work | Ryan Sholin

Workspace

Nov 18, ’11 12:21 PM

Workspace: Great notes on a home office setup, including an adjustable desk that isn’t always standing or sitting, plus a “thinking chair” for lean-back time. From Trent Walton.

The Inbox Zero Thing

Jan 8, ’11 11:51 AM

I really, really, really, dislike “productivity” books. And gurus. And methods. And things that can generally be characterized as dogmatic.

But I like this.

My empty inbox.

I know I’m late to this party, but for years, I thought Inbox Zero was some sort of Getting Things Done-related madness involving a lot of folders and filters and whatnot.

But no, it’s not that complicated. And Merlin Mann does a great job of making it palatable, even digestible, to extend the metaphor a little deeper into the gut.

Start here, and read everything under the “Posts in the Inbox Zero series” heading before you start mashing your mouse. It won’t take you more than an hour or two to get started.

Everything that comes next

Sep 8, ’10 9:30 AM

Bit of an announcement to make, although if you follow me on Twitter, the first shoe of the pair dropped last night.

I’m joining Gannett Digital today, as Product Manager, Local Sites.

That means I’ll be working with more than 100 newspapers and broadcast news outlets, thousands of journalists, and helping them deliver information to a rather engaged audience of millions.

I like the sound of that.

For me, it’s a return to building and improving news sites on a large scale, but it’s also the same job I’ve always had in this business: Find, track, and develop the best ideas about the future of news, then hand them off to journalists packaged with the tools and training they need to put those ideas into action. And then keep bugging them about it until they do so.

For a variety of reasons, I left my position at Publish2 a few weeks ago. Thanks to all my friends there, plus everyone who made the job easy, especially the brilliant journalists in newsrooms across the country (and yes, around the world) who “got it” from the start, and were excited to try out everything I threw at them.

And now, onward, to everything that comes next.

Don’t do this

Jan 21, ’10 9:10 AM

Hugh MacLeod is certainly one of my favorite cartoonists around. I’ve bought business cards with one of his drawings on the back before, and I’m happily subscribed to his e-mail newsletter, where he’s gone the way of Jason Calacanis and cut down on blogging while ramping up (well, on and off) an old school broadcast-like e-mail blast.

Love you, Hugh. And my mom bought your book.

But folks, please don’t do this:

Seriously. Whatever you’re working on isn’t worth compromising your mental and physical health over.

Unless, it’s like, world peace or something, and even then, I’d recommend trying all the avenues that don’t lead to martyrdom before you go that route.

As for the rest of you, OK, maybe your mental health can come and go as it pleases, but certainly not the physical part.

That’s my advice to you.

Don’t die trying.

Really.

Time management: How an MIT postdoc writes 3 books, a PhD defense, and 6+ peer-reviewed papers — and finishes by 5:30pm | I Will Teach You To Be Rich

Nov 21, ’09 8:00 AM

The whole cult of time and task management actually serves the opposite of its purpose for me, personally: It makes me feel guilty, as if I’m putting off becoming more efficient with my time.

Time management: How an MIT postdoc writes 3 books, a PhD defense, and 6+ peer-reviewed papers — and finishes by 5:30pm | I Will Teach You To Be Rich

Comments Off

Onward: My new job at Publish2

Apr 23, ’09 4:23 PM

I am extremely excited to let you know that I’m starting a new job on Monday, as Director of News Innovation at Publish2. I’ll be working for Scott Karp, who I’ve been following since I started blogging back in 2005, and with a team of top-notch online news thinkers, evangelists, and developers.

What does a Director of News Innovation do?

I’m expecting to work with newsrooms and journalists across the media world to get them the tools they need to bring the best of the Web to their readers, and maybe even to bring the best of their readers to the wider Web. Sound good?

Well, help me out. Let me know what you think of Publish2, how you’ve used it, and what you’d like to see in the P2 toolkit that isn’t there yet.

Here’s my favorite recent Publish2 story, about how a group of disparate news organizations in Washington state used the service as a tool for collaborative curation during floods this winter.

I can’t wait to get started. Matter of fact, if you’re at BCNI Philly this weekend, feel free to throw your ideas about Publish2 at me in person.

+++

To answer an obvious question, yes, I’ve left my job at GateHouse Media, effective today.

I had a great 19-month run with GateHouse, doing my best to give journalists at more than 125 newspapers the tools and training they needed to serve their communities.

Any and every success that I had there belongs to the incredible team of developers, the awesome revenue team, and the online news innovators I worked with, including Howard Owens — who hired me and has since left GateHouse to put his money where his mouth is at The Batavian — and Bill Blevins, the VP who Howard reported to, whose door was always wide open to new ideas and possibilities. Thank you.

+++

Onward. I’ll be spending a great deal of my time over the coming days and week wrapping my head around how Publish2 has been used so far and where it’s going. Let me know what you think of it, here, on Twitter, or wherever you see me. I’m easy to find.

Thanks, Howard.

Feb 22, ’09 11:15 AM

As you may or may not have heard by now, my boss at the office, Howard Owens, has moved on.

I just want to take a moment to publicly say thanks to Howard here, and more than obviously, to wish him the best in whatever endeavor other people might call his “job” next.

Personally, I happen to know that what Howard calls his “job” is more of a 24/7 thing than a 9 to 5 thing, and it has everything to do with the transition of journalistic power in small towns and neighborhoods from the press to the community, and very little to do with where his paycheck comes from, or the sign on the door.

So: Thanks, Howard. And good luck.

(Of course, I’ll continue to work with Howard on Wired Journalists and other projects across the Web. This just means I don’t have to do what he says quite as often. )