ACT was extremely helpful in 2010.  It lead to me setting more ambitious goals, it forced me to get myself out there more and drove me to improve my efforts at working within a team setting.  For 2011, I want to build upon those efforts and try to take things up a notch.  Without further ado, here are my three words for 2011:

Focus – I tend to want to be a part of everything, to have some small part in everything that I possibly can.  While this can lead to a great overall picture, it can keep you from really putting your fingerprint on a few key initiatives.  In the coming year, I want to let go of everything and really commit to making something happen.  I want to be more specific in my efforts, but I also plan to be more ambitious in the tasks I look to take on.  I’m looking to focus (pun intended) on better quality work on bigger projects rather than having a little part in every last thing.

Target – Goals are great, but as I’ve just said, I want to take things to the next level in 2011.  With this in mind, I want to shift my focus to targets and try to bundle my smaller goals into over-arching targets that guide my day-to-day efforts.  I set several goals for myself in 2010, but without an overall focus they occasionally felt more like everyday tasks.  I want to begin to find more meaning and effectiveness in my efforts by setting my sights on larger targets that will help me make the most out of my time.  One of my biggest challenges has always been saying no, but by knowing what my targets are, it will become a lot easier to see if a task or goal is something I should undertake.  I want to up my game this year and a bigger game requires a better game plan.

Real – Over the past few years, I have seen the line between personal and professional lives blurring.  Social Networks have enabled people who were once only involved in our work life to peek into our personal side.  They also give our friends and family a window into our working world.  For so long, I’ve felt like I’ve had two personas, “Work Michael” and “Personal Michael.”  In 2011, I want to try to bring these two halves together and just be the real me in every aspect of my existence.  If done right, I believe this has the potential to make me more effective in both pursuits.

This three-word philosophy has been surprisingly effective for me over the past two years. I hope you find the idea useful.  I think you will be surprised just how helpful these guideposts can be when compared to more traditional resolutions.  Thanks, as always, to Chris for the idea and feel free to share your three words below if you are feeling brave!  

Here’s to a productive and fulfilling 2011!

Filed Under: Personal