In Motion...

Unexpected Satisfaction

When you do a business proposal the desired outcome (usually) is to have that proposal accepted. You pin a lot on it. You try to use empathy to see from the other person's point of view so the proposal will look the best to all parties. You present it, you hope it is accepted. It is you are by definition satisfied, if not you are by definition disappointed.

Not this time. So I just did a proposal. I spent hours on it. It's a project I really want to do. I literally tried to think of every angle and every aspect to make the best possible package I could come up with. The most detailed budget. I spelled everything out.

I was stressed beyond belief. I couldn't sleep, I couldn't sit even. I thought "shit am I gonna be like this for the rest of the year?". I kept changing stuff and tweaking this checking this and that. Add this; cut that. Lots and lots of skull sweat. I was wired and starting to show some signs of stress again.

Fax,Fax...Fizz, Fizz
So yesterday I was done with it. I was still all verklept inside. Acid stomach the whole 9 yards. At first it wouldn't go. The guy at kinkos said that it was busy so it would redail. So I waited. It redailed still busy. So I called the client, they cleared the machine and they sent it again.

Relief
Hearing that data connect sound and getting my receipt was like a wash of stress relief. I was satisfied that I delivered the best deal possible for both parties a classic win win. I'm not worried now. I have yet to hear from the client (its too early still they need time to digest it) and yet even if I get a big fat "NO". I will still be happy in that I did deliver the best deal possible I could. I can't convey with words how good it felt for the fax to fly.... It was even sweeter because I didn't expect it.

And we're back

OK we've been back since last friday, but I'm just now getting into the swing of things. I'm happened on a great new project. It's a photography project so I'm thinking about shelving the magic show for a while. This particular project wouldn't be any money in the bank, but it would be an opportunity to do some serious photography. 200 shots in a matter of days. I wouldn't lose any money (expenses are covered) and I would end up with a product studio's worth of equipment.

The key here is I'm thinking win win. Its a win for the customer his photos are high quality and are taken with care for much less money than an established pro would charge. It's a win for me as I cut my teeth on some truly unique objects in still life with possibly a book title to show for it. The equipment used would also help compensate me.

I've been working on the project since we got back. It is very exciting actually. I'm trying not to hold my breath....

Yesterday...

We had a death in the family. Not immediate it was Tammy's step grandmother. Yesterday and today were QI with arrangements. I am planning to do some side stuff and even make a little money while we're there. I've arranged a contract and I have some other stuff up my sleeves...

I won't be posting until late next week as I won't have much internet access. I will be taking photos. I hope to have a post of digi shots when I return.

until then

Inner Peace

Today I earned inner peace and I'm feeling it now. Up early and to the gym. Home to work on two projects both of which are reaching mile stones soon. Sombody even called me "proactive" today. It wasn't even sarcastic.

One of my projects I thought I was "at the milestone" but I'm not. I couldn't tell until late tonight. I almost got frustrated and then I thought, "well what did I expect to do today?" Was it this far? No? well then why would I be frustrated?

If I'm not expecting something then I can not be frustrated, or disappointed. Nice huh?

Early morning

Up at 6:15, planned, headed to the gym. It's nice, can type with all of my fingers now...

OWCH

Ok this really hurt. I got my finger caught in a tripod leg...

Just look:

I chose my reaction. I just quetly asked tammy to "let me out" this was better than what I wanted to do which was pull it out which would have been a mistake....

Family Motion...

Tonight we started doing a family workbook with the kids on the seven habits of highly effective people. It went very well, actually. Better than I would have thought at first.

The kids even did some role playing of how to respond to rude talk and what good responses to situations they don't like.

Tammy really thought of this and has been managing the project per se. It is working well. Thats just day1 lets see how we keep it up.

Workin' Saturday

So we're shooting a wedding today. Should be good. Nice people.

This puts a big block out of my day where I am literally smiling, lifting, loading, unloading and more smiling. It's a little like doing magic but its for almost 8 hours.

So I can't plan for much today, but I will plan for some of it.

Make the most.

My book

I'm writing a book. Its not a book you would read, but a book I see everyday. Ok so I'm not "writing it" I'm "writing in it". It's my planner. Do you have a calendar? Does it literally bring you joy to see? I mean it. I look at my book and when I'm working it, it's working me.

I've got it going on now. It's easy.

If you Plan for nothing thats what you'll get?

Plans require goals I'm learning this just now. Without goals all the plans are for nothing really. I have 2 goals running right now. One you can read about in my magic blog.

I'm still figuring out how to balance in these two project exactly right. For now I'm trying to get one thing done on each per day. As the Magic one gets closer to being done it will heat up. It may heat up so much it becomes the focus but only for a bit in November. And then early December. To do the shows will ease off, but will occupy my weekends.

Not an answer but a question

I always feel that knowing the question is half if not more of the battle. So FranklinCovey has this process of setting a goal. It's pretty straight forward. First you state the goal, the values it is supported by and supports. Then you list the steps to accomplish that goal. All of the steps you can think of. Then you start putting dates on things until you have a "dream with a deadline".

Is it really that simple?

The problem lies is how easy it is to set those dates and then how hard it is to make them. Why? Its the because of the questions we ask ourselves as we use the technique. "how long would it take me to get that trick good and done?" Well I could do that in a week. So that must be today plus 7 days, right? WRONG! You have to take the kids to dance class, to piano, to kinkermusik, you have to work, you have to spend time sleeping and eating. Writing blogs and what not.

So the question is how to manage those goals/projects together. Not planned as single entities. This sounds like planning at a new level.

Lets state it again by itself:

How can you schedule a goal or a project into your personal schedule realisticly

The Easy Answers
a. don't make goals then it isn't a problem
b. only have one goal at a time, forget the rest
c. do not set the dates at all, but work at it anyway (this has merit, but not for me as I just won't do it)

Theories
1. Set only the date of the first thing not done and time activate that responsibly. Then when it is done you must time activate the next step. The draw back here is if you have a deadline for the finished product of course.
2. Carefully plan out the project with respect to other projects. This can be hard to do if there are variables unknown
3. In large and complex jobs they do resource balancing. They use software to coordinate the work of sometime hundreds if not thousands of people. Can we steal some ideas from that situation to apply to this problem?

So what is the right answer? Right now I don't care.

Right now I've got the question to play with...

To Juggle

2 goals at once? Can I handle it? Stay tuned...

I will push the planner and myself to the limit.

Didn't really plan today

Didn't get much done either

you get what you pay for...

But there is always Tomorrow. A new check written for 24 hours...

Ideas

The nature of an idea is that you only get a quick glimpse at it. Then its gone if you don't grab it right away it will possibly be wasted. I believe that is why ideas evolve and often we find in our society that more than one person has the same idea at the same time. Those are the folks we know about it.

Those folks acted on it.

Imagine if we acted on exactly half of our good ideas. Would that be more or less than now?

I would rather act on some bad ones by accident than miss any good ones.. Right?

Mission

Well it took me a while, but I did it. I made a mission statement. I mean come on J.R. practice what you preach. I've had them, but they weren't real. They weren't. I did it with the bite sized learning kit.

Here it is:

I'm here to raise 2 great kids.
I'm here to be creative.
I'm here to to make the most of the world by adding to it.

I've written this into my binder and added a few things I want to add to the world.

1. 2 great people in my kids
2. A business that eventually won't need me
3. Magic
4. Photographs

This is the begining to big goals...

A habit must be fed...

I really didn't feel like doing my weekly planning. But I dug out my 3x5 card and looked at my check list for weekly planning... I did it. It wasn't a whole lot of fun, but I did it. It feels good having done it.

I need to move to a goal oriented situation. The thing I lack right now are goals. I'm doing the bite sized learning thing even now. That will help. I've got the values, I've got the roles, I just don't have a mission statement.

It's hard to manage projects (or even meta projects) if you don't have goals. Its a target, right?

More Meta Project

So most project management stuff is all based on single project management. There is very little I've found for coordinating mutliple projects or even just being a team member. So there must be a good way to center the projects together. They very obviously need to be prioritized.

So to think about this further a project must have some sort of governing value attached to it. Or why else would you be doing it? They very often support more than one of your values at once to get them up there on the list of actually getting done. I think our brains will filter out projects (unless they are shoved down our throats that is) which do not meet this basic criteria.

OK so we can assign priorities to projects. But I don't think thats enough. We have to be able to run projects concurrently and do it very well. It means estimating on larger projects without respect to the resources committment and then applying that commitment after the fact. That is to say if I say it's going to take 2 solid days and then we take into account that I can only work on a project for 1/4 time then it should take 8 calendar days to complete. I think its important to consider this as we make estimates. If we bear in mind the 1/4 time factor we're going to reshape our numbers to make it come out in the two days we thought it would take. Make sense?

The planner has to be central to this small project oriented system. In larger projects software begins to make sense. Developing an eCommerce web site would require a lot of software. Layingout and printing up marketing material for a buisness does not.

it still seems that some piece of this puzzle is missing... If you know what I'm missing please email me.

Meta Project

There's life and then there's projects... What if life were just a project? It'd be really big project

I've been thinking a lot about project management with respect to me and my business. My business has a lot of fascets. I do work for other businesses to help them out it various ways. I do software consulting as an retired developer. I do all kinds of small projects. Some are billable some are not.

Managing the individual projects is not the problem the problem is keeping them all in the air. This is not news. But what if we can sort of merge all of the other projects into a "meta" project. This is not going to change the work, but I think it might be a new model to consider.

My thoughts center on the distinction that is made between a project member and a leader. As a member of a largish team as well as a smaller team at the same time in the corporate world. It was assigned to the leaders to manage the projects and the (as I like to call them) leaf nodes of the tree to do the work. But you run into the situation as a leaf node of being pulled in multiple directions.

The concept of a meta project is to take control of the projects in one's life and manage them as one whole project. PIieces come and go, but the meta project is still there. It seems more applicable to the corporate world than it does to my situation, but I still think there is some use there.

I'm reading "to do doing done" again and I think I'm coming up on a chapter that discusses this very thing. The problem is, it seems to take the Project Mangers point of view for most of it. She centered on personal management to start with and now I'm moving to the project side. We'll see. I'd also like to see if there is a way to use project better for smaller projects. I'm not building a bridge across a river or antyhing. I'm just routing card tricks and laying out 3 pane brochures...

Quick Clean

I'm adding a new step to planning in solitude. It's much nicer to work in a clean office, so now after my planning I do a quick de clutter of the desk and surrounding area. Just makes it nicer to work....

An Ode to "C's"

So I used to never have a "c" task on my list. I just wouldn't do it. It was either A - Vital or B - Important, but could wait a day, C? no way man C's don't belong on the list at all...

OK I was wrong. Big time. I had 2 c's on yesterday. One was something Tammy (wife) asked me to do "When I got a chance" not important. It was scanning a picture or her parents dogs and emailing them. I had one too.

I time activated them and then filed them in my action file. Doesn't sound like someone should have lost at least a limb if not a life after doing something that sounds that impressive? Anyway thats just "FranklinCovey-ese". For "File the damn thing in the right spot so you can find and pick a time to do it and write it on your damn prioritized daily task list". OK that was long too, but hopefully you get the idea. So why am I rambling about this? I did them.

Yesterday I didn't really get out of the blocks. (you can read about it below) so the C's oh ya right, C's I've got time for that... NOT...

Today I was kicking butt and taking names on my tasks. I did some seriously important stuff.

Tonight when I had finished all my other stuff, "When I got a chance" became right the fuck now. I would have sat on that for a year without this sytem...

I'd like to thank my friend and mentor Tom Frank. Quite possibly the only person reading this. He calls me his mentor, is that possible? Tom, To teach is to learn and to learn is to teach.

Name that buzzword...

Using a personal management system is just great. Once I get it going and I'm really on my game, stuff starts happening. I can remember everything, how? The system does it for me. So the buzz word I'm thinking of was a serious corp word a few years back. Its when one thing and another thing are combined and you get more than the two parts... I used to doubt the usefullness of this word because big execs said it 60-65 times per hour in keynote speeches. So something so overused in so many ways can't possibly be a good word (see also "intranet").

So this word is working for me. I'm volunteering and at the same time I'm selling my business without even trying.

It is not possible to do good in one aspect of our lives while we labor to do bad in another... --Gandi (as quoted by Steven Covey)

Whats the word?

Every morning

A few things happen. An alarm goes off. I plan and read my email from the east coast. But before that happens in the dawns early light I usually have a thought. Sometimes that thought is a grand one. I've got a problem and I solve it in an instant in the grogginess that seems almost a stupor a brilliant ray shines through and I ask myself "whatif...x" and that can be a great solution.

Yesterday morning I came up with what my stand up show (magic) is lacking. I found the perfect opening I do believe for my show. Strong and silent and fits so well in the begining.

Course its a little hit and miss. This morning I was wondering if gas emitted by a human smells worse in the morning because one was laying down all night... oh well.

I guess we all take the good with the bad...

It doesn't matter how far you get
as long as you're going in the right direction

I spent all day working on a single item for a single customer. It was top of my list to get done. I had a whole bunch of other stuff to do too. Software crashes and printer's mistakes kept me at it all day. The bottom line? I didn't get to bill but for the first part of it, because you don't bill time trying to fix your infrastructure. I did get it done though. The results themselves were a let down, but thats why you print proofs. We'll need to explore other options.

Today I was again up at 6:30 my time. I was on the phone with a friend from the east coast making something else happens. It looks like a magic project will come to the forefront. Exciting.

yesterday

I did reclaim my files. I did plan my billable hours forward today. We do need a filing cabinet.

Today
I'm starting off with the billable hours. Then I'm running errands. I actually have some "optional" tasks down. Thats rare for me. It's usually all Do or Die... Tom pointed out that having too many A's is a big problem so I'm working on that today. 3 B's and 2 C's. (B's are "important, but not vital" C's are optional)

I picked up some new learning material on the effectiveness side of things. They were buy one get one free at the covey store. The last one I did on using the planner jump started me. I created this blog as a by product of it.

Well let's see how today goes....

Top of my game

When the day is going to have some extra "stuff" in it, I like to try to be on the top of my game. I try to enjoy the challenge and make the most of it. I call this being at the top of my game. It requires a little extra planning, and a little less R&R during the day, but thats OK.

I work in my house. I have a great space to work in and everything I need. Today I have some really good plans which include some work for my #1 client. I'm also planning to retake my files. It's like an invasion. The twist? My daughter who is 3 spiked a fever last night and is home from school.

When I first left the corporate world and took basicly a year+ off, I created my business, but it didn't do anything. Now it's turning into a consulting business on more than one level. I created the files at the begining and they have grown needlessly since. I plan on throwing a whole bunch of stuff away. I mean the rule is going to be "if I don't want to see it again I'm dumping it.". There are some manuals in there that do not need to be "filed" so they will be getting a box of their own in the laundry room. I mean how often do you look at the manual for your monitor?

The filing system I'm using is from the book To Do Doing Done. A project management based book. I really find it helpful. A friend of mine and I are reading it at the same time then we get together after a section and compare notes. You can find it at www.franklincovey.com Just search for "to do doing done" and you'll find it.

I'll post my progress on the filing system and being on top of my day...

Cooking with Crisco...
or some other fat based material....

Today I can claim inner peace. I'm not braggin' I mean I know it may not happen tomorrow. I got good billable hours in, handled a crisis with my kid (fever), and made time for lunch with a friend who isn't having such a great time.

On the proactive meter I worked out even though I could have bagged it as we didn't get to go to the Y. I got my shoes and my heart monitor and I walked up hill (its a treadmill it really is up hill both ways) for 1.75 miles at about 3 m/hour. I know it's not a marathon or anything, but success starts when your moving not when you get there.

I took a risk and asked my congressman for something, and I got it. They said yes. It wasn't much, but they called me back and said yes they would send me a flag to be auctioned off at the charity where I volunteer. A personal victory.

I even knocked some shit off of tomorrow...

It is quite early...

This morning when the alarm was about to go off (6:30 my time) I thought to myself "What does it mean to set the alarm?" Does it mean I'm going to lay there another 45 mins and then get up? Is it a promise I made to myself about when I'm getting up. The best way to respect and trust myself is to make myself a promise and then keep it. It doesn't have to be much, just a promise and then keeping it.

I've also found that getting up at 6:28 or some such is much easier than getting up at "six thirty". Six thirty seems like it lasts much longer than 6:28. With 6:28 you have a whole minute to get your ass up out of the bed....

Beginings...

I'm afraid I've started this in the middle. I've been in motion for quite a few years. 32 and change to be exact. The purpose of this blog, for me, is to reflect on where I'm going and how well i'm getting there. The purpose for you? Well I dunno why you're reading it, only you can answer that I guess. I mean is it really important? Doubtful at best, but who am I to judge?

Today I did a lot of good stuff with the kids. Sam and I spent most of the day together. She is in preschool. We played some quoridorr and we read some books. I took her to kinder music and then went to the mall to pick up some prints. I had them enlarge one to 8x10, but it didn't look that good so I've got down to go to the lab in the city and get a blowup of the same shot. We'll compare. Tammy liked the borders on the 4x6's. Though she is going to cut most of them off... She liked the prints. I am getting handier with the camera. You've got to love that early morning light, most of these shots were early morning.

The Meat of it
The main goal of reflection here is how effective I'm being. I subscribe to most of the Franklin Covey ideas and I'm working on some stuff with that. Do not jump to the conclusion that I am religious because I like the covey philosophy. I believe there is no god. The FC stuff does a really good job removing all the religious stuff from the books/materials. The beleive that it isn't up to the them to dictate what values one has, but rather to help one live the values that one has. Enough of that noise.

I did some good planning today. I did have some changes, but we roll with it. A little juggling while keeping an eye on what's important not urgent....