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Five Ways Moving is Like Working for a Startup

January 14, 2014 By Carol Stephen 5 Comments

5 Ways Moving is Like Working for a Startup

Recently, I moved. My boxes were carefully labeled, my days were carefully scheduled, and everything came unglued within half an hour. The movers didn’t speak English, none of my labeling meant anything to them, and there were lots of mini-emergencies and things that had to happen “right now.” So it got me to thinking about how moving is like working for a startup–chaotic and fast-paced.

The Tools Are Woefully Inadequate

For instance, making coffee that first day with nothing but a glass, a filter, and a knife. At a startup, you might have only a partial description of the app you need to build, and the tools you need to use are pre-pre-pre beta, but that’s all you’ve got, so you “get ‘er done.” Although some of the coffee grounds might slop over into the glass, you have to use the tools you have.

You’re Short on Time

The Tools Are Inadequate!

Everything in a move has to happen by a certain date and time. At a startup, you have to get your product to beta, your social media launched, and everything needs to happen whether you’re ready or not. So you make do and focus on the most critical items. Speed is of the essence.

Creativity is Essential

Although I want to punch people who say “think outside the box,” having a creative mindset is a requirement, both in moving and in working for a startup. If you don’t have the right size box when you’re moving, you have to make one. The same thinking applies at a startup. There’s lots of scurrying around at the last minute, eating a sandwich with one hand, while writing on a white board with the other, and people pointing at their watches saying to hurry up!

Getting it Done Versus Making it Perfect

When the truck pulls out of the driveway, all your stuff better be on it! And when your new website launches, you’d better have most of what you need there. And if you wait until it’s perfect, it’ll never happen!

Delegate and Let it Go

When you give your life over to movers, you have to let go of control for a few hours or days. The same is true when you delegate what you can’t do yourself. Other people might only do 80% of what you’d do yourself. You have to be comfortable with chaos. Forbes has an excellent article on delegation, by the way.

Have You or Your Startup Moved Lately?

What helped you get through it with the least amount of stress possible? And by the way, have you seen my tea kettle?

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: beta, creativity, delegate, delegation, launch, moving, perfection, Startup, Time, Tools

WordCamp OC 2013: 10 Awesome Things

June 4, 2013 By Carol Stephen 11 Comments

WordCamp Orange County 2013

This past weekend, June 1 and 2, I attended WordCamp Orange County (my first WordCamp ever!). There were many sessions, ranging from Lucy Beers’ WordPress 101 to Devin Walker’s Website Optimization for Speed. Here are a few things that I learned.

Surround Yourself with Smart People

If you’re at Wordcamp, you’re already surrounded by smart people. WordCamp felt like being back at Berkeley, where people were interrupting each other’s interruptions because everyone shared the same curiosity and joy of learning. If you’re an entrepreneur spending hours and days working alone, getting out and soaking up some new ideas and fresh ways of looking at the world can reinvigorate you.

Say Hello

When you say hello to people, they say hello back! You might laugh at the obviousness of that, but really: People are so friendly, open, and generous with their ideas. Often all you need to do is say hello.

Work on Five Blogposts at the Same Time

Who’s the chick with Syed Balkhi?

During @syedbalkhi‘s talk on Time Management, he discussed focus and how no one can really multitask. What Syed does is start five posts at once, then if he gets a little writer’s block, he switches from one to another. Now that’s something to implement immediately. This is such an elegant and simple idea! By the way, Syed’s Beginner’s Guide to WordPress is jam-packed with ideas! As well as being technically awesome.

Have Deeper Conversations

Many times, between or after sessions is when the real learning occurs. That person you just met will give you a fabulous tip if you do a little homework (for example: read their blog before asking them a question about a particular blogpost they just wrote!). If you buy someone a drink or, better still, lunch, be prepared to hear more of the truth than you would during a session. This, paraphrased from Chris Lema.

Delegate, Delegate, Delegate!

Don’t try to do everything yourself. Hire someone to do your accounting, or the chores that you might not enjoy doing. That includes everything from designing a logo to building a website to creating content.

Learn to Say No!

Do not meet that vampire at the coffee shop! (A vampire is someone who pretends to want to hire you, but then says they’re broke, and just wants free advice.) Do not pick up the phone while you’re blogging. And learn to say no to yourself, most of all. Do not let yourself get distracted and don’t head down the rabbithole with a “great idea” and end up buying 10 new domain names which three days later you’ll regret. Not that I’ve ever done that (today). Sayed Balkhi drew laughter and a lot of head nodding when he discussed the idea of buying domain names and meeting the broke customer at the coffee shop.

Focus on Your Strengths

Me, Peter Woolvett, and Bridget Willard

My friend Peter Woolvett of CustomerSpecs always says “mind your strengths,” and we heard it over and over at WordCamp. Don’t try to develop your weaknesses. Rather, do whatever it is that you’re good at.

Spend Time on That Great Idea

If you know something is important, spend the damn time on it. Use the time management matrix to determine whether it’s important and not urgent, and then eliminate distractions and do it.

Don’t Rely on Your Memory

How many times have you had a great idea and then promptly forgotten it? Use Evernote or a white board or a notebook, but get it down in writing!

Wake Up Early

Come on! You’re not really a night owl. Get up early when you’re your most productive and do your work. Then go out and “canoe with alligators”–Sayed’s phrase. Or whatever you like to do for fun–like meet that broke customer for lunch. Just kidding.

Be Accountable

We all perform better when we’re being watched. If you can’t afford a coach, try Timedoctor, which monitors your activities. You can’t improve if you don’t know where you’re starting from.

Your Favorite Part of WordCamp Orange County?

Maple-Bacon Donut Dispenser AKA Sidecar

Was it the maple-bacon donuts? Learning about WordPress Mobile? The after party at Durty Nelly’s? Let me know in the comments below! Thanks!

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: Blog, blogging, Blogpost, Orange County, Time, time management, WordCamp, Wordpress

6 Ways to Work From Home, Stay Sane, Part 2

December 11, 2012 By Carol Stephen 8 Comments

Maybe you read my first post, 6 Ways to Work From Home and Stay Sane. Or maybe not. In any case, people asked me what other ideas I had for staying sane. So here are some ideas that you might find useful.

Unplug the Phone

If you’re like me, you have Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and all kinds of apps and texts (and phone calls!) all vying for your attention from your smart phone. To stay sane, put the phone away somewhere when you go to sleep. I leave the phone in another room (not the room where I sleep). Yes, I know you’re thinking you could never do that. But you really can! Think back a few years to when you either didn’t have a smart phone, or you didn’t have every app under the sun running on your phone. You can do it! It has helped me sleep better.

Get Fancy Sheets

You’ve read about how you spend one third of your life in bed, right? Well, how about getting yourself some really fantastic Bedding? For me, Garnet Hill‘s flannel sheets are fantastic! (No, I don’t work for them!) They’re really soft and cozy, especially in the wintertime. And they make me look forward to going to sleep. They seem to get softer the more I wash them. Or maybe you like 600 thread count European sheets. The point is to get bedding you really love.

Exercise

Exercise might seem like an obvious road to sanity, but so many people don’t exercise at all. When I started thinking of exercise as part of my job every single day, my sleep improved immensely, and my mood improved, too. Now I can’t imagine not exercising. For me, six days a week works. It’s one of those “simple-but-not-easy” routines. I love cycling, so I do some form of cycling or spin classes on most days, plus weight training and stretching. Pilates and yoga are in the schedule, too, twice a week. But I have to confess: that sixth day? I have to drag myself to the gym.

Reduce Visual Clutter

When there’s too much junk on my desk, I tend to get a little crazy. What about you? It’s like all those things have voices, and they’re all wanting my attention. So filing the paper or putting away the Post-it notes, the pens, the spare nickles and stuff, keeps me focused and sane.

Use a Timer

Some of my friends make fun of me for using an egg timer. Yes, it’s an actual egg timer that ticks. I set it for 5 or 10 minutes or whatever time I need to focus on something. The ticking keeps me focused, for some reason.

Keep a Daily To-Do List

Again, this is obvious. Eric Lofholm, the sales trainer, suggests using the 14-minute rule, and carving out time first thing in the morning (you can use the egg timer–exciting!) When I write my to-do list, the day goes a lot smoother. Everything is scheduled, prioritized, and more tends to get done than on the days when I don’t have a formal list.

What Helps You Maintain Sanity?

Do you work from home? Are you a social person? Let me know by leaving a comment!

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: Clutter, Exercise, Home, Management, Sane, Sanity, Time, Work

6 Ways to Work from Home & Stay Sane

September 18, 2012 By Carol Stephen 21 Comments

I’m a Social Media Strategist who works from home. While I love working in my pajamas and bathrobe, things can get a little, well, dicey if I never go outside and see that yellow orb they call the sun. Here are some things that have helped me to stay sane and still get my work done.

Keep a Strict Starting Time for Work.

For me, that means I have had my breakfast and am sitting at my desk by 8:00 a.m. Usually a little before. I can still have coffee, but the breakfast has been cooked, eaten, and the dishes are rinsed.

Don’t Be a Slave to the Phone.

This is a really tough one because people often think that if you work at home, your time is their time. Not so fast! If you don’t pick up that phone, the next time they go to call you, they might think twice. You can return those calls later when you have time.

Schedule Breaks.

Frankly, I’m not very good at following my own advice here. But every hour, you should get up and stretch. Some people say more often. On the days I take more breaks, I feel better and get more done.

Get out and See People.

Now if you’re at all introverted, you may be resistant to this piece of advice. Even so, I’ve noticed that I feel much more lighthearted if I see two people face-to-face every single day. Sophia Dembling, author of “The Introvert’s Way: Living a Quiet Life in a Noisy Word” agrees. A trip to the gym (if you actually talk to people there) counts. The other might be coffee or lunch date with another home-based friend. Maybe you’re fine with only one visit outside the office per day, but figuring out how much “face time” you need is the important take-away concept.

Know When to Fold ‘em.

That’s corny, but you do need to know when to quit. As in, before…

your fingers start bleeding from typing too much.
your eyes are crossed and your contact lenses are all dried out because you stopped blinking 3 hours ago.
you can’t finish a sentence because you’ve been working for too many hours.

You get the idea. If you work on or around social media, stopping is difficult because there’s always “one more tweet.” The Huffington Post article “Facebook Addiction” chronicles some of the telltale signs. Don’t be that person who loses sleep because you have to be social all the time. Go to sleep.

Own a Cat.

Or a dog. Or a tortoise. Or some little creature that makes you smile every once in awhile. My cat, Purrsilla, will dangle her paws onto my keyboard when I’ve done just about enough typing, thank you very much. Sometimes she’ll send me a message. It will say something like “[[[[[[[[[uuuuuuuuuu99999”. I’m pretty sure that means something in cat language. (Get up and feed me?)

What Helps You Keep Your Sanity?

Maybe you have something that helps you keep your sanity. If you do, I’d really like to know. No, really! I’m still trying to figure out how to work from home. And stay sane.

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: Cat, Home, Management, Sane, Time, Work