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Mind your Mobile Readers

As I look at the viewers of the family blog, I can see that more and more people are consuming the content from mobile platforms. From the report I pulled up from Google Analytics you can see that the total Desktop readers fell from 71% to 57%; most of them are now replaced by mobile users, both tablets but mainly phones.

google analyticas desktop mobileI do all my blogging from my PC, so I consume, and see my posts from a desktop perspective.  Have you checked how your website looks from a phone?

If you come to your site and it looks terrible, fix it!  The easiest way is to use a theme that recognizes your screen, not only if you are using a mobile platform, this way people will always have the best experience depending on the devices they are using.

 

 

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Backing up in WordPress

So I have been doing this blog for now 2 years, wow time flies, and I have been doing regular backups, and all of them manually.  So I open up my host’s cpanel and downloaded the database backups, then I would go to the each site’s wp-admin and created an xml file.  Sometimes I would also do a backup of the child-themes I’m using.  I have gotten quite fast at it even, probably 15 minutes max, if the connection is fast.

A few days back I started to think, there has to be a better way.  I saw several options, but were paid.  I really didn’t want to pay another $5/month for something that I could do for 15min every week; then I saw an article on wpbegginer.com – How to Create a Complete WordPress Backup for Free with BackWPup So today, I gave it a go  I tried it with the smallest installation I had, 10 minutes later I had configured and ran the backup.  I moved to the other sites, and I had it.  So try out BackWPup.

I backup the database, the child-theme & the xml export, every week to my Dropbox; just like I did before, but now I don’t spend 15 minutes everyweek, plus it always happens.  I just get an email telling me that it went through.  I wasted 26 hours doing this for the past 2 years, in 15 minutes I’m set for the future.

 

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Playing Catch up

Our family went to Guatemala in September, we spent about a month out there with our family, it was a great trip.  Now I’m trying to play catch up and preserve our adventure in our family blog.  It almost feels like a part-time job; editing pictures, laying the format and flow, and then writing the post.

Each post I try to limit to about 300 words, but it seems like I can’t put everything in such a limited word count.  For most I’m close to 1,000 words, and the last one was 1,200 words.  And it’s not that I sit down to write so much, is just that I want to convey the feeling and preserve the memories.

I’m very grateful that I have the medium to remember what we did and share it with others.  I still get excited about doing it, and I like it so it is not a burden, I just look back and I’m amazed.  I really hope that someone finds as much value to what I’m doing, but if not I am fine with just how rewarding it is to remember.

I started with the desire to write 15 posts of our adventures in Guatemala, it looks more that I’m going to write 11, and I just have 3 more posts to write; meanwhile I’m behind on the things we are doing, so it’s a catch up game.  Hopefully I’ll have some quiet time to finish, yeah right ::SIGH::

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Long pause … Resume

After reading this post from Gina Trapani I figured that I too need to change what I consider worthy blogging material.

Too long I’ve had ideas that I want to put out, but just burden myself with the to-do’s to get them completed. “I need better images,” “I need more references,” “Have I documented all the steps”

I this point I will stop all this non-sense and just write, hopefully I will be able to write more, more often and less scripted.

This is the new blog

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Up Your Game :: Show Up

A series of stories about networking using the  framework from the book Up Your Game by David Bradford.  Showing Up, is the networking aspect of being aware of the world around you and participating actively in it.

I arrived early to the sports bar knowing that the USA vs Germany was going to draw a large crowd. I was also excited to meet with friends for lunch, but more excited to meet someone fromCorporate Recruiting.  I’m not very outgoing, but networking is important to me. I see it as finding opportunities to serve rather than being social.  The server took me to my table —not the best spot—and I waited for the rest of the party.  “Are you Arturo?” a friendly face asked,  I must have nodded, because the next line was: “Hi, I’m Elisabeth.”

I remember now reading in Keith Ferrazzi’s book “Never Eat Alone” about Connectors, people that are well connected. I kept thinking: “When will I ever find someone like that.”  Well now I know Elisabeth.  Lunch was great, the game awful. I kept finding myself amazed of how many people Elisabeth would greet in the tables close by and people walking next to us.  Was she that elusive Connector, she asked me a few things: my work, my hobbies, my family.  I can now picture her mental rolodex spining trying to find a connection, where to *click*.  After I told her about my young daughter she said: “I have a friend, who also has a young family, I think you should meet him.” *CLICK*

We finished lunch, I offered to connect back with her.  I got to my desk, I had an email from Elisabeth addressed to me and her friend, making the connection. Wow, this is a connector that knows how to follow up. *Double Click* I didn’t do anything, I only showed up.

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Up Your Game :: Start Up

I’ve been reading this week the book “Up Your Game” by David Bradford.  One the the principles he talks about is Start Up.

I wanted to share a story about this principle…

So the story goes back 2 years ago when I was an Intern and my friend Liva R. was also interning.  Liva had a co-worker Chizuki W., also an intern; Liva had asked me for some help with an excel project.  I took some time off my day, and we completed the project.  When Chizuki was having some questions about an excel problem she was having, Liva mentioned my name.

I spent probably 1-2 hours helping Chizuki build her excel workbook, and she was very greatful.  She invited me to go to lunch with her and her boyfriend.  Her boyfriend, Richard also works here in the company.  For the lunch, Richard came with his co-worker, Joby. We had a good time.

2 years later Richard and Joby were looking for an employee to highlight in their series “A Day in the Life” for the company recruiting page.  For some reason, they think of me, Joby sends a message to Chizuki and they contact me.  They do a video, a photo session and a web post.  (Still not public, will update when it is available)  All because I decided to help a friend with a project.

 

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Up Your Game: 6 Timeless Principles for Networking Your Way to the Top

Up Your Game: 6 Timeless Principles for Networking Your Way to the Top Book Cover Up Your Game: 6 Timeless Principles for Networking Your Way to the Top
David Bradford
Non-Fiction
Life Science Publishing
2014
Kindle
192

This was an easy and fun read.  The 6 principles outlined in the book are:

  1. Start Up
  2. Show Up
  3. Follow Up
  4. Link Up
  5. Stand Up
  6. Scale Up

What the booked showed me, was that there is no magic to networking, it is simply to be aware of our relationships and KNOW that they matter.

Start Up

This means to “give with no thought of getting.” I am amazed how many time we need to be reminded of the golden rule, “Do unto others.”  I guess that when people have been cheated on, trampled by loved ones, or otherwise abused it is hard to believe that we have to give freely and others will reciprocate.  I do believe that people will reciprocate, and I am amazed by the love that I have received through out my life.

Show Up

This principle is to be present, and in this world of so many options it is hard to be in the NOW.  I have been guilty of being at home, yet having my head buried on my phone, or my computer.  I have also seen the benefits of showing up, being at the right place.

Follow Up

Return calls, connect back, make something out of an encounter.  There are people who are masters of this art, I am not one of them.  I have to program myself to do a follow-up, but I know tha it is valuable.

Link Up

Go deeper than just “friend” someone, or “connect” with someone, or “follow” someone.  This is the real process of caring for your network.  This is easy for me, I am curious, and genuinely care for people.  My problem is that when I am comfortable in a group, I don’t try to grow it or meet others.  I forget that I need to be more inclusive and continue to find points of interest with other people.

Stand Up

This is about moral fortitude, doing what is right.  This will be something that we all need to constantly think about; and strive to be righteous.

Scale Up

Never stop working on your network, this is your footing for anything that could happened in your career or in life.  You must push forward.

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Week Post-Mortem :: 6/6/2014

I’m having trouble coming up with good topics each week, or at least each week, so I’ll do a post-mortem on Mondays.

Stop

  • Making excuses for not going to the gym in the morning; I don’t know why I am having trouble getting up at 6 and going to the gym.  I just need to do it! I should re-read about habits.
  • skipping Monday Planning; when there is not much going on I tend to skip my weekly planning on Mondays, I need to reboot this, things are getting complicated.

Start

  • Reading “Up Your Game” by David Bradford; I’m really excited to read this book, looks like something I enjoy already.
  • Making your quarterly Updated List; I want to have a list of people who I connect with at least each quarter.  I have a good idea of who should be on the list, but I just need to write it.

Continue

  • Learning about Spigit; this is a great ideation tool.  We kicked this off last week and I continue to learn new things.  I’m really happy with this tool
  • Working on the Cummins BYU MBA group; there are few things that get me  really excited.  This past few weeks I’ve been really immersed in helping with the new interns and new full-time employees.
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Making Better Decisions

Decisive: How to Make Better Choices in Life and Work Book Cover Decisive: How to Make Better Choices in Life and Work
Chip Heath, Dan Heath
Crown Business
March 26th 2013
e-book
336

In my new role in the Technology Strategy and Innovation office we get to think about, how to decide which ideas should receive R&D dollars.  This books really helped me understand a few things that we would want to implement.

Predicting the Future

All companies want to be innovative, they want to know the future and be ready for it.  One of the quotes in the book really got me thinking

… most corporate executives favor prediction; their belief seems to be, “To the extent that we can predict the future, we can control it.” In contrast, though, entrepreneurs favor active testing: “To the extent that we can control the future, we do not need to predict it.”

If we could carve a space where the tech leaders are not looking for THE future, but shaping it.

Ideation

Products, patents, improvements all begin with ideas.  I’ve seen about 15 software vendors of ideation software like this, this, and this.  They all have some concept of a challenge that should spark ideas, à la “How can we make X product better.”  Crafting that challenge is not easy, which challenges are better and would generate better ideas.

The book covers the concept of “perspective hindsight,” the idea of thinking of the future as if has already transpired. Say you are planning a company picnic and you want to make sure that everything went well, in spite of possible problems.  Think of these 2 questions, which one gets you thinking more:

  1. “The company picnic is tomorrow, there is a chance of rain, what can you do to make sure that rain doesn’t ruin the party.”
  2. “It’s Monday morning, the picnic was on Saturday, it rained, but everyone is congratulation your team because you had a great plan in place.  What made the picnic a success?”

Russo and Schoemaker have found that when people adopt the second style of thinking—using “prospective hindsight” to work backward from a certain future—they are better at generating explanations for why the event might happen.

Their Method

They call the overall process: WRAP

  • Widen Your Options
  • Reality-Test Your Assumptions
  • Attain Distance Before Deciding
  • Prepare to be Wrong

Although their process seems interesting, I don’t think I will be using the whole process, but I will adopt certain heuristics to the way I think.  I will also implement certain concepts in the way we implement our innovation process at the company.