Contextures Blog

If you use Feedburner to manage your blog’s email subscriptions, you can customize the activation letter that goes out to new subscribers. Instead of using the default address, subject line and email body, you can use your own greeting. I just discovered this feature, so if you got a boring, generic greeting from me, I apologize!

How To Customize the Email

Log in to Feedburn and click the Publicize tab
In the list of Services, click on Email Subscriptions

In the list that appears below Email Subscriptions, click on Communication Preferences

In the Communication Preferences page you can modify your From address, the Subject line, and the Body text. There are instructions below each box to help you.

Even if you just add a few words of your own, like “please” and “thanks”, it will improve the default message.

You could also add the URL of your main site (it won’t be clickable), in case the subscriber hasn’t found that yet.

When you’re done, click the Save button, and log out of Feedburner.

A couple of weeks ago I started reading Never Procrastinate Again, and promised to report on what I thought of the material, and how well it worked for me.

Reasons For Procrastination

This is an audio course with written transcript and worksheets, by Dave Navarro from the Rock Your Day blog. I listened to a few minutes of the audio files, but those just don’t suit my learning style, so I used the written transcript instead. There are also video files (about 100 MB) that you can download separately, but I didn’t bother with those.

The key to this course is identifying why you’re procrastinating, by reviewing ten possible reasons in a worksheet. The ten procrastination causes fall into three basic categories:

1. I don’t like to do it.
2. I don’t know how to do it.
3. I’m afraid to do it.

Beside each of the ten reasons there’s a suggested method for overcoming your resistance, and there’s space to write little pep talks to yourself. On another worksheet you can schedule time to practice these pep talks.

My Checklist

I haven’t bought into the self pep talk approach, but the list of procrastination reasons was thought provoking. So, I wrote a list of work-related things I have to do, and things I want to do, both long and short term. A few of those things made my stomach knot when I thought about them, so I ran a couple of those through the reasons checklist.

The first example was invoicing. Why do I avoid that task, even though I like getting paid for the work that I do? The reason seemed to be a mixture of dislike and fear. It’s a bit tedious, even though I have a database with all the information, and the reports and queries help make it easier. The fear is that I’ll make an error in an invoice or that someone will question an item or two.

My Solution

I decided to work on the October invoices and create a set of instructions as I worked. Next month I won’t have to remember all the details, I’ll just follow the written steps. I’ll also look for ways to make things easier for myself.

I built a few error checking steps into the instructions, so that alleviates some of my fear. I also realized that my time sheet data entry needs a bit of improvement, so I can clearly describe the work that’s being invoiced for on-going projects. That should reduce any questions about the invoices.

Break Down the List

The other thing I realized is that several of the things on my to do list need to be broken into smaller pieces. That will make those items less scary, and make it easier to know how to do them.

I keep my list visible on the computer desktop all the time, so that helps me stay focused. Instead of wandering off to explore something new, the minute I think of it, I add it to the list to work on later. When I’m between billable work sessions, I can pick something non-billable from the list to work on. So far, it’s going pretty well.

The Verdict

The Never Procrastinate Again course helped me get started on a few things, even though I didn’t follow all of the author’s suggestions. Maybe the self talk and role playing works for some people, but I’ll pass on those. However, the checklist is great for identifying problems, and for realizing that some tasks are too big to tackle in one piece. Next time a task makes my stomach knot, I’ll run it through the checklist.

I keep track of my tasks in an Excel file, where I have macros that export the completed data to Access for invoicing.

I check the list every morning, and at the end of the day, but not very often throughout the day. So, while I might have an excellent plan for the day, it can go off the rails if I get distracted.

NextAction is a little program in which you can list your activities, then mark them as done throughout the day. It’s a free download available on the TimeSnapper website. I’m testing it to see if it will help me keep on track.

When it’s not active, it’s still visible on my desktop, in the bottom corner of the second monitor.

So far, the benefits seem to outweigh the negatives.

Benefits

• I can copy and paste the current day’s task list from Excel, so there’s no time wasted in retyping anything.
• The window stays on top of other programs (optional setting) with adjustable transparency. This keeps my task list visible, no matter what else I’m doing, and reminds me of the day’s list.
• To keep track of start and end times, I can mark the task as Done when I start it, to create a time stamp. When I’m finished, I mark it Done again, to get another time stamp.

Negatives

• There’s no way to export the data, so I have to copy and paste the completed tasks back to Excel. If I decide to keep using NextAction, I’ll write an Excel macro to clean up the pasted data and calculated the time spent on each task.
• No drag and drop in the text editing, so I had to cut and paste to move things around.
• After changing a couple of the settings, it lost its Stay On Top capability, even though that setting was still turned on. Exiting and reopening seemed to fix it.