Find Motive

I recently purchased NoahWinecoff.com a few days ago and I cannot decide if I should move my blog to that domain or keep it here at FindMotive.com. I don’t know why I chose FindMotive.com in the first place, it just sounded cool at the time. Now is the time to give me your 2 cents and help me make this life changing decision.

To become the 2nd most famous Noah in the world or find some place to eat lunch today. I can’t choose.

I’m always curious what the person looks like when I am reading their blog. So I thought I would post a picture of myself just in case others share my curiosity.

“When you play, play hard; when you work, don’t play at all.” — Theodore Roosevelt

I wrote an article last week titled Tips for keeping your vision alive which highlighted 3 points in maintaining vision and motivation. In this article I will cover several points I think are important for being highly productive, but also leaving room to enjoy life outside of work.

Know your limits, Avoid burn out
I consider myself a fairly busy person with my 40+ hour a week job and side businesses. In fact, I’ve been putting in 12 hour days this week to finish up on a project for our company expansion, but I know that I can only push myself so far until I will become less productive and eventually burn out. Now I am not saying you shouldn’t push yourself, I’m not saying that at all. I think that pushing yourself is required to get stuff done in crunch time, but you also need to keep in mind that your body physically and mentally can only handle so much. Knowing where this limit is for yourself is key. More time will be lost recovering from burn out than time spent spacing out work for yourself.

Play hard, really hard
I can’t stress how much you need to take time for yourself and relax. Don’t think about work and don’t even dare think about doing work. I love the feeling of unwinding after a long(but productive) day at work and doing something I really enjoy. Now for me, stuff I enjoy doing to unwind is riding my new 2006 Yamaha R6 (oh its sexy). Some of the advantages of living in Oklahoma is the long country roads and beautiful summer nights, which BTW on a motorcycle is 10 times better and makes stress just float away. My point is, whatever you love doing or lets you relax and put things in perspective…do it! Make the time for yourself and play hard.

Results make the money
Having a balanced life will help your productivity and creativity, which returns better results. Not too mention a more consistent workflow and healthier lifestyle. Plus all work and no play makes Noah a dull boy.

I hope this article helps and comments are always welcomed.

What do you listen to when designing/coding? What gets your creative juices going or what makes you work harder during crunch time?

I personally like to listen to some good alternative rock for creativity and setting a pace, but when it comes to getting something done quickly, I turn up some techno. Although I can usually only handle 30 minutes or so of techno before it annoys me.

Let me know what you listen to, I’m curious!

I hate SPAM and everybody I know hates SPAM, so with this kind of reputation, are the people who are sending out these annoying emails really making money or selling products off of this technique? I really would like to know how much revenue spammers make from spamming.

As a business rule, I always inform the user when I ask for their email address that it will not be shared or used for purposes other than the site at which they submitted it to. You can see what I’m talking about at Indiefy.com. I believe this will help build trust with your users and get you off on a good start with them from the very beginning. I even added a personal touch to the anti-spam message by informing the user that “we hate spam too”. This lets them feel like your not a machine and in this certain case that you understand how they feel about spam.

I consider myself one of the lucky ones, since I only get about 2 SPAM emails a day compared to friends and co-workers of mine who get hundreds, which thankfully most are blocked by SPAM blockers.

Indiefy.com is a new online venue for independent artists to sell their music online or provide it as a free download.

Unlike iTunes, artists will receive the majority of the profit when they sell a song or album. All music will be available in high quality 192khz MP3 format. Indiefy will allow unlimited CD burning for personal use and once a song has been purchased, it will always be available for download in your “Music Locker”.

Sign up Here to be notified when indiefy.com launches.

Artist Minisite Teaser

Please back check for updates as we progress with Indiefy.

I like Apple, I think they have grown as a company by leaps and bounds in the past 5 years, but I feel that some of their products are overpriced. From an aesthetics point of view their products are VERY well designed, but from a technical aspect I have had some problems with my G5 and 23″ Cinema Display (it was still under warranty at the time at least).

I’m going to break down Apple’s products into 3 categories: Computers & iPods, Software, and Accessories

Computers & iPods
Ok in this category I don’t feel I’m getting robbed too badly by Apple. Their desktops/laptops and iPods are priced almost fair. Paying 3 grand for a top of the line dual processor G5 is about right. If they made it a few hundred bucks cheaper then it would be much more attractive.

Software
I’m probably biased in this category because I think MOST software is overpriced, but $1000 for Logic? C’mon! I”ll stick with AudioDesk from MOTU, it came with my MOTU 896HD Firewire interface. I’m not saying AudioDesk is as good as Logic because it isn”t, but its not worth a grand to me (once again I am biased towards software prices).

Accessories
This is where I am mainly upset towards Apple. For example iPod accessories are WAY overpriced. I would not buy these from Apple, instead I would go to eBay or some iPod store online and buy the “knock off” accessories which most of the time are just as good. I’ll go ahead and throw a rant in here about apple’s iPod battery replacement program…BS! Its ridiculous to pay roughly $70 bucks to get your battery replaced in your $100 - $200 iPod.

Well now I feel I’ve been a bit to harsh on Apple. Just to clarify, I do like Apple and I think they have great products. It’s the pricing of these products that needs adjustment.

Vision, it’s your motivation, it’s your roadmap. Its one of the most important things you will need for success. The level of success with an idea is determined by your vision. Now I’m not talking about literal vision with your eyes, I’m talking about that screenshot of the future in your mind. I believe that most people fail when they lose this.

Vision = Motivation + Roadmap
I am a creative person, but when it comes to keeping that initial motivation from an idea I”m one of the worst. I have no problem coming up with the ideas and creating the vision, but what I do have a problem with is KEEPING that vision. To help myself conquer this weakness I came up with the following steps to keep the vision fresh.

1. Write it down
Get out that legal pad and write down the vision for your idea. Spell it out in big letters! Now this isn”t meant to be the all encompassing detailed spec for your idea, but the general outline of what you want to accomplish. This is what you will need to read over and over again to keep it fresh on your mind. When you are feeling lost or down about your project unfold this piece of paper out of your wallet or purse (or open it on your PDA, however you roll is fine) and read it until you believe it.

2. Talk about it
The way I inspire myself with motivation is to talk about my idea. Go to the coffee shop with some of your friends or go to mom’’s house, either way just talk about your idea to people who you trust and that will listen to you. When you talk about your idea to other people you are also talking to yourself about it. You hear yourself describe your vision and it becomes ingrained into you.

3. Realize that it will take work
Often I will get so excited about my ideas that I map out from start to finish what this service or product could grow into, but then reality sets in. I then realize that I have to get it started first. I have to start doing the dirty work and get something running before the potential of this idea can be fulfilled. Keeping this on your mind from the beginning will prevent that sudden jerk of realization which can really hurt your motivation.

I hope you have enjoyed this and that it will help you with your ideas. Please feel free to leave comments, they are always welcome.

FindMotive.com is my new home on the web. I hope you enjoy and find it useful and entertaining. If not…tell me you like me anyways.