A big reason I was excited about leaving a formal office was that I often found my energy and productivity depleted after looking at and being in the same environment everyday. Unfortunately, this doesn’t change when you make the shift to working from home, in fact, a decrease in productivity is probably more likely when you work at home. Here’s why I think that is.
Do you work from home? Get a dog.
Since I started working from home in January 2011 I’ve worked hard to start developing good routines that allow me to enjoy some leisure time while still feeling productive.
One routine I’ve always had is taking my dog, Max, for a walk. However, when I was stuck in a 9-5er, the morning walk would usually entail ten minutes of moving from tree-to-tree-to-street sign in order to get him to take care of business. It was stressful for both me and the dog, I had somewhere to be and he knew he wouldn’t get another chance until after five.
Now that I’m no longer bound to an office, we have an abundance of time for the morning walk. Weather permitting, our morning walk is usually about an hour long and each day a slightly new path is taken so we can explore a new street or part of the city. I’ve discovered that this particular ritual sets a tone of relaxation and productivity for the rest of my day and is my regular day’s starting activity for the following 10 reasons:
Location-based Real Estate App
My Idea Series
Disclaimer: These ideas are rough and often in note format so sometimes a little hard to follow. If the idea already exists out there please let me know. I create these from somewhere in my head and I may be influenced by external factors but I’ll never take someone else’s idea as my own. Remember though there is no such thing as an original idea.
If this idea catches your interest I’d love to talk more with you about it.
The Premise
Let’s say you’re looking to buy a house or just like to look at houses for fun – my wife and I do this all the time. Let’s also say that referrals are highly influential in your decision making process and that customer service and attention to detail are important to you when making a purchase.
When it comes to buying and/or selling a house there are many websites, apps, flyers, signs and videos that help to sell the house but the only source of this information is the seller and the broker trying to make money by selling it.
The Idea
My idea to is to create a crowd sourced real estate review website and app. Think of it as Yelp for buying a house. When you stop by for an open house or even just walk by the house and notice it’s for sale you can document your experience for others to reference. It’s a real world opinion rather than a sales pitch.
Setting up the drawing space in AutoCAD
This post originally appeared on Habitables as part of my guest blogger series on architectural software.
Before starting any design in AutoCAD, it’s important to format your drawing space to your project’s requirements. This is how I prepare to start CADing.
I will run through this article with references to the Windows version of AutoCAD, but the same commands and menu locations work on the Mac version, too.
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Creating a HTML5 welcome video – Part 2
In PART 1 I explained how I got my video made and converted into the applicable formats to support viewing in most browsers.
In PART 2 I’m going to run through how I got the video up on my website. This post assumes you are familiar with HTML and WordPress. I’d be happy to create a more in depth beginners post if there is anyone interested.
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Creating a HTML5 Welcome Video – Part 1
For my welcome message to my visitors I decided to create a video and then use the new video tags in HTML5 to present it. I wanted to do this for two main reasons: 1. I thought it would be a weird video to stumble across on YouTube or Vimeo and 2. I had never done it before so why not give it a shot and learn something new.
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Task Manager for Cisco products
My Idea Series
Disclaimer: These ideas are rough and often in note format so sometimes a little hard to follow. If the idea already exists out there please let me know. I create these from somewhere in my head and I may be influenced by external factors but I’ll never take someone else’s idea as my own. Remember though there is no such thing as an original idea.
If this idea catches your interest I’d love to talk more with you about it.
This one I came up a while ago (early 2010) when I was first learning how to manage a Cisco based system that controls a phone and Internet network. It’s difficulty is on par with learning a new language. I figured there are WYSIWYG editors for web design why not have one for Cisco devices. If you’re not familiar with Cisco this one may not mean anything to you.
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Why do I still get paper mail?
Today, I checked my mail and found four frustratingly redundant letters in the mailbox and it got me thinking about why companies spend untold amounts of money and natural resources on sending the most pointless correspondence. I like what most companies are doing now with online account management and paperless billing but strangely I seem to get more mail from these companies than ever.
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Architectural Software Series Introduction
This post originally appeared on Habitables as part of my guest blogger series on architectural software.
As a lover of architecture and self-labeled technology geek, I was immediately drawn to a program offered at a local technical college in Omaha, Nebraska. A semester in to my degree course in Architecture Design Technology, I have become intrigued by the software used by architecture firms, most of which I will cover over the next year.
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FIGJAM
My Idea Series
Disclaimer: These ideas are rough and often in note format so sometimes a little hard to follow. If the idea already exists out there please let me know. I create these from somewhere in my head and I may be influenced by external factors but I’ll never take someone else’s idea as my own. Remember though there is no such thing as an original idea.
If this idea catches your interest I’d love to talk more with you about it.
FIGJAM or Fuck I’m Good Just Ask Me is a bragging website where you can post about your accomplishments, skills, trophies, athletic ability, creativity, intelligence, influence, high morals etc etc and people can comment, abuse, congratulate, or ridicule you in return.
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