Since I started to do freelance full time I have noticed that I can easily get distracted by simple things, like checking social media sites, reading emails, writing emails, switching projects and before it became a habit I wanted to stop it, and make sure that I am focused.

I started to use the timer on my iPhone and set it for 15 to 30 minutes, during this time I would not do anything except for the one subject that I wanted to focus on. After a few days I have noticed that I am able to get twice as much work done in a single day, than I did with out it.

It surprised me how much time I get side tracked or multi-tasked even by other work and how this limits the amount of work that I can complete in a single day.

Using my iPhone was great at first but I wanted an even easier way to do this without bringing out my phone 16 times a day. So I did a bit of Google-ing and came across a free Windows app called “Cool Timer“.

If you work on or near a computer through out the day I would suggest giving this a try and see if it can improve your work day.

Last week I sat down and started to look over websites dedicated to Evernote and realized that my article “100 different Evernote Uses” is still very popular compared to others. That got me thinking, why don’t I try to write more dedicated posts related to Evernote. Well, that got me to think even more and I realized that there are no Evernote books here in the US, and there is no one stop shop for Evernote that goes into great detail, including the Evernote website.

So after doing a bit of research, planning and talking with friends and family I have came to the conclusion that I will be writing a book on Evernote.

This book will start out as a web site that will get updated regularly and then published quarterly into an eBook. If the website and eBook become popular, I will look into publishing a printed version.

What will the Evernote book be about?:

I am sure you are wondering what this book will be about and why I chose Evernote. This book will cover everything, from what Evernote is, what features it has and what are some in-depth uses for it. I chose Evernote because it is, hands down, the one tool that I need with me where ever I go. I personally do not have the best memory and I don’t deny that this is a problem. However, ever since I got Evernote my memory has not only gotten better without Evernote (since I write it down, it actually stays in my memory longer), but I am able to do things in meetings and conversations that would not be possible with out it. For example, I have been in multiple meetings, both business and personal where I am able to grab hundreds of website designs within seconds, find a dog friendly park that is near by our current location, be able to order food to go, without knowing what I want, when I don’t have internet access or paper menu and I am not home.

The list of things that Evernote can do can go on forever. I am taking my knowledge of Evernote and how it helps my life and opening it up to the world to share why Evernote is a great tool and how it can improve your life.

If you want to find out more about the book or contribute in any way, feel free to contact me by posting comments here, sending me a message on Google Buzz, Twitter or visiting my company website.

Why is this important you ask?
If you own a website, aren’t you busy writing articles, improving the tools on your site or even thinking of a new design or layout? Sure you are, I know I am. Doing these things are great for your website as they help your company grow in the direction that you want your company to grow, but what about how your users want or need your company to grow for them? How can you connect to your users? How can your users connect with you? How can your users help you out when you make a mistake, there will always be a mistake, no one is perfect.

Some people may say that this is what Facebook, Twitter or Buzz is used for, and to some extent they are right, but do you read every comment, every post on those services? Probably not.

How to let your users communicate with you:
There are many ways that you can get real and honest feedback from your users about your website. Below you will find a few useful tools/methods that I would recommend:

1. Twitter with Hash tags – On your “Contact Us” section of your website add a statement or two to recommend your user to send you a twitter post using some basic has tags.
   • #Bug – Used when your users needs to share a bug on your website
   • #Suggestion – Used when your users wants suggest a new feature, an article or anything else
   • #Help – If your user needs help about something related to your website
   • #Spam – If you allow comments on your website, this will let users help if they spot a spam comment on your website
   • #Critique – If you have a user who wants to vent about your site or just let you know how they feel about a certain feature or article this is the easiest way for them to do so, 140 characters at a time
2. Create a forum on your site which can be found easily such as forum.yourwebsite.com or yourwebsite.com/forum
   • Create 6 categories:
     1. Suggestions
     2. Help
     3. Critique
     4. Bug Report
     5. Spam
     6. Other
3. Encourage your users to use Google Side Wiki
   • Add a link for users to download Google Sidewiki
   • Have a section showing all Google Sidewiki Posts (The good and the bad)
4. Create a comboniation of support methods like TweetDeck – http://support.tweetdeck.com/home

The Goal:
Your users are a great source of inspiration, guidence and they help keep both you and your company honest. Reach out to them and give them the services they want and they will reach out and bring more users to your site.

Since I run my own freelance business from home I have to be very careful with all of my receipts to make sure that I am good when it comes to tax season.

At first I kept an accordion folder with all of my receipts, but this became very messy during tax season because some receipts would get really worn down, others were in the wrong month slot and if I ever mixed any of them up it made it even worse. I needed a new method and last year I turned to my trusted Evernote to see if it could do the job.

I started to scan or email a few of my receipts for 2009 directly into Evernote, as the year progressed I started to fine-tune the tags I used and it started to become more useful.

Now a year later Evernote has become my go to storage location for all of my receipts.

How I organize my receipts in Evernote:

• I scan every receipt and put them into a specific folder labeled “Receipts”.
• If I have an Emailed version of a receipt, like iTunes then I will forward it directly to myspecial Evernote email address and append “@Receipts” to the end of the subject line to have it automatically get sent into my Receipts notebook.
• If the receipt is for my business I tag it “Heka Interactive” (the name of my company) and then I add any tags that may fit for that receipt.

When April rolls around it is time to give my accountant a copy of all of my receipts.

• Option 1: Email each receipt to your accountant, one by one
• Option 2: Select multiple notes on the desktop client and e-mail a batch of receipt to your accountant
• Option 3: Select multiple notes on the desktop client, choose print and select Adobe PDF as your printer. This will save your notes to a PDF then you can add all receipts to a cd or thumb drive and give them to your accountant
• Option 4: A more organize option is to use option 1, 2 or 3 and actually send your account your receipts at the end of the month. This does two things for you:
  1. It makes your account happy because she is not swamped in April
  2. It makes it possible to figure out how much you will owe when tax seasons comes around

Global Hotkeys and Misc shortcuts

• Home = Takes me to the beginning of the line in a new post or comment
• End = Takes me to the end of the line in a new post or comment
• Up Arrow = Scrolls up through the page
• Down Arrow = Scrolls down through the page
• F5 – Refresh the page
• Ctrl + F5 = Hard Refresh
• Click the “Buzz” Link to clear all un-read items
• Midle Mouse Button (MMB) = Opens a link into a new tab
• Ctrl + Left Mouse Button (LMB) = Opens a link into a new tab

Built In Gmail Hotkeys using Gmail Labs Feature

• / = Takes me to the top of the page
• / = Takes me to the search box so that I can quickly do a search
• M = Mutes a Post
• Shift + L = Likes a post
• J = Goes to the previous Post
• K = Goes to the next post
• R = Replys to a post
• ? = Lists all of the hotkeys for Gmail and Buzz
• F = Allows me to send a post to my Evernote so that I can either read it later, save it because I find it important

HotKeys using Shortcut Manager

• Ctrl + Alt + b = create a new tab in my browser which takes me directly to Buzz

Image Map for all Hot Keys on the Keyboard

Gestures using Chrome Gestures

• Up = Goes to the top of the page
• Down = Create a new tab
• Left = Last page (back browser button)
• Right = Next page (next browser button)

Quick Links using Gmail Labs Feature

1. author:Andrew Maxwell
2. is:buzz
3. @Andrew Maxwell
4. commentor:Andrew Maxwell
5. “Andrew Maxwell”

Filtering my Buzz posts – This idea was from Marc Thomas)

• Step 1: Look for the subject “Buzz:” (include the quotes)
• Step 2. Have it skip the inbox (this helps if you have a phone that uses push notifcation)
• Step 3. Apple a new label “Buzzz” (This must have 3 Z’s because you can not use “Buzz”)
• Step 4. Make sure you check the box to “Never send it to spam” (This eliminates any chances of missing a post)

My Filter Settings

Buzz in your Inbox

1. Once I like a Buzz post that I was on it will get sent to my gmail Label “Buzzz” and if I want to come back to it again I will Star the item
2. This lets me see if someone has commented after me in a post, sometimes they will mention my name with out @ replying properly
3. This lets me see comments that people have created on my posts, even old posts that I haven’t seen for days or weeks

Organizing my Buzz Contacts

1. Create a group called “Buzz” in your contacts
2. Every time you follow a new person, go into your contacts, find their name
3. Add the users email address
4. Click save
5. Add them to the group “Buzz”

How to @reply someone properly who is not in your contacts (Choice 1)

1. Right click on a users name in a post or comment
2. Copy Link address
3. Type the ‘@’ symbol in a new post or comment
4. Right click right after the @ symbol and paste in the copied URL
5. Remove “http://www.google.com/profiles/” from the beginning of the pasted content
6. Remove “#buzz” from the ending of the pasted comment
7. Add “@gmail.com” right after the users, username
8. Your done!

How to @reply someone properly who is not in your contacts (Choice 2)

1. Midle Mouse Button (MMB) or Ctrl + Left Mouse Button (LMB) on a users name to open a link to their profile into a new tab
2. Copy username from URL string
3. Type the ‘@’ symbol in a new post or comment
4. Paste user name right after the @ symbol
5. Add “@gmail.com” right after the users, username
6. Your done!

Sending a private message the easy way

1. Create a new group in your contacts called “Private Buzz”
2. Now add yourself only to that group

Now when you want to create a private post to someone you just include the “Private Buzz” group and then @ reply to them like you normally would. (This idea was from Michelle Marie)

Links in Evernote of people that I interact with the most

• http://www.google.com/profiles/had3nx#buzz
• http://www.google.com/profiles/Joshua.A.Braun#buzz
• http://www.google.com/profiles/punitsoni#buzz
• http://www.google.com/profiles/ryanitlab#buzz
• http://www.google.com/profiles/abbeyroadgirl#buzz
• http://www.google.com/profiles/finejewels#buzz
• http://www.google.com/profiles/ccuellar#buzz
• http://www.google.com/profiles/svartling#buzz
• http://www.google.com/profiles/nickwaye#buzz
• http://www.google.com/profiles/josh.wills#buzz
• http://www.google.com/profiles/tstrause#buzz
• http://www.google.com/profiles/Jazzyflute#buzz
• http://www.google.com/profiles/denislabel#buzz
• http://www.google.com/profiles/lazarus.anderson#buzz
• http://www.google.com/profiles/loftchris#buzz
• http://www.google.com/profiles/lslawrey#buzz

Sharing from Google Reader

1. Click on your “Sharing Settings” located in the “People you follow” section on the left
2. If you setup your contacts using the “Buzz” group as previously mentioned then this will be easy. Click the check box labeled “Buzz”
3. When you read an article that you like, click the share button at the bottom left of the article
4. If you want to add a comment to this article, then add it right after clicking the “Share” button. A new link will pop up called “Add Comment”. Click the link and it will create a comment on this share into Buzz.

Using Buzz to have people comment on my blog articles

1. Go to your Buzz settings located in your Gmail settings. (A screen shot of mine is below)
2. Go down to the “Your connect sites:” section
3. Click on “View and Edit”
4. If your profile has properly recognized your blog, then it will show it as an option to be added
5. Click on the link at the button that says “Add”
6. Done! Now when you post a new article to your blog, it will automatically post into Buzz

Here are Buzz related articles that I have written about since the launch of Buzz:

• http://www.andrewcmaxwell.com/2010/04/problems-with-google-buzz/
• http://www.andrewcmaxwell.com/2010/05/problems-with-google-buzz-mobile/
• http://www.andrewcmaxwell.com/2010/03/google-buzz-tips-tricks-and-how-tos/
• http://www.andrewcmaxwell.com/2010/04/how-to-save-google-buzz-posts-to-read-later/
• http://www.andrewcmaxwell.com/2010/03/the-proper-way-to-repost-on-google-buzz/
• http://www.andrewcmaxwell.com/2010/04/google-buzz-started-sloppy-but-working-hard-to-change/

If you use Google Buzz right now you will notice that there is no Star feature like there is in Gmail or a way to save a post to read later. Well I found a simple solution using Evernote.

Steps in Evernote:
Step 1. – Make sure you have your custom Evernote email address address turned on and saved in your Gmail Contacts. It will look something like this username.efkgw1@m.evernote.com
Step 2. – Create a new notebook in Evernote called “Buzz”.

Steps in Google Buzz:
Step 1. – Find a Buzz post that you like, or one that you would like to read later.
Step 2. – Click on the “Email” link under the post to open the Email editor.
Step 3. – Enter your custom Evernote email address into the “To” field.
Step 4. – In the subject line include “@Buzz” after the subject of the post don’t include the quotes
Step 5. – Make any notes that you want regarding the post (if any)
Step 6. - Click the “Send” button

Finished. – Your done. Now you’re able to come back and look at the Google Buzz post when it is convenient for you.

Over the past few years that I have been doing freelance work I have come across a handful of tools which allow me to create wireframes,  flow diagrams and general project plans. Most of these tools are free, but tend to give you a limited number of features. April 12th 2010 this has all changed.

Google released a new Google Docs format called “Drawing”. In this drawing tool I am able to easily create wireframes, flow diagrams and other project planning techniques without having to “learn” the tool. Granted this lacks some useful features found in dedicated project planning tools like sticky lines and stock images, but it offers multiple reasons for it to become my new project planning tool.

Here are some of the key benefits to planning web projects with Google Drawing:

• Able to save the wireframes and flow diagrams then import them into other Google Doc files for better project planning.
• Able to share wireframes and flow diagrams easily with clients
• I can collaborate with clients on the fly (Up to 40 people at once)
• I can publish to the web so that my clients can download a large file
• I can save it out to multiple formats: PNG, JPG, SVG and PDF
• Built in snap/align tool

Here is a sample wireframe and flow diagram that I created with just a few minutes of opening the tool for the first time.

Flow Diagram

Wireframe

Now my two favorite tools, Google Chrome and Evernote now work in harmony with one another.

Benefits:

• This allows coders to quickly grab code that they use often for a project
• To find notes while using only one program for both surfing the web and notes

How I set it up:
When I read the tutorial it made me excited, but I wanted to launch the search feature using less characters, and since Evernote uses the “@en” for their twitter handle, i decided to use “en” to launch the Evernote search.

Here are the tools that I have that use Evernote:

• Twitter @en
• Evernote dedicated email address
• Google Chrome Search Bar
• Google Chrome Extension
• Google Reader “Send To” Feature
• JotNot iPhone image scanner
• Scan Directly into Evernote with my Epson Scanner

Summary:
Evernote continues to get my support since their developers work hard by integrated Evernote into every toolthat I use.

Since Evernote keeps surprising me and adds more features to their services, and as long as they keep this up I will write about them and suggest everyone I know to use their service.

I feel that there are some great resources out there that guide you to setting up a business but one thing no one teaches you is, how to setup the files on your computer.

Being able to find files quickly as easily is one of the key successes to running a business. Setting up a streamlined work flow has helped me create projects faster, easier and with less stress.

Below I have created a tree diagram that shows the core folder structure we use at Heka Interactive. These folders can change a little to fit a particular client.

• Client or Project Name
• Advertisements
  • Year
    • Month
• Banner Ads
• Documents
  • Year
    • Month
• Logos
  • Current
  • Archived
    • Date
• SEO
  • Year
    • Month
• Website
  • Current
  • Archived
    • Date
• Website Content
  • Year
    • Month
• Website Design
  • Date

Client or Project Name:
This is the root folder with the clients name (if it is one project) or project name if it is dedicated website or project.

Advertisements:
If a client deals with ads being manually added to their website, I keep them separated by the year then the month that we received them. This helps track down an ad easily if we need to look it up again for any reason.

Banner Ads:
This is the location where we keep any banners that we create for a client.

Documents:
This is where we store any documents provided by a client, such as: Request for proposals, Background information, or sitemaps.

Logos:
If a client has a logo or has us create a logo for them we keep them here. We keep the current version in the current folder and any archived versions in the archived folder, separated by the date we archived it.

SEO:
Since Search engine optimization is an on going thing we separate our SEO content by year, and then month. In these folders we keep any keywords, stats that we save from Google Analytics, and any research that we have done for the client.

Website:
We keep working versions of all clients files in the current folder, this allows us to make changes on the fly and then upload them to the server once we feel that the file is ready. Before we upload any file on-line we make sure we have a current back up of that file(s) we are working with. We keep archives of the files by the date we archived them. This makes it possible to have multiple archives so that we can roll-back to any version in case of a problem or change in direction from the client.

Website Content:
We keep all articles, copy, videos and images that a client provides to use that they would like put up on-line to their website. We separate these files by the year, then month that they were provided. We keep the content of the website separate from the website code and design.

Website Design:
We store all website designs (usually PSD’s, Fireworks PNG’s or IIllustartor files) here separated by the date we created them or the date that they were provided to us (we work with multiple graphic designers). This makes it possible to have multiple design revisions and ensures that we are working with the most up to date version.

Summary:
Our folder structure is always evolving and has changed over the years. As my company grows and as we learn more from other people and from ourself, we change the folders to fit our needs. Though our folder structure does change, these core folders remain the same.

I am interested in seeing how other designers and business owners setup their folder structure for their clients. So, if you have a folder structure that you use then please share. I am always looking to learn new ways to keep our files organized.

Note:
I have attached a zip file of the folder structure we use.
Our folder structure usually deals with website designs and development.

Note: An easy way to remember how to use this search feature, remember year, month then day… Which is the exact opposite way that Americans remember dates.

created:[datetime] ‐ will match any note that has a ‘created’ timestamp that is equal to, or more recent than, the provided datetime.

• created:20070704
  • Matches notes that were created on or after July 4th, 2007, based on the client’s timezone.
• created:20070704T090000
  • Matches notes that were created on or after 9:00am on July 4th, 2007, based on the client’s timezone.
• created:20070704T150000Z
  • Matches notes that were created on or after 3:00pm GMT on July 4th, 2007.
• -created:20070704
  • Matches notes that were created before July 4th, 2007, based on the client’s timezone.
• created:day‐1
  • Matches notes that were created yesterday or today
• ‐created:day
  • Matches notes that were created before today
• created:day‐1 ‐created:day
  • Matches notes that were created yesterday (only)
• created:day‐30
  • Matches notes that were created within the last 30 days (or today)
• created:week
  • Matches notes that were created in this calendar week (Sunday‐Saturday)
• ‐created:month
  • Matches notes that were created before this month
• created:year‐1
  • Matches notes that were created last year or this year
• created:20100101
  • Matches all notes created from this day on

• updated:[datetime] ‐ will match any note that has a ‘updated’ timestamp that is equal to, or more recent than, the provided datetime.

Posted via email from Andrew’s posterous