Will Kelly

2008: A Year in Review

I had a good run both personally and professionally in 2008.  It was the year I turned 40 and left writing and consulting and found some more peace

Will Kelly meets Social Networking

I spent a good part of my freelancing and consulting years on the forefront of many new and emerging technologies and watched the rise of social media. I always kept social media at arms length until I realized that it was growing into a powerful communications medium that would rival and eventually overtake email and IM.

2009 Professional Resolutions

I am walking into 2009 after a pretty major career change including reentering full-time employment after a long time on my own as a consultant, contractor, and freelancer.

Kelly's Laws of Document Templates

I still see a lot of  value in standardizing even though I've left technical writing and consulting. Document templates make the writer's life easier and help give a consistent and professional look to an organization's internal and external documents.

Why I Check Email in the Morning (and it boosts my productivity)

There are productivity pundits and  mavens who warn against checking email in the morning. Well, I have to check email in the morning. My company's development team is in Israel, my corporate office is in Massachusetts, and I live in Virginia.

My Favorite Macintosh Applications for 2008

My preference is to use a Macintosh  whenever possible and I wanted to share my favorite Mac applications for 2008. These applications helped me be productive  and stay organized

OneNote 2007 Rejoins my Professional Workflow

I've always been a fan of Microsoft Office OneNote 2007 and moving into my new role as a director of product management meant I had to collect new ideas and organize projects to a scale I never had to as a writer. OneNote 2007 is now a central collection point for my ideas and questions as they relate to new product management processes, initiatives, and product offerings.

Favorite New Hardware for 2008

I purchased a Fujitsu Scansnap S300M Clr 600DPI USB 10PG Adf Mobile Scanner after reading about it on LifeHacker because I recognized the ease of use would help me convert a hardcopy documents into PDFs in short order.

Chinese Food so Bad it was Funny

On a recent trip to corporate, I had an opportunity to have dinner with my boss and some other co-workers who were in town for meetings. Being a remote employee and a new employee means these times are important because they put a face to my voice instead of just being another voice on a conference call.

My Favorite Gmail Features for 2008

I increasingly use Gmail for my personal email now and I have been delighted about the new features Google is implementing into their Webmail service.

My Favorite Web Services for 2008

Web services are part of my work life now even as I transitioned from contractor to full-time employment as a director of product management. There is some data I just like to have in the cloud so I can access whether I am on the road, in my home office, or sitting in my employer's corporate headquarters.

Moleskine NoteBooks and Product Management

My years as a technical writer, analyst, project manager, contractor, consultant,and freelance writer have made me an inveterate note taker. Yellow legal pads were always my friend and then steno pads became the norm for me.

Adrenaline Junkies and Template Zombies

I've had some cause lately to look back at some of the projects I've worked on as a contractor, consultant, and freelance technical writer and read  Adrenaline Junkies and Template Zombies by Tom DeMarco, Peter Hruschka, Tim Lister, Steve McMenamin, James Robertson, and Suzanne Robertson because the synopsis from Amazon made it sound like a good read.

Leverage

I got to catch the new TNT show Leverage while on a recent business trip to Boston. It was a fun and exciting show and I liked seeing Timothy Hutton again. This is a show to watch after a stressful day dealing with dysfunction because the characters challenge all that is wrong in today's corporate world and come out on top. It's purse escapism.

Californication to head to Season 3

Friends told me about Californication on Showtime a while ago. However, I don't subscribe to Showtime as part of my cable package.

I downloaded Californication from iTunes a few months ago and absolutely loved the show. It is so well written and David Duchovny is a riot as Hank Moody, a burnt out and hedonistic novelist turned blogger.

Now the news is out that Californication has been picked up for Season 3. I can't wait until Californication Season 2 hits iTunes.

Joy and my Jabra Headset

I am one of those workers who gets more done working in a home office versus working in an actual office. As such, my new job requires a good deal of time spent on conference calls.

While I've come out against too many meetings in the past, I work for a company based in the  Boston, MA suburbs, our VP of marketing is based in Denver, CO, our Product & Strategy group is based in the metro Washington, DC area, and the R&D group is based in Rehovot, Israel.