Displaying All Posts by Mike Vardy

WorkAwesome Podcast: Episode 16 – Jesse Jacobs

This week’s guest on the WorkAwesome podcast is Jesse Jacobs, founder of the Samovar Tea Lounge. Jesse also blogs at RealRitual, a website that discusses the power and joy of maintaining rituals in life.

If you’re looking to hear more of Jesse’s backstory, I highly suggest you check out his interview with Dan Benjamin on The Pipeline — as always, Dan does a great job interviewing Jesse. We don’t go into his backstory too deep in our discussion, but focus more on the present. Specifically, how he stays productive, fosters his passions and his suggestions on how others can do the same.

Jesse was kind enough to provide our listeners (and readers) with a 15% discount on all products at samovarlife.com. Just use coupon code drinktea upon checkout. This coupon is good until April 1st, 2011.
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Strike: The Little App That Does a Lot

Mike Vardy 11th March Productivity Leave a Comment

From the minds at ZURB (developers of the aforementioned Verify) comes Strike, a simple and effective web-based application that lets users set up to-do lists and share them with others.

Strike has an interface that is stripped down so that it just lets you create new lists, add tasks to the lists and then check tasks off in the lists as they get completed. The collaboration takes place when you share the unique URLs of each list with others. They can then work to finish items on the list as well. Progress is made through “knocking tasks down” using a combined effort. That said, you only need share the lists you want, so it makes it easy to run individual and team projects using Strike.
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WorkAwesome Podcast: Episode 15 – Adam Lisagor

Mike Vardy 10th March Podcast 2 Comments

Our guest on this week’s episode of the WorkAwesome podcast is Adam Lisagor. Adam has a lot on the go, including developing iPhone apps (like Birdhouse with Cameron Hunt), being involved in a couple of podcasting projects (You Look Nice Today with Scott Simpson and Merlin Mann) and acting as what some may call as a “reluctant” pitchman for products such as Square and Flipboard.

But what Adam primarily does is make video. Really good video. With clients that include the aforementioned Square and Flipboard, he also has created some great spots for Jawbone’s JAMBOX and Peel. Adam’s videos don’t really feel like commercials, which is what may have led to a steady stream of work over the past few years. WorkAwesome editor Mike Vardy has more of a discussion than an “interview” with Adam about things like workflow, how he keeps on top of all that he has going on, and his particular drink of choice. (Hint: it’s not coffee, tea, or soda…)
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Top Productivity App Wunderlist Available Today for Android

Mike Vardy 9th March Software 11 Comments

We’ve covered Wunderlist before at WorkAwesome; it’s a truly elegant and simple productivity app available on multiple platforms. Today its developer, 6Wunderkinder, made a major announcement: today it is launching Wunderlist on its newest platform…Android. What is truly amazing about this release is that it only took 4 weeks for them to port Wunderlist to Android, thanks to Appcelerator’s Titanium platform.

Wunderlist has made a hugh splash in the productivity space over the past few months, most recently with the release of Wunderlist HD on the iPad. The app has proved so popular that it has been downloaded over one million times across all platforms and has had over 6 million tasks logged in the process. That’s an impressive feat considering how many productivity apps there are in the marketplace.

6Wunderkinder attests that this porting to Android couldn’t have happened so quickly without a significant head-start with how they developed Wunderlist from the onset. That head-start is a result of building Wunderlist from the ground up using Appcelerator’s Titanium platform. “Time-to-market is critical for us, and Titanium lets developers write mobile apps for multiple platforms from one code-base. We were able to publish Wunderlist to iPhone, iPad, Android, PC, and Mac while reusing 90% of the base code. That’s an enormous cost and time savings compared to building each app in a separate language, not to mention the time-to-market advantage this has given us,” noted Christian Reber, CEO of 6Wunderkinder.
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eCrypt.me: Simple and Easy Encryption

Mike Vardy 8th March Communication 2 Comments

Email has come a long way, in terms of all levels of functionality and feature sets. Email security, however, is an ongoing concern. It’s not terribly secure — and any security features offered through email are heavily reliant on the end-user in order for them to have any sort of impact. So if you’re working in a profession that requires a higher level of discretion with the documents that you’re sending back and forth, then you’ll need to be particularly careful with what you’re sending over email. This is where the new service, eCrypt.me comes in.

eCrypt.me is a web-based, secure and encrypted email environment that looks a lot like Gmail or Hotmail — and is just as simple to use. The difference is that it has high-level security built right into the environment.

There’s no concern about setting up any sort of privacy system — in fact, there’s no need whatsoever. eCrypt.me solves this problem by making it easy for people working in professions that require a great deal of discretion (consultants, accountants, lawyers, financial planners, etc.) to communicate with their coworkers and clientele without having privacy concerns. But it’s not just for people in those types of professions. If email security is a concern for you, then eCrypt.me may well be a great choice as your new web-based email client. And you can use your current email address with the service, so there’s no hassle in dealing with an email address change to get started.
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WorkAwesome Podcast: Episode 14 – Stever Robbins

Mike Vardy 5th March Podcast 2 Comments

This week on the WorkAwesome podcast, our editor Mike Vardy had the opportunity to chat with Stever Robbins, better known as The Get-It-Done Guy.

Stever’s book has been reviewed here at WorkAwesome, and during this interview we dig a little deeper into the book, as well as other aspects of productivity and workflow that he offers on his website and his regular podcasts. Stever’s practical and accessible advice on productivity makes what many consider a dry topic more entertaining and still very informative.

In addition to the interview, we’ve started to implement some of our listener suggestions. This week we slowly venture into offering tips — with just one tip offered. But it’s a big one that can be challenging for many of us.
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WorkAwesome Wins UK Design Award!

Mike Vardy 1st March Site News 6 Comments

We’re pleased to announce that WorkAwesome has been selected as the winner of the UK Design Award for March 2011. The UK Design Awards select their website of the month based on a number of factors, notably the design and execution of the site.

A few months ago, our website design was called “enchanting” by Guy Kawasaki (who knows something about enchantment; he’s recently written a book on the subject). We’re happy to see that he’s not the only one!

Here’s what the UDA had to say about WorkAwesome:

Work Awesome is an online resource for people who want to improve at work. Packed with useful articles on how to improve your work productivity, the site caters for a wide range of industries. As well as providing essential gems of information, the site is designed in an incredibly user friendly way, allowing users to navigate easily and find the right info for them. A more than worthy winner!

We’d like to thank the UDA for their consideration. A big thanks also goes out to the design team at Envato who helped put the design of the site together, to all of our contributors who augment the design with great content and to all of our readers — you’re who we’re doing it for!

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WorkAwesome Podcast: Episode 13 – Gina Trapani

Mike Vardy 25th February Podcast 2 Comments

WorkAwesome editor Mike Vardy had the pleasure to interview Lifehacker founding editor and highly-regarded developer Gina Trapani on this week’s episode of the podcast. Gina’s got a ton of projects on the go on the web, all of which are awesome in scope and in nature. She’s regarded as one of the top productivity experts on the web today (one could go as for to say that her reach expands well beyond the Internet realm as well), and it was truly a privilege to have her on as a guest.

Show Notes

Gina discusses the reason behind starting started Lifehacker and the reason for eventually leaving the site.
Why Gina believes that productivity has had (and still does have) such an appeal to so many on the Internet.
Todo.txt app, Gina’s self-developed task list application, is discussed.
Gina gives a rundown of her daily workflow, including IRC, email and other tools she uses.
What is ThinkUp? Gina spills the beans.
Mike and Gina offer a requiem for the late, lamented Google Wave.
The status of Gina’s standing desk experiment.
Apparently, Gina occasionally dances while she works. So what’s on her playlist?
Gina digs Gmail…she explains her reasons, what aspects of Gmail’s features she uses and some of the other apps she has to keep tabs on things.

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WorkAwesome Podcast: Episode 12 – Patrick Rhone

Mike Vardy 15th February Podcast 3 Comments

This week’s episode of the WorkAwesome podcast features a “less than minimal” interview with renowned minimalist and talented writer Patrick Rhone. Patrick’s writing covers the landscape of productivity, technology analysis and practical tips, all with a tremendous amount of articulation, thoughtfulness and flair.

Patrick is the writer and curator at Minimal Mac, a website that promotes subjective simplicity to Mac users everywhere. However, Patrick’s philosophy goes beyond the Mac platform alone (although admittedly, it is his platform of choice) and he has taken it to the next level with his new podcast, entitled Enough – The Minimal Mac Podcast.

Patrick and WorkAwesome editor Mike Vardy discuss the nature of minimalism (what it is and, more importantly, what it really is), workflow and the crux of the term “enough” as he sees it. Since Patrick is a busy guy, we delve into how he achieves balance in all that he does — both in work and life — and the shift that has been happening for him with the rising success of his writing career. He also mentions some of those that he thinks are doing awesome work with their writing these days. We even talk about email strategies.
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WorkAwesome Podcast: Episode 11 – Stephen Smith

Mike Vardy 10th February Podcast Leave a Comment

This week’s episode of the WorkAwesome podcast features an interview with productivity consultant Stephen Smith. Stephen has been involved in the productivity realm for many years, and his most recent endeavour is the work.life.creativity site, which is described as:

…an open community and are looking forward to hearing new ideas and perspectives. We are not tied to any one system, methodology or answer. We are simply interested in finding solutions that help us get the most out of life. We wish to spend less time “doing” and more time “living”. In our minds, the goal of life is not about doing, it is about being done.

Stephen has also been involved with SOBCon, an annual event “where some of the best minds in the Internet space gather to present models, discuss insights, and determine best practices.” It has been growing every year — in both size and number of occurrences.

WorkAwesome editor Mike Vardy discusses with Stephen the various projects he has on the go and how he manages to keep all of these projects alive — and thriving — with a full time job on his plate as well.
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WorkAwesome Podcast: Episode 10 – Ben Brooks

Mike Vardy 1st February Podcast 2 Comments

This week’s episode of the podcast feaures an interview with Ben Brooks of The Brooks Review.

The Brooks Review has quickly become a “must read” by productivity and technology fans alike. Brooks’ insightul and informed writing has garnered the attention of well-known web personalities such as Merlin Mann and John Gruber, and the site delivers its content in a very reader-friendly design.

During this interview with podcast host Mike Vardy, Brooks discusses the various productivity methods and tools he uses and why he started The Brooks Review, among other things. Ah, yes…they also talk about Things and his “review” of the Playbook.
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New from Rockable Press: Get Going with Google AdWords

Mike Vardy 25th January Site News 2 Comments

This week Rockable Press launched its latest eBook, Get Going with Google AdWords by author Chandler Nguyen and we couldn’t be more excited!

This book is designed with the beginner in mind, introducing you to the world of Google AdWords. Once you start to get a handle on them, you’ll be bidding on keywords that will help push your site higher in the Google rankings — without all of the time it usually takes for that to happen organically.

Nguyen has put together an “easy to grasp” guide on what AdWords are, what using them can do to give your site that added exposure and how to get started using them right away.
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