The Mac Lack Hack is made from the access panel of a 2006 Quad Core G5 and a Black Brown Ikea Lack Side table.

I’m always on the lookout for creative ways to repurpose old Mac gear.

When our old quad core G5 workhorse breathed it’s last breath I decided to craft a project that combined two of my favorite things: Apple and IKEA.

Since in middle school I’ve drooled over the IKEA catalog and dogeared countless pages of their offerings of modern style for the every day consumer.

Their popular Lack furniture lineup is the epitome of minimalism- in aesthetics, function and (of course) cost. I chose to start with the Lack Side table because it would frame the G5 inlay nicely…plus at $9.99 it was a low risk option if met with a runaway Rotozip.

Below are details and notes about the Mac Lack Hack:

1. To prep the G5 piece I took off the side access panel, unscrewed the part attached to the back and had a friend with the right tools to cut off the bottom lip to match the other edges.
2. Then I used a grinder to take off the leftover screw holes.
3. I centered the access panel on the top of the Lack table and marked the lines.
4. Then I cut the marked panel out of the Lack table. Note: I used a Rotozip with the depth adjusted as little as possible for a shallow cut. I knew what was inside the table thanks to WIRED and National Geographic but was not expecting the sides to be solid particle board. Because the G5 is rectangular, the sides extended into the reinforced areas of the table.
5. The Rotozip couldn’t handle cutting the side so we switched to a Router with a straight bit set at a shallow depth. The nice thing about that was it left two ledges for gluing the G5 panel onto. The G5 panel is the same thickness as the Lack’s veneer so the honeycomb still worked well for supporting the inlay.

Keeping track of projects "up-in-the-air" on the Cloud Projects board helps us manage our production pipeline. The arrows indicate projects that have rained down...right now it's pouring.

On any given day at the Timbuktoons studio we have quite a few projects “up in the air.”

We refer to them as cloud projects…work that’s floating in the clouds but has potential to rain down at any moment.

These vary from a passing comment from a client, a profile tool we’re talking through or a proposal we sent out but haven’t heard back on.

Our low tech way for tracking those is simply writing them on a whiteboard. Why keep track of projects that may or may not happen?

In the early days we found out how quickly our production bandwidth could be stretched too thin. Projects that weren’t even on our radar would come through and suddenly we were scrambling, sometimes in just a manner of minutes.

The bottom-line is that as much as we would love all of our clients to be on the same production schedule it’s never going to happen. Everyone’s time frame is busy and it’s driven by different milestones and dates.

Keeping an eye on potential projects helps us plan wisely when thinking through our production schedule. It helps us stay ahead of when we need to crew up and down. Also, since we walk by it everyday, it’s a good reminder to follow-up on projects that are out there.

It’s not a perfect system…sometimes the rain is a light sprinkle and sometimes it can be a flood (note the picture of our cloud projects today). But it’s one way we try hard to keep margin and balance in our workflow.

Lifestyle can impact creative time management and productivity!

There really is a healthy lifestyle that allows creative work in animation to flourish. Practicing these could maximize your potential to have quality time at work and quality and quantity time at home. Here are a few helpful hints:

1. Develop an addiction. Also known as a “compulsion for completion” or a “sense of urgency” when it comes to completing tasks. The body actually releases endorphins when you finish projects. It’s the reason you have a strong sense of accomplishment and confidence just from being able to check off a “to-do” on your list!
2. Do something! Everyday do something that moves you towards your goals. To do this you need to be clear about your long and short-term goals and objectives.
3. Be positive. Talk to yourself in a positive tone- don’t beat yourself up about things. Refuse to complain about your problems! In fact, get in the habit of looking for the good and valuable lessons in the midst of your problems. Finding joy in your circumstances will greatly change your outlook on each day’s tasks.

If you missed a previous post on Creative Time Management here’s a snapshot:

• 3 Keys to Animation Creative Flow
• 5 Keys for Creative Procrastination
• 4 Steps to Creative Organization in Animation

It can take some work to get in the flow but here are 3 keys...

The goal to creative flow is to achieve that “almost effortless, yet highly focused state of consciousness” (Mark McGuinness) we get when we’re “in the zone.” It’s the times when you’ve worked for several hours and didn’t realize it. Here are 3 Keys:

1. Creating “zones of silence” by choosing several hours per day that are free of e-mail, TV, radio, cell phone, land line, etc. (unless it helps you get in the zone, such as music).
2. Creating large chunks of time to focus on the work you choose to do and then protect that time vigilantly!
3. Develop a routine of the above and schedule these times when you are “at your best” (for example at Timbuktoons we’ve found that 8:00-11:00AM are great production hours if we decide the day before what to dive right into when we get to work).

If you missed a previous post on Creative Time Management here’s a snapshot:

• 5 Keys for Creative Procrastination
• 4 Steps to Creative Organization in Animation

Plan everyday in advance.
Do it the night before or right before you dive in. Planning out your day and working from that list can help you work on your own time versus being reactive to whatever daily interruptions you endure. Make it a quick and reasonable list. This takes practice and patience to know what you can really accomplish in a day.

When things come up- add it to the list and practice your creative procrastination skills! Try working from multiple lists (in Basecamp, Highrise or Backpack) such as: Master List, Monthly List, Weekly List and Daily List.

Create imaginary deadlines.
Deadlines are evil! Okay, maybe that’s overreacting. But they’re often used by creatives to procrastinate. How many times have you waited right up until a deadline is looming to finish something? Sure production deadlines can motivate you like nothing else…but at what cost?

They often cause unnecessary and self-created stress and mistakes. Try to think of work in this scenario: I just won a trip to Disney World but I have to leave next week to claim it. How would that change your pace and priorities?

Create a Bucket List.
Have a habit of writing all of your commitments in buckets or categories and review them often. It doesn’t matter what kind of bucket it is…computer, paper, audio, video…whatever works for you.

For example, Mondays are “Marketing Mondays” and Wednesdays are “Webwork Wednesdays” here at Timbuktoons. So, anything related to those topics I send to Evernote for later reading and/or action.

Work the system.
Find a system for organizing and then work it relentlessly. We use Basecamp in conjunction with other tools for analyzing our animation pipeline efficiency. I’m working on going all digital by using my iPad in conjunction with Evernote (Evernote tips from Michael Hyatt). It’s great for quickly getting notes and related web resources into my buckets for later reference.

If you missed a previous post on Creative Time Management here’s a snapshot:

• 5 Keys for Creative Procrastination

For more great organization tips check out the99percent.com by Behance or productivity tips from Michael Hyatt.

Apple's 32-foot glass cube flagship store, Fifth Avenue NY. Apple Stores have four times the foot traffic than all MLB stadiums combined. (Image courtesy of Apple)

Today marks the tenth anniversary of the brick and mortar Apple stores that, in typical Apple fashion, brought refreshing innovation to the retail industry. I was one of the more than 1500 that waited in line for hours to see what was behind the big glass doors at Tysons Corner in McLean, VA.

Looking back 10 years at my 15 minutes of fame
While there several reporters interviewed me about the experience. Just for fun I did a Google search for my name and Apple and surprisingly my quotes appeared on sites like PCWorld, BusinessWeek, MacWorld and more…

“Nobody can do it like Apple does.”

“It’s a Gap with Apple products!”

“There’s an aesthetic quality to using a Mac. It only goes without saying that their store would be the same way.”

“People here actually know what they’re talking about.”

Why did I wait in line at a mall, usually the bane of my existence? To see a bunch of Apple products? To be welcomed by dozens of cheering and clapping employees? No, although both experiences were, well, amazing.

It happened one night at a CompUSA
Yes, I’m a fan boy, but back in 2001 I’d only been using Macs for about 5 years. The real reason had to do with the miserable retail experience of being a Mac user pre iMac days…back when you couldn’t read an article about Apple without the word “beleaguered” in it or hear rumors of a buyout by this or that company (Sony, Sun, Disney, etc.).

It came to a head for me one late night at a CompUSA (remember them?) searching for a printer cartridge for my Stylewriter. It wasn’t enough to tell me they were out of stock. The clerk had to call his buddies over for a laugh and literally taunt me for owning a Mac. “Does that company still exist?!” “I heard they just got bought by Sun?”

I slinked back home and read my MacAddicts. It was crazy, but typical. When market share determined shelf space and availability (buying online was just taking off) it was a frustrating chore to find knowledgeable people and the right product.

The Apple experience: branding at it’s best
That kind of experience didn’t match Apple’s brand promises. Well, maybe their tagline “Think Different,” but I’m pretty sure that’s not what they meant.

Fast forward to 2001. Apple begins opening retail stores (while others are closing and analysts think they’re crazy) so they can control the whole experience of owning a Mac, from purchase to product.

Everything they do from advertising, product placement, even packaging all supports Apple’s promises that the experience will match their brand’s reputation.

Does a strong brand really matter?
At Timbuktoons, Apple has always been a brand hero. Their devoted attention to the customer’s journey is an inspiration for the way we approach our work. It drives us to understand the spirit of a client’s brand and translate that emotion and information through animation.

Branding matters more than ever in a cluttered market where everyone is vying for attention. Companies like Apple have shown us that, yes, product, price, promotion and placement still count…but so does the experience.

For me, the Apple Store was the last piece of the puzzle to creating one of history’s most valuable brand leaders.

Here are a few insights that have turned us from free floating creative types to efficient and organized free-floating creative types!

There are not enough hours in each day so you know you will always have to procrastinate on something. The trick is to force yourself to choose to procrastinate on the small things in order to get things done.

Don’t clear up the small things first!
Resist the temptation- we often underestimate how the small things add up and seemingly never end (especially e-mail).

Choose to do the most valuable and important first.
Place value on the items you need to accomplish each day. The 80/20 rule states that 80% of what you do is the least valuable, while 20% is the most valuable.

Do it tomorrow!
Work on the e-mails and phone messages that came in yesterday and file today’s away for tomorrow. The benefit is that when your mailboxes are empty, you are done for the day regardless of what comes in! For example, I created a “Do Today” email box and a “Do Tomorrow” e-mail box and file e-mails accordingly.

This helps limit expectations others have of you. It is way too easy to get in a trap of pleasing people immediately. The problem is that our own work piles up until we have to work many hard and late hours to catch up.

Learn to say “no.”
Say no to the things that are not of high value to your goals. Look at your tasks as the following: Must, Should, Nice, Delegate, Eliminate.

Identify your constraints.
One major cause of procrastination is a feeling of inadequacy and a lack of confidence. What is holding you back from achieving your purpose quickly and well done?

There is no shortage of time management resources…just do a search on Amazon.com and you will be overwhelmed! These ideas are a mix of things that have worked for us at Timbuktoons, “Eat That Frog” by Brian Tracy, “Time Management for Creative People” by Mark McGuinness, “Do It Tomorrow” by Mark Forster, designcoachoncall.com, the99percent.com and a host of other tips and tricks from the world of personal productivity!

Saying "No" can sometimes be better than it sounds.

“No” is not a word we use very often at Timbuktoons…but we’re slowly learning to.

One of our core values is customer service. In fact, we pride ourselves on going farther for our clients because we want the work they do to succeed as much as our own. So you can see how that little two-letter word can sometimes feel like, well, a four-letter word.

Over the past year we’ve been fine-tuning our production pipeline through time and technology. It’s given us a better understanding of estimating, assessing and managing our projects. Most importantly it’s helped us not over commit, what we call keeping margin in our work life.

Of all the tweaks and overhauls to our processes, surprisingly, saying “no” to some things has been the most effective.

Yes, it’s hard to turn down a job (excruciating!). Yes, it’s scary to push back when the scope of a project changes (yikes!).

But we discovered that if we don’t sometimes we aren’t able to give our clients the quality and care that we expect of ourselves…and that’s definitely worth saying “no” to!

Recently we attended a Get MORE Productivity Teleforum through Design Coach On Call. The tips we learned helped so much, we asked Pam Bryan from DCOC for advice on learning to say “no” more often. Here are four great tips:

Learning to say NO
By Pam Bryan

Saying ‘no’ is one of the biggest timesavers in existence. Yet, we all say yes far too often.

‘Yes’ when a client asks for another minor round of revisions at no charge and with no change in the schedule. ‘Yes’ to a co-worker asking for help with a project. ‘Yes’ to the creative director when accepting a new project without confirming its priority.

The end result is always the same. More work than there are hours in the day and the productivity killer of trying to do too many things at once. Multitasking is a proven time waster, not a time saver, but that’s a conversation for another day.

Why do we fall into the yes trap? Let’s take a look at some reasons for our addiction to yes. Then we’ll get to the nitty-gritty and tips for learning to say no.

Three reasons for saying yes too often:

1. Fear. Perhaps we are afraid of losing a client; being thought of as not nice, or not a team player; or fear of losing our job. The ‘not nice’ fear also leads to guilt – the great manipulator.

2. A lifetime of saying ‘yes’ too fast becomes a habit. We say yes without pausing to think.

3. Related to number two: Not knowing how much of our time is already taken. If we don’t make a regular assessment of our commitments, we don’t even know how much time is available.

So we say yes too fast, happy to start an interesting new project, blissfully unaware we have just seriously over-committed ourselves. Getting in the habit of actually using a good estimating, time and project management tool really helps avoid this. (And will save time when you invoice a client, or estimate future projects)

Tips for Learning to Say NO
1. Break the ‘fast yes’ habit and replace it with the ‘buying time’ habit.

• Say “Thank you for asking me. Before I say yes, I’d like to understand a bit more about what you need.” Then ask questions to clarify the scope and urgency and if you are the only or best person for the job.
• Say “I’d love to, but first I’ll have to check with … my diary, my commitments for this week/month, my production manager, my creative director, my dog.”
• Ask, “If I could only do some of what you are asking, which part would it be?”
• Ask, “What piece of agreed work would you like me to bump to get this done for you?”

2. Keep it short.
In most cases it is ok to simply say, “I’m sorry I won’t be able to” or, “I’d love to, but I’m sorry it’s just not possible right now.”

Generally, the less said the better. We all tend to provide reasons for saying no, but this can back-fire in three ways.

• The other person may try to find a way to ‘solve the problem’ so they can get what they want.
• The other person might feel slighted because they believe they should be more important than the reason you have just given.
• Worst of all, you could be caught in a lie, if you have invented an excuse.
• You have every right to simply say no, and if pressed, you can repeat your simple no in different ways without getting into detail.

Of course, if it’s your boss asking, a simple no may not be a good idea. It is totally appropriate, or perhaps even mandatory, to ask your boss for confirmation on how this request fits in with your already agreed priorities. After all, it is your neck at risk if you do not get clear instruction on which prior deadline you have permission to ignore.

If it’s a client and you need to say no; you can soften it by helping them see other ways to meet their ultimate objective. Often just a bit of discussion of high-level objectives helps a client put things in perspective, and realize they can wait for your availability, or achieve the objective another way.

3. Fall back on policy.
‘No’ becomes depersonalized if you can say, “I’m sorry, it is against our policy to do so” or, “We have a policy of never taking on projects if we know we don’t have time to deliver the quality our clients deserve, or if it means we will be neglecting our current clients.”

This works much better if you consistently demonstrate the policy you are quoting. It’s part of being in integrity. It’s not always easy to stay in integrity, but well worth the effort for many reasons, including sometimes making it easier to say no.

4. Build the ‘no’ habit by starting small.
It is easiest to change behavior by taking baby steps first. Start by saying no more often with small things and people you’re comfortable with. This will build your confidence and start creating a habit.

A very good tactic is to start by breaking the ‘fast yes’ habit. You may still say yes, but not so fast, and you will be surprised to learn slowing down your response results in ‘no’ happening more often. This will give you the courage to choose ‘no’ and stick to it more often.

As my French neighbours say, ‘Bonne chance et bon courage.’
I know you can do it.

About Timbuktoons
Timbuktoons is a leading pre-production and 2D animation cloud based studio with customers all over the world. Founded in 2003 by animator and illustrator Todd Hampson, they specialize in creating family-friendly media for the broadcast, education and gaming industries.

About Pam Bryan, Design Coach On Call
Pam Bryan has over three decades of experience managing creative professionals. She helps her creative clients when they are ready to transform their business, get back on track and be productive, or simply feel as if the work and their creative energy have stalled. Visit designcoachoncall.com for more information.

Here are some of the tips, tricks and tools we’re using to tell our story for less than $50 a month…

Okay we admit it. We’ve made our fair share of marketing mistakes through the years. Here are a few “highlights” from the archives:

• Handing out hundreds of our flagship product as “freebies”
• Spending thousands on print ads that sold nothing
• Selling cheap at conferences only to lose money and lots of sleep
• Donating and discounting service work for empty promises and vapor projects

We’ve grown to see these as unexpected opportunities for changing the way we tell our story. They’ve pushed us to creatively think up “out of the box” and “there is no box” solutions for our marketing.

Marketing in three categories: Showing, Listening and Sharing.
We think about each marketing effort as falling into one of three categories: showing, listening and sharing. This is great for developing an efficient marketing calendar and for monitoring activities to keep your marketing well balanced.

Showing
These are the opportunities you have to show your value through your work and insights.

• Thought Leadership: Write and speak about things that offer new ways of thinking and raise questions about industry related items.
• Online Portfolios: Having a gallery of your latest work gives potential clients a sense of your style and experience with specific industries. There are many free options to choose from online such as Behance, Coroflot and Carbonmade.
• Speaking: Speaking at conferences is great for networking with other leaders and targeting a specific niche.
• Blog Posts: You’re not limited to posting only company related items. Educate, inspire and entertain.
• News Releases: Same rules for content as above. These are great for generating organic traffic, inbound links and better keyword ranking. Since these solutions typically cost, spread out releases monthly/quarterly according to your budget.

Listening
In this category you’re finding out what people are talking about online.

• Google Analytics: Analytics is a free solution for gaining insight into your website traffic.
• Google Reader: Reader is a free online tool that uses RSS feeds for reading news, blogs and more all in one place. We use it combined with Google Alerts for monitoring important keywords.

Sharing
These are marketing opportunities you have to give back.

• Rewards: If you have products, offer discounts or freebies through your various modes of communication.
• Inspiration: Many creatives share photos, sketches, quotes, etc. that inspire them and in turn they inspire others. We just setup an art blog for our studio for that specific purpose.
• Process Transparency: Showing how you approach creative challenges in your field (design, animation, marketing, etc.) is a useful educational tool.
• Donate Work: If there’s a cause you support, consider giving your time and talent to it. It can be a rewarding process and a fresh break from your normal production.

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