Refresh that Favicon.ico Like a Boss

I was working with a client last week and we had changed her website's Favicon - that little 16x16 pixel graphic that pops up next to the title in your tab and sticks to anything affiliated with your site? Yep, that one.

So the next day she calls me and asks if I'd made the change. Having done so, I immediately realized what the issue was: the cache.

When you go to a website for the first time, your browser will pick up that Favorites Icon and sock it away in the cache. If you make changes to the page itself, a simple refresh will do the job to see the new content. But since that only refreshes the page - not the whole site - if you make a change to your favicon.ico, you will not see that change.

You've got two options:

Clear the Cache

Every browser is different, but get in there and clear the cache. Refresh. That should do it. Not my preferred method.

Just Refresh the Icon

Unfortunately, I'm always riding over 5 tabs with logins set and clearing the cache may be quick, but the reset process to get back to where I was is anything but. So I use the following quickie:

• Go directly to the icon by typing it after the root in the address bar, generally "favicon.ico" - for example, http://www.ejmdesigns.com/favicon.ico. You'll see the icon.
• Refresh the image like you would a web page (refresh icon or F5).
• You're done!

So with that quick little trick, I can see myself or let a client confirm that the favicon.ico has been changed in seconds. And not have to log back into 5 different email accounts, 2 forums, Twimbow...

Wednesday's Tuesday's Social Media Post ...on Time Management

Last week I got a great response from an overview of Cincinnati's social networking events, and one of the comments that came back was:

And people say it's hard to network in Cincinnati! I actually have heard that several times per month. I can't get to everything I want to do because, well, sometimes I actually do have to do work. :)

And I chuckled out loud and gave Lappy (my laptop) a little fist bump. And then I looked at my calendar for this week and it made my face scrunch up in a way that made me quite happy that Lappy's built-in webcam was not broadcasting me live.

Right now, on Wednesday evening, I have had 8 different appointments (a couple fam-related that don't even appear on the calendar) that while both necessary and rewarding have nothing to do with me actually working on current projects.

And while the magic that is striking that balance will be a future writing (doesn't do me much good to say "FAIL - but, um, here's how I would do it..."), this post has a different crux, point, and/or apex.

You may have read the originating post about the EJM Designs Blog schedule and shouted "Rah!" and looked forward to what was coming and yesterday mumbled "WTF?"

And I'm here to say "Yes, a blogging schedule works! It does!" But it does not do so without a daily schedule. I may have a great idea already set up for me when I get to blogging, but if I don't have a time every day set aside to address that issue, then I may as well be posting Wednesday evening about my Tuesday topic and thinking about the forthcoming Wednesday post as well.

Lesson: If you're serious about doing something every day, you need to set aside time to do that thing every day. Period. No excuses.

(And it doesn't hurt to nail down a rough schedule of other important daily items like exercise or meditation.)

So today(yesterday)'s response question is: what is your daily event? Your daily chore? Your daily necessity? How do you do it and are you successful?