Das gestrige Meeting der #dughh im betahaus in Hamburg bestand aus drei Blöcken.

1. WTF ist eigentlich Kundenorientierung
2. SASS / COMPASS
3. Drupal Core

WTF ist eigentlich Kundenorientierung

Zunächst begeisterte Tobias Freudenreich von Freudenreich Media mit seiner Session zum Thema Kundenorientierung – Er präsentierte in Form eines Spiels das “Project of Doom”, dass die Firma “International Mismanagement Group” für den Kunden “Devils & Friends” umsetzen soll. Ein herrlich überzeichnetes Abstrakt eines Projektes, welches zum scheitern verurteilt ist.

Zu jedem Projektschritt wurde heiss diskutiert, für und wider abgewogen und dann mehrheitlich entschieden, wie es weiter geht. In Schritt 3 verließen bereits den Pfad, der uns zum Ziel gebracht hätte, insgesamt kamen wir bis etwa Schritt 5 von 8. Zu dem Zeitpunkt hatten wir 2/3 unseres Scopes verloren. Das Budget war volkommen überstreched und die Stimmung des Kunden im Keller. Nur Zeit hatten wir noch genug … welch ein Trost.

Ich kann jedem nur empfehlen diese Session mal mitzumachen, wo und wann erfahrt Ihr sicherlich von Tobias, wenn Ihr nicht so lange warten wollt, findet Ihr hier die Folien zum Spiel “Project of Doom”  von Tobias Freudenreich

SASS / COMPASS

Eine sehr interessante Session zum Thema Vorkompilieren von CSS mittels SASS, bzw. dem CSS-Framework COMPASS hielt Andreas Dantz.

Die Möglichkeiten sind verlockend: Mit SASS ist es möglich Variablen und rudimente Logik, wie sie nur aus höheren Programmiersprachen bekannt ist in CSS einzusetzen und sich somit das Leben Bereich Frontend-Entwicklung ein wenig einfacher zu machen.

Definitiv etwas, was ich einsetzen werde.

Drupal Core

zum Schluss gab Karsten Frohwein von Comm-Press eine Schnelleinführung in die Struktur von Drupal. Schnell und extrem komprimiert – als letzter Block echter Taff Stuff für Entwickler. Weniger in mehr Zeit wäre hier sicher hilfreich gewesen. So – hatte ich den Eindruck – konnten nur Leute folgen, die entweder Drupal schon kennen, echte Hardcore-Entwickler sind oder erst am späten Nachmittag aufstehen und dadurch um diese Zeit noch voll ausnahmefähig sind.

Ich freu mich aufs nächste mal!

1. Gehen Sie auf Google Setting / Einstellungen (obens links)
2. Wählen Sie dann Account Overview (Konto Übersicht, erster Eintrag)
3. Dann bekommen Sie eine Liste mit Anwendungen, denen Sie den zugriff auf Ihr Google Konto (im Allgemeinen) gewährt haben.
4. Suchen Sie nach dem entsprechenden Eintrag
5. Klicken Sie auf “Revoke Access” / Zugriff widerrufen,

Google+ mit Facebook und Twitter integrieren

Um jedoch von Facebook nach Google+ zu wechseln oder zumindest die Nutzung für Facebook Nutzer interessant zu machen, ohne dass man in den “overshare”-Modus gerät wäre es nötig beide Dienste zu integrieren. Facebook lässt das auf seiner Seite nicht wirklich zu. Google+ tut das (vielleicht unbewusst) schon.

Hierzu hab ich drei interessante Chrome Apps gefunden:

Start Google+

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/hbgcgahdbgbdenffckohanhobdcnkoip

Einfach die Zugangsdaten für Facebook UND Twitter hinterlegen und schon kann man jeden Post auch in die beiden anderen Dienste pushen. Weiterhin holt sich Google+ die beiden anderen Streams und integriert sie auf der Google+ Wall.

Dieses Plugin erlaubt jedoch noch keine volle Nutzung der Möglichkeiten des jeweils anderen Dienstes. Man kann also keinen Google+ Eintrag “like”-en und auch kein Facebook oder Twitter Eintrag “+1″-en. Auch die Kommentare funktionen sind nicht integriert. Aber das kann ja noch kommen. Zumindest ist das mal ein super Anfang, weil alle News auf eine Wall gemashed werden. (Die Twitter-Integration scheint mir beim pushen allerdings noch ein wenig buggy.)

EDIT (17.07.2011): Ich muss an diese Stelle nachtragen, dass das Plugin laut den Programmierern Zugriff auf Daten des Benutzers auf allen Websites haben soll. Warum diese genau geschehen sollist mir unklar und werde ich weiter recherchieren. Mehr dazu an dieser Stelle!!!

Extended Share

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/oenpjldbckebacipkfbcoppmiflglnib

Erlaubt das Teilen von Google+ Posts nach Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn und Tumbler, also in gewisser Weise eine gute Ergänzung zur erstgenannten App.

+Everything

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/ooabjfpceakmembeidmchikkgbmjleme

zeigt die neue Googlebar immer, d.h. auch auf anderen Websites, mit allen Infos und der Möglichkeit zu sharen an und ermöglicht dadurch von überall das posten nach Google+ ohne immer in das entsprechende Tab wechseln zu müssen.

Nachdem ich herausgefunden habe, dass dieses letzte Plugin auf alle Ihre Daten auf besuchten Seiten zugreifen kann nehme ich meine Empfehlung aus Sicherheitgründen zurück! Wirklich wichtig ist es für die Integration sowieso nicht!

Was denkt Ihr? Habt Ihr vielleicht auch interessante Plugins oder Apps gefunden, die eine Integration vereinfachen?

Wenn Sie einfach nur den Hoster wechseln und Ihren Domainnamen mitnehmen, dann registrieren Sie sich zu aller erst eine kostenlose Domain beim neuen Hoster oder verwenden Sie, wenn Sie haben eine 2. Domain die Sie besitzen. Übertragen Sie den Domainnamen erst zum neuen Hoster, wenn der Umzug abgeschlossen und die Installation getestet ist.

Wenn Sie Ihr WordPress auf eine andere Domain umziehen, denken Sie auf jeden Fall daran, dass Sie damit Ihre komplette Auffindbarkeit in Suchmaschinen vollständig zerstören können, wenn Sie nicht einige wichtige Schritte beachten. Welche das sind teile Ich Ihnen gerne in einem unverbindlichen Telefonat mit: +49 40 6750 3454

1. Installieren Sie auf dem Ausgangswebserver, innerhalb der WordPressinstallation, den MySQL-Dumper
2. Machen Sie ein Backup Ihrer aktuellen Datenbank
3. Kopieren Sie den vollständigen Inhalt Ihrer WordPressinstallation (inkl. dem oben installierten MySQL-Dumper) per ftp auf Ihre lokale Platte.
4. Machen Sie zur Sicherheit mit WordPress selbst einen Export aller Pages & Posts
5. Machen Sie eine WordPress Neuinstallation auf dem Webserver (damit die Datenbank richtig angelegt und das Config File richtig geschrieben wird)
6. Bennen Sie das File config.php in Ihrer lokalen kopie um oder machen Sie eine Sicherheitskopie des Files und löschen Sie es anschließend.
7. Laden Sie Ihre lokale Kopie vollständig auf den Zielwebserver (ohne das config file). Dabei werden alle Files einmal überschrieben.
8. Rufen Sie den MySQL-Dumper auf und installieren Sie Ihn auf dem Zielserver neu.
9. Laden Sie den Inhalt des work/backup Verzeichnisses im MySQL-Dumper erneut hoch.
10. Spielen Sie das auf dem Ausgangsserver erstellte Datenbankbackup mit dem Mysqldumper wieder her.
11. Editieren Sie per MySQL-Dumper in der optionstabelle die einträge für home und siteurl und setzen sie diese (vorrübergehend) auf ihren temporären Domainnamen.
12. Testen Sie Ihre Installation.

Diese Vorgehensweise scheint ein wenig umständlich, umgeht aber das manuelle editieren von Config files.

Weingut Haub

Die Website des Weingut Haub wurde auf XT:Commerce aufgesetzt. Das Design ist eine Anpassung des MultiFlex 2.1b Themes, welches als Shop-Template genutzt wurde. Wir betreuen die Website des Weingut Haub und betreiben im Auftrag des Kunden die Contentpflege

[10.06.2010]: Google eCommerce Tracking eingebaut.

[22.12.2010]: Das Weingut Haub bekommt eine Facebook Page

We follow these principles:

• Our highest priority is to satisfy the customer through early and continuous delivery of valuable software.
• Welcome changing requirements, even late in development. Agile processes harness change for the customer’s competitive advantage.
• Deliver working software frequently, from a couple of weeks to a couple of months, with a preference to the shorter timescale.
• Business people and developers must work together daily throughout the project.
• Build projects around motivated individuals. Give them the environment and support they need, and trust them to get the job done.
• The most efficient and effective method of conveying information to and within a development team is face-to-face conversation.
• Working software is the primary measure of progress.
• Agile processes promote sustainable development. The sponsors, developers, and users should be able to maintain a constant pace indefinitely.
• Continuous attention to technical excellence and good design enhances agility.
• Simplicity–the art of maximizing the amount of work not done–is essential.
• The best architectures, requirements, and designs emerge from self-organizing teams.
• At regular intervals, the team reflects on how to become more effective, then tunes and adjusts its behavior accordingly.

If you feel that you could adopt these principles, you can sign the manifesto here, too.

“Wave has not seen the user adoption we would have liked. We don’t plan to continue developing Wave as a standalone product, but we will maintain the site at least through the end of the year and extend the technology for use in other Google projects. The central parts of the code, as well as the protocols that have driven many of Wave’s innovations, like drag-and-drop and character-by-character live typing, are already available as open source, so customers and partners can continue the innovation we began.”

Google Wave has a lot of interesting features, but the interface is confusing and difficult to use. While many thought that Google Wave will reinvent email, Google’s service combined an online document editor with an instant messenger. Google Wave allows you to create “live” documents that are edited collaboratively in real-time, but it’s more than a conversational version of Google Docs. It’s based on an open protocol, so you can edit a wave using multiple services. It’s extensible, so you can build gadgets and robots that add new functionality.

Google Wave had a lot of potential, but Google didn’t manage to build a compelling user experience and define some use cases for the application. Instead of building a general-purpose interface for Google Wave, Google could’ve used the platform to create multiple applications with clearly-defined goals: a new version of Google Chat, a new version of Google Docs, a brainstorming app etc.

Now that Google Wave is discontinued, some of its feature will be added to other Google services (Gmail, Google Docs), but the platform will vanish. It’s clear that Google doesn’t want to invest in niche services, which is a big opportunity for startups. “We want to do things that matter to a large number of people at scale,” said Google’s CEO, Eric Schmidt, in an interview.

Dragging and dropping files is an easy way to save time in Gmail. We’ve previously blogged about dragging files to upload as attachments and dragging images into new messages. Now, if you’re using Google Chrome, you can also drag attachments out of messages you receive to save them to your computer.

Let’s say you have an email open containing an attachment. Hover your mouse over the attachment’s “Download” link or its file icon and a tooltip appears that says: “Click to view OR drag to your desktop to save.”

Simply click and hold, then drag your cursor to anywhere in your file system that you want to save the file. Release the mouse button, and voilà! Your attachment is saved (for large files, you may see a progress dialog).

After clicking on the “change” link, Google informs that this is an advanced feature and that it will only work for Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Sites, Google Reader, Google Voice, App Engine and Google Code. When multiple sign-in is enabled, a drop-down is displayed next to your email address at the top of the page, so you can quickly switch to a new account.

“If you use multiple sign-in, the first account you sign in to will be your default account. If you visit other Google products that don’t support multiple accounts after you’ve signed in, you will automatically sign in to your default account for that product. If you sign out of any Google product while signed in to any account, you will be signed out of all your Google Accounts at once.” (Google help center)

When you enable this feature, the most significant change is that you’ll see a new drop-down next to your email address in Gmail and other supported Google products. Click on the drop-down and you can sign in to a new Google Account without signing out from the previous account.

Another change is that Google’s URLs include a different number for each account: http://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/, http://mail.google.com/mail/u/1/, etc.

Google’s help center explains that Google’s services didn’t allow you to sign it to multiple accounts at the same time using the same browser because Google uses sign-in cookies that only let you sign in with one account at a time. Obviously, you can use multiple browsers, Chrome’s incognito mode, IE8′s “new session” feature, multiple profiles, but the new Google feature makes things easier. Now you can read your messages from two or more Gmail accounts by opening Gmail in multiple tabs.

There are some known issues related to multiple sign-in: this feature is not available on mobile devices, Google Calendar’s gadget doesn’t work properly in Gmail, you can no longer use offline Gmail and offline Google Calendar and the “note in Reader” bookmarklet only works for the default account.

{ Thank you, Stefan and Max. }

It produces different public spheres, different terms of trade and different cultural skills. The media must adapt their work methods to today’s technological reality instead of ignoring or challenging it.  It is their duty to develop the best possible form of journalism based on the available technology. This includes new journalistic products and methods.

2. The Internet is a pocket-sized media empire.

The web rearranges existing media structures by transcending their former boundaries and oligopolies. The publication and dissemination of media contents are no longer tied to heavy investments. Journalism’s self-conception is—fortunately—being cured of its gatekeeping function. All that remains is the journalistic quality through which journalism distinguishes itself from mere publication.

3. The Internet is our society is the Internet.

Web-based platforms like social networks, Wikipedia or YouTube have become a part of everyday life for the majority of people in the western world. They are as accessible as the telephone or television. If media companies want to continue to exist, they must understand the lifeworld of today’s users and embrace their forms of communication. This includes basic forms of social communication: listening and responding, also known as dialog.

4. The freedom of the Internet is inviolable.

The Internet’s open architecture constitutes the basic IT law of a society which communicates digitally and, consequently, of journalism. It may not be modified for the sake of protecting the special commercial or political interests often hidden behind the pretense of public interest. Regardless of how it is done, blocking access to the Internet endangers the free flow of information and corrupts our fundamental right to a self-determined level of information.

5. The Internet is the victory of information.

Due to inadequate technology, media companies, research centers, public institutions and other organizations compiled and classified the world’s information up to now. Today every citizen can set up her own personal news filter while search engines tap into wealths of information of a magnitude never before known. Individuals can now inform themselves better than ever.

6. The Internet changes improves journalism.

Through the Internet, journalism can fulfill its social-educational role in a new way. This includes presenting information as an ever-changing, continual process; the forfeiture of print media’s inalterability is a benefit. Those who want to survive in this new world of information need a new idealism, new journalistic ideas and a sense of pleasure in exploiting this new potential.

7. The net requires networking.

Links are connections. We know each other through links. Those who do not use them exclude themselves from social discourse. This also holds for the websites of traditional media companies.

8. Links reward, citations adorn.

Search engines and aggregators facilitate quality journalism: they boost the findability of outstanding content over a long-term basis and are thus an integral part of the new, networked public sphere. References through links and citations—especially including those made without any consent or even remuneration of the originator—make the very culture of networked social discourse possible in the first place. They are by all means worthy of protection.

9. The Internet is the new venue for political discourse.

Democracy thrives on participation and freedom of information. Transferring the political discussion from traditional media to the Internet and expanding on this discussion by involving the active participation of the public is one of journalism’s new tasks.

10. Today’s freedom of the press means freedom of opinion.

Article 5 of the German Constitution does not comprise protective rights for professions or technically traditional business models. The Internet overrides the technological boundaries between the amateur and professional. This is why the privilege of freedom of the press must hold for anyone who can contribute to the fulfillment of journalistic duties. Qualitatively speaking, no differentiation should be made between paid and unpaid journalism, but rather, between good and poor journalism.

11. More is more – there is no such thing as too much information.

Once upon a time, institutions such as the church prioritized power over personal awareness and warned of an unsifted flood of information when the letterpress was invented. On the other hand were the pamphleteers, encyclopaedists and journalists who proved that more information leads to more freedom, both for the individual as well as society as a whole. To this day, nothing has changed in this respect.

12. Tradition is not a business model.

Money can be made on the Internet with journalistic content. There are many examples of this today already. Yet because the Internet is fiercely competitive, business models have to be adapted to the structure of the net. No one should try to abscond from this essential adaptation through policy-making geared to preserving the status quo. Journalism needs open competition for the best refinancing solutions on the net, along with the courage to invest in the multifaceted implementation of these solutions.

13. Copyright becomes a civic duty on the Internet.

Copyright is a cornerstone of information organization on the Internet. Originators’ rights to decide on the type and scope of dissemination of their contents are also valid on the net. At the same time, copyright may not be abused as a lever to safeguard obsolete supply mechanisms and shut out new distribution models or license schemes. Ownership entails obligations.

14. The Internet has many currencies.

Journalistic online services financed through adverts offer content in exchange for a pull effect. A reader’s, viewer’s or listener’s time is valuable. In the industry of journalism, this correlation has always been one of the fundamental tenets of financing. Other forms of refinancing which are journalistically justifiable need to be forged and tested.

15. What’s on the net stays on the net.

The Internet is lifting journalism to a new qualitative level. Online, text, sound and images no longer have to be transient. They remain retrievable, thus building an archive of contemporary history. Journalism must take the development of information, its interpretation and errors into account, i.e., it must admit its mistakes and correct them in a transparent manner.

16. Quality remains the most important quality.

The Internet debunks homogenous bulk goods. Only those who are outstanding, credible and exceptional will gain a steady following in the long run. Users’ demands have increased. Journalism must fulfill them and abide by its own frequently formulated principles.

17. All for all.

The web constitutes an infrastructure for social exchange superior to that of 20th century mass media: When in doubt, the “generation Wikipedia” is capable of appraising the credibility of a source, tracking news back to its original source, researching it, checking it and assessing it—alone or as part of a group effort. Journalists who snub this and are unwilling to respect these skills are not taken seriously by these Internet users. Rightly so. The Internet makes it possible to communicate directly with those once known as recipients—readers, listeners and viewers—and to take advantage of their knowledge. Not the journalists who know it all are in demand, but those who communicate and investigate.

Internet, 07.09.2009

• Markus Beckedahl
• Mercedes Bunz
• Julius Endert
• Johnny Haeusler
• Thomas Knüwer
• Sascha Lobo
• Robin Meyer-Lucht
• Wolfgang Michal
• Stefan Niggemeier
• Kathrin Passig
• Janko Röttgers
• Peter Schink
• Mario Sixtus
• Peter Stawowy
• Fiete Stegers

Translated from the German by Jenna L. Brinning

Every Web project has deadlines. But not every designer or developer deals with them the same way.

[By the way, did you know we have a brand new free Smashing Email Newsletter? Subscribe now and get fresh short tips and tricks on Tuesdays!]

What Causes A Deadline To Break?

Because a deadline marks the end of a project, everyone involved in the project must understand the deadline’s role. Most projects follow a schedule or have an estimated date by which they must be completed. The concept is simple then: when the work takes longer than expected, deadlines get missed.

A deadline is the end point of a time estimate, making it a known quantity. But how long will the work actually take to get done?

Of course, projects can be more complicated in their details. Unexpected technical problems and unanticipated changes will affect the amount of work required. Sometimes other tasks take priority. Sometimes the time estimate wasn’t considered carefully enough.

Whatever the cause, too much work needs to be done in the available time. That’s the problem, but not the challenge.

Rate Deadlines By Severity Of Consequences

The hardest deadlines are tied to events that cannot be moved, such as a date promised to the public, an upcoming trade show or a date stipulated in a contract. Retailers know that their holiday sales must end at Christmas, and theater owners can expect movie-goers to be upset if a 1:00 pm showing doesn’t start until 2:00. Likewise, if a website is tied to a time-sensitive event, its relevance is lost once the event has passed. Hard deadlines have clear consequences when missed.

Deadlines exist for a reason. The severity of the trouble caused by missing them increases dramatically after they have passed.

Deadlines tied to less public events are no less real, but a project will soldier on if the deadline slips. Company-imposed target dates, for example, rely less on public demand than on the temperament of managers. Meetings routinely start 10 minutes late because “something came up.”

The softest deadlines lack teeth or are set at some vague point in the future. That’s not always bad: not every missed deadline will cause a life-or-death crisis. But the same methods of solving the crisis apply. There are many strategies for handling a last-minute crisis. Most involve planning, setting priorities and knowing one’s limits.

Strategies For Preventing Deadline Crises

The beginning of a project is a great time to prevent problems later on.

The first solution is both obvious and difficult: do not take on a project that cannot be completed in the given time. Declining paid work requires discipline and confidence, but if the deadline is impossible, then the project may not be worth the money. Money cannot replace time.

Because deadlines with consequences are taken more seriously, keep a written list of definitive reasons why certain tasks must be completed by a given date. Losing money, customers and other assets create real incentives to work.

Schedule deadlines as specific tasks, not the ends of phases. Rather than “Content will be completed by 4 April 2010,” state “Review the content over lunch on 4 April 2010.” This ties the deadline to an event at which results must be shown. Mini-deadlines tied to specific events are more powerful than general statements.

Making up for minor time discrepancies during the course of a project is easier than facing a big shortfall when no time is left.

Plan For Unpleasant Surprises

Incentive may not be the problem, though. Unexpected problems cause many people to break deadlines. Their unpredictability make these problems hard to plan for, and good intentions don’t help you see the future. The key is to recognize that, whatever their nature, problems will likely occur.

If everything seems accounted for in the project plan, then invent a problem. Keep it realistic: “reshoot staff photos” is more likely than “spontaneous server combustion,” but it doesn’t really matter. The point is to create extra time to allow for a deadline crisis. One rule of thumb is to add between half and all of a project’s expected duration. That is, increase the full time that has been budgeted by between 50 to 100% to allow for surprises.

A plan of time estimates for major tasks in a project could look something like this:

Being conservative, let’s take half of 70, which is 35. Now we invent a problem: say, having to retype all content from print-outs. Is 35 hours for that ridiculous? Perhaps. But obstacles are unexpected by nature, and they always steal time from an otherwise ideal budget.

Scheduling for unknowns is hard, but acknowledging that extra time is required will better align estimates with reality.

A line item needs to be added to the budget. It could be “Time to make changes” or “Allowance for unknowns.” The description isn’t as important as the fact that you have planned for surprises.

Is half of the original budget too much? It may drive cheaper clients away, but overestimating and finishing under the deadline is better than the alternative.

Mitigate A Deadline’s Threat By Adding Other Deadlines

Implement mini-deadlines within a project’s timeline. Mini-deadlines minimize last-minute problems by serving as checkpoints to gauge how far off track the schedule is, if at all, at certain phases.

1. Start
   While the project is fresh in everyone’s mind, a schedule for the other phases should be set.
2. First quarter
   Everyone involved should have a sense of whether they can work together. Work begins, and the pristine project on paper comes up against the sticky details of reality.
3. Halfway point
   The bulk of the work happens here. If you doubled your estimate to account for surprises, you would actually be aiming to launch the project right now.
4. Third quarter
   If everyone pushed to launch by the halfway point, then almost everything should be done by now. But it rarely is.
5. Deadline
   Launch the project.
6. Review
   Win or lose, everyone should ask what should have happened at each phase of the project? What should have been done to meet each mini-deadline along the way?

Notice that mini-deadlines are based on time, not task. Tasks have a way of expanding, of taking up more time than planned, which mini-deadlines should prevent. Think of a mini-deadline as a chance to review the project’s timeline. While this approach may not entirely stave off a deadline crisis, it gives you opportunities to catch and correct problems along the way.

Plan Sacrifices In Advance

Every project has absolute requirements, which are essentially the reasons the project exists at all or the problems it is designed to solve. But many also have supplemental requirements. If a project requires A, B and C, then by all means include D, E and F, but only with the understanding that they might have to wait.

For example, a newsletter is an important marketing tool for an e-commerce website, but less important than an easy-to-use cart and secure log-in page. Likewise, the top priority for a photo gallery should be to present photos. If the deadline is looming and the AJAX is buggy, then perhaps the blog should wait.

Marking certain features as secondary provides relief when things go wrong. These features don’t need to be cut, but their deadlines should be later than those of the core project.

Practice

Measure the rate at which you work by timing how long you take to perform various tasks. You want to figure out how much time you need to comfortably perform each task, not how fast you can get it done.

For example, the schedule might allow for 30 minutes to create a favicon. But in reality, it consumes 8 hours.

Wait a minute. Eight hours for a measly 16×16-pixel graphic? Isn’t that… excessive?

That’s not the point. You’re not learning the rate at which you work so that you can gasp in embarrassment at the result. Workflow efficiency can be improved later. The question is, how much time are you comfortable with right now? In this case, it’s 8 hours.

Deadlines aren’t the problem. Problems arise when the work outweighs the allotted time. Learning how long you take to accomplish certain tasks is the best way to set a realistic schedule.

Conclusion

Not every deadline drama can be prevented, but even the worst can be dealt with professionally. Prepare for surprises, break up large tasks into manageable segments and prioritize. It’s a matter of respect: deadlines mean business. Do you?

How do you prevent deadline emergencies? What’s the worst problem you’ve faced under time pressure? What’s your greatest solution? Share your story in the comments below.

(al)

In fact, you can often get so much information returned that it’s a little intimidating even knowing where to start. Information overload gets more and more common as ever-growing amounts of information go online.

At its worst, information overload can be paralyzing. Too much information can leave us feeling overwhelmed and unable to make decisions. It can leave us more confused than if we’d never had the information to start with.

The good news is that information overload can be dealt with. It doesn’t require disconnecting from the Internet or anything extreme, just some prioritization and organization on your part. Read on for a complete guide to dealing with information overload.

Differentiating Between What’s Important and What’s Not

Part of the problem with information overload has to do with a person’s inability to distinguish between what’s important and what’s not. We have a tendency to want to know everything going on, whether it directly affects us or not.

Start to think about the areas of your life where information is important. More importantly, think about the information you take in every day and figure out what you don’t need to know. This is going to vary from person to person, depending on your own lifestyle, profession, and personal life.

For example, if you’re a heavy investor, it might be important for you to keep abreast of what’s going on in the stock market on a day-to-day basis. But only if you manage your own stocks. If you have a good broker that you trust, then let them handle it and only take a look at what’s going on in the market on a weekly or monthly basis. Better yet, ask your broker to send you monthly updates so you don’t have to seek out the information.

On the other hand, if you don’t invest in the stock market, why are you checking it every two hours during your workday? Why do you spend an hour pouring over the overseas markets every morning? If you’re suffering from information overload, stop paying attention to things that don’t have a direct impact on you.

Here you should make a couple of lists, to help you sort through the information bombarding you every day. First, make a list of things that you absolutely have to know about.

This list should include things directly related to your professional or personal life. Next, make a list of things that are important to you, but maybe don’t have a strong impact on your profession or personal life. This could be things related to a hobby or other interest. Then, make a list of all the things you stay informed about that don’t appear on those first two lists. These are the things you’ll be taking a long, hard look at in an effort to remove some of the information coming at you every day.

Where is the Information Coming From?

The other thing you need to look at is how you’re getting all this information. Is it things people are emailing to you or sharing with you online? Are you getting a dozen email newsletters delivered to your inbox on a daily or weekly basis? Are you subscribed to 100 or more RSS feeds? Are you seeking out information online?

Make a list of how you’re getting all this information, the websites and services you use, and a rough estimate of how much time each of these things takes you each day. Then look at how these sources match up to the items on the first two lists you made in the previous section. Mark each source that corresponds with the first list with a “1″, those that correspond with the second list with a “2″ and those that fall onto the third list with a “3″.

Once you’ve marked each source, you’ll also need to look at whether it’s a passive source or an active source. Passive sources are those sources that feed you information without you having to seek it out. Email and RSS feeds both fall into this category. Active sources would be sites you visit on a regular basis that you aren’t subscribed to through either email or RSS.

1. Limit Your Sources

The first step in dealing with information overload is to limit the sources of your information. Look at the list of sources your information comes from and figure out which ones aren’t necessary.

There are a few criteria for deciding what’s not necessary and what is. First, if two sources offer basically the same content, get rid of one of them. Second, if there are any RSS feeds or email newsletters that you rarely read, unsubscribe from them. For most people, this will get rid of at least some of your incoming information.

Then it’s time to get a bit more aggressive. Look at the list of sources you have that are marked with a number “3″ and decide whether to eliminate them or not. I recommend unsubscribing from any RSS feeds or email newsletters related to these items. Then the only way you’re getting information regarding those subjects is if you actively seek it out.

Consider, too, which sources you can consolidate. Are the email newsletters you subscribe to also available as RSS feeds or vice versa? If most of them are, consider switching your subscription formats.

2. Set Aside Time in Your Schedule

Part of the problem with information overload is often that we’re constantly being bombarded with information. There’s never any break from it. To get past information overload, we need to halt the constant flow of information.

Set aside time in your schedule for dealing with information. This means checking email only at specified times, reading RSS feeds at specified times, and otherwise seeking out information on a set schedule. Now, exactly what that schedule is will depend on your own needs.

Some people might need to be reachable by email throughout the day. That’s fine. Set your email client to only check for new email once per hour. That keeps you in contact enough without being a constant distraction.

Set aside an hour in the morning or evening to read through your RSS feeds. Do it all in one chunk, and then keep your feed reader closed for the rest of the time.

Another option is to set aside tiny chunks throughout your day for processing information. It might be five or ten minutes of each hour or every couple of hours.

Figure out whether you’re more productive by absorbing all your information at one time or in smaller chunks throughout the day. Then stick to a schedule. If you set aside five minutes each hour to read RSS feeds or email, then spend five minutes of every hour doing so, but no more. If you set aside an hour each morning, set a timer so you don’t go over that hour.

3. Take Time Off

It’s important to take time off from the barrage of information. Set aside your evenings or weekends as information-free times.

During that time, don’t read email or RSS feeds. Don’t seek out information unless it’s pertinent to something you’re doing at that time.

When you’re on vacation, try to limit the amount of information you take in. Let your mind relax and avoid any information that isn’t absolutely vital. Realize, too, that most information can wait until your vacation is over.

4. Cull Ruthlessly

Don’t be afraid to cull the information sources you rely on. Look for single sources that have most of the information you want on a give subject, and get rid of the rest.

For example, rather than checking a dozen news sites every day, just use Google News for aggregated content. This way you get news from a wide variety of sources without having to visit multiple sites.

Culling also applies to the individual informational items that come into your email or feed reader every day. If something isn’t interesting to you, delete it. If it sits there in your inbox, you’ll feel obligated to read it and devote time to it.

Learn to scan the content that’s fed to you and determine within a matter of a couple of seconds whether it’s something that interests you or not. If not, just get rid of it. Without a dozen or more unread items in your email or RSS reader, you’ll feel less bombarded by information.

5. Learn to Prioritize

Even if you minimize the amount of information you have coming at you, it’s likely there will still be times when you just don’t have time to process all of it. This is when you need to prioritize.

Look back to the topic lists that you made at the beginning of this article. When there’s too much information coming at you, focus on the topics on list 1 first. These are the things that are most important to your daily life, and should be treated as such. If you still have time after processing all of that information, then move on to list 2, and so on.

6. Establish Systems

You should have systems for organizing and classifying the information that comes at you. In your email this might mean setting up filters to direct certain emails (like newsletters) into their own folders automatically. You might also have folders set up for things that you want to spend more time looking at later, or that you might want to refer back to.

The same goes for RSS feed readers. Make use of folders and tags to keep your feeds organized. This way, if you have limited time, you can easily check the most important feeds first.

Also consider if there are any apps out there that can help you be better organized and get through the information bombarding you faster. Does your feed reader give you the level of control you want? What about your email program? Web browser? Look around and find tools that will let you better manage your information. It’s worth the time and effort to do so.

Researching Without Succumbing to Information Overload

One of the toughest times to deal with information overload is when you’re researching something. It could be for a big client project or something in your own personal life. And it often involves finding a lot of information about whatever the subject is.

The most important thing to do when researching a new subject is to limit your research both in terms of the time you devote to it and its scope. When embarking on a new project, limit yourself to fifteen or twenty minutes of research to start with. This will likely be enough to give you a general overview of what the subject is all about.

Then, research specific things as you need to know them. This is generally more productive and efficient than trying to learn everything before you actually get any hands-on experience.

Another option when it comes to researching a topic is to go analog. Visit your local library and borrow a book on the subject, rather than going online. This often gives you a more focused overview and minimizes the chances that you’ll end up going off on tangents in your research.

When You Already Have Too Much Information

So everything above is great if you’re dealing with a problem with day-to-day information overload. But what if your problem has to do with having so much information pertaining to a certain subject that you’re now paralyzed and can’t make any kind of decision? What do you do then?

There are a few different ways to approach this. It can help to make notes and get an idea of all the pieces of information that might impact your decision. If it’s a yes/no decision you’re trying to make, consider making a pro-con list.

There are other decision-making models out there, too, that can help you make up your mind if you’re paralyzed by too much information. Some are everyday models and can be as simple as choosing the first option that you think will ge the desired results. The type of model you choose to use is largely dependent on the complexity of the decision. Wikipedia has a great article on decision making with more detail.

Written exclusively for WDD by Cameron Chapman.

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