For those of you that downloaded last year’s compact calendar, I finally have found some time to update it to 2009! So download away. In the zip file is an Excel document as well as a PDF of the calendar.

Download Compact Calendar 2009

For those of you that are not familiar with it, read about it over at David Seah’s blog.

My browser of choice is Firefox, with a couple of neat plugins I can’t live without.

1. Web Developer Toolbar – for any sort of web development, this is a must have.
2. Searchstatus by Quirk – Need I say more?
3. Foxmarks – I use multiple computers, so this plugin keeps all my Firefox bookmarks synced.
4. coComment – This neat plugin ties into my coComment account, which is how I keep track conversation on blogs I have left a comment on.
5. Read it Later – When I don’t want to bookmark a site or blog post, and neither want to add it to my social bookmarking sites, but I want to “read it later”, this plugin comes in handy. Simple, yet oh-so effective.
6. IE View Lite – right-click on page and view it in Internet Explorer. Stupid web designers that can’t code make us sometimes have to fireup IE.

I have been using Twitter since the end of last year and have found it incredibly useful to keep up to date with what’s happening on the web. But using the web interface or my IM sucks big time. So Snitter is how I read and write my tweets.

My social bookmarking site of choice is del.icio.us. Nothing fancy here other than saving bookmarks that I don’t often frequent, but will probably need to reference later in life.

I have a couple of hosting and web development clients that need to be invoiced from time to time. Blinksale is a total life saver. I don’t need some bloated accounting system, and neither do I have the time to manually create invoices, so with Blinksale I email my customers their invoices and can keep track of those lazy and late payers pretty easily. My customers also have the option of viewing their invoices online to print or add notes.

For notes or quick todo’s, I use Ta-da Lists from 37signals. Quick and easy to add, quick and easy to use.

Then there is the host of Google products that I am sure most of you use. Gmail for email, Google Analytics for keeping track of my blogs traffic stats, Google Docs for documents and spreadsheets that I need to share or collaborate with people and Google Calendar for yip, you guessed it, my calendar.

I consume all my RSS feeds using Bloglines. I have used Bloglines from the start, and although I have tried Google Reader numerous times, I still prefer Bloglines. Must be a comfort thing. ;-)

For communication and all my IM needs, Skype and Google Talk do it for me.

My desktop email and document processing is handled with Office 2007′s range of products. Outlook, Word, Excel etc. 2007 is quite a change for those that were used to using Microsoft’s previous versions 2003 or Office XP, but once you are up and running, I would never turn back. The UI changes are huge productivity enhancements.

I think that’s about it. I’d love to hear your comments on what you think about some of my choices, and if you feeling up to it, blog about your tools of choice and I’ll share some link love. :-D

Just like 37signals, I don’t think Ryan and Gillian want to grow Carsonified into a behemoth of a company having to manage hundreds of staff, but rather they want to focus on what they want to do and build an awesome place for them and their handful of employees to work. And boy, I don’t think there are any web developers / designers who wouldn’t want to work for them. Not only are there some really cool perks, but some really awesome products to work on.

So when I read their latest post on giving all their employee’s iPhones as a surprise present I just had to blog about my admiration for how they run things. Not only do they furnish you with a Macbook and 23inch display, but you get a fully-paid-for iPhone aswell! Perks aren’t everything you know, so why not have a 4 day working week thrown in as well. A 4 day working week is absolutely genius and if I ever start a company one day, this is something I will work towards right from the beginning.

Then just a few weeks ago, Carsonified downed tools for a week (now called the Carsonified Idea Week) and let their creative fantasies come alive with Hug My Mac. How awesome is that? Stop work, take a mini-break from whatever you are doing, and pour all your energy into something completely different and inspiring.

I read an interesting article once (can’t remember where) where people rated what the most important thing was about their jobs. Money came in somewhere around 6 or 7 if I recall. Just shows you that money is important, but not as important as employers think. Job satisfaction and happiness come way before things like money and bonuses.

Carsonified perks in South Africa

So, I want to hear some of the really cool perks your company has. At Travelogic, we have a really awesome coffee machine that makes the meanest espresso’s. We also have proper flexi-time, so we can come and go as we please, as long as the work gets done. There are a couple of other perks that we will be employing in the coming year, but let’s leave those off the list for now.

What are some of your office perks?

Ever since I started blogging and making a some pocket money online, I really haven’t put as much effort into my online presence as I have wanted to. I have seen other guys with just as little time as me (well most of the times more) expand their online presence and increase their “pocket money” in 2007, and I have been somewhat envious (in a good way envious – just makes me believe that I can do it too!). So what I am going to do is document a few of my goals here and see if I can achieve them in 2008. The goals below are based mostly on this blog, but there are some goals that are personal and some that pertain to a few of my other blogs that I am not going to list. Another time maybe. ;-)

Jason’s 2008 goals

• Finish off the redesign of Jasonbagley.com
• Create a blogging roadmap to put on my wall – A blogging schedule of sorts with ideas and proposed implementation dates.
• Increase readership on Jasonbagley.com to over 150 RSS readers.
• Increase monthly online earnings to more than $1000
• Open a CC for this increase in online earnings. Sole traders suck. ;-)
• Give. (More on this after the redesign.)
• Make at least 1 new online contact a week.
• Increase traffic to this blog to more than 200 unique visitors a day. Currently my average is below 50. (Don’t laugh ok.)

There are a few more that I will add once the most important one – the redesign – is out. The one thing about these goals is that they are measurable. Having goals like “make money online” or “increase readership” isn’t very clear, so if you are going to create your own goals list like me, make sure they are measurable.

Anyway, here is to a very successful 2008 in my personal life as well as online!

If you haven’t heard about the Compact Calendar, I suggest you go and read David Seah’s blog post about them. The guy is a guru when it comes to productivity enhancers like these. I used last year’s compact calendar quite a lot, and its great to be able to see the entire year so easily on an A4 with tons of space to make notes.

Download the Excel Version of South Africa’s Compact Calender 2008

Download the PDF Version of South Africa’s Compact Calender 2008

The calendar will help you see the flow of days into weeks, so that when you are jotting down deadlines at a client, you can spot those weekends and plan accordingly. So print it one out, and see if it will help aid you in your productivity. :-)

Download the South African Compact Calendar 2007 Excel version.

Download the South African Compact Calendar 2007 PDF version.

For more info on this awesome little calendar visit David Seah’s post on the Compact Calendar.