I can't put things off any longer, I have to take care of the "organized chaos" on my desktop, once for all...

Desktop stuff #gtd

From Alex Revai's post, Clean Desk = Sick Mind? Organize For Productivity, Profit and Peace-of-Mind (Part2):

Let's get organized! Not as a goal, but as the first step. The goal must be to learn to STAY organized. ... The first thing we must tackle is the accumulated paper on, in and around your desk.

(www.EvanCarmichael.com)

After I cleaned my desk, I will go through Nick Cernis's e-book, Todoodlist: Technology is great. Pencils are better. I want to create a laid-back productive approach and F.I.X IT! during 2013...

The IT part in my workflow is under development. My gut feeling is that Evernote Smart Notebook by Moleskine is the optimal combination of technology, paper and pen.

For X-mas, I got an e-book reader (Letto) designed by Bookeen (Cybook Odyssey).

Ebook reader designed by Bookeen

Now it is time to learn all the features (e.g., how to download a book with Adobe Digital Editions) and do research on the self-publishing industry and e-book market. What could I learn from Seth Godin's new Kickstarter project, "The Icarus Deception"?

Here is an excerpt from Alexandra Alter's article, Your E-book Is Reading You:

There are some 40 million e-readers and 65 million tablets in use in the U.S., according to analysts at Forrester Research. In the first quarter of 2012, e-books generated $282 million in sales, compared with $230 million for adult hardcover books, the Association of American Publishers recently found.

Meanwhile, the shift to digital books has fueled an arms race among digital start-ups seeking to cash in on the massive pool of data collected by e-reading devices and reading apps. New e-reading services, which allow readers to purchase and store books in a digital library and read them on different devices, have some of the most sophisticated reader tracking software. The digital reading platform Copia, which has 50,000 subscribers, collects detailed demographic and reading data—including the age, gender and school affiliation of people who bought particular titles, as well as how many times the books were downloaded, opened and read—and shares its findings with publishers. Copia aggregates the data, so that individual users aren't identifiable, and shares that information with publishers that request it.

(WSJ.com, July 19, 2012.)

I am thinking of starting out with shorter stories (see "Kindle Singles: compelling ideas at their natural length") with a twist, like the e-book, Tea Party Fairy Tales. I want to create a Tea Party Manifesto in order to connect tea enthusiasts around the globe. My vision: Tea For The Win! My mission: "Tea53"...

So far, I have ordered the following e-books:

• "Kom igång & skriv!" ("Get about & write!" in Swedish) by Johanna Wistrand.
• "Lyckas med bokutgivning" ("Succeeding with book publishing" in Swedish) by Sölve Dahlgren, Lars Rambe och Ann Ljungberg.
• The Flinch by Julien Smith.

Do you think it will be a "walk in the park"?

Animation Boot Sequence of Bookeen Cybook Odyssey powered by HSIS

I am interested in getting input on the topic and for example the following things:

• Self-publishing tools?
• Price - freemium version?
• Distribution - through Amazon and other channels?
• Lenght of the book?
• Different formats (audio, video, text)?
• Guest writers and additional contributors, e.g., illustrators?
• Reviewers and book readers?
• Donations, crowdfunding, etc.?

I will be in touch with fine folks like David Siteman Garland, Gary Vaynerchuk, Jim Kukral, Maritza Parra, and Timothy Ferriss.

Maybe I should attend a "self-publishing boot camp for authors"? I am planning to promote my future book via social media channels.

I am writing down my thoughts in my Field Notes memo & workbook...

Field Notes Memo Book

The Eisenhower matrix: Understanding task management with EISENHOWER

For inspiration, go to my WorkFlow page and watch Randy Pausch's lecture on Time Management.

@stiernholm:s #strukturboken

F.I.X IT! will be fixed at the end of 2012...

During WebCoast 2011 we looked around for a way to translate unconference into Swedish. We came up with knytkonferens, which we can back translate as “potluck conference”. At a potluck party (knytkalas in Swedish), all the guests each bring some food to share with everyone else; at a potluck conference all the participants bring their ideas, enthusiasm, skills and abilities to share with one another. Calling an unconference a knytkonferens is an easier way to introduce the idea to Swedes who have never met the concept. In the spirit of sharing we offer the readers of these English pages the term “potluck conference” as an alternative for unconference!

Kudos to John Nixon English Language Services for the translation of WebCoast's site.

I will have a session on podcasting and on my new project, JantePolisen (The Law of Jante Police).

Tune in and listen to the WebCoast 2012 theme!

I recommend that you check out Stefan Engeseth's new book, Sharkonomics, if you want stay alive and keep moving your business forward! 

Do you think that Stefan's book will become a bestseller like Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything by Steven D. Levitt & Stephen J. Dubner? Here is my prediction on Twitter:

Catch a wave of the groundswell and surf the social web with #Sharkonomics! @EngesethsBlog's book will take off and swim by itself.

Here is an excerpt from Sharkonomics: How to Attack Market Leaders:

This book is inspired by Mother Nature’s sharks which have been around for more than 420 million years and completed numerous strategic moves. It will prepare you to jump into the water and attack the market. Economic competition is increasing rapidly and reduced resources will increase that further. Economist Joseph Schumpeter (1883–1950) came up with the term “creative destruction” to demonstrate why companies need to innovate constantly in order to survive. In my opinion Schumpeter was converting the saying “eat or be eaten” into economic terms. Sharkonomics is a further enhancement of this: “read this book and take a bite”.

(www.Sharkonomics.com - Stefan Engeseth, 2012.)

I got inspired to write this post after a phone conversation with Stefan about his forthcoming book, Sharkonomics, and how to use word of mouth and referral marketing for spreading the good word. Going through the comment thread on Anita Campbell's post, Up Your Sales in a Down Market Is a Crash Course in Selling, sparked my interest to finally press the publish button on my blog!

What is your take on the concept of "word of mouth"? Will you download the "manual" after reading this post and checking out the different links?

My books on Flickr.