Matthew Lang

If you’re serious about growing your business, I want to challenge you to aim high. Don’t just think what you need to do to grow your business by 20% — or even double your business. As you work on your goals for next year, my challenge to you is to consider thinking big. Can you imagine growing your business by 10X?

— Getting your goals ready for the next year – go for 10x by Curtis McHale

I've been following Curtis McHale's career closely and I would love to see him making this goal. He's already got me thinking about my convservative goal to increase my income by 25% for next year.

The Santa deniers just ruin it for everyone else. The Guardian hits back with some key evidence to prove Santa is real.

Santa’s workshop is located in a very snowy region that very few people can access, so it’s unlikely that many people would get to see it. It would theoretically be possible to view it from above, via an aircraft or satellite in a polar orbit, but what would Santa’s workshop look like from this perspective? A snow-covered building on a background of ice and snow? That’s basically just blank whiteness. And infrared scans can be tricky with snow.

— Santa Claus deniers: why do they get so much airtime? by The Guardian

via PEDAL Consumption

From small beginnings to billion-dollar sports apparel giant, the story of Kevin Plank and Under Armour is proof that bootstrapping your business can succeed.

If it doesn’t sell, there’s probably something wrong with your business. If it does sell, then you don’t have to give half your company away and you can be the one making the decisions for the long term. We did that, we bootstrapped, and my first year in business, we did $17,000 in sales out of a little townhouse on the corner of 35th and O Street in Georgetown.

— When we were small: Under Armour by The Washington Post

Always glad to be featured amongst some really great bloggers.

Anyone want to send me one of these for Christmas?

Makes me laugh everytime I read it.

via XKCD

What does your job really boil down to? Execupundit knows.

For a long time now I've kept my iPhone setup largely the same. Just two rows of apps on the home screen with other apps on the following screens. I've had it this way for over a year now, but recently I've changed this setup.

More Screen, More Apps

With a larger screen on my iPhone 6, I've started adding more apps to the home screen. I started adding a third row of apps. Then a week later I added another row of apps. The following week after that I added another row.

There was two reasons I kept just eight apps on my screen in the past.

1. I like using photos of my family on my phone and so keeping the number of apps to eight means I have more screen to use a nice photo.
2. I kept the number of apps down to the ones I used on a daily basis. At the time I also had an iPad, so I didn't need as many apps on my phone.

Things have changed though. I no longer use an iPad. The iPhone 6 screen is big enough to do most tasks I throw at it with the sole exception being programming. This means I do use my phone alot more. The tade-off of using my phone alot more rather than using two seperate devices is well worth it.

Also, I just set a nice picture of the family on the lock screen and reserve the wallpaper on the home screen for a different image from Unsplash. These two changes mean that I am free to use more apps on my home screen.

No More Folders

Another change to my previous setup is the abolishment of folders to group apps. In the past I used a verb based grouping for apps to keep related tasks together. It was fine for a while but I found that even by using the verb based folders, I wasn't gaining anything other than keeping the screen organised. I was also allowing myself to hoard apps. Even the apps that I used infrequently I kept on my phone in a folder. I didn't have a need for these apps, I simply kept them there, "just in case".

Now I simply keep a couple of subsequent screens with apps on them. My second home screen is largely apps I've installed for use every other day like banking, health tracking, server management and games for the kids (and me!).The third home screen is all Apple's own apps that I don't use often or at all. It's still annoying that you can't delete apps like Notes, Voice Memos and Tips, but with them being on the last screen I rarely see them.

One Last Thing

One last change that I have been making in terms of app usage is I've started to use web based services instead of apps which is why I have a Feedbin icon on my home screen. Previously I've used Reeder and Unread for scanning through my RSS feeds, but Feedbin has such a great user-interface for the phone that it makes more sense to use Feedbin with it's sharing feature available on my iPhone rather than adding another app layer between myself and the Feedbin service. This doesn't work for all services, but where a web based client has been designed with a phone in mind, it can be just as easy to use the web based client rather than an app to connect to your service in question.

That just about covers my iPhone setup. Tools have definitely changed since the last time I wrote about this. I might delve into these apps more in the future and my reasons for choosing them but for the foreseeable future this is what I'm sticking with.

... with Nicholas Bate.

I love the idea of incorporating monthly themes into the calendar.

Each month leaves a space on the first day to enter your Monthly Theme, and you can also theme your weeks as well if you wish. These themes will act as catalysts to inspire you to move the projects forward that you want to complete and the goals that you want to turn into reality. By planning these things now, you’re setting yourself up with a better chance for success in the future. And The NOW Year Calendar keeps the plan front and centre in a design that is both simple and stunning.

— The NOW Calendar

Wonderful idea.

Wonder if there's any other games planning on being released?

via Swissmiss

So I finished the Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare single-player campaign last night after just three sittings. I was really disappointed with the length of the game. I seemed to be finishing levels in a matter of minutes and then moving onto the next.

I know these games are popular due to their multiplayer element, but I simply don't have the time or patience for that. I like the single-player element of games. Story, plot and characters make them interesting to follow and get more involved with. Let's face it, the multiplayer element of the games doesn't really change with each new game in the series.

Maybe there's a new market for games that strictly focus on the single-player element rather than the multiplayer element?

Or maybe I should simply give up on the Call of Duty series now.

It's that catch again. This time looking at the tech behind Odell's gloves.

Beckham’s are custom-made versions of the Nike Vapor Jet 3.0, which features molded fingers, a “strategic mesh,” and “MagniGrip CL” on the palms and fingers. MagniGrip CL is a sticky material made from a mix of neoprene and silicone designed to help receivers hold on to a ball.

— Odell Beckham’s Helping Hands—the Tech Behind the Catch by Nautilus

Whatever Odell was wearing on his hands, I've a feeling that his 10 inch hands are the main reason that he made the catch look so easy.

Ensuring that your productivity system is correct is important if you want keep the actions flowing through it. Like deciding if a project is in fact a context.

Many of you have been reading my post on using projects in Todoist. Up to now I've always used projects in Todoist as lists. They're just placeholders for actions. What I'm starting to see now though is that some of my projects might in fact be better used as contexts.

This week I listened to Mike Vardy's Productivityist podcast and caught up with two episodes focusing on context and their application in productivity systems. It made me look more closely at my own projects in Todoist. I singled out two projects that I think are better suited to being contexts, reading and writing.

My reading project is just a list of chapters from the books I'm reading on a daily basis. Breaking books into chapters means that I can schedule different books in for different days. Reading isn't a project, it's a label to describe a particular action. My writing project is essentially a list of ideas for the blog, but writing isn't a project. Writing describes the action. Clearly something is amiss here.

A context can be defined as the circumstances that surround a particular event. In the case of David Allen's GTD framework, a context is a label that you put on your actions so that you know two things:

1. What you need to get that action done
2. When that action can be done

When I look at my projects I see them differently now. In the case of reading and writing, they're not projects, they are in fact contexts. They are used to describe the circumstances in which I can finish their associated actions. I read a chapter of a book first thing in the morning as it's when I'm most receptive. Writing tends to happen in the morning as well. I'm just more swithched on during this time. So not only do these contexts describe the action but also when I schedule them in the day as well.

I can't recommend enough that you continually review your productivity workflow. Finding that point where everything falls into place isn't going to happen overnight or even come boxed up and ready to go in a system like GTD. It takes time to see what works for you and what doesn't. After taking out the reading and writing projects from Todoist, I'm starting to see a change in how I view projects in Todoist. I'm still digesting Erlend Hamberg's 15 minute guide to GTD and there's a few more changes that I'm going to try with projects in Todoist, but that folks is for another day.

The new Bond movie, Spectre, is out next year but that's not what I was interested in. I'm not a petrol-head, but you can't deny that the new Bond car looks great.

Yes, another Terminator movie. Anyone else think that these movies will keep going and going with the inclusion of a time machine in the plot?

Still, looks like it will be good fun to watch, especially with Emilia Clarke as a younger badass Sarah Connor.

Love the exaggerated gussets on this frame.

via Cycle EXIF

While I do believe that killer apps have had their day for the foreseeable future, I can't deny that the unbundling technique can be used to create some great apps.

Ed Rex reckons there are three reasons why unbundling works. Couldn't agree more with his reason for simplicity.

When your app only needs to do one thing, it can do it really well. You can have big, clear buttons for the things people use it for — because there’s no need to clutter up the screen with all those other options you’ve got rid of. This makes your app unbelievably easy to use — and that’s what smartphone users want.

— The Formula For Creating The Next Killer App by Ed Rex

Read on for the full recipe.

Having owned a Spectrum as a kid, I would love to have one of these little beauties. I think I would be simply caving into nostalgia though if I did. Still, it would be nice to see this project succeed.

The Sinclair Spectrum Vega is as simple to use as any of the popular games consoles, but far less expensive. It plugs into a TV, so no computer monitor is necessary, and comes complete with around 1,000 games built-in. The Vega has sufficient memory to allow the user to download the many additional games we will be making available from time to time free of charge.

— Sinclair ZX Spectrum Vega by Indiegogo

It's been a while since I reviewed my bookmarklets and since Carl T. Holscher was doing his, I thought I would list mine.

• Markdown Blockquote (bookmarklet) - A recent addition to my bookmarklets collection is the markdown pull quote grabber. I've recently taken a leaf out of John Gruber's blog and started including quotes from posts that I am linking too. This was quite a convoluted task in the past. Grabbing the link and quote, pasting it in and adding the author and title. Using this bookmarklet though makes the process much more easier. In the near future I plan to modify this so that it renders a blockquote in the format that I use for my blog. Special thanks goes to @malanowski who is the author of this.
• Markdown Page (bookmarklet) - I frequently copy whole pages as reference material. Mostly articles on web development and programming. As I prefer to use Markdown documents, I needed something that converted a whole page to Markdown. This bookmarklet does exactly that.
• Markdown Link (bookmarklet) - I'm grabbing links all the time from Firefox and just about everytime I reach for this bookmarklet. I simply need to click this bookmarklet and I get a markdown version of the link to paste into my document.
• Subscribe with Feedbin (bookmarklet) - I use Feedbin as my preferred RSS reader. In a world of streaming posts and updates on all the social networks, I'm glad there's still a way of subscribing to a site's content without having to succumb to just being another follower. This bookmarklet lets me subscribe quickly to any site that contains a valid RSS feed.
• Save to Instapaper (bookmarklet) - Finally there's Instapaper's bookmarklet for saving articles to your reading list. I use Instapaper on a daily basis for queing up what I want to read later on. Click to the page you want to save, click the bookmarklet, job done.

Bookmarklets are a good way of manipulating the pages on your web browser without installing add-ons. Unless you're familiar with JavaScript though, you will have to contend yourself with finding bookmarklets that others have made. With a bit practice though you could start writing your own.

Are killer apps a thing of the past?

I remember a few years back when Twitter was young and great, Facebook was viewed with more positive eyes than it is today and the mobile app stores were just starting out. Good times. It was also about this time that I heard the phrase killer app. For the uninitiated a killer app was often seen as an indispensible app that would help push the sales of the platform the app was run on. Simply put, people would buy the hardware needed to run the app in question. Back then, it seemed that every month there was a new app or service that would be tagged as the next killer app.

Fast forward to today and it's not something I've heard often in the technology press. It's still used to describe some apps but not as much. I still follow the same technology sites I did a few years ago, so what's different?

The world has changed. There's less of a technology barrier now than there's ever been and that due to the small device that you're probably reading this on. Over the last few years mobile apps and services have reduced, or in some cases removed, the complicated steps that would be required to carry out a specific task or action. Along with this simplification comes a growing market of companies and indie developers who all us to use their app. And the demand for apps shows no sign of slowing down. I was browsing through the productivity category of the App Store and there are hundreds of apps in this category. There are just so many choices.

Another factor in this is that the mobile market is not tied to one particular platform. In the past when mobile hardware platforms were getting past their first couple of release iterations, it was certainly clear that alot of people preferred the Apple platform and there were many apps that persuaded people to buy Apple's hardware. Today though the market is more evenly divided. Apple and Google have their share along with others like Blackberry and Microsoft. I would be hard pressed to pick an app that certainly fits the name of killer app and that's due to the fact that many apps are available on not just a single platform.

Which leads me to think that perhaps we're past the stage of killer apps. With such a huge market for applications, there are dozens of apps that let you achieve the same result through different methods. Maybe now we're not looking for killer apps, perhaps we're looking for game changing apps. Not just new ways of doing things, but whole new markets of the mobile apps.

Wearable technology is still fairly new and with Apple's new smartwatch due for release soon, there will be many tech pundits looking for the next killer app for wearable technology. Whether this becomes a market in mobile apps or a completely new market remains to be seen. Given the recent release of similar products by other technology firms though, I don't think there will ever be a killer app for wearable tech.

Is the killer app dead? I would say yes for the foreseeable future but it certainly won't stop business and developers using the title to promote their apps. I think it will take a whole new field of technology before we see true killer apps again. Apple Lense anyone?

... with Nicholas Bate.

Curtis McHale talks about his change from solo freelancer to business owner and why it's necessary.

As their leader, it’s now your job to make sure your team members do their jobs well. Coders stay up-to-date on code and technology. Designers continue to hone their skills. And you’re responsible for knowing enough about your entire organization that you can have good conversations with your clients without sounding like an idiot. This is how you earn trust and credibility.

— Evolving into a Business Owner by Curtis McHale

I'm still comfortable with my solo freelance career, but I do know that in the future that next natural step is to lead.

I haven't reviewed my bookmarklets in a long time. Definitely think there's room though for one or two of Carl's recommendations.