Do you like my new WordPress header design? It's thanks to Angela McCall who is starting her online design business and was kind enough to offer me a free header to showcase her work.
I only met Angela a few weeks ago through blogging, although she actually feels like a friend already (as do many readers of this blog).
WordPress Header Design
So, here is one of Angela's first designs for her new business and I'm really delighted with it. The original header looked as if it had been “knocked up” in Paint – for the very good reason that it HAD been (by graphically-challenged me). So I jumped at the chance of one of Angela's professional designs.
She was great to work with, very prompt and politely fielded my ideas that I just I KNEW “shouldn't be done”. Very quickly she sent me a few variations of the finally short-listed designs to choose from – and this was my final choice. In fact, Angela's husband and daughter all expressed opinions, so I've had the benefit of a committee helping me choose!
I'm feeling much smarter with my new header and pleased to recommend Angela's work to you. Just contact Angela for graphic design work through her blog and I'm sure she'll give you as good service as she did for me.
This is also a bit of a milestone for me because I've only once before had a good result out-sourcing. Which has meant I have become a bit of a control-freak and insisted on doing everything myself. Having had a good result, perhaps I'll be more willing to consider out-sourcing in future.
Last week wasn't a good week for various technical reasons, but again I had help from a blogging friend Jan Kearney who spotted an error in something I had done, and told me that Google was giving an unhelpful message and I (probably!) didn't have the malware I'd been clearing up. So thanks to Jan too. I'm sure it probably did my PC good to have a clean-up, but good to think there weren't nasties on it.
What else have I been up to? Well, not an awful lot in the Internet Marketing field – although I did create my first Infographic about my Top 7 Minerals. (Sadly my Mineral blog is playing up at the time of writing – but I'll add a link later!!)
However, I have been working hard on my book-keeping, which at the moment is necessary income – until I become an “internet goorooo” driving my Porsche between my mansion and my yacht!! Hahaha – in my dreams.
Time Recording Software
I was testing out various time recording tools last week too, mainly to let me see “where the day goes”. Although I wanted to like Time Doctor, I kept getting annoyed with it for asking me if I was still working when I was actually “thinking”. So I turned it off I'm afraid. I tried a few others that didn't tick the “simplicity” box for me, and finally settled on the free version of RescueTime (aff link).
It sits unobtrusively in the background, and tracks what I'm up to on its dashboard. When I stop working (or whenever I wish) it lets me categorize the logged websites or tasks on a scale from “Very distracting” to “Very productive” so that it can tell me how well I've been working. When I've categorized a task once, it's stored for future use.
The bad news is that email is taking up a HUGE proportion of my day (which I suppose I knew). But you can set goals to help you work towards better use of time. It's not been a typical week as I've had more time off than usual, so that does explain why my emailing has been a disproportionate part of my week. The even worse news is that “Writing” – which I'm saving for article writing – has been non-existent.
Having to face that analysis daily should prod me away from spending time on some of the less productive areas of my day.
So – brighter this week than last, and now it's back to the book-keeping, which will improve my productivity score as well as putting funds in the coffers.
This week's report is a little earlier than usual because I was excited about my new WordPress header design and wanted to share Angela's excellent work. Thanks again Angela 🙂
