Time value is an underrated concept. We spend so much time committing ourselves to such meaningless engagements. The problem is that most people live through the eyes of tunnel vision with a narrow focus on things that will only have a short-term impact.

How does one devalue their time? There are many examples. Excessive social outings, trying to tackle tasks that you can pay someone else to do, too much entertainment, driving, email, doing things inefficiently, and so on.

When valuing time, there are three primary things I try to weigh:

1. Time Commitment
2. Opportunity Cost
3. Level of Satisfaction

Measuring time commitment is simple. How much time will I need to dedicate toward this task or outing? Opportunity cost is also pretty basic stuff. What am I giving up by spending my time on this certain task or outing? For example, I could spend two hours working out or I could spend those two hours reading a technical book to increase my knowledge. Measuring what is more valuable is difficult, though, which is why I include the third item. Level of satisfaction helps me determine how fulfilled the task or outing will make me feel relatively speaking. Will I be happier if I worked out or if I read the book?

The idea of valuing your time extends beyond personal life and should play an important role in business as well. In business, there are real costs and real opportunity costs that may be more measurable as opposed to personal life.

The insane thing is that all of this is straightforward and doable, but a majority of people can’t manage it. That’s why it’s an advantage to you to value your time.

Entitlement is one of the most dangerous threats I see to creativity, human development, and even happiness. It will destroy the concept of individualism, inhibit hard work, and destroy passion.

But what exactly is entitlement? Entitlement is the process by which a group with more power loses confidence in a lower group. The more powerful group then sees it as a responsibility to ensure the lower group’s survivability. It does this by giving the lower group, at no or very little cost, the things they want. The operative word is "want." It’s not a discussion of need, but want.

Entitlement is destroying all that is good about free will because it removes the need to think for yourself. No longer will people be rewarded for the success of thinking. There are no rewards. You want something? Here you go.

The barriers are disappearing. The great, and most certainly arduous, path people once took to achieve something is eroding. Most people think that it’s the things they want that will better them. It’s not. It’s the path they took to get those things that truly empowers them.

With this path gone, there’s nothing. People will cease to develop. In a sense, a class of drones will be created who complete the minimum and expect the maximum. Individualism will no longer exist because it’s by taking the path toward a goal that our individualistic nature thrives.

Entitlement is only one half of the overall problem. The other side consists of the enablers. The more powerful groups who facilitate the loss of individualism, who destroy the path that was once admired, and who try to promise the world to people who are now being cultivated to have no desire to do anything with it.

So I finally caved and installed Apple’s latest operating system, Leopard. I guess I’m still behind.

Time and time again, I am told of the miraculous fruits bore by the ability to successfully multitask. I don’t doubt that being able to juggle many tasks at the same time can be great, but I do doubt the quality of output.

Multitasking has its place. Simple tasks such as talking on the phone and doing laundry, for instance, are both pretty basic functions that our brain can handle at the same time (well, it depends on the phone conversation). So multitasking is awesome for that. One could argue that’s a great skill to have.

Multitasking can also be wholly inappropriate. Any task that involves intense concentration on a particular subject should not be multitasked. This should be obvious. For example, when designing a web site, that’s all I focus on. No phones, no emails, no distractions. The design of the web site requires the majority of my cognitive functions and that’s where I’ll direct my attention.

To try to multitask complex or difficult activities is dangerous. In my view, doing so spreads your brain power over a set of activities thus reducing the attention supply needed for any one task. Complex tasks often call for the need of quality output. You’re taking on the complex task in order to do a good job with it (well, that could be arguable). By diluting your attention with other tasks, the quality of each task you’re focusing on diminishes.

I could reference countless scientific studies, but I don’t think I need to.

We live in a society governed by rules. We have developed laws and societal norms that guide our actions. And it’s with rules, laws, and norms that we have progressed through the despairs of humanity.

However, at what point are we ruled by rules? How invested must we become in expected behavior?

I’m a strong believer in policy and procedure. Policy and procedure, just like rules and law, makes life less chaotic. It’s when all of these rules impact creativity and spontaneity that I have a problem.

Rules to an extreme will destroy creativity. When people feel locked to a set of actions, they will no longer take risks. But without rules there will be chaos. It’s about carefully balancing rules and choice. The people and organizations who can do it win.

As a member of the web design industry, I’ve been immersed in the going-ons of various industry trends, practices, and activities. For my own benefit, I think it’s critical to assess and analyze the state of the web design industry.

This is by no means a comprehensive list of everything that is happening in the industry. To make such a list would be too exhaustive. Instead, I boiled my list down to the few items that I think will have an impact on the industry within the next six to 12 months.

I would also impress upon those not in the web design field to skim through this. Many of these trends extend beyond web design into other industries. The web is tying things together. To operate successfully in most fields today, you must have a solid understanding of how the web works. This list could help you direct where you need to improve your own knowledge.

Whenever I start a new web project, I want to conceptualize, and fast. Ideas seem to flow at a rapid pace in short intervals, making it hard to capture everything. I’m a huge proponent of rapid prototyping. I want to take as many of those ideas as I can, build a quick prototype, take a step back and then carefully analyze everything.

The best ideas are born in those critical few moments that you rapid prototype. And over time, those ideas can be melded into something that is truly incredible.

Sometimes the old Facebook friends list gets to a point where it needs to be weeded out. Instead of spending the time to go through each friend to decide whether or not they deserve to stay on the list, I’ve come up with my own tried-and-true tactics for reducing burdensome friend counts.

Yes, I have seen these tactics employed on Facebook with phenomenal success. I’ve personally removed friends based on #4, so I highly recommend that tactic for a quick weeding.

So..here we go, my top then, proven methods for a successful weeding operation.

One of the biggest pains in web design and development projects is getting the content you need. Content is no simple task. It needs to professionally crafted in a fashion that will communicate a meaningful message to visitors. The big problem, though, is that many web design clients just don’t deliver content at all. Or, at least not in a timely manner.

Below is my list of the top 50 tactics I use to assess the need for content, collect the content and communicate with the client about the content. This list has helped me finish more projects on time and develop web sites that not only look good, but deliver a strong message as well.

I like Facebook, I really do. But the whole ordeal over their Terms of Service was a joke. Even worse, Facebook’s response was confusing, and at best, lame.

First off, Facebook runs a service that should pretty much be hands-off. Beyond a few interface changes, I don’t really want to hear from Facebook. A controversial Terms of Service is not something I want to be concerned with. Unless a change is absolutely vital, don’t do it or bother users with it.

Facebook also needs to do a better job of understanding its user base. The new Terms of Service probably made perfect sense to Facebook management, but obviously the user base didn’t understand. If Facebook couldn’t figure that out, what else are they missing?

Finally, the response of pulling the new Terms of Service off and reverting to the old one was confusing. I understand the need to quell a potential user rebellion, but I guess the new terms really weren’t that important. Facebook’s most recent response has been to open their blog up to comments. Big deal. This should have been done from the beginning. Closing off your blog to your own users seems pompous and uncaring. But what’s funny is that when they did open the floodgates, the first post received over 2,000 comments (many of which were puerile and annoying).

So, in the end, Facebook is back on the old terms and now has given the promise to listen to its users by letting them post comments on their blog. Can I really expect someone at Facebook to sift through 2,000 comments? I doubt it. They don’t even read their emails (which is a whole different matter).

User rebellions seem to be a new phenomenon. Social networking services like Facebook are being held hostage by their users. And I must say this is a good thing. Digg has had a few rebellions and I think it served them well. When users are in control, users get what they want. And when users get what they want, the service improves. If only companies like Microsoft were held hostage by their users, it would be a whole different world.