Recently, my schedule has become hectic. Working on projects, it’s easy to get sucked into my work and block everything out. However, there are times when I need to snap back into reality and do important things such as prepare meals, pick my daughter up from school, take a break, and exercise. When my daughter is home, I step away from my projects and spend time with her.

My problem isn’t motivation. When I’m focused on a project, at times I have to force myself to stop. It isn’t always easy. Last evening, I finally got around to purchasing FlexTime for Mac. Think of it as a productivity planner for your computer, it keeps tabs on the projects that you’re working on, and alerts you when time expires. Setting up tasks is easy. I’ve already added numerous tasks for myself,  and I’ll be adding more. Currently, I’ve had a warning set up, 10 minutes before I want to stop working on a project. It’s my gentle reminder that its time for me to wrap up my thoughts, slow down and change my focus.

If you’re a Mac user and want to try out FlexTime, pop by Daniel Jalkut’s (owner & developer) website and download FlexTIme. You’ll be able to try out the product for thirty days. I first tried out FlexTime in 2007, I tried the free trial, loved it but really had no use for it. I do now. FlexTime is only $18.95, if you’re a Mac user, and enjoy productivity tools, check it out!

Although I do affiliate marketing on this site (Amazon, I only recommend products I’ve used) I’m not paid anything for recommending FlexTime. I simply like the product. Daniel Jalkut does a great job of responding to his clients, via email and through his forums, so I’m happy to point others to his fabulous applications. I also use MarsEdit, another app developed by him, it’s an only blog editor. As with anything I like, I’ll recommend it to others. I know a few of my readers are Mac users so if you want to check out an amazing productivity product that’s free to test for 30 days, try it out.

Question: Does anyone else using a productivity application? If so let us know what you use in the comment section.

I should have known this was going to happen, somehow in the midst of my cleaning I misplaced a library book. I have no clue where it could be, I searched all of my bookshelves, still nothing!

I remember having the book, I’m betting I set it down because I got distracted by something else. I eventually know I’ll stumble upon it, and I’m betting it will be in an odd place. The thing is, I don’t lose things often, so this is really driving me nuts, bah! Gaah!!!

Ebook readers are something I’ve been considering for several months. If I lost that then I’d be in trouble, but I haven’t lost an eletronic device yet.

If you asked me, a few years ago would I purchase an Ebook reader. The answer would have been NO! I want to hold a physical copy of a book in my hands, dang it! However, since I’ve been focusing on minimizing the amount of things I do have I’ve been giving it some serious thought. It simply makes sense. Will I miss my physical books? Yes, but I think I’ll get over it.  When I think of it, I already do a lot of reading on my MacBook Pro, for my clients and on personal time too. So what’s the big deal if I’m reading a book using an electronic device? Hmmm….

An added bonus is that I can also borrow Ebooks from the library. Even the library where I borrow my books, Baltimore County Public Library is offering this feature. How cool is that? Instead of having to physically go to the library I can download the book from my libraries website. When the book is due, it expires off my device.

Amazon’s Kindle

I’m thinking I’ll purchase an Ebook reader near (or perhaps a little after the Christmas season.) I’ve tried Amazon’s Kindle. I played with it for a few weeks, and even wrote a review about it on a technology website. Although it did everything it was supposed to do (you know serve as an ebook) I wished it did more. Also, I didn’t like how it looked. Yeah… silly (I know) but there you have it.

Apple’s iPad

I have been looking at the Apple iPad. With the iPad, I’ll be able to read any ebook available. I do like its looks, and more importantly, I can do more with it too. My daughter is involved in a lot of after-school activities. Mommy is there with her, usually with a book or my MacBook Pro (if I’m working on an urgent project for a client) in tow. It’s definitely not a “ohh shiny” purchase since there are numerous flashy things I do without. When I finally do make the purchase you won’t hear me complaining that the iPad doesn’t work just like a book.

Question: What do you think about the Ebook readers?

Here at Celebrate Life, checking out my Category section was a bit of an embarrassment. They were a big mess. There were times when I had posts listed under multiple categories. It’s something I didn’t like. However, I decided to push it out of my mind, and not think about other things. Your problems will magically disappear if you do that. Ok, that’s not true… They don’t go away, however, they can get bigger!

In my case, that’s exactly what happened. Although I completely ignored my category mess, it didn’t stop me from adding more. Yeah, yeah, I know that didn’t make any sense. My little darlings kept growing, and growing… it was out of control! Yes, in many cases those categories were repetitive. I had a hard time getting my “it’s the same but it isn’t the same” category naming tendencies under control. Let’s not even go into how many I had, mkay?

Yesterday, I took action, and eliminated a lot of categories. What caused this change of heart? Being a person who loves stats, I had already checked the effectiveness of the Categories via Google Analytics Site Overlay (very similar to Heatmap.) It confirmed my suspicions, my readers, rarely used my categories. The amount that do, was under 4%. That tag cloud I have? Well that doesn’t get used a lot either. I’m happy to say I’ve cut my categories down to nine. It’s simplistic, and not as confusing as before.

I’d recommend Google Site Analytics Site Overlay feature (or something similar) for anyone that is focused on building their virtual community. It lets you know what interests your readers, and where they are clicking too. With my older sites, I used it for many things, one of those being a spot that would get the most clicks for my Top Commenter’s. It’s always nice sending referrals their way.

Here’s something to think about… this site is still new the top way I’m getting traffic is simply by commenting on other peoples websites. I don’t comment on a lot of sites at the moment, my time is limited however when I actually do read what you write and am not giving you a canned answer with my response. I try to add to the conversation. It’s paid off since people have come to my site, that’s known as a referral.

In hindsight, I should have created my categories when I started this website, instead of creating them as I wrote.

If you’re a WordPress user and have the urge to decrease your categories. I’d like to recommend a WordPress Plug In that might make the transition a lot easier.

Recommended WordPress Plugin

Broken Link Checker created by Janis Elsts

It does exactly what it says, if you’re like myself and do a bit of internal linking, yes I linked to categories in some of my posts, chances are you might have a broken link. You want this WordPress plugin, seriously! This little addon will track them down for you and let you fix them. That it folks, after you’ve cleaned your categories to a respectable size, head on over to your PlugIns and click on the Broken Link Checker. You did install it right? No, what are you waiting for? If not grab it from the Plugin section in your admin tools, click on New, enter Broken Link Checker, install, activate, and you’re ready to go.

Of course, you can use this WordPress Plug in for more things than fixing your categories. I installed this a few weeks ago. I found a few broken links after the installation, and was able to update the links to point to the correct link in a few easy steps.

Cleaning up those broken category links will help out tremendously since your visitors won’t be tossed onto the dreaded 404 error page (which isn’t so dreadful if you have customized it.) For the record, I haven’t customized my 404 Error page yet, but it’s one of the things I’ll complete today.

Oh, the phrase Murder your Darlings, came from the excellent article by Rob Parnell.