The Slow Road to Product Development: Emergent Task Planner Updates

Yes, the project has been moving slowly. I've had a few email inquiries regarding the status of the pre-printed Emergent Task Planner Pads. Here's where we are right now:

• We have the pads printed and newly shrinkwrapped for durability.
• We have our shipping options figured out: US Postal Service flat rate.
• We now have an instruction sheet that we have to print (full bleed, 8.5" x 11") on a print-on-demand printer.
• We have to do the mail merge of the mailing list. The mailing list has been processed into Excel, so now I just have to do a mail merge. I believe the last time I did this was in 1984 using a word processor called WordStar, a program I still miss but probably can never return to, much in the way that I can't watch Star Blazers anymore without cringing.

So that's where we are. Here's a sneak peak at the new instruction sheet; eventually I will be making these for all the forms.

Yes, it's a little salesy in the wording (this is something I've been trying to be better at, self promotion and so forth), and I'm not so keen on the typography, but it's DONE FOR NOW and I can move on to other things.

I've been pretty very busy with projects, and haven't even had much time to blog. It makes me think that I would actually like to be writing full-time on a variety of topics, but this is probably a case of "the grass is greener on the side of the fence without projects pressing down on my shoulders". Dad is also visiting, and we've had some wonderful conversations, though I still need to buy a reasonably capable but cheap DV camcorder...aigh, more research. And then there is the looming round of 2008 updates to the various calendars and forms. So my plate is feeling quite full. The always-insightful Matt Cornell, aka Idea Matt, magically sensed my pain and shipped me a copy of Following Through: A Revolutionary New Model for Finishing Whatever You Start out of the blue, which was awfully considerate. I'm looking forward to reading a bit of it tonight; Dad already pounced on it and flipped through, pronouncing it "practical" and "useful" with some energy a few hours ago. Time to read!

Comments

I can’t wait for these! I hope we can get them before christmas!

Stick with it, Dave - your work is smart and inspiring.

And you’re welcome - I never know when a book will click for someone, but I like to try!

Agreed! These are looking good. I’ve been using the ETP at work for about 2 months now and it’s drastically improved my workflow and time-tracking. I’m really looking forward to getting my hands on these!

-Jesse

I fell off the face of the earth, but I’m back and obviously in need of way to plan my days. I’m still in for the first batch, sorry for the late reply.

Hoping for some posts or photos about whatever yummy foods you happen to enjoy w/ your dad on his visit! The instructions look very cool and didn’t sound too salesy to me.

Is it too late to add to our order? I don’t even remember how many I ordered, but I think it might have been just one, and now I want one for a friend.

Also, having ordered just one or two, being all non-committal and all, and then when I inevitably get hooked on the things, will you have all this in place for re-orders kind of like right away?! :)

Can’t wait to see these on shelves!

Star Blazers reference = always cool!

Hi Dave, I’ve been dropping in every month or so and appreciate your work. My question: Can these be three hole punched to fit a full-sized binder?

Regards,
Gordon

If your looking for a good DV cam, I’ve had good luck with Panasonic’s consumer cams.