This post is my small way of participating in Ideas of March.

I was part of a BMX kid gang of sorts. We rolled our jeans up and folded our converse down. We built forts, played Nerf football, and shot bb guns. When that got old we’d explore the outer limits of our territory. These boundaries were defined by geography (the muddy bayou we didn’t dare cross for fear of alligators), by rules (the busy streets parents wouldn’t let us cross), and by ourselves (how far we could pedal and still make it home before dark). The more we explored, the smaller our domain felt. Though we’d never actually seen the wondrous places across the bayou or beyond those roads, we were convinced they were out there.

We spent a lot of time at a small park which was, incidentally, the farthest point we could travel within the neighborhood—but it sucked. It had a kiddie slide, a kiddie swing, and a tennis court. What the hell was a 10 year old supposed to do with a tennis court? We didn’t know, so we loitered, enjoying how tough we felt being so far from home. One evening as dusk approached, we were throwing rocks near the outer edge of the park when we found a trail. It didn’t look bike-friendly, so we all looked at each other, waiting for someone to voice our collective curiosity: “Let’s see where this goes.” We were all afraid of pressing on, and everyone had his own excuse for why we shouldn’t go, but the fear of being grounded or getting lost in the dark woods overnight couldn’t compete with the weight of a double-dare. So we set out.

I remember praying as we approached every turn for some kind of significant marker or relevant finding so that we could call our expedition a success and turn back with our honor intact. But we just saw woods. We drudged through muddy low spots that we all were sure was quicksand. We contorted our way through stickers, briar, and brush. We found ourselves covered in mud and scrapes and certain we were already in deep trouble when what we saw across an approaching bridge made it all worth while—a new park. This one had everything: a huge paved trail (for bike races, of course) that wrapped around a baseball diamond, big kid swings, and a creek. We could even see a fireworks stand off in the distance. Every afternoon, from the time the school bell rang until dusk, we ventured back to the park. Hide & seek games became epic battles across acres of forest with forts, tree-swings and booby trap pits. We were Goonies, conquistadors, astronauts; we had forever changed our world.

***

So many great childhood memories are the result of our decision to follow that one trail. It redefined everything for us and expanded our territory exponentially. These days, I’m happiest when I feel part of a team with the same adventurous spirit as that kid gang. The web is, after all, as limited as my old neighborhood with boundaries set by our current tools and technologies, as well as our understanding of each. I believe my work counts most when I’m looking for new trails and feel brave enough to blaze them. I know that the minute I dismiss new discoveries or ideas because the way forward isn’t clear is when I’ve lost my sense of wonder for web design. I hope like hell that never happens.

I’m honored to have been a part of this Issue alongside, Alex, Mark, Karen, Cennydd, and Josh. Also, it was thrilling to see something I’d written elevated by the illustration work of Paul Blow.

Gosh, what an across-the-board privilege. Thank you to Andy, Carolyn, and Jez for the opportunity. Be sure to visit alwaysreadthemanual.com and snag yourself an annual subscription.

Months ago, I wrote about improving the working environment inside my desktop, and with the move I sought to extend that process to my physical workspace. The plan was to fashion a space that makes my work more active—not simply in regard to my physical well-being, but to lend substance and action to my often intangible work.

Workshops appeal to me. The tools you use aren’t lined up neatly in a dock. Bandsaws, welding stations and workbenches all have their own spaces and  environments conducive to the work at hand. The workbench, with its fairly comfortable stools and extra space, is for tinkering. It says, “Hang out here. Take your time. Do the work right and enjoy it.” The bandsaw across the room is plastered with warning labels, and the loud hum proclaims, “Hey! I’m a f#©kin’ saw, I’m dangerous as hell! Don’t get comfortable with me. Focus.”

I like the idea of defining certain spaces or postures for specific activities. The sit and click posture taxes my cognitive and creative faculties after too long. It’s hard for my brain to move from reading to writing, designing, troubleshooting, etc., when my body remains stationary. I need to move. Breaking up the workday by visiting different spaces in the office at different times not only keeps me fresh, it allows me to establish habit fields around certain types of activities. Here are some of the stations I’m working with now:

Sitting at the Desk

I’m most used to this, and it works well for tinkering tasks like coding or designing. Ideally, I’ve already got an idea in my head or a job to do so that I feel I’m gaining on something. If I start to feel a lull or a roadblock coming on, I’ll hop up and go somewhere else--usually just to a standing position.

Standing at the Desk

I’m still getting used to my new adjustable-height desk (more on that later). When emails pile up or when I’ve got troubles to shoot, I try to be in a standing position. The same goes for when I’m in during the mornings or right after lunch. I’m trying to treat the busy-work side of my job like that bandsaw. Get in, do what you need to do, and get out.

The Thinking Chair

I’ve got a chair and an ottoman 8ft from my desk. I can see the screen from it, but I’m not close enough to touch anything. This is where I go to write and sketch. It’s also a nice spot to retreat when I’ve run out of answers. I’ve found it gets me to solutions quicker than browsing animated gifs. Not that there’s anything wrong with animated gifs. If you don’t have room for a thinking chair, you might try going for a walk or finding a park bench.

Music

I recently confiscated my Dad’s old record collection (Bobby Bland, Jackson Browne, Dave Bruebeck, etc.) so I put a record player across the room. I happily get most of my music from Rdio, but I enjoy the forced breaks required to flip to side B. You’d be surprised what you can get done in 20 minutes. As an added bonus, the album covers smell like the cabinets where they were kept in my childhood home. It fills the air with this lovely combination of old wood, candles, and books.

Lounging

I’ve also got this small day bed by the door. I’m in a home office, so I get to pretend it’s a necessary addition for when we have extra house guests. Really, it’s for reading and tantrums, rare as they may be.

I’m lucky to have a decent amount of space here now, but I’ve spent my share of time in cubicles too. I used to migrate to empty conference rooms or walk a lap around the office to clear my head. The trick is to work with what you have. Okay. Stations aside, here’s a quick rundown of the fun things I’ve acquired to make my workspace better.

My Computer Situation

I’ve got two machines, a 27” iMac and a 13” Macbook Air. Thanks to Dropbox, they talk to each other so I don’t have to worry about syncing files. I backup the 27” locally as well as with Backblaze, you know, in the cloud. I don’t have all the same files and apps on my Air, and I like it that way. It’s for writing and  experimental after-hours design or code sessions, not busy work. My office is above my garage and the only way to it is through an external door, so that helps me keep my work and play separate.

The Sit/Stand Desk

Last year I hurt my back. Sciatic nerve pain is the worst. Sitting upright became so painful that I had to relocate my iMac to the floor underneath my desk, and work while lying on my stomach, neck craned up so I could see the monitor, flopping from side to side as I got tired. It was a sad, pitiful existence. I realized that I need to take better care of myself at work and did some research. Turns out, bad things happen when you sit all day and a standing desk isn’t a silver bullet either. All we need is variety. To gain that I researched and found an adjustable desk I liked from Conset. What I didn’t like was the boring tabletop it came with, so I just bought the base. I found Scott Kestel from Brand Mojo Interiors while looking at some coffee tables on Etsy and asked him to build me a desktop for the adjustable base. He said yes, did a fantastic job, and is now highly recommended by me.

The Rest

• Herman Miller Embody Chair: I’ve had this chair for over 2 years. It’s comfortable and I like it fine, but I don’t think it has magical back ailment curing properties. If you’ve got back problems from sitting for extended periods of time, stand up.
• Pro-ject Debut Iii Turntable: I don’t know much about turntables, but this has been great. I just picked it off a list of potentials I got from Reagan Ray.
• Mobee Magic Charger: An inductive charger for my Magic Mouse because the only thing I hate worse than cables is buying batteries.
• Yeti: For podcastin’ and skypin’
• Rickshaw Sleeve: To carry around my Macbook Air

This counts for my office as well as my home—my wife and I put up artwork from people we know (in real life or industry pals). It’s nice to be surrounded by your friends’ work. It makes me think of them, and we get to support their talent. Here are some recents:

• Aaron Scamihorn’s Lebowski print and Cake gig poster
• Phineas Jones’s Western Tentacled Jay
• Neighborhood Studio’s Bull poster
• Do Lectures’s Say Yes More Than No poster
• Ligature, Loop & Stem’s Lesson Plan print (sold out)
• Mark Weaver’s Bison screen print (sold out)

So that’s the new setup. If you’ve got any tips or favorite gadgets I’ve not mentioned please do let me know.

This wondrous artifact did more than identify who I was, it provided a backstory, though that backstory wasn’t written by me. Rather than using Twitter bios, Cameron and Chris took to handcrafting bios for people they knew well and for people they’ve only ever interacted with online. This process was neither quick or automated, but it made attendees feel like they belonged which, I’d argue, is the best feeling one can have at the beginning of a conference. It set the stage for a fantastic week, and though that week is over I believe we’ll begin to see its true value as relationships and ideas initiated at that conference grow.

Also, I gave a brief talk on longevity that focused on the hazards of sitting in one spot all day. My random collection of research links can be found over at Gimme Bar.

If you’d like to help, check out txwildfirerelief.org or grab a a t-shirt from centraltxfires.org. 100% of the proceeds go to help (FAQs), and they’ve got some fantastic designs.

This extended drought has me concerned about the future out here. It’s amazing how small climate shifts can have such a massive impact. I found this video (via The Butler Bros) both interesting and alarming. Check it out.

Video made responsive / fluid thanks to FitVids.js

I have a big monitor that sits on a big desk, which is littered with stacks of paper the same way my iMac is littered with stacks of apps. I see corners of windows everywhere, peeking out and siphoning shreds of attention away from the task at hand. This need to navigate from one app to the next has facilitated my evolution into a multitasking machine. Not since the arcade edition of Street Fighter II have I mastered so many gestures and key commands. Utilities like Mission Control, Alfred App, and Better Touch Tool, summoned by various combos of taps and swipes, have become key to the way I work. Emails get answered while to-do lists are created while graphics are exported while sites get updated. Notifications pop-up, and I suppress them. I am master of my desktop environment, and it’s wearing me out.

I noticed something interesting the day I was confined to just 13” of screen space. Even though I couldn’t see everything I needed to operate and reference at once, I became more focused. Only seeing one window at a time enabled me to mentally hunker down on the task at hand. My actions felt purposeful; my decisions, deliberate. Surprisingly, my productivity didn’t suffer. I did slow down, but also experienced a calm efficiency—similar to that which is required when fastening the innumerable rows of snaps on a screaming baby’s pajamas. If you rush, you’re going to mess up; if you miss snaps, it’s going to take longer. And rushing makes you sweat. Never let the baby see you sweat.

Then it dawned on me. All this multitasking I do shouldn’t be classified as a talent, especially as it relates to a computer desktop environment. To say that I’m good at multitasking is like saying I’m good at shuffling papers around on my desk. It’s more distracting that it is helpful.

Stop. Pull everything together into a single stack, take a breath, and enjoy the work. We’re not tarring roofs in 100° heat. We get to build for the web, and life is wonderful.

It’s like driving.

Dashboards in old cars aren’t like the ones we’re used to today. Sit in a 1965 Mustang and the only things you see in front of you are directly related to the task of driving an automobile. You’ve got gauges for speed, oil pressure, water temperature, and fuel level. You’ve got one foot on the clutch and one on the gas; you’ve got one hand on the wheel and the other on the gearshift. You’re completely engaged in the act of driving. You’re focused.

Today, our cars have all that stuff, as well as a slew of extras that have nothing to do with operating a motor vehicle. Dashboards ask us what song we want to hear, where we’d like to get directions to, and even what temperature we’d like our asses to be. Our steering wheels have buttons in them to help us answer those questions without taking our eyes off the road. But does any of this make us better drivers? Of course not. We’re shitty drivers with too many questions to answer and tasks to manage to be bothered with making it from point A to B.

The wagon: stay on or get off?

As soon as the Time Machine backup safely made its way to my 27” iMac I was right back to my old multitasking tricks. Honestly, I think the only reason I need a screen that size is for design. To really get my hands dirty, I’ve gotta have room to view the full canvas as well as zoom in to 3200%. But just because I need the space for a few apps doesn’t mean all other computing tasks (and my work life) should suffer. So, how to mitigate this? I’m a strong-willed person, but rather than relying solely on gumption I set out to retool the way I work at large screens from my desktop view out.

The first thing I did was to hide or remove all the unnecessary notifications that I could. I disabled new message sounds in mail and growl alerts for most apps. Then I removed anything that blinked or lit up (Twitter, RSS, etc.) from my menu bar except for Dropbox. I set my dock at maximum magnification so it would appear tiny until hover. I already use (and love) Alfred App to launch most anything, so my dock was already fairly tidy.

Then I took a Sunday afternoon to take things further with a few apps that minimize visual clutter and maximize productivity without getting in my way. Here’s what I kept after testing a handful:

Menu Eclipse: I started with a quick cosmetic change. This app fades your menu bar out of sight when left inactive after a specified amount of time and can be set to reappear when you hover. It’s a small detail, but not having all those stats and bits of data in your peripheral goes a long way.

Isolator: This app covers your desktop and all of its icons as well as other windows with a single layer. You can even choose the color and set blur and opacity for items being hidden. This has been the secret to my unitasking success thus far.

Divvy: I’ve had Divvy a while, but use it differently now to deal with the windows themselves. Unless that task at hand calls for windows to be side by side, I set a keyboard shortcut (configured to a Better Touch Tool gesture) to make each window the exact same size, no corners peeking out, all apps perfectly stacked.

I’ve also got plans to try an app called Concentrate that lets you customize actions such as launching, closing, and hiding apps to assist particular tasks like writing, design, or coding. And if you really need to unplug, check out Freedom. This app locks you out of the internet for a specified amount of time.

That’s my current solution for clutter within the desktop environment, but what about my actual, physical surroundings? I’ll be moving offices in a few weeks, so I have a golden opportunity to make some changes. I’ve been researching standing desks and thinking about how time out of my chair and away from the screen could make me a happier web worker. I’ve had this fantastic A List Apart article on Habit Fields by Jack Cheng bookmarked for a while, and dig what he’s saying about how objects and surroundings influence our focus and demeanor. For my next trick, I will attempt to go zen-master all over my workplace.

#10 Site of the year: The Do Lectures
#15 Designer of the year: Trent Walton
#17 Agency of the year: Paravel

Visit the .Net Awards site to vote & view all the nominees