What is your role?
I'm the Open Source Editorial Director for Apress. I spend my days helping authors create great books, talking tech with some of the brightest guys in the computing industry, and travelling to various technical conferences around the country. I'm also the author of several books, and regularly contribute to various publications such as TechTarget's SearchOpenSource.com. My leisure time is spent working on various development projects and slowly remodeling my home.
What is your computer setup?
I use two laptops, one Windows XP and the second running Ubuntu. When working from my home office, I use dual monitors, the second being a 17" flat-panel Samsung. Using dual monitors is by far one of the greatest productivity gains I've ever encountered.
What desktop software applications do you use daily?
The vast majority of my time is spent within just eight applications: Firefox, Outlook, Thunderbird, MS Word, MS Excel, Gaim, Skype, and Eclipse.
What websites do you visit every day?
Due to the enormous amount of research we do at Apress, I practically live on Google. However, my RSS aggregator consists of roughly 50 sites (mostly tech-related, including InfoWorld!) that I regularly monitor. Some of my favorites include SearchOpenSource, Techdirt, TechCrunch, CNET, Digg, Slashdot, SiliconValley.com, as well as all of the developer feeds for the Ruby, PHP, MySQL, PostgreSQL, Perl, and Python projects. My personal SugarCRM installation is also visited daily.
What mobile device or cell phone do you use?
I have a Motorola Razr and more recently, a Dell Axim X51. I bought the Axim after forgetting about a phone appointment, figured information overload had finally won, and accordingly I needed a babysitter. So far it's working out quite well, provided I remember to bring it with me.
Do you use IM?
Authors tend to use a variety of IM applications, and therefore I use Gaim (http://gaim.sourceforge.net) to consolidate accounts under one client. It's much more convenient than simultaneously running numerous IM clients.
Do you use a VoIP phone?
I use Skype extensively to communicate with my colleagues around the U.S. and in the U.K., and with authors all around the world. Up until recently I had Vonage installed at the house, but Skype's great SkypeOut service finally won me over and now I use it exclusively.
Do you have a personal organization/time management theory?
It's so easy to become sidetracked by matters that ultimately prove irrelevant to the bigger picture. Avoid succumbing to trivialities by ruthlessly prioritizing tasks, delegating matters more effectively handled by others, and learning from how others effectively manage their daily affairs. Also, I've always been keen on creating written lists, be it for grocery shopping or managing the lifecycle of a book project. These lists are updated either on an ever-present notepad or on a Wiki hosted on my personal web server. Finally, don't allow yourself to fall into the trap of doing multiple things at once. Constantly checking your inbox while attempting to proofread a document is a sure route to doing a poor job. Perform one task, and one task only, and then move on to the next.
Anything else?
Check out my (very new) blog on technical writing and other matters at http://www.wjgilmore.com/.
Previously:
How I Work: Steven Smith, CEO FiveRuns
How I Work: Lonn Johnston, President, Page One PR
How I Work: Matt Asay, VP of Business Development, Alfresco
How I Work: Brian Aker, Dir. Architecture, MySQL
How I Work: Mike Olson, VP, Oracle
How I Work: Peter Yared, CEO, ActiveGrid
How I work: Dave Rosenberg, The Yeti of Open Source
Posted by Dave Rosenberg on May 16, 2006 09:32 AM
