The rest of the Kitsune Noir web site has some great design inspiration.

This all began when I realized that a significant number of people either take the week off, or assume you do. So it frees up a considerable amount of time, and thus others expectations.

And that’s how Ketchup Week began. I’d love to find a sponsor for it — perhaps Heinz or another ketchup maker — but for now the emphasis is on personal productivity.

Catching up on your work doesn’t necessarily mean you are working — it might mean you are catching up on relaxing.

So make this Ketchup Week your best!

The New York Times has a sweet information graphic that provides an interactive look at how most people spend their time.

Steve Pavlina’s Personal Development for Smart People

www.stevepavlina.com

A site that became wildly popular after it was revealed that the owner, Steve Pavlina, makes a living off of ads on the site. Pavlina even tried the concept of Polyphasic Sleep to the amusement of his readers (but then discontinued after some time). Another good article is titled How to Become an Early Riser.

David Seah’s Better Living Through New Media

www.daveseah.com

Dave came up with an interesting idea a few years ago to create beautiful and useful productivity tools for himself. On paper. He calls them The Printable CEO, and shares his work with you for free and many people use them daily.

Andy Ferra, a designer in Phoenix I have had the pleasure of working with, wrote this about The Printable CEO:

One of the things I like about it most is it helps you define a clear system for prioritizing tasks and process to go through when you’re not being productive to help you get back on track.

Tip: Click on the small text link that says “Everything” to expand the view, or double click on the graph to zoom.

I got the link via Kottke.org.

Follow Minute Glass: http://twitter.com/MinuteGlass

Follow Chris: http://twitter.com/christingom

Follow Tom: http://twitter.com/tomchapin

So who’s going? Chris Tingom and Thomas Chapin. If you’re going to be there this year, and would like to meet up, just give us a shout. Thanks.

It’s Ketchup Week! The one week a year when you can ketchup on all of your work! It’s also the week where we’re going to be spending quite a bit of time working on our web app! Should be fun and productive.

Source: Flickr

Article: U.S. Currency and the Pictures Behind The Portraits

Simply enter your monthly salary and this tool will show you how much money you are earning in real time. It’s fun and could be depressing all at once. Click here to give it a try.

“Not so long,” said the Mexican.

“Then why didn’t you stay out longer and catch more?” asked the American.

The Mexican explained that his small catch was quite enough to meet his needs and feed his family.

“So what do you do with the rest of your time?” asked the American.

“I sleep late, fish a little, play with my children, and take a siesta with my wife. In the evening, I go into the village to see my friends, have a few drinks, play the guitar and sing a few songs. I have a full life.”

The American interrupted. “I have an MBA from Harvard and I can help you! You should start by fishing longer every day. You can then sell the extra fish you catch. With the extra revenue, you can buy a bigger boat.”

“And after that?” asked the Mexican.

“With the extra money the bigger boat will bring, you can buy a second boat and then a third boat, and then more until you have an entire fleet of trawlers. Instead of selling your fish to a middle man, you can then negotiate directly with the processing plants. Pretty soon you could open your own plant. You could leave this little village and move to Mexico City, Los Angeles, or even New York! From there you could direct your whole enterprise.”

“How long would that take?” asked the Mexican.

“Twenty — perhaps twenty-five years,” replied the American.

“And after that?”

“Afterwards? Well, my friend,” laughed the American, “that’s when it gets really interesting. When your business gets really big, you can start selling stocks and make millions!”

“Millions? Really? And after that?” said the Mexican.

“After that you’ll be able to retire, live in a beautiful place near the coast, sleep late, play with your children, catch a few fish, take siestas with your wife and spend your evenings drinking and enjoying your friends.”

***

The moral of the story… Know where you’re going in life — you may already be there.

• Techcrunch
• Y Combinator Startup News (Hacker News)
• Solution Watch
• CenterNetworks
• Mashable
• WorkHappy.net
• Wikkid Apps
• Founders At Work Blog
• Mapping The Web
• GigaOM
• Read/WriteWeb
• Found+Read
• Webware.com
• Vitamin

George Washington: Gilbert Stuart painted a number of portraits of George Washington. More than 100 in fact. One of the biggest no-nos in the design community is the horizontal flipping of photos of people. Because your face is not perfectly symmetrical, it is frowned upon as a design technique.

Despite this, our $1 bill contains a reversed picture of George Washington.

It’s really difficult to tell whether the above photo is the exact match. I have prepared two of the likeliest possible photos and matched them up so you can see how closely they match when reversed.

Abraham Lincoln: The easiest of the bunch to declare an obvious match.

Alexander Hamilton: The first Secretary of the Treasury (appointed by George Washington). The portrait is by Caroline L. Ormes Ransom.

Andrew Jackson: I bet you didn’t know that Grover Cleveland was on the $20 bill in 1914. Trivia: Jackson held an open house party where a 1,400 pound (635 kg) wheel of cheddar cheese was served as refreshment. The cheese was consumed in two hours. View full photo.

Ulysses S. Grant: This was the best photo I could find that is the exact same as the currency. It is obviously the same picture though, as you can see the hairline is the same.

Benjamin Franklin: Probably one of the coolest founding father. He wasn’t just a diplomat, but an electrical genius and very wise. This picture is inspired by an an engraving from a painting by Joseph Duplessis (1783). View full picture.

Bonus: The $2 bill is rarely used, but still printed (about 2% of all currency printed). The painting on the reverse side is John Trumbull’s “Declaration of Independence.”

Sources and larger pictures:

• Portraits & Designs at the U.S. Treasury web site
• Ulysses S. Grant
• Benjamin Franklin
• View a large painting of Washington
• Another large painting of Washington

This blog is devoted to our upcoming product which is a time tracking, project management web application.

Read More:

• Profile on Viddler
• Web 2.0 Expo Schedule
• BrainFuel (My main blog about web design)
• Tornado Design (Phoenix based web design consultancy)
• LinkedIn Profile
• Sign up for beta release announcement
• Videos from the Web 2.0 Expo
• While you’re here, grab our RSS Feed, thanks!

For now, the new name is “Track The Time Blog.” It’s simple and based on the domain name. Maybe something more unique will present itself. Post a comment if you have a name suggestion.

I’d like to focus on creating high quality content about:

• Personal productivity
• Time tracking tips
• Time management tips
• Working with customers and clients
• Employee / employer issues
• Money management
• Creating residual income streams
• Getting things done
• Work and life balance
• Book reviews
• As well as Roundup news

The true intention really for this blog is to build a community around these topics. It will take some time before we bring this blog into full focus, but I just wanted to let everyone know of the plan! Thanks.

I won’t do a lengthy review of his work, which is amazing. I saw a few pieces at the Desert Caballeros Western Museum in Wickenburg, AZ.

“Back to the Herd” — This mounted cowboy swinging his lariat is riding hard to bring a straying horned steer back to the herd. Olaf was a master at displaying the horse in action as portrayed in this painting.

I picked it up at the library today, and am sure you are familiar with a number of the songs. For example, The Magnificent Seven, The William Tell Overture (Lone Ranger Theme), and How The West Was Won, among others. Timeless classics that have been used in movies and television commercials.

My favorite part about it, is that it begins with cows mooing. I don’t think you can top that.