• All features, including the new ones recently introduced in v7.1, are fully represented, in a digital book that flips pages just like a paper book, but with computerized advantages like full searchability.
• It will be in glorious full color with clickable images that can be expanded to full size. No more squinting at small, greyscale screencaps on paper!
• The book is peppered with corresponding mini-screencasts (I dubbed them "QuickCasts"), so not only do you get descriptions of features and workflow procedures, you can see them in action.
  
• The book will be available for easy download, with the first six chapters available completely without cost, forever. If you decide you like it and want the rest, you can enter your payment details right inside the book, and the remaining chapters will instantly unlock.

Sharpen your screencasting arsenal at The Forge

Daniel's Guide to Screencast Productivity

How to keep your projects moving forward when meetings, endless feedback loops, and all of life's distractions bear down on you.

If you've been screencasting for any length of time, chances are you've come across at least a half-dozen hurdles for each and every project that block forward momentum like you wouldn't believe. These can be internal hurdles (aka YOUR fault), or external, as in, "Yes, Daniel, Mr. Lewis got your video, but is now on vacation / in wall-to-wall meetings / waiting on feedback from Ms. So-and-so." This article has tips for conquering (or at least ameliorating) both.

Let's start with the internal obstacles, those instances where the ball is decidedly in your court. Productivity is a gazillion dollar a year industry, and runs the gamut from what I would call organizational productivity, where organizations like Six Sigma strive to keep companies humming along, to personal productivity gurus like David Allen, to FranklinCovey day planners, not to mention hundreds of books and pieces of software.

A substantial portion of that industry's revenue used to come directly from my pocket. I bought software, add-ins, books, wall-sized planners, etc. until I realized that I was spending more time tweaking my "system" then actually accomplishing the stuff that was important to me. So I decided to simplify. I am in no way a guru, but let me share a few techniques that have stayed with me over the years, and perhaps they'll help you, too.

Below are a list of tips that start with general productivity, and then move on to screencasting specifically.

1. Make lists. From writing my book to tackling a 40-video tutorial project to handling everyday minutiae, a to-do list keeps stuff out of my imperfect brain and in a trusted system. I use software (specifically Evernote, in case anyone was curious), but a sheet of paper works, too. If possible, I try to hammer out my list the night before, and then change it as little as possible later on. Things I was unable to accomplish get bounced to the next day. If something stays on my list for more than a couple of days, then it's a surefire sign that it needs to be broken down into smaller parts.
   
   
2. Eat your frog. Brian Tracy spun a 128-page book around this concept. I'll sum it up for you in a sentence. Take your biggest, ugliest, smelliest task, the one you're reeeaally dreading, and knock it out as the very first order of the day. This seems like common sense, and to an extent, it is. But until I became fully conscious of this rule, I was constantly doing the small, unimportant stuff first, and feeling pretty good about it as I rapidly ticked off a couple of checkboxes on my list for the day. But in leaving the hard, critical stuff for another day, I was cheating myself out of true forward momentum just for the sake of handling expendable busywork. Personally, I always try to eat my frog before I even eat my breakfast. Some days, even if I accomplish absolutely nothing else, I'll still consider it a productive day.
   
   Of course, in order to eat your frog, you first have to prioritize. Your frog isn't necessarily your most unpleasant task, but it is your most important one. Unfortunately, these often coincide. Mercilessly order your tasks according to priority. This may mean putting a dull-as-powder tutorial screencast sanctioned by management ahead of the cool marketing spot you're doing for a colleague. It may mean putting paying gigs ahead of publishing your free newsletter (ahem). You know best what activities will benefit you and organization most in the long term. Try not to let minor distractions get in the way of those goals.
   
   
3. Always know and strive for your next step. It doesn't matter if it's folding laundry or penning the Great American Novel. Every project is comprised of a series of steps. Mom always says, How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time. For large projects, try to focus on the next bite rather than the whole elephant. At meetings, you should always ask "What's the next step here?" and if it's in your power, make sure it's done by the next time you reconvene.
   
   
4.  Keep lots of plates spinning. I generally have anywhere from 3 to 6 screencast projects going at any one time. Rather than focus on one project at once, I try to do work on at least a couple of them every day. In addition to keeping me on my toes, it also usually means that I'm never just twiddling my thumbs when waiting on someone for feedback. Even for single projects, I'll typically have several videos in varying stages of "doneness" so that my feedback is staggered.
   
   
5. Set aside large blocks of time for screencasting. No matter what phase of a project you're currently on, quality work takes time. For complicated projects, it can take a good half hour just to get my bearings. Screencasting is not the kind of activity you "pick at" when you only have a few spare minutes here, a few spare minutes there. I try to ensure I have at least two hours free before starting on anything.

Now, let's talk about a few common screencasting scenarios where things aren't within your direct control. Most of us creating screencasts out there are typically doing so for someone else, like a boss or a colleague, and we have to rely on their feedback to carry to process forward. Here's how to avoid endless feedback loops and the inordinate wait times that can accompany some projects.

1. Have a single source of feedback. This is incredibly important. If it is within your power, NEVER accept a situation where you're getting committee-based feedback. In addition to often contradictory requests coming from different persons, you'll also get a lot of superfluous requests, as every committee member will want to put their own "mark" on your project. And of course, there's always the odd straggler who holds up the entire process by not providing timely feedback. Get that monkey off your back. Set a single source of feedback, someone with enough authority to filter out the stuff you can safely ignore, and let THEM separate the wheat from the chaff. You'll be amazed at how much more quickly you can bring a project to completion.
   
   
2. Clarify expectations. Make sure that you agree with the people who commissioned your screencast what the responsibilities of each party are. Agree on a predefined scope, and make contingency plans for instances when the scope might need to change. The less time spent on the administrativa as the project progresses, the more time you can actually spend on your screencasting work.
   
   
3. Create scripts and storyboards, and solicit rigorous feedback on them. The amazing thing about screencasts is that every minute of seemingly effortless screen video takes an hour+ of careful planning and execution. A lot of colleagues, managers, and clients don't realize this. Have you ever heard something like "The screencast is great! Just change the background color and it'll be perfect," when said background color permeates the entire screencast? Or how about "The text is all wrong; we'll need to rewrite," when the script had already been approved two weeks before, and now the incredibly flawed video is complete? In both cases, there are two essential facts at play here:

a.  Most people have zero respect for your time.

b.  Problems are much easier to fix early in the process, before you record a single frame of video.

When you send off a script or storyboard for feedback, you need to stress that this document is the blueprint for this project/screencast, and how vitally important and time-saving it is that said document represent the organization's best possible work BEFORE it goes into production. Most folks, if given the option, will wait until they actually see a video in order to give you the kind of good, detailed feedback you should have been getting all along. After all, this doesn't cost them anything. You'll be the one sitting up late in your office incorporating all these late-game changes while everyone else is at home with their families. Don't let that happen to you.

Do YOU have a screencast productivity tip to share? Please send it on to me, and I'll happily post it in the next edition.

<shameless self-promotion>

dappertext LLC is a screencasting consultancy created and led by Daniel Park (that's me). Started in 2003, we've created hundreds of training and marketing screencasts for dozens of clients. Our client roster includes the likes of Pfizer, the Mayo Clinic, the Internal Revenue Service, Autodesk, The Cheesecake Factory, and Microsoft.

If you lack the time or inclination to produce quality screencasts for your organization, we'd love to help you out. We'll take your materials, create an utterly splendid narration script and storyboard, capture, edit, produce, and post. Zero hand-holding required.

And if you're a do-it-yourselfer, you may want to have us come onsite and train your team on Camtasia Studio and best practices for screencasting in general. 

For all things screencasting, give us a shout: info@dappertext.com.  

</shameless self-promotion>

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All of the above is ©2010 by Daniel Park, except in the case of articles by guest authors, who retain all rights to their own musings.

Feel free to send Daniel rants, raves, and other assorted bits o' feedback to info@dappertext.com.

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