DFHW: Living the 4-Hour Work Week
Living the optimized work week
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Did you notice? We have a new theme here at the DHFW site! In looking around for free Wordpress themes, I encountered lots of sites touting their top lists of WordPress themes. I would have expected a lot of overlap between these sites, but I was surprised -- there are more themes than sites talking about them.[...]
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The move to the 4HWW has been a lot more difficult than I expected. My current business has been ramping up and sucking the four-hour work week out of me. I’ve already gotten comments that my blog has become stale and irrelevant
Ok-enough of that. I’m going to redouble efforts to get back on track.
Next up: I want to redesign the Dreamlining spreadsheet that was published a little while ago because I feel that it doesn’t quite work for me. I’ll offer a new version and see what you all think.
Oh, and someone thought my shirt designs were amateurish. Are they? How would you improve them?
hilarycat | February 1st, 2008 at 1:22 pm #
I am good about giving honest opinions & I have a good sense of design, so I’ll throw in my 2 cents.
My first impression of your products was “Ah… 4HWW themed without actually stepping on trademarked phrases… not a bad idea… wish they were just a bit more compelling…” (sorry!)
I was somewhat tempted by the “Workin’ 5-9… once a week” - that is your best one in my opinion.
My advice:
- Change it to “Workin’ 9-1… one day a week.” 5-9 is odd hours… is that 5 am or 9 pm? either way is weird. Also, the common phrase is “five days a week” not “five times a week” so mirror that with “one day a week”. Idea - put 7 clocks on the shirt, 6 of them plain, 1 of them with 4 hours (from 9am to 1pm) shaded in prominently.
- Add the full set of colors to the women’s products that you have for the men’s (I’ll never buy white no matter how witty or interesting the design)
- Make the designs transparent so you don’t have a big white box on the non-white shirts.
- Describe the quality of the products on the descriptions… just can’t judge from what’s there now and I don’t wanna spend $25 on a t-shirt that might be paper-thin.
- “I outsourced my life” sounds like it might be a complaint - like, “Oh no, I tried outsourcing and it went out of control and now I have no life.” I can’t tell from the font or design whether it’s supposed to be good or bad (speaking as if I didn’t know, since the random strangers looking at the shirt I’m wearing won’t know either). I’d make it more obvious… something like “I’m FREE… I outsourced everything in my life that sucked” and pair it with a dancing figure.
- The “I outsourced this X” items only make borderline sense because almost no one makes their own clothing or hats. So technically we all outsource our clothes in a way. I would drop these products (unless they’re selling, of course). Then again, it might be just me that thinks this way
- “Livin’ the 164-Hour Weekend” makes me sorta want to try to do the math in my head and that makes me irritated
Also, again, parallel common phrases… “3-day weekend” is common usage, so say “Livin’ the 6-day weekend lifestyle” or “Every weekend’s a 6-day weekend”. And the bottle in the background suggests that boozin’ it up is the wearer’s chosen way to get through the 6-day weekend, which isn’t an association I would want made, so I’d never buy this one… Perhaps add a calendar design that has “S”s for 6 days and a “W” in the middle. Shade in the W day to make it more obvious.
- You also need designs for people who are working on getting there, but aren’t there yet. They’re probably a bigger audience, after all
I won’t buy a shirt that says “Living’ the 6-day weekend lifestyle” until I AM… then I’ll wear it like a badge of honor 
So, ideas for folks who aren’t quite there yet:
“I’m an outsourcing FIEND” with a maniacal looking face…
“Doin’ the 80/20 happy dance” with a cavorting figure…
“Wanna be my VA?” (no image)…
If you like my ideas & want more, or help with the designs, let me know and we’ll see if we can work something out.
hilarycat | February 1st, 2008 at 1:32 pm #
Oh yeah, and the low-info diet one… I’d put a newspaper with an X over it as the image and make the text “I’m on a low-info diet” (note small changes of punctuation, capitalization, etc.). Maybe add more text… “Spare me the news… I’m on a low-info diet” or “Blissfully ignorant… I’m on a low-info diet”
rexreed | February 1st, 2008 at 6:31 pm #
I love the suggestions! I might take you up on a few of them… Do you think they need graphics, or just text?
rexreed | February 1st, 2008 at 6:32 pm #
Also - if I go with any of them, I’d love to send you some free merchandise as a thank-you… Can you drop me an email perhaps and let me know where to send them?
hilarycat | February 10th, 2008 at 1:37 pm #
Hey! Sorry for taking so long to write back, I just saw these responses!
Thanks
I do think that the graphics are a good idea!
Thanks for the freebies offer -smiles-! I never turn down a gift…
You can send to my biz address on http://www.dom-itech.com/contact.php =)