Folks have asked what I used to put together BBB Radio 1, so here are the important tools—
- Camtasia to record and edit the audios
Typically used to record screen captures, but has a handy feature that clears all background noise from the audio with one click. - InDesign CS2 to layout the ebook
Out of date, but it does the job. I typically use Word 2007 for documents, but InDesign was easier for the multi-column layout. - Microsoft PhotoDraw to make the little product badge
Until I learn Photoshop, I’ll continue to fall back on this ancient, familiar application when making simple graphics.
So that’s what I used to create the product, but Charlie’s planners and a simple spreadsheet were keys to creating the process. This is a good time to talk about that, since we just talked about how tiny tasks can finish big projects.
Time In, Time Out
BBB Radio 1 was the first product I’ve made with an ebook and narration audios, so I got organized by taking cues from Charlie’s Freelancer Workweek planner: I set up a simple spreadsheet with columns for Tasks, Estimated Time, and Actual Time.
Tasks
To start, I listed everything I’d need to do to create the product. Like Charlie suggests, each task began with a verb to nudge me into action. A small, but effective, woowoo thing…and there are practical uses for it, too.
The lone word “ebook” on my task list would offer little about what needed to be done. But a list of phrases like “create ebook template” and “write two exclusive articles” gave a handy step-by-step—hugely helpful when I was up to my elbows in Doing with no brainspace available for Deciding.
And when it came time to complete the Estimated Time column, it was far easier to figure time for a specific task than for a general term. Like: I had no idea how long it would take to make an entire ebook, but I figured I could create a nice ebook template in 2 to 4 hours.
Estimated Time
Task-based time limits are as valuable as deadlines. Seriously.
That’s why I allotted 20 hours for everything, then broke down those hours into time-per-task. It actually took 26 hours, but that’s okay. If I’d allowed unlimited time for each task I’d still be creating it instead of selling it…
I guessed at how long each task would take and tweaked until they totaled 15 hours. Then I added a non-task item named “Wiggle Room” for the tasks I forgot to add, the tasks I didn’t think to add, and tasks that took longer than expected. And also for shit happening, because it always does.
Actual Time
This was where the rubber met the road.
Before starting a task, I set a countdown timer for the estimated time. As you can guess, a glance at time ticking away was alarming and inspirational. If I was working when the timer ran out, I used a stopwatch to count up the extra time I used…equally alarming and inspirational!
The time on the stopwatch kept me honest and accurate about going into overtime. I rounded the extra time up to the next half hour and added it to my estimate to get the actual time. The difference between the two was really, really good to see task-by-task.
For one thing, I could see I was really good at estimating the time needed for stuff I do often, like writing a post. But for design tasks, like the ebook template, I always needed (and took) more time than I had.
Best of all, I’m well-prepared for next time, which was totally worth the time spent timing…
Next Time
There were a dozen small—but critical—tasks completed that weren’t originally accounted for, like fixing the audio files to display information in your MP3 player. Why do these little things need to be listed next time? Because collectively they chewed through two hours.
Thanks to helpful customer feedback, the product download page is flexible, both now and for next time. Notably, there’s a compiled ZIP file along with the individual files for download, so folks can pull down everything at once or pick and choose what they want.
Time estimates for future projects will be more accurate from the detailed task list plus the actual times. For example: I listed each shopping cart task separately, so I can safely ignore time spent on tasks I’ll never do again (e.g., the initial shopping cart setup) and focus on tasks I’ll do every time (e.g., creating a new product in the shopping cart).
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I hope this helps you with your projects! If you have questions or more ideas on estimating or organizing time, lemme know down below…
Photo credit: Jerry
