7 Day Challenge: After Day 6

We are a pair of tired pandas. I spent my day alternating between learning Search Engine Optimization (SEO) for the new site, and taking care of Matthew. We were both quite responsible today: eating lots of soup, drinking lots of tea (and the occasional hot toddy) and staying in from one of our weekly salsa lessons. This last one we were sad about, but considering Matthew hasn’t changed out of his pajamas and took 4 naps today, it seemed wise.

The other thing I learned today is how to make ACCORDIONS on a web page! This one I’m quite proud of, and involved a bit of head banging until Matthew said something like, “Hold on, I need to clear the caches.” Or something like that. Anyway, after that it worked!! I’m so proud!

Accordions (also called spoilers) look like this: (Click on the “plus”)

How do you like your green eggs & ham?
  • Would you like them in a house?
  • Would you like them with a mouse?
  • Would you like them here or there?
  • Would you anywhere?
I KNOW RIGHT!? HOW COOL AM I!?

Ok, enough messing around, Bridge. What did we do today?

Tasks started and finished (reorganized a bit):

  1. Install Easy Digital Downloads to replace WooCommerce
  2. Product / audio file album art
  3. Stripe gateway
  4. Final Audio File QA (BOOM! You have no idea how long this took!!)
  5. Review and publish Terms & Conditions, Privacy Policy, and Refund Policy
  6. Fix fatal Error in LMT World child theme after upgrading Make parent theme
  7. Update Catherine’s bio
  8. Get set up as an Amazon affiliate
  9. Integrate Typekit fonts
  10. Finish changes noted in InVision
  11. Finalize global nav menu
  12. Purchase stock photos and finish DIY page
  13. Settings for upper body product
  14. Settings for lower body product
  15. Settings for full package product
  16. Make everything pretty – (Closer and closer!!)
  17. Thorough review of SEO settings
  18. Mailchimp subscription boxes

Tasks left to start:

  1. Books list review, finalization, and photos
  2. Study guide scripts page review and finalization

Tasks postponed until after launch:

  1. LMTW Logo
  2. Favicon

Thanks you all! We might have accidentally spent the entire day watching television in bed but for you!!

7 Day Challenge: After Day 5

Matthew has a cold! Poor guy woke up with his sinuses saying, “You didn’t need me today, right? I’m taking a vacation.”

But did that stop him from rolling out of bed and sitting down with me on the couch and working all day on LMT World? Heck no! The boy is a trooper!

We got so much done today. Which is good because yesterday, we treated like a Friday. Which it was, so I guess that’s ok.

Here’s our progress report!

Tasks started and finished:

  1. Install Easy Digital Downloads to replace WooCommerce
  2. Product / audio file album art
  3. Stripe gateway
  4. Final Audio File QA
  5. LMTW Logo
  6. Settings for upper body product
  7. Settings for lower body product
  8. Settings for full package product
  9. Review and publish Terms & Conditions, Privacy Policy, and Refund Policy
  10. Fix fatal Error in LMT World child theme after upgrading Make parent theme
  11. Update Catherine’s bio
  12. Make everything pretty – (This is what I spent most of my day on…and I think we might be close!)
  13. Get set up as an Amazon affiliate
  14. Integrate Typekit fonts
  15. Finish changes noted in InVision
  16. Thorough review of SEO settings

Tasks left to begin:

  1. Mailchimp subscription boxes
  2. Favicon
  3. Finalize global nav menu

Not bad, right?!

Now I’m going to dish up some split pea soup (Gloomy Day + Sick Boyfriend = Homemade Crock Pot Split Pea Soup) and treat the rest of the evening like it’s Saturday. Which it is, so I guess that’s ok.

7 Day Challenge: After Day 3

I am exhausted but triumphant. Ladies and gentlemen, let it be known:

  • If you ever want a beautiful website built for yourself, be prepared to pay out of the nose for it, or learn to do it yourself.

(Today I learned how to enter pretty bullets into text with WordPress shortcodes! Heck yeah!)

But seriously, I have to put in a serious pitch right now for Rocket Lift, Matthew’s web development company. There is a reason why developers are getting paid the big bucks. It’s because this work is hard.

What I’m doing right now is like plunking out a few notes on the piano, turning to Matthew and saying, “I’ve been working on that all day!! Wasn’t it pretty?” (Picture me as a five-year-old. It’s cuter.)

Matthew, bless his heart, pats me on my five-year-old head and says, “Darling, that was lovely. I’m so proud of you.” And galldarnit, if I don’t blush happily, and believe him. [Editor’s note: He isn’t lying.]

I’m playing around with melodies. Rocket Lift is performing symphonies. 

We have on our team:

  • An amazing conductor, Maestro Matthew Eppelsheimer
  • An incredibly talented composer (aka. developer)
  • A drill sergeant producer who is going to make sure every person, every instrument is where they are supposed to be, exactly when they are supposed to be there (aka. systems administrator)
  • A thirty piece string ensemble to draw you in, and nail you to your seat (aka. sales and content manager)
  • And me…and I’m finding it hard to objectively find a metaphor for myself in an orchestra…

I know what you’re thinking. Catherine, enough with the pretty bullets. What did you and Matthew tick off your list…?

Tasks started and finished:

  1. Install Easy Digital Downloads to replace WooCommerce
  2. Product / audio file album art
  3. Stripe gateway
  4. Final Audio File QA
  5. LMTW Logo
  6. Settings for upper body product
  7. Settings for lower body product
  8. Settings for full package product
  9. Review Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy (half done!)
  10. Fix fatal Error in LMT World child theme after upgrading Make parent theme
  11. Update Catherine’s bio
  12. Make everything pretty – (I’m learning some shortcode techniques and getting friendly with a new theme and plugin, both of which are supposed to make my life easier. Uh-huh.)

Tasks left to begin:

  1. Finish changes noted in InVision
  2. Mailchimp subscription boxes
  3. Thorough review of SEO settings
  4. Favicon
  5. Finalize global nav menu

Would you believe that I spent most of my day working on this project? This is why we ask other people to hold us accountable. Because we work and grind all day and sometimes have so little to show for it. It would be so easy right now for Matthew and I to throw up our hands and say, “there’s no way we are going to accomplish this by Monday.” At which point, we give up, and we don’t finish for another 10 months.

But you know what? We are going to hit this deadline.

Because you are sitting out there, supporting us, encouraging us. And frankly, there is no greater shame to me, than not turning in my homework on time. (Thank you, college professor father.)

7 Day Challenge: After Day 2

A quick update before we both pass out for the night.

We’re learning first-hand how launching a side business in your free time, after you’ve put in a full day at the full time job, is no easy feat.

We don’t feel we’re making quite enough progress to stay on track with this goal. (The Timbers’ 3-0 victory over the San Jose Earthquakes tonight may or may not have something to do with that.)

Good thing we don’t have too many plans this weekend!

Lower body Kinesiology Audio Study Guide

Here’s some of our final album art as a teaser…

The good news, is we’ve got one thing checked off the list: The album art is done!

We’ve also added more items to Tasks in Progress. Although it may look like we’re being unfocused, at this stage of this project there are lots of things that need to come together before they can be finalized.

Tasks started and finished:

  1. Install Easy Digital Downloads to replace WooCommerce
  2. Product / audio file album art
  3. Stripe gateway
  4. Final Audio File QA
  5. LMTW Logo – (Catherine’s learning PhotoShop, under pressure to get this done. Nothing to shake a stick at.)
  6. Settings for upper body product
  7. Settings for lower body product
  8. Settings for full package product

Tasks left to begin:

  1. Finish changed noted in InVision
  2. Fix fatal Error in LMT World child theme after upgrading Make parent theme
  3. Mailchimp subscription boxes
  4. Thorough review of SEO settings
  5. Favicon
  6. Finalize global nav menu
  7. Update Catherine’s bio

 

7 Day Challenge: After Day 1

Greetings, dear awesome-people-who-are-helping-to-keep-us-accountable!

It is just past 10pm, and I’ve just finished about an hour doing Quality Assurance testing on my product. I’ve done this dozens of times and have learned an important lesson:

Saving things in multiple places adds to the potential for error and repeated work.

This may seem like a very obvious thing. Here’s a glimpse into my world:

  1. I began this project on a 6 year old laptop. (6 years old, and dying of old age…) On this computer I had two programs I was using: Excel and Garage Band.
  2. I now have a beautiful new Mac Book “LightAsAFeather” that boots up like a dream, buuuuuut…does not have Excel, and all the “helpful updates” made to Garage Band makes me want to throw this elegant computer in front of traffic.
  3. What this means is that I am:
    1. Updating files in Excel on my Old Mac, saving them as PDFs and copying them to Dropbox, where I can pick them up on my New Mac
    2. Updating audio files in Garage Band on my OM, “sharing” them to iTunes (a necessary and tedious step), and copying them to Dropbox, where I can pick them up on my NM.
  4. Effectively, what is happening is the “same file” is saved three times, in three separate places…you see where I’m going with this.

Part of the reason this has taken so long is that I’ve found mistakes, fixed them on my OM, moved them to Dropbox, and transferred them to the NM, but often imperfectly. I’m still fixing mistakes I swear I’ve fixed once, twice, even three times.

Version control is a beautiful thing. Right now, I don’t got it.

Anyway, here is our updated “to do” list! We did some good work today, and yet I believe we are ticking absolutely nothing off. Sometimes, that’s how things go. You work all day and feel like you have nothing to show for it. Sometimes, you fix the same stupid mistakes hundreds of times. Sometimes, you’re not perfect.

Perfect is boring.

Wouldn’t that be terrible if we issued a 7 Day Challenge, invited you all to share in the experience, and then with “perfect execution” ticked everything off the first day!? Boring!

So here’s what we did do instead. Because we are interesting, and stuff.

Tasks in progress:

  1. Install Easy Digital Downloads to replace WooCommerce
  2. Product / audio file album art – [I approved the AMAZING work Matthew did updating the album art. All that’s left to do is “attach it” to the final audio files.
  3. Stripe gateway
  4. Final Audio File QA – [lots of work poured in, some of it, done before.]
  5. LMTW Logo – (I’ve learned a few basics with photoshop and have constructed a few designs I like. Now for the choosing…)

Here are the todos we have yet to start:

  1. Settings for upper body product
  2. Settings for lower body product
  3. Settings for full package product
  4. Finish changed noted in InVision
  5. Fix fatal Error in LMT World child theme after upgrading Make parent theme
  6. Mailchimp subscription box
  7. Thorough review of SEO settings
  8. Favicon
  9. Finalize global nav menu
  10. Update Catherine’s bio

I would also like it noted that I went to the gym tonight and lifted heavy, heavy things for an hour. That was a “to do” that didn’t make it onto this list, but it bears mentioning. Because I’m awesome. I’m going to hurt like crazy and limp around like an old lady tomorrow.

Matthew would also like it noted that he put over an hour into writing for this site today — an ongoing goal he’s not always hit — and put in a longer shift at work than average.

Hey! What are you guys working on!? How can we support you in your goals??

We’ll leave you with this find from the Internet Archive: How to Set Meaningful Goals and Reach Them, from the One Minute Howto podcast.

The Lmtworld.com 7 Day Challenge

We’ve been working for 10 months, in our occasional spare time, to launch a new business at lmtworld.com. We’ll keep the site itself a surprise until it’s done, for a bit of fun. Suffice it to say for now that it is an e-commerce website that will serve students studying to become Licensed Massage Therapists (LMTs).

The last two or three months we’ve gotten ourselves all psyched up to finish “tomorrow!” or “this weekend!” or “by next Saturday!”

It hasn’t worked out that way. It seems we’re better starters than finishers (not exactly breaking news).

So we’re going public with a self-challenge:

By this time 7 days from now, Monday October 13th, we shall have completed all of the following todos, and more — whatever it takes to launch a fully armed and operational battle station website at lmtworld.com.

Challenge accepted

Self-challenge Accepted!

Of everything we have left to do, here are our tasks in progress:

  1. Install Easy Digital Downloads to replace WooCommerce
  2. Product / audio file album Art
  3. Stripe gateway
  4. Final Audio File QA

Here are the todos we have yet to start:

  1. Settings for upper body product
  2. Settings for lower body product
  3. Settings for full package product
  4. Finish changed noted in InVision
  5. Fix fatal Error in LMT World child theme after upgrading Make parent theme
  6. LMTW Logo
  7. Mailchimp subscription box
  8. Thorough review of SEO settings
  9. Favicon
  10. Finalize global nav menu
  11. Update Catherine’s bio

We would like to enlist you, dear Internet readers. Will you be our accountability buddies?

Stay tuned for updates.