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I Done This Support

4 Tips for Tackling Time from Famous Folk

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“Getting up every morning and looking into the mirror, asking myself: ‘Do I like what I am doing?” After every full day, I do the same in the evening. Whilst I write my next day’s to do list, I reflect on my achievements. And by doing this, I also try to listen as good as I can how much fun and fulfillment I have gotten. If there are too many days in a row that I can’t answer with a loud ‘Yes’, something is up – I am not happy. And I aim to change things around sharply. Very sharply sometimes.”
 – Steve Jobs
 (Thanks to our blog reader, M. Kelley, who shared this excellent quote with us!)

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Lexicographer Extraordinaire & Wordnik Founder – Our Interview with Erin Mckean

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Dictionary Evangelist and founder of Wordnik.com, Erin McKean spreads the good word about words. Former editor in chief for American Dictionaries at Oxford University Press and editor of the New Oxford American Dictionary, 2E, Erin also shared her quest to redefine the dictionary itself in a 2007 TED talk.
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That redefined dictionary is Wordnik.com. Erin explains, “What we’re really trying to do is map the whole language. We really want to transform the way people relate to meaning. We want to give you a 360-degree view of what that word does.”

We spoke with Erin about her passion-driven career and running a start-up. Plus, we get her expert opinion on iDoneThis’s name.

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Startups: Host a Tumblelog on Tumblr

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We host our blog on Tumblr, and it’s our third-largest source of social media traffic after Twitter and Facebook.  I asked my friends at Fitocracy for their stats (their blog is on Tumblr, too) and they reported that Tumblr was fourth after Twitter, Facebook, and Reddit, and it’s high-volume traffic as Fitocracy is doing several … Read more

Show Your Work

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In elementary school, I never showed my work on homework.  I tried to impress the teacher by going straight to the right answer.  On occasion — it’s embarrassing — I’d even erase my work and write the answer on top.

show your work

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Steve Jobs: Love What You Do

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Getting up every morning and looking into the mirror, asking myself: ‘Do I like what I am doing?’ After every full day, I do the same in the evening. Whilst I write my next day’s to do list, I reflect on my achievements. And by doing this, I also try to listen as good as I can how much fun and fulfillment I have gotten. If there are too many days in a row that I can’t answer with a loud ‘Yes’, something is up – I am not happy. And I aim to change things around sharply. Very sharply sometimes.

Steve Jobs via leostartsup (h/t to our blog reader, M. Kelley, who shared this excellent quote with us!)

Power Ranger to Beauty Entrepreneur: Our Interview with Jennifer Yen

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We recently were lucky enough to Skype with Jennifer Yen, Founder of pūr~lisse, a line of skin products for sensitive skin. We love Jennifer for her feisty spirit. Not only is she a female entrepreneur, but she also used to be a Power Ranger! Check out our interview of her below as she shares her story and stress tips.

Jennifer, you have such an amazing story! You followed your heart to LA to be an actress for Power Rangers. Tell us how you went from Power Ranger to Entrepreneur.

It was a long time coming! My family moved to Alabama from Taiwan when I was five and opened a restaurant, so entrepreneurship and hard work was natural to me. I always wanted to be an actress, so when I moved to LA, my parents told me, “If you want something, you focus and you work for it.”

I loved acting — but it was not glamorous. Ultimately, the heavy makeup gave me terrible acne and tolled my self-confidence. Looking to fix my own problem, I turned to my grandmother’s time-tested skin remedies. This is how pūr~lisse came to be.

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Write Your Own Story

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Every milestone is an opportunity to attract attention to your startup because you have a piece of “news” — a new piece of noteworthy information that no one else but you has.

When you have something to announce, conventional wisdom says to go to the press and blogs with your story because they (1) have distribution and (2) are expert in crafting a story.  In the past, we’ve offered nuggets of news to journalists as exclusives, and we’ve gotten written up by Betabeat and The Next Web this way.

However, we’ve recently experimented with writing our own story on our own blog, telling a narrative that’s personal and shows how we work behind the scenes, harnessing the power of social news for distribution — and that has resulted in our all-time one-day high for traffic and 1,000+ signups, more than double the signups resulting from our press coverage.  Through that experience, we’ve learned the importance of writing your own story and turning transparency and narrative into a competitive advantage.

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“List Making is an Essential Human Activity” – and It’s Museum-worthy, Too!

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“List Making is an Essential Human Activity” – and It’s Museum-worthy, Too!

NYT

Ever wondered whether or not list-making is for you? Well, The Morgan Library and Museum‘s current exhibit features lists – “lists of bills to pay, things undone, failings in oneself and others; lists of people to call, stuff to buy, errands to be accomplished” –  from the most ordinary of business owners to the artistic and crazy Picasso.

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