When you’re running your own business you’re constantly juggling multiple tasks. I’ve been researching ways to be more productive and I realized that there are only a few that really work for me.

Here are a few tips that work well for me:

Create a to-do list
It’s amazing how much you can get done when you see all of your tasks listed in front of you. Every morning I create a list of tasks that I believe I can complete within the workday. Instead of jotting down projects that will take weeks or months to complete - I break the projects up into smaller pieces and complete a couple pieces a day until the project as a whole is finished. Doing this helps daunting tasks look, well, less daunting.

Make time for everything you need to do
Once you’re done with your to-do list you should set aside dedicated time for each task. If you try to lump all of the tasks together in a single time period you’re going to end up trying to do them all at once. That brings us to my next tip...

Do one thing at a time
This may be the exact opposite of what you want to do if you have a ton of work to get through, but if you’re able to control your multi-tasking urges I guarantee you’ll begin to produce higher quality work. When you single-task you’re able to really focus on what ever it is you’re doing and not get distracted by another project and lose your train of thought. It’s tough first, but well worth giving a try.
These are just a few simple tips that you can practice, but at the end of the day – you need to find what works best for you.

Want to suggest a tip that works well for you? Leave us a comment.

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NOTE: I also posted this entry on the HeavyBig blog.

Unfortunately, there's a 250 word limit so I wasn't able to send them the full-version.

Here's the essay in it's entirety for your enjoyment:

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It's warm summer’s night and I'm hunched over my computer desk working on my 24^th revision of a cyclist’s jersey design that I have been working on for a couple of weeks. The client, a big cycling team, had a huge race coming up and they were relying on my creative agency to deliver the team’s new designs for this season.

I continued to work until the late night hours became the early morning hours and after making the client’s logo as big as possible, I readied my design for the client. “Argh!” I shouted when I noticed that my .PDF file was a whopping 85MB. As if the client sensed my angst, my phone began to ring; I looked at my phone to see that it was them! Knowing that they were going to be asking where their designs were I picked up the phone and nervously said, “Hello? This is Jon.” My client shouted at me about the designs needing to be ready for the printer and I explained that my file was too big to email. They suggested that I overnight a CD with the designs on it, but I had been left penniless after my trip to the store to pick up a month’s worth of Top Ramen and energy drinks (a designers diet).

Feeling the pressure I had to think quick. I could teach the client how to log into my FTP, but there wasn’t enough time to find a free FTP program for them and then teach them how to use it. I could have posted the files on my website’s server, but I was worried about someone stumbling upon them and seeing the designs before they were ready for release.

Then it hit me! No, I wasn’t crashing from all the energy drinks – I remembered that I had a YouSendIt account and that I could simply send the file through them. I quickly went to the YouSendIt website, uploaded my files, and they were off! My client received them just in time and I didn’t even have to fork over the cash for FedEx to deliver them.

I purchased the tickets the day they became available to make sure we didn’t miss this rare chance to see Smith (as far as I know he doesn’t make many appearances in Northern California).

The performance was approximately 4 hours long and for the most part Smith was very entertaining despite some questions that weren’t very interesting (“Will to come to a hockey game with me?” Comes to mind).

The biggest take away for me was Smith’s talk about how he can’t do movies like Clerks or Zack and Miri Make a Porno anymore because that’s just not who he is now. He said that he will keep making movies, but just not those types of movies. To me that was as if Babe Ruth said he couldn’t play baseball anymore, but he would keep playing sports (maybe not that extreme, but you get what I’m saying).

It was interesting to hear someone that relies on the public to make money be so honest. He could have said something like, “If you liked Clerks you’ll really like what I’m doing next” in hopes of creating hype, but he didn’t. He was honest saying, “I don’t know what it’s like to struggle to pay rent. I haven’t struggled in 15 years”

Tonight I felt like I was at a big family dinner and that one family member that has a ton of stories showed up and entertained us for hours with his hilarious stories.

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This entry wasn’t too design or business related, I know. I think I’m going to save those posts for the HeavyBig blog.

You can see those at http://www.heavybig.com/blog/

Taryn Simon exhibits her startling take on photography -- to reveal worlds and people we would never see otherwise. She shares two projects: one documents otherworldly locations typically kept secret from the public, the other involves haunting portraits of men convicted for crimes they did not commit.

Amazing. A group of guys create a huge Marilyn Monroe piece using only paintball guns. Andy Warhol would be proud.

I thought today (being the first of the month) would make for a good excuse to create a new desktop wallpaper. I’m slowly learning how to create graphics in Cinema 4D so I started there. After some tinkering around in Illustrator and Cinema 4D I decided to hand it off to the 3D expert, Andrew Cornett.

Andrew played a large part in the creation of the wallpaper. I gave him my initial attempt and he was able to take it to a whole other level.

It wasn’t a total loss for me though. Not only was I able to get some practice in, but I also learned a couple tricks by picking Andrew’s brain throughout the process.

Download the wallpaper:

• 800x600
• 1024x768
• 1152x864
• 1280x960
• 1280x1014
• 1440x900
• 1600x1200
• 1920x1200

You can see more of Andrew's work at his portfolio, amotion.tv.

I’ll do my best to stay on top of a creating a new desktop wallpaper every month.

Yesterday, I headed over to Las Vegas for Interbike 2009. I have only been involved in the world of cycling for the past couple months so Interbike overwhelmed me with the amount of products and bicycles they had.

I thought I would take a moment and quickly highlight the company (out of the hundreds) that stood out the most for me.

Boo Bicyles.

Boo Bicycles is a new company that creates cycles out of bamboo. That's right, bamboo. The man that started the company and creates all the bikes, Nick Frey, was there chatting with cyclists about the bikes. The first question I asked was, "Why should I buy a bike made out of bamboo instead of a bike make out of carbon fiber?" he told me that bamboo actually absorbs road vibration much better than carbon fiber which makes a better ride. I didn't have a chance to take one of the bamboo bikes for a spin, but I can tell you that they felt solid and didn't weigh much more than your typical road bike.

Not only do the bikes perform well (so I'm told), but they look absolutely amazing. When I was chatting with some guys that were hanging around the booth we all came to the conclusion that the down side to owning this bike would be the amount of attention you would get from other riders. If you're considering purchasing one, get ready to spend lots of time answering questions about the bike on the road.

Last night I created a piece for the upcoming Live for Fame launch party (see it on Flickr) using a photo of Michael Perry (CEO) and an astronaut suit that I downloaded from the NASA website (the obvious place to go for amazing space related material).

Andrew Cornett and I sent the PSD back and forth trying to come up with more ideas for the piece, but in the end we decided to make the PSD publicly available and see what the Live for Fame users do with it.

Want to play? Sure you do. It’s simple:

1. Download the PSD here: http://bit.ly/fcp5o
2. Create your own unique Michael Perry Spaceman
3. Upload your final product to http://liveforfame.com

I can’t wait to see what you guys come up with. Have fun!

Today was my final day at YouSendIt. Nearly 2 weeks ago, I gave notice that I would be leaving to return to my life as a consultant (on the behalf of HeavyBig).

I joined YouSendIt on June 9 2008 as a consultant with the possibility of joining full-time. I remember the date because my first couple of hours on-site were spent pouring over the just released photos and videos of the then new iPhone 3G. After a couple months as a consultant I was given an offer letter and decided to join the team as a full-time User Interface Designer.

Like every company, we had our ups and are downs, but overall it wasn’t a bad experience and I’m glad I ended up spending time there. YouSendIt employs some very bright individuals and I feel fortunate to have been able to pick their brains on a daily basis.

After my 1-year anniversary at YouSendIt I thought it would be a good idea to reflect on my work. I took some time off and flew to Boston (photos from the trip) to clear my mind and I realized that I might be happier someplace else where I’m able to have more creative freedom. Not too long after I returned to California, I quit with the intention of focusing on my own company, HeavyBig, full-time.

I have no bad feelings towards YouSendIt and I made sure to leave on good terms. It’s not a bad company; I just believe I wasn’t a good fit. I’m sure I’ll drop by every now and then to grab lunch with friends and play some ping-pong.

Now what am I going to do?

By complete coincidence, the morning after I quit I receive a phone call from a company in Palo Alto offering me a contract-to-hire position. It’s a small company that is building a website for cyclists. My involvement with the company may only last a month or it may last years. Either way, it’s a good start.

Want to keep up with my adventure in real-time? Follow me on Twitter.

Today, Digg posted the Dialogg (branded as a special edition) and I was surprised to see that my question was not asked. The host of the Dialogg, Andrew Bancroft, made a quick comment in the beginning about the being an issue with Kevin Rose and fish sticks and proceeded to ask a few select questions.

It wasn’t a big deal to me that my question wasn’t asked, but some of my friends rallied together on Twitter to keep my question in the top 10 so I tweeted the following:

Since my tweet was directed towards @Digg this lead to Digg sending the following email:

Hey Jon -

I saw your Twitter comment about your Dialogg question and wanted to reach out directly. I hope you'll accept my apology that your question wasn't asked. We did give the top questions to Bruno/Sacha Baron Cohen & his people - unfortunately, they chose not to answer some of them. Given that Bruno is a fictional character, and this was a special edition Dialogg, we felt it was OK in this context; less than ideal, but OK.

Again, please accept my apologies --

Jen Burton
Digg Community Manager

And my reply,

Hello,

Thanks for reaching out to me. I do appreciate it.

I fully understand that Bruno is a fictional character and the interview was all done in good fun, but what's the point of having a voting system in place to select questions if the guest will pick and choose in the end?

I'm not so much disappointed in the Dialogg it's self, but Digg as a service. The entire site is based around this voting system and I believe it was put to good use when using it to allow members of the community to ask celebrities, politicians, musicians, and so on questions. I feel Digg is placing it's self on a slipperly slope by abandoning this model and letting the guest pick which questions are to be asked.

Anyway, I know I'm taking this too seriously and it's really not a big deal. In the end it's just some guy pretending to be a gay Austrian fashion reporter.

Thanks again for taking the time to send me an email.

Cheers,
Jon

Like I said, this isn’t a big deal and I’m not offended or angry at Digg. Digg clearly states that it was Cohen’s people that decided they would not answer some questions.

In the future, I do hope that Digg only does Dialoggs with guests that understand the Digg voting model and agree to answer the top 10 questions asked by the Digg community regardless of what they are.