8 tips for a kickass Saturday at work

I’m just going to come out and say it - I love working on the weekend. Maybe it’s because I was trained for it growing up in the restaurant business (weekends = $). Maybe it’s because my high school had Saturday classes or because weekends meant game-day in college. Or maybe it’s just because weekends generally mean no meetings, no phone calls, no interruptions. Yeah… that might have something to do with it…

But not everyone’s wired like me and it’s sometimes hard to motivate to work on a Saturday, so here are some pro tips for having a productive day at work on the weekend.

1. REST

Get sleep on Friday night. For me, that means 8 hours. I function fine on 6, but 8 really has me rested and ready to charge hard. Doesn’t hurt to take it easy on the booze Friday night, too. 

2. REFLECT

Take some time to get inspired with some reading, reflection etc to get your brain warmed up and ready to go. It’s just good for you. I started today with an interview of Jack Dorsey.

3. FUEL UP

Get a good healthy meal in you so you won’t get hungry easily later. Bring dinner/next meal with you. Get a giant jug of water so you don’t have to get up for a drink.

4. CAFFEINATE

I know everyone has their struggles with caffeine. I generally stay away from it, but if you don’t consume it daily, it is a great way to supercharge when you want to crank.

5. CHANGE YOUR SEAT

I love our office and my usual standing desk, but today I opted to sit in the engineering room (thanks Henry). If you don’t have that option, then hit a coffee shop or something. The change of setting is fun and pulls you away from the crap at your desk that can distract.

6. IGNORE

Your phone. IM. Etc. Duh.

7. EXERCISE

Get some. Sometimes I get this done in the morning, though I prefer later in the day as a way to get me up and out of my seat and get the blood flowing for a second wind. 

8. TIMING IS EVERYTHING

Answering email on weekends is awesome because almost no one responds right away and usually by Monday the email doesn’t need a response. I also like to do big whiteboarding exercises on the weekend when no one can interrupt and influence.

—

None of this is rocket science and none of these will fix a job that you hate, but most of us startup people love what we do already, so this stuff should be fun, exciting, challenging, hawtsome anyway. And despite my lack of a degree in rocket science, I think these tips will probably work any day of the week (except maybe changing your seat… I dunno if Henry would like me stealing his seat during the week).

Yours in productivity,

reece

NYC Tech Blood Drive - Round 3

For anyone who’s still wondering if we here at Shelby.tv actually bleed video, or if Myles is really a cyborg, you can get your answer on February 11 when we host the next NYC Tech Blood Drive.

Besides THE CHANCE TO SAVE A LIFE, we’ll be hanging out watching Shelby, talking tech, and maybe even playing a little ping pong once our blood pressure comes back. 

So sign up. Seriously. Takes two seconds. Saves a life. Do it.

joeyevoli:

This time around will be the Valentines Day edition of the NYC Tech Blood Drive.  It’s being held on Feb 11, from 11am - 5pm at the ShelbyTV offices, located at 110 E. 23rd Street, 10th floor.

For those have you who don’t know, the blood drive is something I’ve been organizing since Sept 2011, and it’s something I hope to make permanent in the NYC Tech community.  I’ve written a blog post on why I started it, and why I think everyone should come out and donate.

It’s really been one of the best things I’ve done over the past few months.  It’s great to see all the people who show up and donate.  It’s a mix of people I’ve known for a while, and people I’m just meeting for the first time.

It’s a fun day, and once the day is done, it’s a great feeling to give back in whatever way we can.  It’s yet another reason why I love the NYC Tech scene, and I hope to be a part of it for a long time.

Sign up for the next drive here.

Relativity of speed

This morning I decided our ugly office door had been an ugly office door for too long. I told Lauren I wanted to paint it black and get a Shelby sign made for it.

By the time I got out of our board meeting, Lauren had a sweet concept for how to lay-out our logos (ours and our officemates). By the time we finished eating and a quick game of ping pong, Vincent had the logos all done up… oh, and he had a friend with a laser cutter who could make us a stencil. Sweet.

Dan finished his day by hitting Home Depot for some supplies we needed and picked me up some paint. An hour later, my hands are covered in paint, but our door is painted black and ready for some sweet logo action tomorrow.

This story in and of itself, isn’t that interesting… but Lauren’s comment to me as I applied the second coat stood out…

“I’m still amazed at how fast we get shit done. At [my old job], there would’ve been a meeting to decide IF we should paint the doors, and THEN what color and so on…” 

Lucky for me, I never worked for a big company. I don’t know anything about setting up planning committees. I’ve never had more than one person to ask permission to do something (and they usually just said, “yeah, don’t even ask next time.”)

So for me, this feels pretty normal. For Lauren, it is light-speed (and she loves it). Point is, speed is relative. And sure, I’m talking about painting a door - a trivial decision - but the speed with which we executed was awesome, that’s how it should be in a startup and that’s how we roll when it comes to decision making in general.

Shelby.tv is going dark to protest SOPA

Last week, when Myles asked the team if we planned to blackout Shelby.tv today, I was proud when everyone around the table said “F*** yeah.” 

shelbytv:

By now, we’ve all heard about SOPA (booooooooo!). Shelby.tv is joining sites such as Wikipedia and Reddit to protest this dangerous bill, and will go dark tomorrow (January 18th) to show just how sad the web would look under SOPA. (And a world without Shelby is a sad, sad world.)

If SOPA passes, the U.S. Department of Justice and copyright holders could seek court orders against websites that host or link to user-uploaded content that potentially infringes on copyrights, and block those sites from search engine results, ad networks, and more. The bill would also make unauthorized copyrighted content streaming (such as video playback) a crime punishable by up to five years in prison.

If you haven’t done so already, contact your representatives and ask them to keep the web open. Don’t wait any longer.

In solidarity,

Team Shelby