Free 2012 Work Week Calendar

If you’re new to this site, this 2012 Work Week Calendar is based on the badge-sized calendars that my previous employer hands out every year.

For 2012, I’m including two versions of the work week calendar. The first is an ISO 8601 compliant version to match what most companies here in the US use, and the second is a work week calendar based off the Microsoft Outlook work week calendar.

I have also included a candy bar style calendar based on David Seah’s Compact Calendar.

As always this calendar is completely free to download, modify, and use.

*Please contact me with any mistakes or issues you find.

Download 2012 Work Week Calendar for Excel

• 2012 Work Week Calendar for Excel – ISO 8601 Compliant
• 2012 Work Week Calendar for Excel – Matches MS Outlook’s Calendar

Download 2012 Work Week Calendar for iWork’s Numbers

• 2012 Work Week Calendar for iWork’s Numbers – ISO 8601 Compliant
• 2012 Work Week Calendar for iWork’s Numbers – Matches MS Outlook’s Calendar

Download 2012 Work Week Calendar PDF

• 2012 Work Week Calendar PDF – ISO 8601 Compliant
• 2012 Work Week Calendar PDF – Matches MS Outlook’s Calendar

Reader’s Shared Calendars…

Previous work week calendars have been translated to other languages and country specific work weeks, so feel free to send me your updated calendar and I will be more than happy to add it to this post.

Sincerely,
The Closet Entrepreneur

For those of you who have been following The Closet Entrepreneur blog, you’ll know that I’m a sucker for MOO business cards! That’s why it’s with great pleasure that I’m announcing the business card inspiration competition from MOO!

MOO has provided us with 4 X 100 business cards and an accompanying business card holder ‘The Showcase’ for four of our readers. If you have yet to come across MOO, they love to print whether itâ€s creative business cards, unique MiniCards, Postcards, Greeting cards, StickerBooks and more!

More About MOO

According to the MOO founders, MOO was born from a love of beautiful, high-quality print and design. MOO offer business card printing services to their customers, where you’re able to either upload your own artwork or photos, or choose from their large selection of business card templates by talented designers from around the world. And of course, you can personalize with your own details. Their online templates and card building tools make printing beautiful and unique business cards and MiniCards easy.Take for example these Beautiful Notebook business cards by Jovanna Mendes de Souza.

MOO Business Card Inspiration Competition Prizes

Entrants have a chance of winning one of four (4) sets of 100 business cards, plus a Showcase business card holder!

Entering is easy, for a chance to win one of the 4 sets of business cards and Showcase card holders – all you have to do is post a comment below and tell us one inspirational & motivational entrepreneurial quote and why it resonates with you in particular, OR you can let us know what unique and different uses you have in mind for your Moo Cards.

Four winners will be chosen from the comments below, and only one entry per person will be accepted. Also, please enter a valid email address so we’re able to contact you.

The contest comes to a close this Friday, August 26th at 11:59 PM Pacific, and winners will be announced on Saturday, August 27th, so don’t delay and enter now! Good luck!

Sincerely,
The Closet Entrepreneur

Back by Popular Demand: Free 2011 Work Week Calendar

This work week calender is based on the badge-sized calendars that my previous employer hands out every year.

Something I’ve done a bit differently this time around is to make the calendar ISO 8601 compliant to match what most companies here in the US use; regardless, you’re more than welcome to modify and change the calendar as you see fit.

UPDATE: Reader Shelley pointed out in the comments that the calendar actually isn’t ISO 8601 compliant due to the fact that the weeks begin on Sunday, and not Monday as they do in an ISO 8601 compliant calendar.

I have also included a candy bar style calendar based on David Seah’s Compact Calendar.

As always this calendar is completely free to download, modify, and use.

2011 Work Week Calendar Download

For 2011, I have provided an Excel version (an iWork Numbers version and a PDF version are coming soon). This calendar has been tested on Excel 2007 and should be backward compatible with earlier versions of Excel.

• 2011 Work Week Calendar for Excel

*Please be sure to contact me with any mistakes or issues I may need to correct.

Reader’s Shared Calendars

Previous work week calendars have been translated to other languages and country specific work weeks, so feel free to send me your updated calendar and I will be more than happy to add it to this post.

Sincerely,
The Closet Entrepreneur

Sebastian was kind enough to share his presentation tips with me, so I thought I would post them here for all to enjoy. Who knows, maybe someone will be inspired to create their own ultimate (or worst) TEDTalk and find themselves on the front page of TED.com like Sebastian did.

Lies, damned lies and statistics (about TEDTalks)

For starters, here is Sebastian’s TEDTalk for those of you who have yet to see it. It’s only six minutes long, so I highly recommend watching it now.

(Click Here if you can’t see the video)

Presentation Software and Design…

Sebastian used PowerPoint for his presentation software, and took the time to create his own theme and color palette based off the “pen-on-paper” look he was going for.

The font is a commercial font from Linotype called Linotype Feltpen — it’s not a free font but he was willing to pay extra for something unique.

Custom Drawings…

According to Sebastian, all the graphics were done in PowerPoint and took a lot of time and energy to create. Take for example the following “drawing” — the figurine isn’t actually a drawing at all, but instead it’s a combination of free-form shapes and Linotype Feltpen font characters:

More free form shapes are found throughout the presentation including arrows, arcs, and highlighting circles that are reminiscent of the old Intel logo.

Slide Transitions and Animations…

Unfortunately not all animations are shown in the video, but you can catch a few of them when the camera shows Sebastian and his slides on stage. Sebastian used a variety of fades, slide pushes, and motion paths to fit large drawings and oversized content onto a single slide.

I’ve embedded an example where a push transition is used to introduce the slide, and is followed by motion paths to introduce the various parts of the chart. If the Quicktime animation fails to show below, then you can download the Quicktime file to view it: Slide_Animation.mov (~400Kb in size)

Preparation and Advice…

Sebastian spent four hours and 10-20 iterations to get the slides and story to their final form, and an additional four hours were spent practicing the final version. In total, eight hours were spent to get the delivery just right which is pretty incredible for a six minute talk.

Although Sebastian didn’t consult any particular resources for this presentation, he does follow Presentation Zen and has read Slideology for inspiration and advice.

As for his own advice, Sebastian offers this tip:

Be ready to ruthlessly remove anything from the presentation which doesn’t serve its purpose. This is much harder than it might sound, especially if you think it is a nice idea or something you are passionate about.

In Conclusion…

As always I hope this information is useful, and I hope it inspires you to take your presentation to the next level. Last but not least, here’s the TEDPad that Sebastian developed just in case you want to take a shot at creating the ultimate or worst TEDTalk possible.

Sincerely,
The Closet Entrepreneur

*UPDATE: The calendar has been updated for 2011 and is available for download here: 2011 Work Week Calendar.

Back by Popular Demand: Free 2010 Work Week Calendar

This work week calender is based on the badge-sized calendars that my previous employer hands out every year.

Please note that this calendar is not ISO 8601 compliant; regardless, you’re more than welcome to modify and change the calendar as you see fit.

I have also included a candy bar style calendar based on David Seah’s Compact Calendar.

As always this calendar is completely free to download, modify, and use.

2010 Work Week Calendar Download

For 2010, I have provided an Excel version, an iWork Numbers version, and a PDF version. These calendars have been tested on Excel 2007 and iWork ’09, and should be backward compatible with earlier versions of these programs.

• 2010 Work Week Calendar for Excel
• 2010 Work Week Calendar for iWork Numbers
• 2010 PDF Work Week Calendar

*Please be sure to contact me with any mistakes or issues I may need to correct.

Reader’s Shared Calendars

Previous work week calendars have been translated to other languages and country specific work weeks, so feel free to send me your updated calendar and I will be more than happy to add it to this post.

Sincerely,
The Closet Entrepreneur

Written for The Closet Entrepreneur by Sam Carpenter…

Yes, Iâ€ve read David Allenâ€s fine book Getting Things Done, maybe the most popular version of the concept of Business Process Management (BPM). There are lots of other management systems/philosophies too, most of them created by business consultants.

Good stuff, much of it, GTD, TQM and the like. But I have a bone to pick.

And before I begin this semi-rant, hereâ€s something about me: Iâ€m a small business owner, not a consultant. Iâ€ve had Centratel, for twenty-five years and over the past ten years have been deeply buried in creating my own management methodology. GTD just recently came to my attention, so consider me a credentialed foreigner coming to town with some blank-slate observations. My credentials? In my work and personal life, Iâ€ve found a simple, mechanical way to get everything that I need and want.

Until I changed my thinking ten years ago, my life was horrible. In the first fifteen nightmare years of my business, I was like the guy with the backwards hat, straining to see some distant object against the blinding sun: one hundred hour workweeks, poor health, no friends and no money. Then, literally, late one night I woke up. I stopped churning and grasping and whining and realized the solution to fixing my life was to, figuratively, simply reach up and turn the damn hat around.

Everything I needed to know was right there, metaphorically perched on the top of my head. Starting with that late night mini-enlightenment, repairing things — and getting what I wanted in the forms of free time, money, great relationships and personal health — was easy.

I didnâ€t fix things by adding complexity. I fixed things by eliminating complexity and thereby becoming tremendously efficient. First, I dug deep and got very specific about what I personally wanted in my business and my life. And second, I gained a better understanding of how the machinery of the world operates (really). Although my motivation to go in a new direction started with a new thought in my head, the execution came from a belief in my guts. There was nothing mystical about the new approach. It was dispassionately mechanical and absolutely believable.

No psychologists, life-coaches or consultants required.

GTD is the darling of Web 2.0 types, bloggers in particular. I understand and agree with many of the points the book makes for getting control of input and tasks through organizing and categorizing. However, the methodology circles above critical fundamentals: desired life style, basic wants and needs and the mechanics of how the world actually functions. Again, for emphasis: These fundamentals lie below any BPM over-lay methodology.

The thrust of GTD and the other BPM strategies is to gain control by becoming more efficient at handling input while keeping the customerâ€s best interests in mind, but most of the strategies demand hyper-control of details and these efforts are, in themselves, additional tasks.

After setting some solid, simple goals for our work and our lives, can we get unflagging control of input without adding yet another layer of protocol? Can we, instead, go deeper?

Try this “deeper” concept on for size: For the individual, freedom and wealth come from processing a large chunk of input elsewhere, not in personally repackaging it, overly categorizing it or learning how to juggle it.

Hereâ€s my very simple methodology:

1. Decide and then document what you want and how you will get there (one written page will do it)
2. Decide and then document your fundamental guidelines for operating (two pages, maybe three)
3. Systemize things, with attending documentation (hereâ€s the on-going documentation work, the “work the system” part).

Why documentation? So your instructions are made permanent for yourself and for the people who work for you. Verbal instructions are feathers in the wind.

So, to “get things done,” there is no requirement for massive procedural structure and/or for bringing in a consultant, and there is no need for heart-felt philosophic incantations to staff. And, if youâ€re on your own – a blogger perhaps – there is no need to stop wondering what to do next and where to go, or to become expert in a myriad of BPM strategies. To begin, here is all thatâ€s needed: a mental mind-shift to recognize that your world is a collection of individual systems; Itâ€s not a confused mass of sights, sounds and events. Once this profound mind-tweak occurs (and it happens in a flash of insight in a single moment of time), you will ruthlessly apply the simple rules of efficiency that you have been anemic in implementing in the past: doing it now, eliminating the unnecessary, automating, delegating, deleting and yes, the protocols David Allen put together so well in his book.

Hereâ€s the crux: Once the shift occurs, you will know instinctively what to do in order to get control of the relentless bombardment of input. For the first time, youâ€ll really see the systems of your life and then youâ€ll naturally “work them” to produce exactly the results you want. Since your systems will handle the input to produce the results you want, efficiency will ensue and this means more time and money for you.

It starts with a shift in the head. The rest is simple mechanics

So, go deep to identify the fundamentals of what you really want and how the world works. Donâ€t get caught up in add-on layers of complexity, or buy into the idea you canâ€t sort things out yourself. Turn your hat around and really see how the systems of your world operate. Get to that place and the next steps will be obvious.

About the Author…

Sam Carpenter is author of Work the System: The Simple Mechanics of Making More and Working less, (publisher, Greenleaf Book Group), available in hardcover at Amazon and book stores, or by download in pdf or audio format at workthesystem.com. In June, Work the System won the award “Best Non-fiction of 2009” at the New York book festival.

Sincerely,
The Closet Entrepreneur

Photo by Sam Carpenter

It’s obvious that things have slowed down on The Closet Entrepreneur and the reason is simple — I’m part of the organizing committee that is working on bringing TEDxPhoenix to the Phoenix-metro communities.

What is TEDxPhoenix?

If you’re not familiar with the TED Conference, it’s an annual event where the world’s brightest thinkers and doers come together to share amazing ideas worth spreading. Sounds interesting right… but wait there’s more!

TED is now enabling TED fanatics to organize their own local and independent TED-like events. TED provides free tools, promotion on their site, connections to other organizers, and a little piece of the TED brand in the form of the TEDx label. Organizers provide everything else including finding a venue, speakers, sponsors, and volunteers.

If You’re in the Phoenix-Metro Area…

I would love to have you join us for the event which is scheduled to take place on Friday, November 6th at the Mesa Arts Center — you can get your TEDxPhoenix tickets here. I would even encourage you to join us if you’re in the Tucson, Sedona, and Flagstaff areas as well.

The event is going to feature some of Arizona’s leading experts in the fields of education, sustainability, entrepreneurship, and science. In addition, you’ll be joined by like-minded individuals who are interested in leveraging ideas, education, design, and technology to help create a better future for the Valley and beyond.

If this sounds like something you would be interested in, then please join us on the…

• TEDxPhoenix Facebook Page
• TEDxPhoenix Twitter Page
• TEDxPhoenix Blog

If You’re Not in the Phoenix-Metro Area…

The first thing I would recommend is checking out the TEDx event page to see if there’s a TEDx event going on in your neck of the woods. If there isn’t, then I would highly recommend hosting a TEDx event in your local community.

I’m not going to lie to you, but putting on a TEDx event with more than 100 attendees is a lot of work. Not only are you in charge of every event detail, but you’ll have to find some genuine TEDsters that have been to a TED Conference in the last 24 months to help organize the event, and that’s not always a possibility. Also, you will have to sign up, get permission, and adhere to the rules set forth by the TED organization.

My advice is to start small with an event less than 100 people. you still have to sign up and get permission to host the event, but all you need to do is find a large meeting room or classroom with a projector then add a few of your closest friends and you’re set. If enough interest is stirred up, then I would recommend thinking about organizing a bigger event.

Still Don’t See What the Big Deal is About TEDx?

It’s hard to explain what TEDx is if you’ve never seen a TEDTalk, so we’ve setup a TEDx in Plain English page on the TEDxPhoenix website that showcases some of our favorite TEDTalks and I highly recommend checking them out. I’ve embedded one of my favorite talks by Hans Rosling below, but there are a ton of great talks for you to choose from.

[Feed and email subscribers, please visit the blog post if the video does not show.]

In Conclusion…

In the end, TEDx is about inspiring, enlightening, and entertaining via ideas worth sharing — TEDx is also about creating a better future in your local community and beyond.

In addition to that, organizing an event is a tremendous way to learn how to create and organize a team, secure funding, and brand and market an event. Sound like something a budding entrepreneur may have to do at some point? … it should because it is.

Although I’m knee deep in TEDxPhoenix activities, I would still be happy to answer any questions you may have about the event. Also, I would love to know what your favorite TEDTalk is, so feel free to share it in the comments below if you have one!

Last but not least, I hope to see all the Phoenix locals who read this blog on the TEDxPhoenix Facebook page and at the event!

Sincerely,
The Closet Entrepreneur

There are two things that send me over the edge when it comes to slideshow design, the first is generic circa 1995 slideshow templates and the second is unusable slide real estate. There’s nothing I can do to eliminate generic slideshow templates other than to tell you to avoid them like the plague, but there is definitely a lot you can do to combat wasted slide space.

Keep in mind that I’m not here to pick on companies or organizations who have opted to let their branding take precedence over practicality, but rather I’m here to tell you that you can brandify your slides without having to sacrifice slide space.

Ignite Phoenix Slideshow “Before”

During my tour as the Ignite Phoenix Slideshow Guru, one of my main goals was to give presenters more slide real estate to play around with while keeping the Ignite brand intact.

The standard Ignite slideshow template served its purpose, but adding full screen landscape or portrait images was problematic without cropping out large parts of the image (as shown below). Even worse, it left the slideshow creator wondering if they should ditch the theme altogether, or cram their content into the remaining free space.

Ignite Phoenix Slideshow “After”

After trying to figure out how to best accommodate the Ignite and O’Reilly logos, I came up with the following slide design.

The design isn’t perfect, but it does allow users to utilize more slideshow real estate versus the original design. There are still problems when featuring a large image in a portrait layout and the logo is definitely smaller than before, but a large projection screen usually takes care of the latter problem.

In addition, Keynote users can opt to allow objects on the slide to layer with the master slide, allowing the bottom Ignite bar to layer on top of an image and act as a watermark of sorts. The O’Reilly logo is also a text placeholder where presenters can add their Twitter handle if they so desire. Last but not least, the center section of the bar can be used as a place to add photo credit.

Unfortunately, PowerPoint doesn’t allow objects on the master slide to layer with objects on a regular slide, but crafty PowerPoint users can easily copy and paste the Ignite bar into their regular slides if layering is something they need.

Ignite Slideshow Template Downloads

The Ignite Slideshow Template files (found below) have been tested on the latest versions of Keynote and PowerPoint, but may require some tweaking on older versions of the aforementioned software. Also, the PowerPoint file was tested on Windows XP but may require some tweaking on Mac versions of PowerPoint due to the differences in the way PCs and Macs render fonts.

• Keynote Light and Dark Ignite Slideshow Template (Zip File)
• PowerPoint Light and Dark Ignite Slideshow Template (Zip File)

You’re more than welcome to download the templates and take them for a test drive, and I highly encourage you to adapt them to your own particular situation — feel free to send some link love my way as well if you’re feeling generous.

Speaking of link love, I would like to thank the following designers for allowing me to use their creations to construct this theme:

• A Little Motivation by Spargett (used for the dark background)
• Fine Aluminum via iStockphoto (used for the light background)

I’m hoping the slideshow templates serve as inspiration for your own themes, and feel free to share any other useful and inspirational slideshow themes in the comments below.

Sincerely,
The Closet Entrepreneur

photo credit: jessi.bryan on Flickr

Post Scriptum: Organizers of local Ignite events can swap out the Ignite logo with their own custom logo. You can obtain the logo file from the O’Reilly Ignite-in-a-Box package that is sent to organizers who request it — the font used in the Ignite logo is called Insignia.

Hello everyone, it has been two and a half months of silence on this blog and it’s time to change that!

First I want to say thank you to my regular readers for their support, and for sticking around! It’s been a long time since I’ve posted and I truly appreciate your patience.

Second, I want to say hello and welcome to all the new visitors and subscribers! I’m glad you’ve enjoyed the blog and strive to bring you even more fresh tips and tricks.

Keeping in Touch

In addition, I want to extend an invitation to follow me on Tumblr and Twitter:

• Click to Follow Me on Tumblr – Tumblr is a cross between Twitter and a blog, and I use it to regularly share interesting items I come across on the interwebs.
• Click to Follow Me on Twitter – I use Twitter to share my personal musings; it’s not really informative so I’ll let that serve as fair warning.

Featured on Lifehacker!

Lifehacker is an amazing site, so you can only imagine how excited I was to see the blog mentioned in their Use a Chain Sinnet to Tidy Cables and The Hidden Cable Workspace articles! In addition, the chain sinnet tutorial briefly made it to the popular list on reddit and delicious, and was picked up by some great blogs:

• IDEA*IDEA – I have no *idea what language this is in, but I received a lot of visits from the link love: 長～いコードをうまいことまとめたいときに使える小技
• Unclutterer – I never miss an article on Unclutterer and highly recommend following them: Control cable-clutter with a monkey braid
• Apartment Therapy Unplugged – Apartment Therapy is another site with some great organizing street cred: Keep Extra-Long Cords In Check with a Chain Sinnet
• Fabulously “Broke” …in the City – FB is authored by a girl who clawed her way out of $60,000 worth of debt in 18 months: Link Love

Other Mentions!

Okay, the HOW TO: Find a Job on Twitter article was written before my blogging hiatus, but Mashable is another site I really admire and am happy to be mentioned on.

Smashing Magazine is actually a design blog that I follow, so needless to say I was surprised to see the elevator pitch article mentioned in their The Roadmap To Becoming A Professional Freelance Web Designer article.

Last but not least, the Outlaw Design Blog mentioned the declutter under your desk article in their How to Achieve the Ultimate Home Office Setup article and the link love was much appreciated.

Parting Thoughts…

I have a growing list of topics I plan to blog about so stay tuned—and it goes without saying that I’m always grateful for the mentions, reader comments, and visits to the blog so thank you again for everything!

Sincerely,
The Closet Entrepreneur

photo credit: ShellyS on Flickr

Although I’ve written about my hometown of San Manuel and my home security fail in in the past, I don’t usually make it a habit to share uber personal stories on this blog. Of course, there’s always an exception to the rule.

Meet Rollie

Rollie was adopted on June 23rd, 2006. He was part Dachshund and part mangy mutt—actually he was supposedly part Cocker Spaniel but we’re skeptical about that. We’re also skeptical of his age which is supposed to be 11 (human) years old; but since he was adopted, there’s no way of knowing whether the vet’s estimate was correct.

Rollie Has Left the Building

Life has been extremely busy as of late with business and personal stuff—which explains the silence on the blog—but never in a million years would I have expected to be dealing with a deathly ill puppy.

On Wednesday evening we noticed that Rollie’s appetite was gone and and he was drooling—Rollie was a big fan of being lazy, napping, eating, pooping, licking, and scratching but he was much too civilized for drooling so we knew something was wrong.

On Thursday he went to the vet and was diagnosed with stomach problems. On Friday, he went to the vet again after he started having bouts of diarrhea and his urine was found to be red-orange in color. That same day, he was rushed to the Animal Hospital after his blood count was found to be at a critical level. On Saturday he recovered slightly, but was experiencing neurological issues and couldn’t find his balance. On Sunday just before Noon, his heart stopped and any attempts at resuscitation were stopped shortly thereafter.

We still don’t know what caused him to get so sick and decline so quickly; we had him checked regularly and he was always found to be in tip-top health for his age. We’re still waiting on lab results which were slowed due to the holiday weekend, but even that tidbit of information doesn’t sound too comforting at the moment.

We knew that he was getting old and that one day he would leave us, but seeing him slip from us so quickly has caught us completely off guard. I know that grieving is part of the process of losing a pet, but I never expected it to be this hard. I know it sounds cliche, but I still wait for him to come trotting out from his favorite napping spot and plop down next to me wherever I may be sitting.

In Closing…

I just want to say thank you if you’ve read this far. I wrote this blog post as a tribute to Rollie, and I just wanted him to know how special and important he was to me and all those who met him.

For those of you who have lost a pet, I’m so sorry for your loss. And for those of you who are thinking of owning a pet…

• Do your homework and become informed.
• Be sure you’re ready to take care of a pet; there’s plenty of sacrifice and work involved.
• Please consider adopting a pet from a rescue agency—many of these innocent animals were abandoned due to no fault of their own.

Sincerely,
The Closet Entrepreneur