We all have one: some big, horrible, awful-sounding task that we’d prefer to put off to next month. Or never. Unfortunately, procrastination doesn’t really mean pushing something to the future, because if you’re worried about it, a postponed task has a sneaky way of consuming a lot of mindshare in the present. Here are a few ways to finally get moving:

1. Do a “home inspection” on the problem. I’m in the middle of buying a house. Part of the process is finding a disinterested yet expert third party to spell out exactly what’s wrong with the property and how to fix it. I think this is a concept that should be used more broadly. Survey several other parties (a spouse, close friends, your mentor) to tell you what they’d do with your particular project. You may discover that the Biggest Editing Job Ever just requires moving a few paragraphs around.

Is the government searching for America’s Next Top Model? No, but the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) is searching for America’s Next Top Energy Innovator. Today, the DOE announced the energy innovator challenge, which is part of the Startup America Initiative. This isn’t a head-to-head competition where one entrepreneur will be left standing at the end. Instead, the DOE is making it easier and less costly for energy startups to take advantage of certain DOE patents.

"America's entrepreneurs and innovators are the best in the world," said Secretary Chu. "Today, we're challenging them to create new businesses based on discoveries made by our world-leading national laboratories. Because we've cut the upfront fees and reduced the paperwork, we'll make it easier for start-up companies to succeed and create the new jobs our economy needs. Our goal is simple: unleash America's innovation machine and win the global race for the clean energy jobs of the future." Source: DOE

San Diego’s innovation economy continues to move mostly sideways, with venture capital investments plunging and employment improving slightly among high technology and life sciences startups, according to a report today from Connect, the nonprofit group for technology and entrepreneurship. The mixed signals also showed San Diego’s merger and acquisition activity soared and federal grants to researchers strengthened during the last quarter of 2010.

A .pdf file for the full report can be downloaded here. My breakdown of the highlights and leading indicators for San Diego’s innovation economy follows:

—Eighty-four high tech and life sciences startups were formed in the region during the fourth quarter of 2010, a 13 percent increase from the same quarter of 2009, when 74 new companies were started. For the year, the report counted 277 new startup companies, which was a 13 percent decline from the 319 startups founded in 2009.

NEW YORK CITY—Who brewed—and then enjoyed—the first beer? The civilization responsible for the widely beloved beverage must have been a very old one, but we don't yet know who first brewed up a batch of beer, Christine Hastorf explained in a March 10 lecture at New York University on the archaeology of beer.

Hastorf, a University of California, Berkeley, anthropologist, noted that documented evidence of beer-making stretches back several thousands of years, but "unfortunately we don't get a really deep story" beyond that. Looking at very early fire sites and settlements, Hastorf noted, "we can't say they were making beer or not."

Just like that fake Color.xxx slide deck, this probably fake VC pitch video has been making the rounds across Silicon Valley lately, portraying the saga of a probably fake Rachel Sequoia (heh) and her probably fake startup “Share The Air.”

As I just finished doing an Ignite talk, the whole “bullshit for five minutes” thing really hit home with me, but especially the part where the actress playing Sequoia asks an audience presumably filled with VCs for 500K to support her location-based air service, which includes an ancillary app where you can use Google Maps to check into places where you’ve breathed. Yes, breathed.

Top leadership turnover and shake-ups have been all over the news lately, affecting everyone from AMD to Google to Apple to HP. The turbulence in the big business world underscores the need for companies of all sizes to look at their strategy and planning for leadership roles – and beyond.

A small staff doesn’t get you off the hook. In fact, it only magnifies the immediate impact of unexpected changes in your team – and the need for thoughtful planning.

There are many differences between a company with 10 employees and one with 10,000, but making sure you always have the right people in the right roles is crucial no matter what your size.

  Many people operate from an unwritten rule stating that a gargantuan, time-consuming task is a reliable indicator of both importance and future reward. But this logic could not be more flawed – and it’s a very costly misconception.

Spending a year on a painting does not guarantee it will be worth more than another completed in a few hours. Working on a business plan for 5 years does does not guarantee more success than one written in 2 weeks.

This seems quite obvious but we still often fall victim of the childhood axiom that states large sacrifices lead to large rewards. But apart from the alternative world of conventional education, we are not rewarded for “more effort.”

When Nicolas Shea completed his graduate program in entrepreneurship at Stanford University in 2009, he watched a stream of brilliant foreign students like him reluctantly say goodbye to Palo Alto, Calif., because of restrictive American immigration policies, taking their ideas with them.

Six months later, he launched StartUp Chile, a government program in his home country that hopes to become a major importer of just that kind of talent by offering $40,000, no-strings-attached grants to anyone who moves to Santiago to launch a company.

Captain Kirk had Spock. Bill Gates had Steve Ballmer. Steve Jobs has Tim Cook. Every business leader, executive, indeed, every manager needs a right-hand. A back-up. A second-in-command. There are lots of reasons for that:

* Someone in charge when you travel or are out for whatever reason

* Someone who complements your strengths and fills in weaknesses

* Doubles effectiveness for certain tasks / responsibilities, like when you’re ‘double-booked’ in meetings or for simultaneous events

* It’s always good to have a strong ‘bench’

* Reduces stress on the organization and improves its effectiveness

* Succession planning

The nonprofit arm of Gov. Terry Branstad's proposed economic development authority will focus on innovation, a key to the governor's goal of creating 200,000 jobs in Iowa, the state's economic development director said Monday.

The proposed nonprofit gives the state the infrastructure needed to create a seed fund to assist startup companies, Durham and Robert Riley, a Des Moines businessman, said in a meeting with Des Moines Register reporters and editors.

"Economic development should be 80 percent based on innovation," said Riley, a member of the Iowa Innovation Council. "Your father's Oldsmobile of going out and bribing companies is not a sustainable system."

A good many startups I know have been “successful” over a couple of years in overcoming the challenges of starting the business, including incorporation, services development, funding, and setting up operations. Yet they still haven’t achieved a healthy growing profit, even though this was one of the main reasons they went into business for themselves in the first place.

It’s no fun on this plateau, just “making payroll,” and watching some employees make more then you as the founder. At this stage you were expecting to be working on creating a good business valuation to attract future buyers, or at least funding college accounts for your kids.

If you are in this category, first know that you are not alone, but then you need to take a look at the advice given by Patricia Sigmon in her new book “Six Steps to Creating Profit: A Guide for Small and Mid-Sized Service-Based Businesses.” I recommend her six tried-and-true tips to deal with the challenges that may be holding back your profits:

If you’re looking for employment in the cleantech industry, then Boston, Massachusetts may be your dream job oasis. Recently Shawn Lesser created a list of the Top Ten Cleantech Cities in the United States and Boston landed in the top spot.

One of the reasons Boston was chosen as the top cleantech city was the availability of venture capital. According to the article, Boston is only second to California in terms of venture capital investments in the cleantech industry. This was actually a bit surprising to me.

In my last Om Says, Why Some Apps Works and Some Don’t, I started to explore one of my core theses — the growing importance of the economics of attention and how it relates the success and failure of Internet (and mobile) applications.

I believe that the economics of attention is much more ruthless and unforgiving than the real economic underpinning of a product. What I mean is that you can find money for your company from an investor, but it wouldn’t really matter if you don’t have users’ attention.

This is a hard reality that has been obvious in highly competitive and somewhat subjective marketplaces. Hollywood movies, music and even fashion are markets where “attention” determines the outcome. As far as I am concerned, the Internet and mobile applications fall in the same category.

In this age of globalisation, outsourcing has become an integral part of the way large, multinational enterprises are managed. From helping to provide application support, processing claims, managing networks, billing systems or even customer service, the majority of large businesses are spending more on outsourcing now than at any point in the last few years. Research from Gartner shows that 53% of European organisations in 2010 were planning to outsource more with 40% due to increase their external IT services spending.

Innovation is increasingly becoming a vital element of outsourcers’ offering, and businesses are relying ever more heavily on their outsourcers to deliver  innovation capabilities. Research we recently conducted with Warwick Business School among 250 CIOs and CFOs across six regions (the UK, Germany, Switzerland, Benelux, France and the Nordics), reveals just how important this innovation is: 70% of European C-level executives believe the innovation achieved through outsourcing contributes to their organisations’ financial performance. But, worryingly, the research suggests that businesses are not getting most of outsourcers’ innovation capabilities. If only 35% are actually quantifying the financial value that innovation adds to their business, how can they prove its worth and make the case for future investment?

As the debate on a patent system overhaul moves to the the House this week, small inventors are raising concerns about two major shifts that a Senate bill proposes.

Alexander Poltorak, the founder and president of the American Innovators for Patent Reform, said has some serious reservations about the bill that passed the Senate. While he said he applauds the move to allow the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to keep the funds it generates from fees, he believes the Senate bill missed the point of patent reform. He says a shift to a first-to-file system is unnecessary and he is also worried that language that slipped into the Senate the bill will stifle innovation.

“The biggest problem with this bill is really not what it changes, but what it doesn’t,” he said.

Blogger outreach is something my marketing firm is passionate about. After all, bloggers are the voice for many brands (for better or worse) these days. With a positive brand review, your brand can receive a nice boost in Web traffic and sales.

Until now, my company has been manually visiting blogs and logging contact info for the blogger, traffic details, etcetera. It’s a lot of work. But then I discovered GroupHigh. GroupHigh is an online research tool that puts together all the information you could need for millions of the most active blogs online.

For startup companies with small budgets, gaining an advantage for your new business or a new product through advertising is both a challenging and risky venture. Once the initial budget is gone, there are seldom second chances.

A good public relations strategy is an alternative to advertising. Effective PR is a cost-effective way to gain editorial exposure for your product, get more leads, generate more sales and build a great brand.

What makes PR so powerful?

In a word: credibility.

People often see through advertising, but a product mentioned in the context of a news report or print feature story gives it a passive endorsement and third-party credibility advertising just can't buy.

I was intrigued to read a thoughtful and detailed account in Little India of how some Indian Americans are heading back to India to seek attractive career opportunities. The author, Naomi Abraham, tells the story of a successful young American Express executive, New Jersey-born Sapna Chadha, who shocked her Indian immigrant parents by moving to India to take a job as the marketing director of American Express. The move came when her husband, Indian-born and raised but a 20-year resident of the United States, was recruited to join a software start-up in New Delhi.

Today’s Indian returnees (like their diaspora counterparts from China and other countries), are actively recruited by the government, which is seeking all the talent it can find to keep its economy competitive. Thus, conventional trajectories are being reversed. Some immigrants have always returned home, of course. But as Abraham explains, earlier generations of returnees often came home because they were disillusioned by their new country, “notably because of discrimination and other obstacles.” By contrast, today’s reverse-commuters are returning home (or to their parents’ home countries) because fast-growing economies open up so many possibilities.

When SAP, the large business software provider, needs to complete a project quickly, it takes advantage of its global reach, along with collaboration tools that make it easier than ever for people in disparate areas to work together.

The approach is called "follow the sun." As the name implies, it's an around-the-clock operation. At the end of the workday in Germany, where SAP is headquartered, software developers and other project experts hand off work to counterparts in California. Eight hours later, the California teams hand the work over to teams in Asia. It's not ideal for every situation—such as when SAP is developing an application for use in one market. But it can be useful when time is short and SAP has to develop software that works all over the world.

Latinos started businesses in 2010 at a higher rate than whites, blacks, or Asians. The entrepreneurship rate among Latinos jumped the most during the recession.

Source: Kauffman Foundation

(The Kauffman Index of Entrepreneurial Activity represents the percentage of working-age Americans who start a business each month. The data are derived from the Census Bureau's Current Population Survey.)