In addition to working on client sites, I’ve been looking for a project of my own to continually work on. After starting dating many side projects – from TribeFind to GUIFree, the 1×52 project, VisualizeFit to TimeCritter and many others – I’ve finally found the one I’m marrying. It even fits under my YRB tagline, my goal – web development for good! I’m happy to announce the creation of Crittr.co.

Crittr.co is a personal analytics and growth tool, designed to give you feedback on your life in a playful, fun way. I’m currently beta testing, reaching out slowly to more and more people as we work out bugs, and make it incredible. Want to test it?  Request an invitation here.

I’ll be blogging primarily on Crittr.co now – here’s the link – so follow me over there! At some point, this YRB blog is likely to get replaced with something new, as the Crittr.co blog is a better fit for the things I talk about here. Cheers!

When setting my weight loss goals, I really didn’t know if I needed to drop 10, 20, or even 0 pounds (converting fat to muscle) – and so I googled for pictures of athletes in what I thought was my ideal weight range.

Inspired by this quest, I’ve just launched a new project – VisualizeFit.com – where you can search by your height, gender and weight to see pictures and stories of real people who have reached their fitness goals. Hop on over to VisualizeFit here.

To make this tool amazing, I’m looking for more inspirations! If you have a success story – whether you’ve dropped 10 pounds or 100, gained weight from an unhealthfully low weight, or built muscle, I want you! Show us your pictures and tell us how you did it. Or, if you have feedback on the site, I’ve love to hear that! Thanks!

Looking for a job? Good luck. Heading off for a soccer match? Good luck. About to give a performance? Good luck. Just coached a friend into smoothing over an argument with a significant other? Good luck, hope it goes well.

On a Facebook version of Family Feud, participants were once asked to list the times that people most often said good luck. Here are the answers:

1. Casino
2. Sporting event
3. Wedding
4. Performance
5. Hospital
6. Interview
7. School

The problem? The platitude, when taken literally, implies that the person is not already good enough, or is not in full control of the outcome. It introduces doubt. As Professor Dumbledore says, in his “not-so-humble-opinion”, “words are our most inexhaustible source of magic”. So why not take the opportunity to fully empower the person you’re talking to?

I’d love to have a repertoire of several short uplifting alternatives to good luck, that affirm the competence and already-greatness of the recipient. Alternatives that I’ve thought of are:

1. Go be you!
2. I’ll be thinking of you
3. Break a leg
4. Knock ‘em dead
5. Have fun
6. Do your best
7. Rock on
8. Go get ‘em!
9. I’m sending good thoughts your way
10. I know you’ll rock it!
11. I’m here for you
12. Wishing you well
13. Hoping for the best
14. For a game, performance, interview: Have a great _________ !
15. At the hospital: Hope your results are good. I’m here for you.
16. At the casino: hope your cards run hot!
17. At a wedding: Hope all the vendors come through smoothly – please let me know if there’s anything I can help with. Have fun!
18. Before a test, interview: Just relax so you can remember what you’ve learned. You’ll be great!

Being specific about what you intend to the recipient is best. #16 is still wishing luck, though it’s much better because it’s clear about what kind of luck we’re wishing, rather than letting ‘good luck’ potentially get interpreted as wishing them luck in playing the game (and doubting their skill). At the same time, it’s nice to have an arsenal of quick alternatives at hand, too, for short conversations and situations where we don’t know much detail. What additions do you have to this list?

In my Web Divas Club last Fall, where I taught middle schoolers how to build websites, most students filled their pages with the latest news on Trey Songz, themselves and fellow classmates.

One clever student did something different – his home page entirely consisted of the word ”stuff”, copied and pasted a bajillion times. When we instructed him to make a second page and link it – an “About Me” page – he wanted to make viewers work for it. He daringly figured out how to link it to one of the “stuff” words – and then asked me to help him make it so that the browser didn’t highlight the link. Haha.

He had a point.

I’m a minimalist – well, at least compared to my former packrat self – and I’ll keep pushing it til I figure out where that limit is. Believe me, I’d love to keep everything, if it didn’t cost me anything. I can find a use for all kinds of things people would call junk. But, keeping stuff comes at a price:

1. The more stuff you have, the more time it takes to find things. As illustrated by my Web Divas friend here.
2. Stuff adds mental clutter. Every time you walk by some object you don’t truly, truly love – an unfinished project, maybe something you bought on sale that you didn’t really love - do you get a pang of guilt? Like you should be doing something with that thing, or that the thing shouldn’t be there at all? That thing is constantly sending you freqent teeny feelings of inadequacy. Pitch it.
3. The more stuff you have, the less you can appreciate it. Less is truly more.

My friend from the Web Divas was trying to make us work to find his link among the stuff. But for when we prefer to find the things we truly love quickly, it’s much easier when we hold on to fewer things in the first place.

And now for a live demo – find the link in the stuff!

stuff stuff stuff stuff stuff stuff stuff stuff stuff stuff stuff stuff stuff stuff stuff stuff stuff stuff stuff stuff stuff stuff stuff stuff stuff stuff stuff stuff stuff stuff stuff stuff stuff stuff stuff stuff stuff stuff stuff stuff stuff stuff stuff stuff stuff stuff stuff stuff stuff stuff stuff stuff stuff stuff stuff stuff stuff stuff stuff stuff stuff stuff stuff stuff stuff stuff stuff stuff stuff stuff stuff stuff stuff stuff stuff stuff stuff stuff stuff stuff stuff stuff stuff stuff stuff stuff stuff stuff stuff stuff stuff stuff stuff stuff stuff stuff stuff stuff stuff stuff stuff stuff stuff stuff stuff stuff stuff stuff stuff stuff stuff stuff stuff stuff stuff stuff stuff stuff stuff stuff stuff stuff stuff stuff stuff stuff stuff stuff stuff stuff stuff stuff stuff stuff stuff stuff stuff stuff stuff stuff stuff stuff stuff stuff stuff stuff stuff stuff stuff stuff stuff stuff stuff stuff stuff stuff stuff stuff stuff stuff stuff stuff stuff stuff stuff stuff 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Cheers to decluttering and beyond! What ways have you found to let go of stuff, and make room for more life?

What’s the stuff that all the greatest things in life are made from? What do you need the most, to live your dreams?

(hint: it’s not money.)

In February, I took the challenge to inspire the audience of Ignite Raleigh 3 in 5 minutes and 20 slides. I talked about lifestyle design, and introduced its thought leaders – Tim Ferriss, Chris Guillebeau, Leo Babauta and more (check out the resources below). Check it out here:

Make time to dream.

Time is the currency of the new rich. It’s one of the few (and maybe the only) completely nonrenewable resources that we have. If you really want your dream life, set aside time to plan and dream so you know what you want, and can figure out how to get it.

Surround yourself with people and influences that support your goals.

Your network is your influence – surround yourself with the influence you want. If you’re in the Raleigh/Durham area, I have a Meetup group just for this – the Triangle Lifestyle Designers, come join us!

Surrounding yourself with podcasts, blogs, and books that influence you in the direction you want is fantastic, too. Here are some resources I recommend:

• Tim Ferriss – The Four Hour Workweek
• Chris Guillebeau – Blog & The Art of Non-Conformity (coming soon: The $100 Startup)
• J.D. Roth – Get Rich Slowly
• Gretchen Rubin – The Happiness Project
• Leo Babauta – Zen Habits
• Greg Berg - Radio Enso

Take action!

What can you do today to get just one step closer to your dream life? Do it, right now! What can you do today that scares you?

Ignite Raleigh is part of the Ignite Show - events worldwide where people inspire with 5 minute lightning talks on all types of subjects – from craft beer, to physics and technology. I’d bet there’s one near you!

To celebrate the new YRB redesign, something delightfully different…

It’s the magical Yellow Rubber Ball Giveaway! Enter below to win a 75cm yoga ball, in bright sunshiny yellow. Use it as an exercise tool, a desk chair, or just a happy household decoration. There are lots of options in the contest to get entries – woohoo, check it out below! PS, this contest is powered by Rafflecopter – how cute of a name is that? And just in case you haven’t seen the amazing ROFLcopter, it’s YouTube Time:

My ROFLcopter goes swa swa swa swa…

Now come back and enter to win a BIG yellow rubber ball!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Actually, YRB got a lot more than a makeover – check out the new blog and photoblog! I’ve merged these into Yellow Rubber Ball from other domains, so that YRB is a central place to see everything I do – including YRB development projects, which I’ll be adding to over time. Check back to see what I’m up to!

You can also see my client portfolio here, and learn about the website development services I offer here. I do primarily WordPress and BuddyPress sites – everything from the design to the development, custom plugins and widgets. I also build mobile and web apps.

Finally, I’ve added social links at the top – links to Twitter, Facebook, and more – please connect with me on your favorite network, I’d love to hear from you!

Have any feedback, suggestions? I’d love to hear it below!

Did you know that 7% of all people visit your site  just for the Easter eggs? Surprisingly, many of your most serious website visitors will choose your site simply by the novelty of the surprises included. Easter egg development is a serious business.

And it’s BIG business, too! The ROI of Easter eggs has been rigorously tested again and again, and consistently results in 7% more traffic. If your website generates $3000/month in revenue, that’s $210 more per month you could be earning, for just the minuscule investment of developing easter eggs!

Due to high demand, I’ve decided to add Easter egg development services to Yellow Rubber Ball. The product comes in two different packages:

Package 1: The Crazy Wabbit

This package is for the pros! If your app has more than 4 screens or 10 levels, this is the package for you! With this package, you’ll receive:

• 99+ different easter eggs
• Analytics tools for tracking the effectiveness of the easter eggs
• Unlimited lifetime support

Package 2: Tricks are for Kids

This is our starter Easter Egg package. If your app has 4 different screens or less, or you’d like to test the Easter Egg strategy for yourself before committing, this is a good pick. With this package you’ll receive:

• 10 unique easter eggs
• Analytics tools for tracking the effectiveness of your easter eggs

As you may have guessed – April Fool’s! Though wouldn’t this be the coolest career ever?

So, I probably won’t be writing as much this month, but I’ll be sharing with you what I do. Today, it’s Project VDay! Inspired by my Valentine’s Day Flash Mob - which was a huge success, by the way, that I need to write about! – I’m hoping to organize people around the country to hand out valentines to strangers on Valentine’s Day 2013. So, check out the site, and join the mailing list if you’d like to be notified as this progresses!

Happy Spring,

Katie

You’ve started a project where you volunteer somewhere new, every week of the year. Tell us more about the V52 project, and what inspired you.

So I was sitting on a lounge chair & reading a book on a New Year’s cruise to the Carribean this past December. I put the book down in my lap as my mind wandered to thinking about the year ahead, and how I planned to live my life more intentionally this year. That thought had been very present in my head for the past few months after attending Chris Guillbeau’s World Domination Summit in July 2011, which helped me refocus on the priorities in my life.

I’ve long had an interest in volunteering in my community, and occasionally find projects here and there to commit a few hours to, but year after year, I haven’t  really been able to get in the groove and didn’t really feel like I was accomplishing much or felt like I was making a meaningful contribution.

Within a matter of minutes, this idea literally came together in my head: Why not set a really big goal for myself that I can commit myself to for the year? I’ve been thinking about volunteering for a while now. Why not do a new volunteer project every week of the year, one different and unique experience a week?

The idea of having this structure for myself for an entire year nearly took my breath away. It seemed far more achievable when I packaged the idea as 52 weeks of volunteerism as one big goal for the year. Within minutes, V52 was born!

What’s been your favorite volunteer project so far, and why?

This week, I’m starting my 10th week of the year, so I feel like I’m still just gearing up and there’s so much more to experience and learn. My favorite project to date has been weeding and hoeing at the Sweetwater Organic Community Farm in Tampa. It was very gratifying to get my hands dirty, literally crawl in the dirt (the easiest way to weed, in my opinion), and immediately see that I made a difference. Not to mention it was a lot of fun.

What have you learned from the V52 project that’s surprised you?

I’ve already learned so much in just a few months time, and that’s in and of itself very surprising!

1. There are SO MANY organizations that are worthy and SO MANY they serve who need the help.
2. Even though there are so many needs and so many organizations, it is REALLY hard to find a project to do at the last minute.
3. You can be a volunteer by lending your hand to anyone who needs you. You can do office work for a non-profit organization. You can hand out sandwiches to the homeless on the street. You can help a senior adult go grocery shopping. One recent weekend, I helped one of my co-workers pack moving boxes. There are just so many ways you can help, it doesn’t take that much time, and it’s extremely gratifying!

I’m looking forward to more surprises and learning so much more during the next 42 weeks!

What would be your advice to someone who wants to start their own V52 project?

Just start. Even if it’s just a monthly commitment, or six times a year – that’s still a lot! Think about what organizations you’d like to learn about your community, or people who know who might need help, reach out to them and offer your help. Any time you have to offer will be appreciated. And keep track of your progress – it’s fun to reflect on your experiences!

What’s your biggest, wildest dream in life?

I’d like to visit every National Park in the United States. Not so wild actually, but a big goal of mine. See, there’s that structure again!

What’s your silliest dream?

To open a chocolate chip cookie food truck and sell warm, gooey, deliciousness to chocolate chip cookie fans across America.

If you had a life motto, what would it be?

Just be kind. How easy is that?

Back to V52: is there anything you’d like help with, thoughts to leave us with?

After visiting just a few sites, it’s became really obvious that the organizations that I am volunteering for have needs beyond just needing an extra set of hands. The foster care program needed more toys for the kids to play with. The cafe for the hungry needed more peanut butter and jelly. The shelter for women and children need more new books for the kids to read. So now I want to take things to the next level; I’m actually looking for a sponsor or two so I can make donations of items that any of these 52 organizations I visit may need. Any willing participants out there? Let’s talk!

Follow the V52 project on Facebook, or connect with Lisa on Twitter. What’s been your favorite volunteering experience so far?