Year: 2010

I am a writer, I am also an voracious reader, I love to read. Year ago a discover eBooks and love to read them. I had read on eReader, Kindle, and now the iPad, actually if you book is not on Electronic, I will not read it.
The problem is I am not the only one, most people if the book is not available, they will search for a copy on the Internet. Paulo Coelho, and Cory Doctorow put their copy of the book easy to find, you want the part of your audience than can’t or will not pay for your work to read your actual work, not something that someone put on the web, that can be real or not, at the end of the day is your reputation as a Writer.
I have make exceptions to my rule of no Paper Books, 2 in 2008 and 2 in 2009 0 so far in 2010. I must clarify that I have read over 100 books since 2008, so in general, if your book is not available in electronic version, thanks but I am not interested.
I can’t understand authors that don’t bring their books on Electronic Version, is ironic, that many of this authors that are against have their books on electronic version are also the most pirated ones.
Take J.K. Rolling as an example. You will not doubt her success with the Harry Potter series, and her books are not electronic, interestingly the collection is the one of the most pirated ones in 2009. I believe if you as an author decide to limit the eBooks, people will simply not read your book, or find a copy somewhere.
We authors, can’t stop piracy, but I am a firm believer that more people will happily pay to own an illegal copy, but be careful, this legal copy is on the format they need it, not the format you want it, that last part is what make iTunes an empire, people was willing to pay $0.99 per song, even many people stop using Kazaa and Napstper and begin paying for their songs, but the only reason that happen was because apple put them on the format that people want it, people didn’t want a CD or Tape anymore, they were looking for electronic versions. Books are going trough the same path, yes people will buy books, but more people will buy an read an electronic version than a paper one, so no eBook, No Sale!

No, this is not another apple rumor, this is more about my current computer situation and a review of my experience with the iPad for the last week or so. I must begin saying that I am a heavy user of the iPhone, or should say, was, since for the last week or so, I have been using the iPad so much, that the battery of my iPhone last me all day, I should clarify, that I use to charge my iPhone at least every night  and at least one more time during the day, often twice in one day.
I currently have a Macbook white, with a 2.2 Ghz, 786Gb HD and 4Gb of RAM, in other words more machine that what I really need. I am a writer, a sales manager and a reader, or as Pat Moorhead said, a knowledge worker (I will also ask to keep the jokes for yourself). Basically, I spend my day on the web, on a word processor, spreadsheet and the email.
The problem, is that my MacBook is the closest thing to a desktop, is great to work in it, but it is heavy and I carry a lot of junk with me all the time to enhance the experience, also I am aware, that I can do with less power, and for that reason I have been thinking on getting a MacBook Air for the longest time, not really because I need it, but because I want a lighter machine for when I am traveling, or the weekend, my meetings or my writing adventures. The fact is I never got myself motivated enough to make the change, since I always convince myself that it was not going to really offer any advantage over my MacBook, so I always put the purchase on hold, and yes I try Tablets, Laptops, desktops, and netbooks, before I got my Mac on early 2009, In a moment I had 4PCs at the same time and was a pain. For that reason I never jump into the MacBook Air, was enough power for me, but not enough to have only one machine, or different enough to have more than one and I had already learn in a painful (and expensive) way that more PCs for different purposes doesn’t accomplish anything.
There comes the iPad. The iPad isn’t in any way a replacement for a Laptop, you can’t print. or share documents using the USB, or do many things that you will be able to do on a Laptop, but is different enough to be considered and evaluated, and honestly, so far has prove to be great for me. I am not looking to replace my laptop or iPhone, the iPad play in the middle, (as Steve Jobs sold us before)bringing something that I did not expect, a lighter machine for when I am traveling, or the weekend, my meetings or my writing adventures. The iPad is a light machine for all those moments that the laptop is too much and the iPhone not enough.
I am carrying my iPad to meetings, with the spreadsheets in numbers, taking notes in Notes, responding emails, writings on evernote or pages, showing the catalog of products on keynote, surfing the web, and reading web pages with Instapaper or PDFs with GoodReader. I am using this toy a lot, the screen is incredible, the typing is adequate (and if I need a better typing experience I can always go to the laptop).
I see myself, carrying this device daily, actually for the last week, the laptop has stay in the car, and I only get the iPad and iPhone at home, and I move around the office with the iPad with me, all the time. I am actually looking for a small bag, that will carry the iPad and maybe a couple of things more, to use more instead of the big and heavy backpack that I carry. Before you put in the comments to just empty the backpack, sadly I have learn to fill the space, the more I have the more I will carry, for that reason I will look for another bag.
I said before that I am knowledge worker, a writer, a sales manager and a reader.  Honestly the iPad will help me most of the time, and I see myself leaving the laptop behind a lot, not only when I travel, but even on my day to day activities. Visit a costumer, go to write in the Cafe, travel, meetings, and more, I see beginning to treat the laptop as a desktop and the iPad playing the the iPhone more as the tool for day activities.

Dedicated to a dear friend. Yes its a Cow what you have on your hands, relax, you know how to handle cows.

I took this picture in Mexico City many years ago, It’s NOT a horse, It’s a Cow!
This picture reminds me of the how we can perceive things in our brains, and how this things can generate a paralysis on our action, in this case I am sure you are smiling, but in many cases there is no laughing matter.
When you get paralyzed, because you are going to do something great, but create in your brain an image that you don’t know if will be real, when you get paralyzed when you need to deliver hard news, and create in your mind the answer this person will give you, when you imagine that taking a risk, will not only fail, but make you a looser or will make you die from starvation without ever be able to fix it, you are seeing the horse. On all those situations and many others you are seeing a Horse, and we know, you don’t know how to ride the horse.
What will happen if you sit for a moment, calm down, and observe the horse, yes, you will discover is a Cow, and also you will remember that you know how to handle cows.
Before you stop, and freak out, and stress out because you don’t know how to handle a Horse, because you only know about Cows, contemplate the image in front of you, if you discover you are seeing a Horse when is really a Cow, tell yourself, ‘thanks for sharing’ and pay attention to the Cow.
If you need any help, look for a real horse, or deal with the also real cow you have on hands.

When I was a child, my uncle use to play with his best friend, what they called ‘Distance Chess’. Basically, they send letters to each other (I am talking letters because they use to leave in different countries during the summer and the actually use the Postman to deliver the mail), yes this was before Pine, email or IM.
The idea was simple, you make a move, write a letter and send it to your friend, he receive the letter and do the same.
I use to play like that, many years ago, my first ‘Distance Chess’ was done over IRC, later on over ICQ, and sometime after that it got lost.
Last week some friends from Florida sent me an invitation to play with ‘Chess with Friends’ on the iPhone, a new game by NewToy inc.
Honestly had been a blast to begin playing chess again, I use to play a lot, and love the game, but I love the social part of the game that the computer never provide for me, now with ‘Chess with Friends’ I am playing again and having a blast.
This application, works on the iPhone or iPod touch, and has a premium and a free (with ads) version. It has been great to be back to my child days, and to discover how much I need to play again to improve.

If you think something is important, you must make it important, be rudless, and give it the importance that really had in your life.

That is the most important thing I have learn on Personal Productivity, if something is important, make it important, otherwise, you are saying is not. I love twitter, but it is not important, I love the interaction, the content, the people I have connected with, but it is not important, on the contrary, I love reading, and it is important, and I make sure, I crave time on my day to read, everyday, also i have a personal goal to read more than 52 books a year, last year I read 56, this year, 24 so far.
A lot of times, we get into the busy trap, last night after read a post from my friend Dan Stratton, I leave the following comment to him:

I am glad you did your Weekly Review. Wake yourself up early is hard, but worth it every time. People (like me) insist on the night work, when really we are much more effective on the morning, I think in my case, that came from the times in witch I was busy, instead of effective.

I remember when I was busy all the time, I remember when I was busy trying to accomplish everything, and many times leaving the most important things to the midnight, honestly I don’t miss those days, now I focus on those important things first, after that, anything that gets accomplish is a BONUS!
Years ago, while I was in college, one of the teachers had a sign on her door, mention her office hours, and I think that perfectly apply to my twitter hours, so officially since today, this are my Twitter hours:

* Inspired by Michael Hyatt post on 3/21/2010 (http://michaelhyatt.com/2010/03/my-current-iphone-apps.html)
I got my iPhone on March 2008, and it is one of those little devices (and the first one for me) that I have no need to change, I love my iPhone.
The iPhone has change the way I do mobile computing, I noticed how much I spend on my iPhone instead of the MacBook, and it is one of the reasons I believe the iPad is going to be a success, I spend a lot of time on my iPhone, I am expecting to spend also a lot of time on the iPad.
My complaint is the battery, but not for the reasons people has, I am aware, that my battery issues had nothing to do with the iPhone and everything to do with the use I give to the tool (same as the rest of the users, just they haven’t discover that, and instead blame the device). I charge my iPhone at least twice a day, on weekends sometimes is more than that, but I understand that I use my iPhone a lot. Technically I abuse the iPhone, but I am not ready to admit that, guess I just did.
I use my iPhone to read, surf, email, twitter, write, chat and much more.
One of my favorites things is the spotlight on the iPhone, I believe that change the way I interact with the iPhone, I have on the first page, my use all day apps, everything else, I search using spotlight.

Not counting the ones that come pre-installed on the iPhone, I have nine applications that I consider key, and make it to the main page.
Notebook by Appigo: I have here all my reference memos, this were many of the Memos from my old Palm days end up. I have as this writing over 175 memos or notes, from things related to Work, Personal, CheckLists, Reference Information and more. I rely on this application, and I recommended all the time.
Evernote: This is something that came recently to my iPhone, I installed, and uninstalled, because you could not access your notes offline, all that has change, and Evernote is my Writing Notebook, actually this post was wrote on Evernote, and finalized on WordPress (for the iPhone). Actually Evernote is one of those applications that I am looking forward to see on my iPad next week.
Tweetie 2 by Atebits: I love twitter, and I do a lot on the Mac, but I love the portability of Tweetie on the iPhone.
Byline by Phantom Fish: This is what I use to read my RSS, and I am eagerly waiting for version three. The reason is mainly integration with Twitter and Instapaper. Sadly until that happen, I tend to mark the stuff and then open RSS Flash G by Ebisu Soft, that allow this 2 things. I hope Phantom Fish release version 3 soon.
Instapaper Pro by Marco Arment: There is no enough words of praise for this application, Marco Arment, has done an incredible job, and it is without a doubd my favorite application on the iPhone, and most likely one of the applications that I am looking forward to play on the iPad next week, this application is probably the best application on the iPhone.
Kindle for iPhone by Amazon:I am a library rat, I love to read, and most of my readings today happen on the Amazon Kindle, I also have eReader By FictionWise (Part of Barnes and Noble), since I have over 150 books that I have bough to them over the years, and also use Stanza By Lexicle (part of Amazon), since allow me to convert other kind of unprotected files and read them on the iPhone.
Finally, I use OmniFocus by OmniGroup: I have been a GTDer since 2003, and when I move to the Mac in 2009 I got Omnifocus, syncs over the air with my Mac and iPhone and is a really powerful application, if you take the time to learn it.
I use many more applications on the iPhone, but this ones are my key ones, if I lost all the others, I will be able to continue moving forward. I want also to make a special mention to: WordWeb that I use for my Dictionary, Calling Card, Splash ID and  Mint, since even that they didn’t make it to the first page, are applications that I access constantly.

I am a sales manager, I have been making my living selling technology for the last 7 years, in Latin America, the US and Canada. I am always impress by the amount of Sales Prevention Programs available in so many big and small companies.
The Sales Prevention Program are all those activities that are done that keep people from making sales, the internal endless meetings for example; the planning for the sales process instead of actually making sales, are two typical and common examples.
In many cases, businesses struggle with sales, not because they don’t have a great product, not because they don’t produce excellent results on the projects they embark, but because they don’t sale, the have in place a Sales Prevention Program, they lack any system or investment of time, or process for the sales.
Sales are hard, they are hard to do, hard to make, and hard to keep them coming, they require time, and effort, if your sales process is not growing, your sales are dying.
Internal meetings, are another typical Sales Prevention Program, that many organizations had, lets meet for product inventory, or to brainstorm, or to discuss the lack of performance, or the quarter numbers, or many other examples, those tend to be call Sales Meeting, but in reality are all but sales, they are Sales Prevention Programs called Sales Meetings, Sales Meetings are opportunities to train, to improve Sales abilities, to improve technique, to practice sales, not for anything else.
Are you doing Sales Prevention Programs or you are making Sales Improvement Programs?
When was the last time, you pick the phone and make a cold call, or spend 15 minutes researching a possible costumer and make the call, or call your costumer and propose a new project, when was the last time you use your time to sell something? If you can’t recall when, most likely you have a Sales Prevention Program in place. Many Small Business owners, because of fear, establish these Sales Prevention Programs, they don’t trust their Sales Team, or lack a Sales Team because they have a great product, and they will be able to sell when need it, or in the time that sales slow down, begin trying to help their sales force, and sometimes they are good at sales, but in many cases, they get to be their biggest obstacle, they get to the point that it is more difficult to sell internally than to the costumer, they without their knowledge establish a great Sales Prevention Program.
Do you incentive sales, of do you have the best Sales Prevention Program of your industry?