When I find blogs in enjoy it’s inevitable that I want to know more about the person behind it. I’ll read their about page. And I always hope to see their photo. I think the photo helps me connect even more.

Of course I could make it easier for you to find a photo of me on my blog (that’s coming soon, btw). So when my good friend David Airey started his Face Behind the Blog Collection, I knew I wanted to join in.

David writes:

Putting a face to the name of someone you haven’t met helps recognition and adds a more personal feel to your conversations.

What photograph shows you in a light we don’t often see through your blog?

A few others have joined in so far.

• Gayla at Mom Gadget
• Char at Essential Keystrokes
• Robyn at Practical Blogging
• Paul at Reflections
• Rob at 2Dolphins
• Zep at The In-Sect
• Ingo at Stixster
• Stevie at Lost In Cyberspace
• The Paper Bull

So now it’s my turn. Below I’ve placed a few photos of me, my wife and my kids. I figure since nothing about me is complete without my family, you should meet them as well.

That’s us this past Christmas (2006). Clockwise from top left: My wife, Sabira; me; my 3-year-old daughter A’esha; and my 1 year-old son Ahmed.

Sabira and I married after knowing each other three weeks. The night we met it took about 30 minutes for us both to realize we’d spend the rest of our life together.

If you’re wondering about the garb, I’ve been seriously studying Sufism since 1997. It’s quite literally the foundation of my life. But that’s a bit of story.

This is Sabira and I at Bryce Canyon, UT in January 2003, a few months after we married. It was cold in Bryce that time of year. But we we pretty much had the park to ourselves.

Here Sabira and I are shortly after moving from Angwin, CA to Chelsea, MI in the spring of 2003. Moved, bought a house, gutted it and began rebuilding - until A’esha decided she wanted to join us.

Here’s me beginning a backpacking trip the summer of 2003. Since 1992, I’ve spent more than 500 nights in the backcountry all over the U.S. and Canada. I’m also a sea kayaker, mountaineer, and have ice climbed. Yeah, I used to be in much better shape.

Here’s A’esha a few days after her birth in December 2003. She was born in our home with two amazing midwives. My wife was incredible.

And here she is just a week ago (almost 3 1/2). Gosh they grow up quickly.

Ahmed (and A’esha) shortly after his birth in March 2006. He was also born at home - in pool. The water birth was an incredible experience for Sabira. A’esha holding him isn’t a rare sight - even today.

And here’s Ahmed just a few weeks ago at 13 months. He laughs a ton, is walking and more than anything just loves to follow his sister around. And unlike A’esha, I’m the only one who can get him to sleep at night.

There is one more family member I don’t have a photo of yet. We’re four months pregnant. We won’t get an ultrasound nor will we find out the sex of the baby beforehand. We’ll just wait to see what surprise is waiting for us in November. Be sure you’ll hear about it.

So you now know a bit more about me and you’ve ‘met’ my family. I’m a very hands-on dad, which can make working from home difficult at times. But I love it. I love being able to have lunch with my kids or watch them run around in the back yard while I work.

Now I want to know more about you. Please join in the conversation, ask me questions or tell me how cute my kids are (that never gets old). But ask away. I’ll tell you anything I can.

And I’m also going to tag a few others. You can go to David’s blog to see the details of how to post for The Face Behind the Blog. So I’m tagging:

• Liz Strauss from successful-blog.com
• Dave Olson from daveolson.ca
• Adam Kayce from monkatwork.com
• Edward Mills from evolvingtimes.com
• Wendy Piersall from emomsathome.com
• Chris Cree from SuccessCREEations.com
• Phil Gerbyshak from makeitgreat.typepad.com
• Easton Ellsworth from businessblogwire.com
• Tony D. Clark from successfromthenest.com
• Mark Goodyear from goodwordediting.com
• Kammie Kobyleski from passionmeetspurpose.com
• Lisa Gates from designyourwritinglife.com
• Ben Yoskovitz from instigatorblog.com
• Jesse Peterson from gitrsblog.us
• Jonathan-C Phillips from smartwealthyrich.com
• Randa Clay from randaclay.com
• Armen from iffect.net

And if anyone else wants to join in, please, feel free.

11 minutes of some of the best parts of Guy Kawasaki’s presentations.

Learn:

• How Nike sells 2 pieces of cotton rubber and leather to people for $125.
• How your business can be revolutionary
• How to let a thousand flowers bloom
• Adding the big stones first

Enjoy…

Was cleaning out some old bookmarks last night and ran across Nirmal T V’s post about popuri.us. Seems someone was trying to tell me something because I had recently run seen popuri.us at Diary of My Life and Untwisted Vortex.

What is popuri.us? It’s a single site where you can check a number of your blog’s rankings and popularity stats, including:

• Google Pagerank - Google Pagerank and the Prediction Tool
• Alexa Rank
• Compete Rank
• Quantcast Rank
• Google Backlinks
• Yahoo! Backlinks
• Live Search Backlinks
• Technorati inbound links
• del.icio.us bookmarks
• Bloglines subscribers

I used it and it ranked everything accurately as I know it. If nothing else, I got a bunch of information about the popularity of my blog with a simple click. Not bad. Useful to some degree.

What might be more useful is the popuri.us widget that can display live stats on your blog. I’m probably not going to use it just because I don’t want to add any clutter to my blog. But it could useful for others.

I use Google for a lot of my search needs - sites, blogs, images, video, mapping, addresses, reviews, etc. The list goes on.

But I’ve always wondered if Google is always the best option.

Well Phil Bradley has compiled a list of what he calls Finding What You Need With The Best Search Engines. I’ve looked over the list and found the usuals like Google, Yahoo! Search and MSN Live Search for keyword searches.

But there’s some other gems in the list. Like using Encarta and Answers.com for facts searching or GooFresh for new additions to Google. KartOO, of course, gives some beautiful, visual search results (try it if you haven’t) and can be fun to use. I’d never seen Quintura before, but I can see its usefulness. It displays search results with a tag could of similar search keywords.

There’s lots of good stuff on his list. Much you’ve probably seen but some I’m sure you haven’t. So take a look, and let me know what gems you find.

By the way, he plans to continue updating this list on a regular basis. Maybe this is a resource to bookmark.

I almost never work on the weekends. And I rarely work in the evening. So, then, how do I manage to remain a thriving solopreneur? How do I get my work done on time and under budget? Simple (mostly) through good productivity practices.

I have a number of processes that help me keep a stable and productive workflow. Yet I’m always looking for better and more efficient ways to run my business.

So is Ben Yoskovitz. But he wants to help all of us with our productivity. That’s why he’s instigated (sorry Ben, couldn’t resist) the Ultimate Guide to Productivity Group Writing Project Meme.

Ben kicked it off by tagging Alister Cameron, Adam Kayce, Chris Brogan, Guy Kawasaki, Andrew Wee, David Armano, Tony Clark, Mike Sansone and Chris Cree. As of tonight, Adam and Andrew have responded with some solid tips. I’d love to hear from everyone else Ben’s tagged.

You’re probably wondering how did I get here then? Well, Adam tagged me along with Dave Schoof, Char, Chris Garrett, and Karin H. H. Each should have some great feedback.

So are you ready to hear one of the ways I stay highly productive?

Focus. No, not you - if you’re reading you’re focused enough. My productivity tip is focus. For every 60 minutes of the workday, I stay micro focused for 50 minutes. Then I get out of my chair, away from my computer and out of my office for 8 minutes (give or take). The remaining two minutes I settle back down in my chair, look over my next todos and look at what I can accomplish in the next 50 minutes. Then I’m off to the races again.

During my 50 minutes of focus, I do nothing except what is on my todo list. If I’m writing code, I code for 50 minutes. If I’m returning phone calls, I do that for 50 minutes. If I’m writing a blog post, I do that for only 50 minutes. I keep a timer running in the background with an alarm so I don’t have to watch the clock.

This sounds similar to what Ben suggested about working in bursts. I take a bit different approach then being single tasked for a length of time. For me it’s all about how much I can get done in 50 minutes. Like Ben, I stay focused to one task at a time. But if I complete that task in under 50 minutes, I move on to the next task that needs to be done. Sometimes I can get dozens of tasks done in 50 minutes. Sometimes, like with coding and styling a website, I may work an entire day at 50 minute intervals. They key, for me, is in working uninterrupted for 50 minutes.

Also, during the 50 minutes I don’t answer the phone, I shut down my email client and turn off my feed reader. I minimize all programs that don’t directly relate to my task at hand. Not answering the phone and shutting down my mail client are TWO MAJOR KEYS to making this work.

So when do I answer email or return phone calls? Well, that happens in its own 50 minute block. As does scheduling coaching and consulting sessions with clients. I just don’t do these things during a 50 minute block where they’re not included.

One other trick to this…you have to walk away for the 8 minutes. Regardless of how little or much you’ve gotten done, stop at 50 minutes. Walk away. And then come back. That short break every hour has helped me stay even more focused during my 50 minute blocks. And, I find that I’m more refreshed at the end of the day.

So that’s it. This process has probably increased my productivity two fold, minimum. Probably more.

To summarize…

1. Begin with a clear task list for the day based on all the projects you have going on (I’ll let someone else tackle creating task lists)
2. Work through your task list in 50 minute intervals. Remain highly focused on the one task you’re working on.
3. If you complete your task in less time, move on to the next one. If not, stop at 50 minutes anyhow and pick up where you left off in the next interval.
4. At the end of 50 minutes - stop what you’re working on. Get away from your work, leave your computer/office for 8 minutes. Get some water, do something completely unrelated to work. Breathe…
5. After 8 minutes (or so) return to your office and spend the remaining two minutes preparing for the next 50 minute interval.
6. Repeat.

So now it’s time for me to tag some folks I’d love to hear from. I’m tagging Dave Taylor, Liz Strauss, David Airey, Ted Demopolous, Andy Beard, Mike Sansone (again), Edward Mills, Drew McLellan, Valeria Maltoni, Sarah Lewis, Doug Karr, Easton Ellsworth, Aaron Potts, and David Armano.

I’d love to hear feedback on anyone else who’s using or trying this method of working. It’s worked great for me.

I’d also love to hear your ideas for improving on it or adding to it with other productivity tips. So please, share your thoughts, ideas and tips.

And remember to visit Ben, Wendy Piersall, Kathie Thomas, Harrison Loke, Ploop, Engtech, Lorraine Pirihi, Janet Barclay - who have already shared their gems for productivity.

It’s a little known secret that I’m a want-to-be RSS evangelist. I’m not interested in RSS so much from the tech-geek side of things. No, I’m interested in the everyday person side of things - how to get the word out about the simple power of RSS to people who haven’t found it yet. Perhaps when I get a bit more time, I can begin my second career.

In the meantime, here is the best example of explaining RSS that I’ve seen. Thank you to Common Craft for creating this video. And thanks to Andy Beal, David Peralty, Amit Agarwal, Alex Raiano, and Brand Linder for putting this in front of me enough times that I couldn’t help but watch it and share it.

I just completed A List Apart’s Web Design Survey 2007. Simple set of 37 questions. Probably took me 7 minutes to complete.

I had been avoiding it. So what changed my mind? First it was reminding me by showing up in my reader in a few places. So I took at look at ALA’s survey page and got the answser for me…

People who make websites have been at it for more than a dozen years, yet almost nothing is known, statistically, about our profession. Who are we? Where do we live? What are our titles, our skills, our educational backgrounds? Where and with whom do we work? What do we earn? What do we value?

So get over there and take it. Whatever website design has given you, I’m sure you can spare 10 minutes to give back to it.

Need one more motivation?

Selected participants, chosen by random drawing, will win one free ticket to An Event Apart event held in the continental U.S.; an Apple 30GB video iPod, an Event Apart jump drive, or a funky A List Apart T-shirt.