Recently, I made the decision to stop freelancing for a while. People could perceive it as a few things- maybe I’m too lazy, maybe clients hate me, maybe I’m just not that good. Pretty much the only reason for it though is something I’ve been thinking about for a while, and it’s that I don’t want to grow up too fast. (really well discussed on my friends Will and Ian’s new Lunch Podcast- episode 2, where hey, I’m mentioned!)

Being a teenager is really great for a few different reasons. For one, you get to have a hell of a lot of fun. It’s the time to do the fun, but probably pointless things- in life. On the other side, it presents an amazing opportunity to get some solid learning done. For me, I chose to take up design aside from school. Everybody has something they love doing outside of school. With freelancing, though, you have a lot of things to manage, and while it’s great for gaining some cool experience in a business-y sort of world, it’s also going to take up some time.

A lot of time.

That’s gonna leave less time for having fun, and learning, because you’re constantly trying to meet a client’s expectations. Don’t get me wrong; freelancing was really fun when I was doing it (and I still am for some people, just not taking on anything new), but it was time consuming.

It’s not just about freelancing though- I think in general we have to take a step back sometimes and consider that we might be trying to grow up just a little too fast. Some teenagers I know are under this strange belief that they have to be all business-y, be all super dressed-up, and try to become the next teenage protegé. Some also have a strong passion for the green bills filling their wallet.

In these desires, though, you’re missing out on stuff that you’ll never be able to get back in your life. Just simple things that are better done as a teenager. You have the rest of your life to act more professional. And in the process of striving to become the next teenage protegé, you’ll lose sight of what actually matters, and one day, you’ll probably fall flat on your face. The best “protegés” in the world are the ones who never expect they’ll become one, and care about and love what they do.

So, what I’m doing is taking a step back, and taking a break from freelancing. I’ll be back on that scene someday, and I’ll continue to write. I want to keep learning new things, and keep contributing to what I love contributing to. When I get back on the scene, I’ll be stronger than ever, and well rested. And I’ll have a lot of fun in the process.

Teenagers: don’t view what you do as a “business”. View it as an experiment that could, hey- one day blossom into a tiny little business. Life takes a crazy great improvement after that.

While I’m not freelancing right now, one of the main things I did when I was doing that was tracking time. Perhaps it’d be for billing purposes in a project, or maybe it was just to create some cool data on how long it took me to finish a small, internal thing that I never ended up releasing. Either way, what I found about a lot of time trackers is that they were bloated. They had a lot of features, but those “features” ended up getting in the way of the its overall purpose (I’m a big fan of single-purpose apps) Sometimes I was even a little scared because I thought that a feature could easily break another and I could lose the time I was tracking, which obviously isn’t good. Then, for some of the invoicing solutions, they had their own time tracker built in- but they were web based, which meant an accidental tab close would cost me all my time that I’ve just tracked (unless they intelligently saved every once in a while) Granted, some people probably need these extra features. I like simplicity.

About a month ago, Fuel Collective (the guys behind Permute) released the second version of their amazing time tracking application for Mac, creatively dubbed Eon. In a nutshell, Eon provides time tracking for projects (or really anything), but stripping down whatever isn’t necessary- and providing it in a drop-dead amazing interface.

This is literally the first thing you see when you start the app. You have a time counter, some actions next to it, and the ability to fill in what you’re working on below it. Really, that’s all that matters. (the red thing to the top-right corner is a start/stop button, who knew!) Once you fill out what you’re working on and what project it’ll be in, the time tracking will start. It would be bad UX just to leave the window floating around, though. So, this also appears in your menu bar:

And you can pause right from there, without disturbing your workflow (for the keyboard inclined, you can set keyboard shortcuts to start/stop the timer as well) If you’ve been idle for a while but forgot to stop the timer, Eon will automatically detect it, and will let you know. You could subtract the idle time from there. You also get a funky receipt-type thing as a log for your projects/time entries.

As that pops out from below the log button, you get that receipt printing sound. Wonderful, subtle touches like that are what make the app worth it. You track your time and nothing else- but hey, why not have a bit of fun while doing it?

A lot of freelancers probably have some sort of billing/invoicing system that they use. Eon can synchronize times between these systems, posting them as necessary, seamlessly.  It integrates with over 30 of these services- some of the more popular ones being Basecamp, Freshbooks, Invoice Machine, Less Accounting, and Ronin. These integrations are available separately for $4.99- you pay for what you need.

There’s not a lot I would actually change in this app. Potentially, I would change the $4.99 per service add-on price to something like $2.99. Some people might not like spending $20 on an app, then spending an additional $4.99 for another integration with a service. The $4.99 price isn’t crazy, but it’s just something I wanted to note.

Aside from that, Eon is quite possibly one of the coolest time tracking apps I’ve ever used- and definitely the most well-designed. Clearly, a lot of thought went into it. If you want a slightly fresher experience out of time tracking, go grab Eon while it’s hot at the Mac App Store. They also offer a trial on their website with all of the integrations enabled and ready to go, so you can see if it’d be right for you.

Yesterday, I came back from the FITC 2012 event in Toronto. My dad came along with me for it (thumbs up dad, you were able to endure the surrounding geekiness for an entire day), and I can say it was really great. A lot of the question, mainly from family, was this though: “what did you get out of this?”

Some people can argue that they reaped mass amounts of knowledge coming out of just day one. That’s really true and all, but the one thing that sticks out to me about that day wasn’t the knowledge, it was the experience. The feeling.

What feeling? It’s the feeling of being able to create real-life relationships and make the online ones you have so much more authentic. It’s the feeling of shaking one of your design idol’s hands, looking them in the eyes, and telling them how great you thought they were. It’s the feeling of knowing that in every square foot, there are people like you, learning the same things as you, with the same drives and passions as you.

Being online, you get to talk to a lot of people, and connect with people across the globe, no matter what you’re interested in. You can absorb a high amount of content really quickly, and you can learn so many new things. You could contribute to a community of people who are passionate about what you are. It’s great and all, but in the end, for a lot of people, there’s an aspect that’s lacking badly, and it’s the real-life experience, the real life feeling. You long for that, I know I did. After a while, it starts to feel really lonely, because it feels like there’s nobody in real life you can relate your interests and hobbies too. Heck, this doesn’t just apply to design or development, it could apply to anything and anyone.

But, in the real world, when you go to an event, a party, a meetup or a workshop with people just like you and surrounded by people with the same interests and whatnot, your whole experience and perception of things change. It’s the feeling of a stand like Vitamin Talent giving out badges with “Comic Sans” crossed out on them, and you standing back and saying aloud, “Shit! I can relate to this!”- and a conversation starts. It’s the feeling of purchasing a designer’s work, and meeting that designer face-to-face, shaking his hand, and watching his presentation. It’s the feeling of watching a presentation and laughing at the speaker’s jokes- knowing you have a real connection to that person now, not just one flying through a router. I watched some things yesterday that have literally changed my life, and it’s not an over-exaggeration. It renews everything you do, because you know that for sure, somewhere, somehow, someone is rooting for you.

An email or a message- I can delete that with a single press of a key. The feeling of being in a room full of talented developers and designers, a simple handshake with someone I’ve wanted to meet forever- now that’s something I’ll never forget.

Last week, I ran a quiet little survey on the blog in an effort to try and figure out the kind of content that people enjoy, and just some overall thoughts over here. It was nice to see mixed results coming in- I love it because it gives me something new to improve on here. I’ll give some statistical crap, then I’ll get right to what I’ll be changing.

For article length, more than half of the people who filled out the survey preferred simpler posts, with a length of about one screenful. People seem to also want larger and huge posts, just not as much. A lot of people actually didn’t seem to care when I posted, but those that did seemed to like having them a couple times a week. Quality over quantity, I guess!

In terms of comments, 45% of the people who filled out the survey are cool with me leaving them out, and 27% think I’m an asshole for removing them. The other 27% don’t care either way.

For all the other stuff (questions, comments, etc.) I got a whole bunch of different things, most of which were constructive (for whatever guy that wanted a different writer for this site, love you too). So, for the next couple days, as well as posting, I’ll be trying to subtly change some things here based on the responses I got. Typeface-related things are big on the list, because content matters most. I’ve wanted a better font for content for a while now, I’m just struggling to find one. If you’ve got a suggestion, send it in and you’ll win my undying love. Not that you didn’t have it in the first place. I think I’m going to get in the path of decreasing my link posts, too. I’ll still have some that I think are really cool and that readers would like, but I’m trying to focus more on long-form posts with some sort of meaning behind them. I also don’t like douchebagery. If I ever start getting close to that, slap me with a fish.

I’m coming up on five months since I refreshed this blog, and it’s proving to be a really great experience, and also to be really promising. Traffic has been picking up and I’m starting to get a decent readership. The thought of people around the world potentially reading what I have to say is honestly so humbling, and I gotta thank everyone for that. Expressing yourself in any way changes your life so much.

(also: I got back from FITC just a little while ago, so there’ll be a blog post tomorrow on it most likely)

As quite literally the first digital creator convention I’m going to, I’ll be attending FITC 2012 this month in Toronto. They’re overflowing with some amazing minds speaking, and have some really, really cool presentations planned. It’s a little scary to do this for the first time, so anyone who’s done this kind of thing before and can give me a quick briefing before I waddle into the event looking like a complete idiot, please talk to me.

That aside, the FITC 2012 event lasts from April 23rd to the 25th, but I’m likely only going to be attending one or two days. I’m shooting to attend the first day, because there seem to be a lot of great presentations there (and, you get to be part of the opening magic)

If you’ll be coming too, let me know! I’ll be the kid walking around with the MacBook Pro yelling at James White for his autograph.

I’m really excited.

This weekend I took a small break from writing as we were starting to work on house painting and I had a project to tackle. I’m back now, and I wanted to start the week off with a small survey I put together. It’ll only take a few minutes to complete, and it’ll help me become a better writer in the future. Thanks in advance.

Fill it out here.

A software update touched down today- Apple released Java for OS X 2012-003. It’s available for Mac OS X 10.6 and 10.7, and it’s definitely recommended you get it, as it can remove common variants of Flashback malware, which infected quite a few Macs.

Go grab it while it’s hot. As there’s no support for OS X 10.5 and below, people running those versions of OS X might want to consider an upgrade.

Pebble.

This is the future. Not this.

As a great start to this week, Stephen Hackett’s new book, ‘Bartending: Memoirs of an Apple Genius’ is now available to buy. It comes fully loaded with tales, humour and downright amazing stories from his experience behind the Genius Bar.

Stephen’s one of my favourite writers on the Internet, his blog (512 Pixels) is overflowing with some great content. I had a chance to read some of his book over the weekend, and you guys will definitely love it.

iBooks awaits me.

The story of how I landed at Media Temple to cover my hosting needs is relatively interesting, and maybe a bit scary.

It was late March about a year ago when I started having some serious problems with my server. I was just starting out (literally), and couldn’t really afford something decent. I tried to get a sponsorship on a VPS from a company, and with a small agreement they accepted. It was pretty good for a little bit, and the server was working fine. If I had a client, I’d buy hosting for them from there. I had two domains with them. Come March though, all hell broke loose. The company started to run into some serious issues, one which took my site(s) down for around a week. After some fighting, I managed to grab a backup, but the amount of work I almost lost was really, really scary. Another host took me in while I tried to get all my data in order. The previous company disappeared off the face of the internet, and took both my domains with them. There was no way of contacting them, either. You could say to me, “well, you were sponsored, what do you expect?”, but even their paid clients experienced the same, if not worse, problems. Even the host I was with was experiencing serious issues, causing the VPS to go down really often. (the second host was a temporary arrangement though while I found someone new) For around a week I desperately searched for a host I could actually depend on, holding on to the little data I had left.

My search ended when I found Media Temple on Twitter. It was an accident, really. Their Twitter staff are quite honestly the kindest and the most “real” people ever. A lot of other hosts operated like a business. Solely a business. Their people talked like robots. Media Temple is a business, but they never have you forget that they’re made of people. Kind people who are genuinely knowledgeable, and genuinely care about providing you great service. Heck, on my birthday, they sent me a T-Shirt. I still have that. In every way, Media Temple is the Apple of web hosts.

That’s why, exactly a year today, I became their customer on a (gs) Grid Service. They haven’t failed me for a second since. If I had a problem, I’d be on the phone for at least half an hour with a rep who made sure I was on the right track. If the phone wasn’t an option, then their Twitter reps were willing to help. The amount of Red Bull consumed by them must be ridiculous. My hosting went down maybe once or twice… in a whole year. It didn’t last very long.

Migration was painless because Media Temple’s knowledge base is filled to the brim with articles that humans can actually read. Once you’re up and running, your service is lightening fast. The (gs) I ordered is not a VPS (they offer those as well, though), but it has things like SSH access. Things that would be complicated to set up like email can be done so in a snap. (they literally have QR Codes you can scan to automatically set up your email) They never stop innovating, either. Just recently, they released (mt) Mail, which is a really well-designed email, calendar and contacts solution available exclusively to their customers, free. No ads. I use Sparrow for my email anyway, but the fact that (mt) Mail even exists is great.

I could ramble on and on about how technically great (mt) is, but they’re more than that. When you join (mt), you become part of a community- very similar to when you buy an Apple product. A small example: when Google+ was out (or perhaps not just out yet, can’t remember), I was doing that whole video chat thing with some (mt) employees. They’re really great people. When you give feedback about the company, someone human will get back to you, and not with an automated response. Here’s a little something they did for SXSWi 2012.

I have two domains with (mt)- matthewmascioni.com and this blog. I use (mt) for any clients, as well. Every word pushed through this blog is powered by Media Temple. All my digital creations are right here.

And it was worth every penny.