List members, if you haven’t already got it, this weeks edition should be landing in your inbox very soon.

This week the premium download was Dark Nav – a sleek black navigation menu.  The supplied gradient and layer styles can easily be applied to buttons, banners, other design elements.  Enjoy!

If you haven’t already done so, make sure you sign up to receive the weekly mailing.  At less than the cost of a cup of coffee its a really good deal!  You’ve got less than 7 days to signup, if you want to receive the next mailing which is a big one – the Write.fm base source code!

P.S – I’m off to Singapore (and then up through South East Asia) this Sunday.  If you’re in the area, let me know as I would love to organise some meetups

Today I’m announcing my new mailing list.  If you don’t want to read about the why, you can jump straight to it here.

A Premium Mailing List

I wanted to try something a little different – create a really high quality weekly newsletter and pack it full of premium downloads and content.    And I’ve done just that, with the new Feint.me mailing list – created especially for designers, developers and entrepreneurs.

Building Blocks For Entrepreneurs

My inspiration for the list was Lego.  What I’ve done is created a whole series of “building blocks” that entrepreneurs, designers, and developers can use in there own projects.    Each and every week, you’ll be sent a new building block – here is what’s coming up over the next few weeks:

Premium Downloads and More

Each week you’ll receive a new premium download (sometimes more than one).  But its not just the download – you’ll discover the story behind each element — design trends, the latest scripting technologies,  marketing techniques.   Each download has been created for you to plug into your own business.  And there is something for everyone:

• Source Codes – PHP, Ruby on Rails, HTML5
• Photoshop Designs – banners, buttons, logos
• Info Product Templates – Ebook designs, Covers
• Worpdress – Themes, Thesis Skins, Plugins
• Minisite Templates

But its not just about the downloads.  You’ll also be getting:

• Exclusive Discounts – to software and services for entrepreneurs, designers and developers
• Great Content – my advice on building your own apps, info products and web sites
• First Access – I’ve lined up some sweet beta invites to upcoming web app releases
• Your Requests – Want a script or a design?  Just ask.

Sign me Up

Head on over to the List Page to find out more and to put yourself on the list.

Naysayers come with the territory!

When you put your ideas out there and show them off to the world, without a doubt, no matter who you are or what you’ve previously done – people are going to say “no”.

“No that’s a silly idea”

“No way am I going to recommend this product”

“No, I can’t see this ever being profitable”

Welcome to the world of the entrepreneur.  Entrepreneurs see opportunities where others cannot.  And furthermore they act on these opportunities when no one else wants to.   Therefore,  you’ll be chartering unexplored territories, you can’t possibly expect everybody to understand.

Talk to the Right People

Your family and friends will often be the worst people to test your ideas out on.  More often then not, they won’t be your target audience.    I’ve also found, they really want to protect you from the so called “harsh realities of life”, and don’t want to see you get burned by a chasing a bad dream.    Don’t get angry at them – they are entitled to act like this.

Instead, test your idea out on your target market.  Who are the people that will be benefited most by your idea?  Don’t be put off if they aren’t 100% with.  That’s ok.  Use their thoughts to help refine or identify possible holes in your problem .  But most importantly don’t give up.

But Your Idea Really Does Suck

Sure, history shows that some ideas were complete flops. But these flops formed some important lessons for some of the most successful entrepreneurs in history – yes all entrepreneurs had their failures.  But they’re looked at, as part of the journey to success.

Remember this – You’re 100% guaranteed to fail if you never take your idea and put it to the test.  So get out there and create.

oh and btw, your idea rocks!

Photo by – brunkfordbraun

When I announced Write.fm, I said I would be pushing new updates to the site every week.  Well this week a fairly big update came along.

You can now upload and share files using Write.fm

This is purely a selfish feature — I wanted a way to share files with my team.  There are of course, many different option currently available, but between download counters (wait  before you can download), folders and obtrusive pop up advertising, nothing quite suited me.

Real Simple Uploads

Currently in Flash (HTML5 coming soon), simply click the add file button and select as many files as you want uploaded.

Thats about it.

Your file will automatically be served to you from an data centre near you for speedy downloads.

Stay Tuned, new features coming real soon.

Just stop doing.

Spend 15 minutes doing absolutely nothing.  No reading, no brainstorming.  No TV or even any music.

There doesn’t need to be a purpose — this really is “nothing”.

But just because you’re doing nothing, it doesn’t mean “nothing” has been achieved.  In just 15 minutes your thoughts will have unravelled, stresses eased and focus regained.

By doing nothing, you’ll end up being more creative, motivated and focused.  Strange, but true.

I’ve been working on a little project that I would like to introduce you to: Write.fm

Write.fm is a dead simple application that allows you to share text between computers and in the cloud.    I really focused on ease of use with this app – there are hardly any elements on the page and the only action required by the user is to start typing.   There is no need to “save” as its all done automatically.

The project was initially started as a way for me to share text snippets with other members of the Task.fm dev team, but after seeing how well it turned out, I thought I should open it up to the world.

A Minimum Viable Product

For those interested in building their own apps, this is a good example of a minimum viable product.  There are many features that could have been added to this app (and im sure a few eventually will be), but the best way to build any app is to release early and iterate often.   What you see at Write.fm is the minimum amount of code required for the app to function.  From the point on, I’ll look at pushing new code to the site every two weeks.

The way I see it, this is a solid base to work off.

How to Gain Early Traction

There’s really no pressure on me to use hard sell and try and push this app onto people.  As its just a side project, I don’t expect rapid growth.  But its always nice to see people using your products, no matter how small.    So to gain those first few users, I started the ball rolling with just a tweet out to my followers.  A day later there had been a reasonable amount of exposure.

Of course,  the big issue is whether or not any of these new users will actually “stick” and come back to the product.   Thats when its all about quality and hoping the user had a good experience.

So What Have You Shipped?

In my last post on Feint.me, I challenged you to use the 15 minutes you would spend on Facebook every day, to create something of value.

Its one thing to sit back, and blog about how people should be doing this and that, and its another to actually chase down your ideas and make them happen.

Take a leap of faith, and put your ideas out there for the rest of the world to see and use.

Your Feedback

As always, your feedback is welcome and I’m looking forward to hearing your thoughts.

Check out Write.fm

Facebook sucks

It doesn’t suck in the sense of privacy issues or terms of service (I’ll let someone else debate that), rather it sucks in the sense of time.  Quite literally its sucking up your time.

I’ve haven’t logged onto Facebook for a good month or so now, and I’m not missing it one bit.  I still get sent Friend Requests, and the weekly Facebook Fan Page (Task.fm) update, but thats about my involvement with the site.  No more Farmville, no more pokes and definitely no more Facebook chat.

I looked at Facebook one day and thought “My God, what the hell am I doing here?”.

When I looked at my activity, all I was doing was looking at drunk pictures of friends and the mindless chatter that ensued.    If you get kicks out of that, then be my guest, go ahead, Facebook is your friend.  But for me, this felt like one giant waste of time.

So Facebook is gone.

The average user spends 100 minutes on Facebook every week — thats average, I know many a person who spends twice that amount of time each and every day.  So instead of poking, I’ve decided to spend my 100 minutes on something more worthwhile….

While You Were On Facebook

While You Were on Facebook, is a movement I can really get behind.  Its a challenge to see what people can come up with, by dedicating the time they would be on Facebook to something actually worthwhile.

My attempt is well underway and here’s a sneak peak:

So I challenge you – yes you (the peeps who keep sending me annoying Fan requests) to jump off Facebook and actually make something cool.    Write an ebook, code an app, takes some photographs .  Head on over to this page to grab all the details (props to Karl Stolley for setting this up).

I was lucky to get in early on Karol Gajda’s book How to Live Anywhere, and posted a quick review of the beta version back in March.    Well fast forward a couple of months and its time to give full version a run down.

Karol is an awesome guy.  I’ve been following his blog for the last 6 months or so, and have been blown away by his lifestyle — building guitars in India, waterfights in Thailand — that’s my kind of lifestyle.

How to Live Anywhere, is the guide book to this type of lifestyle.    I’ve read many books on nomadic travel and alternative working styles, and this is one of the best.  What I really like is just how practical the guide is.  There’s no fluff, just 58 pages of straight to the point, down to earth practical information on living a dream lifestyle.

The book covers the practicalities of travelling and living on the road for long periods of time and also, rather importantly, how to make enough money to support this lifestyle.     I like the money making techniques covered. Although they’re different to how I do things, its really interesting to get an insight into how others are doing it.  And I must admit I have tried one technique covered in HTLA with great success.

If you’re the kind of person who thinks nomads are running away from real life and that lifestyle designers (I hate grouping peeps, but  I couldn’t think of a better term) should grow up a get a real job, this book isn’t for you.  You don’t get it — thats fine!  I think this book is for those who’ve already started thinking about changing things up. And would rather be extraordinary as opposed to ordinary.

Karol has a goal to “Help 100 People Achieve Ridiculously Extraordinary Freedom”.    Well,  my own startup Task.fm is now at a stage where it can be worked on from anywhere.  The information I’ve picked up in this book has been invaluable and I really owe a grat deal to Karol who’s been a great inspiration of mine. So, I’m happy to announce, in August I’ll be in Singapore going overland to….well somewhere — no return date planned and living off my laptop.  So Karol, you can make that 99! Thanks.

Check Out the Book (and make sure you tell me what you think of it)

My guide to cutting through the bullshit and making things simple.

Why make things hard on yourself.  Over the past year, I’ve been dramatically changing the way I approach life.   To be honest I was confused.  The world felt like it was sitting on my shoulders and I was slowly being dragged down.    And then I took a stand.

This is how I simplified my life.   All of the following is ridiculously easy to achieve — you just need to take the first step.

Productivity

Lets start with being productive.  There was a time, when I thought to be productive you need a complex time tracking system, numerous lists, inbox workflows and other meaningless words.  You DO NOT need to read an entire book about being productive (you know what I’m talking about).  Lets stop being productivity nerds.

Productivity is very simple and takes just 3 steps:

1. Figure out what you actually need to do.  If you don’t need to do it right now or can’t – set yourself a reminder.
2. Write down the steps required
3. Complete the first steps

Don’t let people fool you into believing that productivity is anything more than the above — When first launching task.fm, I worked part-time in a Preschool (and enjoyed it), put in a full work day running Task.fm and managed to write 2 daily blog posts.  Yes it was hectic, but I managed with nothing more than a notepad and the above 3 steps.

You can spend your entire life trying to be uber productive without actually achieving anything.  I’ve stopped worrying about productivity by simplifying my work process to the those three  steps, which are repeated over and over again.

Paper

Look at all the bills, junk mail, notifications and other paper clutter you have lying around.  At one point, I thought I needed to hoard all of this for “just in case” type scenarios.  In reality though, I don’t need bank statements from last year (or even last month) and I certainly don’t need coupons, old magazines, and my course outlines from college.

Colin’s idea of a shredding party sounds like a wonderful concept.  I’ve gotten rid of as much paper as I possibly can.  I’ve kept sentimental items but the majority of paper was nothing more than just that…paper.

Another valuable step in simplifying paper, is to automate or eliminate the reasons behind paper.  For example, most bills can be sent via email and through internet banking and automatically paid.    You can also remove yourself from junk mailing lists.

Finally, any paper items you want to keep for future reference can be uploaded to Evernote and stored securely.

So simplifying paper can be done in just 3 steps as well:

1. Ask yourself if you really need to keep this piece of paper.  If not (be tough), shred and recycle.
2. Automate bills, receive digital statements and opt in for no junk mail.    Do some research into a virtual mailbox like VirtualPostMail or EarthClassMail which will scan your mail to have it viewed online like email.
3. Use evernote to store exiting paper digitally.

Income

I have no idea how the corporate world works, and that’s a wonderful thing.  I don’t need to worry about “getting that promotion”, or the global economic crisis or how to short stocks through a hedge fund (as you can see I have no knowledge in finance).  All I need to worry about is how I’m going to achieve my Target Monthly Income.

I’ve figured out how much I need to earn each month in order to support my world travels and my ideal lifestyle.  This is my target monthly income.  Its surprisingly little.  And it seems even more doable when I simplify it further by calculating my Target Daily Income.

I know exactly how much I need to earn every day.  Knowing this, I know how many Pro accounts on Task.fm I need to sell and if I need to supplement that income with some other source.

To simplify income requires (you guessed it), another 3 steps:

1. Figure out how much your ideal lifestyle costs and this will be your Target Monthly Income
2. Decide on how you will achieve this.  Through your current employment? through multiple sources?
3. Stick at it.  Achieving your TMI surprisingly doesn’t happen overnight.  I guarantee that if you stick at what your doing for the next 3 years, improving your efforts by just 1% every day.   You’re will absolutely, 100%, guaranteed to succeed.

This was a revelation for me.  Once I realized how simple income can be everything just clicked into place.  I stopped my endless search for “the next big opportunity” and simply looked at what I was doing now and how I could improve it just a little bit each and every day.

Savings and Finance

I’ve already simplified bills (by paying them automatically), and income is also now a walk in the park (not really, unless you’re a dog walker), so lets simplify saving.

Saving isn’t an art and requires no superhuman abilities.  No matter your situation, the more complex you make saving the less effective it will be.

My saving strategy is dead simple and I completely forget it even exists until I write a blog post like this.

1. Stop spending (see, Possessions below)
2. Open a high interest saving account.  One with no fees.  Mine has interest of 5% per annum (but can only be accessed via internet banking — a good thing).
3. Automatically put funds into the savings account each week.

Money goes from my regular bank account to the savings account automatically every week.  I don’t even realise it happens.  At the end of each month I also put excess funds (what I earned above my TMI) into the savings account.

I don’t have a complex investment strategy and I haven’t taken financial advice.  The ironic thing is, this simple strategy performed much better than if I was to invest in shares over the past two years.  My 5% return is on par with most of the financial advisors.

Possessions

I own way too much stuff.  And I hate the fact that I do.  I am jealous of the minimalists who have really simplified their possessions into just a few hundred items (and mainly less).  I don’t think I will ever get that minimal, but I have been reducing the amount of things I buy and also travel like a minimalist with just a partially filled carry-on.

I used to buy the latest and greatest.  I had one of the first iPod Touches in the country, I had to have the latest Macbook and most powerful PC.  What a waste of time and money I poured into these.  Now I just buy the absolute maximum of one gadget a year.  This year I got a Flip cam.  I would like to get an iPad, but as I’m not a journalist reviewing the latest and greatest, I think I can wait until next year.

I’ve also cut back on the number of clothes I have.   I love when I’m travelling because I have just a few items.  Living out of a suitcase is so simple and stress free.  You’re limited to just a few choices.  I hate shopping btw, so giving up clothes was very easy.

1. Stop buying Gadgets.  I know its tough.  Its tough for me too.
2. Live like you’re always travelling.  Stick to just a few essential items
3. Spend your money on experiences rather than nick nacks and clutter.

Workspace

If you’re lucky enough to work from anywhere, you’re workspace will probably be fairly simple to start with.  When travelling, my workspace is simply my laptop.   But taking a deeper look at my computing habits,  I realised I could still make things much easier on myself.

For example, I look at all the time I used to waste, updating software, making sure anti-virus subscriptions were up to date,  getting rid of spyware, reinstalling windows….you can see where this is going.  I much prefer a Mac.  I know this is controversial, but I am fully convinced a Mac is much simpler and easier to use.  Its still not perfect, but its much better.   You may have more control on a PC,  it might be able to do more.  But thats not my concern — I want to simplify.

1. Use a Mac (bitch at me if you want)
2. De-clutter your computer.  Get rid of past downloads, old documents, applications you haven’t used.
3. De-clutter your entire work enviroment including your desk.  Take everything off it and put back just a couple of items.  A clear enviroment produces a clear mind.

Your Health

I’m not a doctor and I’m not a health expert.  I’m also not perfect — but I do consider myself to be reasonably healthy.  I have to thank my parents for this.

Again, being healthy shouldn’t be hard and a complicated process.  I’m still learning a lot about health so let me know what could be done better in the comments.

1. Forget diets, cleanses, and all that crap…just eat low GI.  This is simple.  STOP eating processed food.  The more a food is processed the higher the GI (of course there are exceptions, but use common sense).  Do some research, find out what this means so my taxes won’t have to pay for your diabetes.
2. Simple exercise.  I did a little bit of research into some simple strength exercises I could do at home or on the road with no equipment.  I don’t do reps or sets (still don’t know what they are) and instead just focus on increasing week by week and not straining myself.  Its simple, noticeably effective and addictive.
3. Sport.  I play netball (don’t ask) once a week. Its fun and social.  This could easily be replaced with some simple jogging or a daily walk.   Just do something active.

Health is a complex issue so It is hard to simplify.  Everyday I read things about Vitamin D, sleep, multi-vitamins, cancers etc.  Let me know simple ways you manage your health.

Communication

Simplifying communication seems daunting.  I know how many emails you get, I know how much time you waste on IM – I do the same.   Simplifying communication doesn’t necessarily equal less communication.  Its really important that I respond to the emails and calls I get, but it can be done in a more efficient fashion.

1. Stop using Facebook for Communication.  I stand by my belief that it wastes more time than it saves.  Sure use it to occasionally see what friends are up to, but get the hell off Facebook Chat.
2. Don’t use Voicemail.  Lots of other options.  Get it transcribed, forward it to another phone or turn it off.
3. Don’t feel you need to be everywhere.  Email + Phone.  Simple.  I rarely use Skype, or IM and only when I need to discuss something specific.

In Conclusion

Simple is better.

Photo by – Thomas Hawk

Back in high school, we were each given a big thick career guide.  The guide listed all our possible career choices.  There must have been thousands of them.    Flicking through the guide, your mind would flicker with inspiration – the choices seemed endless.  Surely all the choices meant nothing but freedom.

Yet there was something fundamentally wrong with this guide.  Where was the option for “entrepreneur” or “nomad”?    Where was the option to invest all the waking hours of your life in a startup, move to some foreign country and live off meagre salary?

Its seems everything had been decided for me.  A “successful” life was mapped out.  School, College, 9-5, Promotion and then retirement. This is the “norm”.  This is what’s expected.

And then you turn around and tell people you’ll be spending the next couple years as a nomad.   There is no set deadline for return.  No set itinerary.  Only to have the doubters tell you “you’re wasting your life.  Why don’t you get a real job”.    These are the same people who at the end of the week, without fail, proclaim “thank f***k its friday”.  And wake up Monday morning wishing that it was still the weekend.

What’s the Plan

I don’t have a plan.  I haven’t set anything more concrete than the goal of not being miserable.

But what if I was working 9-5.  What if I had set myself the end goal of being promoted to the boss.  Working 9-5, what could be better than being the boss?  It seems to be the perfect goal.  Really? What happens when I get there?  Have I finished?  Is my life complete?

So I say to the doubters – your “steady career” goal, is no better than my goal.   In fact, in achieving your goal, how much misery has to be endured?

I’m not saying 9-5 is wrong.  You can find satisfaction in a cubicle (I’m told) and you can be happy working for the man – I know many people who are proof of this.  But…

There is No One Set Pathway

There is no right way.  There is no wrong.  There is your way.

Spending a few years overseas with no set deadline to return to what you call a “normal” life, isn’t me running away.  I’m not putting real life on hold.    I’m not avoiding life

What’s not real life about opening your mind to new cultures, discovering new foods, learning new languages, meeting incredible people and being part of incredible adventures.   To me, this seems more like life than a sleep deprived, fear intoxicated, cubicle dwelling existence.    That seems incredible unnatural.

It’s Ok, You Don’t Need to Get It

Did you read the above and think I had no clue?  Think I”m just on a quest to avoid the real world?  That’s ok. You don’t need to understand.

If everybody got it, I wouldn’t be able to outsource to India, run a startup like I do, or travel to incredible locations.    Everybody would be travelling with….just imagine the mess.

So don’t hate the guy who goes against the grain.   You can live your life and I’ll live mine.  I’m quite ok not doing the ordinary, in fact I’d like to think what I do is extraordinary.   And that ain’t too bad a goal to aim for.