I often get emails that the very last sentence says “please advise” and it drives me up a fucking wall.  It is something so simple, but it totally reminds me of words that make you sound dumb.  The reasons for this are not as simple as the fact that some people have the bad habit of adding ‘please advise’ to every email. It is because it makes me feel like the person who is writing me the email thinks that I am going to just file their message away and do nothing with it.

The difference between me and this assumption, is that when you send me an email asking for help, I am going to respond!  Yeah, seriously.

I don’t like leaving people hanging, because I hate it when I spend the time to write an email to someone and don’t ever get a response back. I don’t like sending emails just because I like to hear my keyboard click or I feel like I am being productive if I send out 100 emails an hour. I send out emails because there was something I needed or wanted to tell you, or I needed an answer to a question.

Now, Tony is going to read this and his first gut response will be to say something different about my emailing habits. He has the unique perspective of being my business partner who communicates with me in 3 or 4 different mediums everyday.  We also talk about everything, and a couple of the ways we communicate send out emails.  Also, I have a tendency to send him a quick one-liner email to say “hey I need to talk to you about this”.  Even in this scenario, I am not sending emails just to send them, there is genuine purpose and reason.

I treat my inbox like a todo list. Everything that is in there will get attention as soon as I can get to it. I read my oldest emails first, saving the ones I need to take action on in my inbox and flagging them if they are an immediate action sort of thing.  I respond to emails that need responding as soon as I can.  I assume that people are sending me emails because they need to tell me something, or need some information.

So, when an email comes in and is asking for something and at the end it says “please advise” – this drives me fucking crazy. It makes me want to break my rule, say “fuck it all” and accidentally delete that email.  I have read through your whole email and I fully intend to advise you on my response to the contents, and now you are demanding that I do the thing I was already going to do.  If you want something from me, asking is the way to get closer to your goal of receiving your request, not demanding it.

My Grandma is an amazing lady who I am able to have some amazing conversations with.  I look forward to times when we get to chat, whether in person, on the phone or even over email.  BTW, my Grandma was the first person I knew to own a Mac and who, even though she pretends to not know, I think secretly knows more about Macs than me.

Recently, she asked me a question which I figured I would pose to you,

Have you ever been overwhelmed with life & going through a time of extreme distress when getting engaged in a book was the only time you could get your mind off of what was traumatizing you?

I would love to hear what your answer to this question is.

Mine is that I have not specifically been in so much distress that I was looking for an outlet like a good book, I have a tendency to read books to get away from reality for a while and so that I can let my mind wander on its own, without the stresses of work and real life guiding it.  However, when I do get a little stressed or disillusioned by work, owning a business, or not being as accomplished as I had hoped by this time, I turn to books of the “self-help for entrepreneurs” genre.  These are books like “Crush it!”, “The 4 hour work week”, “Start Small, Stay Small” and a myriad of others which all basically have the same message, which is “keep on trucking, try this idea out, but ultimately do what you love and keep your ass moving.”  This is what I need from time to time, as well as whatever really cool ideas I get from these guys who are where I want to be.

Please share your thoughts and ideas, I really do want to read about what it is that you read and why.

According to FTC rules, I have to disclose that I was given this product by Ergotron for the purpose of doing a product review.

A couple weeks later, I was contacted by Ergotron announcing that I had won! They gave an email detailing the items that I could choose from.

Immediately, I looked around their site and started eyeballing the other products they had available that I had not seen in their booth.  What was funny was that the third thing I clicked on, was the exact stand that was holding up my monitor at work.  I DID know who Ergotron was! I was a little embarrassed.

Being the straightforward type of person that I am, and to counteract my embarrassment, I asked the representative if it was possible for me to get one of the stands like I had at work instead of the free prize. She said she would see what she could do.

Within two days I had my response, which was that they would not be able to switch out the prizes.  Due to the fact that I liked the monitor stand I had at work so much and that the representative at Ergotron liked my blog, they offered to let me do a product review on the Ergotron Neo-Flex monitor stand I had at work. So, here we are!

I actually really like the monitor stand at work, the reason is that it reliably holds up my monitor, but it does so without taking up more than a couple of inches of desk space.  In the past, I have always had monitors that sat right on top of my desk taking up a ton of space.  As well, I can adjust the stand in a ton of different positions, which is useful for when I am sharing my screen with one of the guys in the office, or feel like low-riding in my chair.

When I opened the box from Ergotron with the new stand in it, I was excited to have one of my own since they cost $79 on their site.  Also, I am a big fan of recreating my desk at work and home so that I can comfortably slide back into productivity.

The packaging was simple, which I liked because I hate having to throw away a ton of trash because I bought something and had it shipped. It was literally a cardboard box, some plasticy protective wrap, instruction manual (in 3 languages), the monitor stand and some various parts in baggies.

You really can’t get more intuitive with this monitor stand.  You unscrew the bottom part, slide the assembly onto a desk (or in this case my kitchen counter, because I am getting a new desk), and spin the tightening wheel around.  Anyone, arthritis or not, could attach this monitor stand to a desk, or counter top.

To mount the monitor to the stand, all you have to do is pop in some easy to screw in bolts through the stand and into the back of your monitor.

This monitor stand is great because out of the box it is easy to use, easy to set up, completely adjustable and it takes up as little room on your desktop as it possibly could for a desktop monitor stand.  To take up any less room, you would have to mount your monitor to the wall.  (Yes, I did position this thing straight up pointed at the ceiling just to see if I could)

Thank you to Ergotron for letting me write a review this great monitor stand.

Truth be told, I was not going to go to StartupWeekend-Boulder last weekend.  I was going to go camping with my Fiance.  However, the weather worked out so that was a bad idea (wet tents and apartment life mean lots of mold).  Not only that, but my friend Jason was all over me about StartupWeekend.  At one point he seriously said,

You MUST go if you are serious about startups.

My first reaction to this was that Jason was just being obsessive. Turns out, my gut reaction was way wrong.  I thanked Jason probably three different times for harrassing me (about 12 emails… seriously) to go.

Why did I thank Jason?  Because, not only did I go, I pitched an idea that I had essentially thrown in the garbage and it took.  By “it took” I mean that after we were all done pitching ideas, I had 4 people talking to me about it almost immediately. I didn’t have to make a political rally type sign or anything.  I will say though, that if this didnt work out, I was very interested in @penguin‘s idea for “Pools I can jump into, and parties I don’t have to clean up after”.

So, to backtrack a little, this is how startup weekend went for me:

Friday 9:00 AM

2 more emails from Jason about stupid Startup Weekend

10:00 AM

Signed up and registered after finding out about the weather, getting permission from the Fiance, and talking to Jason AGAIN about StartupWeekend.

5:00 PM

Jason shows up at my office, on the dot no less, and we leave for Boulder

~6:30 PM

I pitch my idea, LivingOffCampus to the group.

~7:15 PM

I have a group of about 4 guys who are interested in exploring the project more.  We start talking, planning, scheming.  I keep pitching to people who stop to talk.

Later that night

Bar time.  Delicious Raspberry Wheat Beer

3:00 AM

Bed time, after talking about this idea that I was now completely invested in again.

Saturday morning through Sunday 6PM

Seriously, these two days are a blur.  We planned, we coded, we planned, we ate lunch, we coded.  By this time there were a solid 6 of us cranking out business plans, logos, functionality, market analysis, a WordPress plugin, an API, marketing ideas, logo, slogan, and T-shirts. Yes, T-shirts. Oh yeah, a slogan and a pair of shorts with our slogan placed right on the butt. (when you see the slogan below, you will understand)

By Sunday afternoon there were probably 8 or 9 of us who were seriously putting 125% into the idea.  It was amazing.

Sunday 6:00PM

Everyone joined back up in one of the Leeds Business School’s classrooms that was build like a miniature auditorium with stadium seating, projectors and everything.

By this time, we all had our new SpotGrab.com T-shirts on and were standing in front of the rest of StartupWeekend-Boulder ready to present.  Did I mention that the guys put together an amazing presentation on PowerPoint?  Or that they had figured out, with our initial pricing estimates we came in 5-7x less per month in cost than our nearest competitor?

We presented the core product, the features we had, the wordpress plugin, threw out the extra T-shirts and the shorts.  They all said, “Find your spot and grab it!”.

————

I talked with the group and everyone seems excited to continue with the project.  It is an amazing thing, and it seems to have traction and momentum.  Both of which I lacked when the project was called LivingOffCampus.

I hope that I continue to get to work with this great team that we put together, I have never seen so many people get so much done in such a short amount of time.  The amount of drive, innovation, and tenacity that came with this group is unrivaled.

A couple of the amazing things that came out of the project:

SpotGrab Logo

SpotGrab Shorts

Best Marketing Idea. Ever.

Logo and “Best Marketing Idea. Ever.” Courtesy of Grant Grigorian

“SpotGrab Shorts” Pic courtesy of @heyrich

T-shirts and shorts put together by Dave Mayer

Startup Weekend

Also, just for good measure: Thank you Jason for pestering me to go to Startup Weekend.  (Follow Jason on Twitter, he finally found some use for it!)

I haven’t written a blog post in a long time, but someone suggested I tell this story.

I have a bunch of stuff I need to sell, so I figured Craig’s List was the place to go.  Things like, a 5DVD change, a Vacuum, a desk, and some movies.  Simple, easy, 5 minute transactions.  “Here’s your stuff, thank you for the money”.  Seriously, this is what every transaction I have ever been a part of has consisted of.

This however has not been the case for the last 3 days.

I posted the items on Sunday night and sold some of the movies right away, like within an hour.  I didn’t hear anything else until the next day.

This is what happened Monday night:

Person 1: “Do you still have the 5 DVD changer?”

Me: “Yep”

Person 1: “Where are you located?”

Me: “Parker and Arapahoe”

Person 1: “Oh”

Me: “Where are you located?”

Person 1: “Parker and Hampden”

Me: “I can meet you half way”

Person 1: “No, I am just being lazy, I’ll call you back in 10 minutes”

They never called back.

Then the classic interaction which spanned from Monday until tonight (Tuesday at 10:20PM):

Her: “You still have the vacuum?  I would like to pick it up.”

Me: “Yep, I am at [insert address], when can you come and get it?”

Her: “I will have to come tonight, can you repeat the address?”

Me: “I just sent you a link to a Google Map, you can get directions there”

Her: “Ok, I would like to come by tonight around 8PM”

Me: “OK, sounds great.”

… 8PM rolls around …

Her: “I am at Hampden and Parker, which way do I go?”

Me: “Go towards the mountains, that is west.  Then go LEFT, that is South about 2-3 miles until you see Arapahoe.”

Her: “OK, I’ll be there in a little while.”

… 10 minutes pass, she calls me back …

Her: “I am at Parker and Yale, which way do I go? I don’t want to go on the highway, I will end up in a different state”

Me: “Go South on Parker about 3-4 miles until you see Arapahoe, pull into the Target parking lot, i will meet you there.”

… Yes, she went NORTH …

… 20 minutes pass, she calls again …

Her: “I am at Parker and Florida, I just wanted to make sure I was going the right way”

Me: “You went further North, turn around and come south about 5 miles.  You will not be able to miss Arapahoe. Pull into the Target and I will meet you.”

Her: “OK”

… 20 more minutes, she calls again …

Her: “I am at Hampden and Parker, I think I am going to give up”

Me: “OK, I understand. Sorry this is so confusing. Maybe we can try again when it is light out, to make it easier.”

Her: “Yeah, I think that is a good idea. Thank you”

… 24 hours later, it is 10:20PM. I am walking into my bedroom and my Fiance hands me the phone …

Her: “This is [name here], I was just calling to tell you I will not be coming tonight.”

Me: “OK … “

Her: “I will try to come on my day off, if you haven’t sold it already”

Me: “When is your day off?”

Her: “Saturday and Sunday”

Me (thinking) “You mean the weekend…?”

Me: “Ok, well please call me before you try to come down here again, there was someone who said they might be able to come and get it tomorrow”

Her: “OK, thank you.”

… I think about going to bed, instead I write this blog post …

The following is literally the path she took to get to Parker and Arapahoe.  Point of order, she never made it to the last stop, and this took her over an hour to accomplish.

The reason I am worried about the fate of the planet is that these were not the only two people I talked to.  There were 4 people on the phone, all of this caliber.  Also, there were people over email who either didnt respond or sent me 4 emails about the same item from 2 different email accounts.

How do people survive?  I am serious, how do they survive?  If you cannot print Google Map directions, write them down.  If you can’t follow them, take someone with you, or stop at a gas station and ask directions.  Let alone the fact that what sounded like an elderly lady was going out at night to meet a strange guy, possibly in a dark parking lot to buy a used vacuum. I would never do anything, but has no one heard of “The Craig’s List Killer”?? This is a real person who preyed on people he met online.  GET A FUCKING CLUE, the world is not all roses and good buzzes.  I wish it was, but at some point you have to pull your head out of your ass long enough to get the things you need.  Most Americans forgo getting the things they need and spend all their efforts trying to snatch up things they want.

These people couldn’t do common things like, figure out directions, drive one direction, follow through when you call someone to buy something, email from a single address… The list goes on.

This was possibly the craziest 3 days of my selling things on Craig’s List.  It is enough to make me question where our world is headed, and at the very least it makes me wonder if I will ever try to sell things online again.  Maybe I will just drop off all my old crap at Goodwill and call it a day.  Or a night, if you are that second lady.

Oh yeah, everything I put up on Craig’s List, except 2 BluRay movies (out of a list including about 20 DVDs total), is still for sale.

This post is a continuation of my post about managing my tasks, projects, and responsibilities.  There are links to the other posts at the bottom of this post.

Lists In Notepads

Recently, I found myself writing everything down in a notepad.  I was writing all of my personal to do items as well as my client and work to do items in the one list.  I quickly realized that it was getting to be too much in one list and maybe even too much for a single notepad.

My solution was to run to Target and get some new stronger notepads that will withstand the wear and tear of being transported in my backpack to and from work and all around Denver.  The notepads I used in the past were either legal pads, half-legal pads, or bound notepads.

The notepads I chose are “Cambridge Limited Business Notepads”, because of the quality binding, covers, and thicker paper.  Also, they are taller than they are wider so I can keep good long lists in them.

I have two of these notepads, one for my personal stuff and current to do list.  The second notepad is where I keep my client and project information.

Every client or project has their own page, where I keep information about what is currently going on, the todo list, and ideas I may have for their sites.  I am constantly flipping through the pages and writing something down, because I can’t remember everything.

When I finish an item on one of my lists or decide not to do it, I just cross it out. Sometimes, I get to the point where a page is mostly crossed out.  At this point, I just rip it out and start a new page for that project.  I write down everything that wasn’t crossed out on the previous pages and go about my business.

This process, while time consuming to set up, has made keeping my ideas and project information all in one place easier.  The only real downside to this is if I lose the notepad.  So, I just keep a strict rule to keep the notepads with my laptop so that I will not misplace them

Conclusion

I hope that he information I have provided in this thread was useful in helping your stay organized and sane (disorganization makes me crazy!).   If you have any ideas or comments, please leave them!

Other Posts In This Thread

• Introduction
• Email

I was replying to a friend on Twitter using trim, and I had a <script> tag in the post.  I realized when I submitted that the tag made everything after it in my tweet dissapear. If you want to see the actual tweets, you can find them in my twitter feed here: Matt Bernier’s Twitter Feed

First thougt was, “No Way!”.  Second thought was, “What Else Can I do?”.

So, I tried basic HTML with this tweet:

This got me this result:

Just HTML in the Tweet

Then I tried an alert:

That got me this result:

Javascript Alert in a tweet

Then lastly, I tried a little more JS, pay attention though. To make it fit, I used a tr.im URL!!

Which got me this result:

Replaced Tr.im's images with Google's!

I have submitted this information to tr.im. I did very mundane, topical things to the page I was looking at, and did not even attempt anything more dangerous. My hope is that you will see the humor in this, urge tr.im to fix this issue and to continue the amazing job that they do.

UPDATE: The Tr.im developers are quick to read their emails, respond, and fix issues. It took all of twenty minutes from when I sent the email to them, for a response saying that this issue was fixed.

This post is a continuation of my post about managing my tasks, projects, and responsibilities.  There are links to the other posts at the bottom of this post.

Email

I have clients that insist on using just email to communicate, which is fine with me because I use GMail, which lets me keep emails in threads instead of as individual emails.  This makes keeping a conversation in control very easy.  However, my inbox is constantly full.  For the last couple of weeks, I have noticed that when I empty my inbox out before bed I have between 20 and 50 emails waiting for me in the morning.  Most of them are status updates, automated messages, or twitter messages but it is still a lot of emails to go through in the morning and my inbox would get full of emails.

I needed a way to organize the emails, so that I could find them easily and reliably.  I also wanted the emails to be categorized automatically without missing them.  GMail to the rescue! They have a labels feature, which can be automated with filters.  I found that the filters got to be too numerous though, and I was wishing for nested folder (well labels here) functionality.  I quickly went searching and found a Firefox plugin that will turn your labels into “folders” and will allow nesting.  The plugin is called Better GMail.

All I had to do was format my labels like a directory path.  A good example is “Clients/Matt Bernier”.  When I view my Gmail account without the plugin this can be annoying, but I just make sure I have the plugin, and problem solved.

With the filters I am able to make them apply and still leave the label in the inbox, so I almost never miss an email. The only time I would is if it went to spam, which almost never happens.

Other Posts In This Thread

• Introduction