I took much longer on this than normal. The first impulse was to change the structure of the plan. I relaxed that because the problem is not the structure of the plan, but how I go about making and executing it. Instead I decided to get more detailed in allocating the available time on my schedule and exploring the opportunities to consolidate some regular tasks, e.g. I’m going to try doubling up my language practice with eating.
1. Things my Master assigned me:
- Draft of TMSR OS dependencies page. (AAC) Deadline : Wednesday, March 4th. ((I’ve been making this bigger than it needs to be, better to start small and publish already.))
- (5h) Work through the fabled outlines article backlog. 2.3 has been on the list for months. (Time Permitting)
2. Things I want feedback on/help with
- (2h) Draft of Bitcoin history 2009-2011 article Deadline : Thursday 19:00 UTC.
3. Anything else that takes up a significant amount of your time.
- (10h) TMSR OS
- February Report (AAC) Deadline: Wednesday, March 4, 23:00 UTC.
- Follow up Jacob’s messages to the musl list with a couple points that occurred to me from reading the interaction.
- What questions do I have about the clearsigning scheme for V patches ?
- At least one comment per day published upon reading/re-reading archives of The Tar Pit, BVT Trace, and Fixpoint.
- Dorion Mode
- (5h) There is nothing new in the world apart from the history you didn’t know. Friday should be achievable for publishing Part 1.
- (5h) The benefits of TMSR OS. Chip away likewise.
- (15h) JWRD
- Top priority is closing the sale on the table and acquiring and preparing the hardware for delivery.
- Improve Sales Materials : update sales presentation, start drafting a sales focused article for dorion-mode.
- Research to build out list of local private bankers and asset managers to contact.
- (2h) Business networking event Wednesday night, publish review of day prior to leaving for event.
- (15h) Following the forum and conversing when it’s my time. I’m planning to block off 14:00-15:30 and 19:00-20:30 UTC to properly eat and engage the logs and blogs.
- (2.5h) ((15 mins in morning, 15 mins before sleep)) Daily Review/Preview to start up, wind down day. Publish Review as Comment on Plan by 21:30 Panama time (UTC -5).
- (2h) Weekly review/preview. Deadline Friday, March 6, 23:00 UTC
- (5h 15m) 45 minutes of exercise each morning.
- (5h 50m) 20 min Spanish, 30 min French while I lunch.
Summary
I felt a bit overwhelmed by my backlog, which is proper given how I’ve let it grow. It didn’t accumulate in a week and it’s not going to get processed in a week. It’ll get processed putting in one solid hour at a time, knowing my role and using the available resources. This week the focus in on improving my process, being more present, abiding the Page Boy’s pledge and transmuting my competitive aggression/assertiveness from athletics to the present to man up already.
1. What did I spend my time on?
There were some gaps in my time record, so there is an area for improvement. From what I have :
4 hours on the plan. Much longer than normal in an effort to improve my process.
2.5 hours cooking, eating and laundry. I practiced French while cooking.
45 minutes reading Effective Executive.
2 hours reading #t and ossasepia and bvt-trace, mainly the literate introduction to new code article and comments.
30 minutes reading the trilema on how the other half lives.
40 minutes on this review.
I let myself sleep in to pay down some of the debt I’d accumulated, which shortened the day, but is putting me on a better rhythm.
2. Where did I ask smart questions? Where could/should I have asked *more* questions?
I could’ve followed up asking MP questions about his quote of my review. I acted out the passive mode that’s overdue to be replaced by telling myself I’ll ask when I’m done with the plan.
3. Where did I deliver on my word and where did I fail to deliver? What did I do to mitigate the fail and what do I need to do + who do I need to talk to tomorrow to sort the fail(s) out?
I delivered on my word by getting the plan out in decent time, but still a bit late in that as I type this sentence, I’m 21 minutes past the 21:30 deadline I set for myself.
I failed to deliver the client proposal to Jacob to review.
I need to get my schedule back on track to have more of the day to use mitigate the fail. I just pm’d him to update him on the status of the fail, but that should’ve been done a few hours ago at the latest.
Tomorrow I need to be aware of how this fail impacts other deadlines.
4. What are the priorities for tomorrow?
The top priority is finish and send the JWRD proposal, my first block to work on that is from 7:30-9am.
5. How can I better use my available resources ?
I can be more consistent using Jacob’s clock tool to track my time.
I can properly focus on one thing at a time and engage what I’m reading.
6. What should I do *differently* for better results tomorrow ?
I’m not going to pay the outer world mind until I process the logs and blogs at 9am. There’s an underlying habit of checking on others and putting myself in a reactive state rather than checking in with myself and proactively handling my business. Start the day exercising and pound on the proposal for 90 minutes. Then see what’s up.
Comment by Robinson Dorion — March 2, 2020 @ 3:10 am
Sounds quite good on the approach and outlook. From what I see, that JWRD proposal is now your very first priority, followed by the February report. And both certainly before any thought to the draft dependencies page or the rest of the backlog, so make sure your time is indeed focused on those first and foremost, to get them out of the way as soon as possible.
Comment by Diana Coman — March 2, 2020 @ 8:10 am
Thanks Diana Coman,
1. What did I spend my time on?
I lost some time to adjusting to the schedule I want. I went to sleep before 23 last night, with alarm set for 5. I woke up at 4 and then slept through the 5am alarm to wake up and find it was 7:30.
30 mins training to get out of the flat and get the habit going.
30 mins journaling.
I looked to see that there were log messages and feedbot items, but managed to not read and start on the proposal work. Don’t even look at the IRC window until you’re ready.
1.5 hrs drafting the proposal before sending to Jacob.
1.5 hrs chatting with Jacob to review the proposal.
2 hrs making a proposal template to make this process more efficient next time.
– A goal is to be able to roll the sales presentation, placement test and proposal into one meeting. Act like we’ve been there before and cut down the decision time/window for the prospect.
0.5 hrs considering the smart question to ask MP, I decided in the end to just keep it simple and his answer was even more simple.
1.5 hrs cooking and lunch. Today I read today’s Trilema instead of French. I’m consolidating all my eating between 15-18 localtime, intermittent fasting.
1 hr starting on the February review. I’m experiencing an urge to do XYZ instead of write that I didn’t get it done, but taking my medicine.
1.5 hrs on JED sales funnel setting up meetings for later this week.
0.5 hrs rtfming to get Jacob’s clock proggy to spit out daily reports.
1.5 hrs on this review. Need to start unloading the day earlier to meet the deadline.
—-
11.5 hrs at ~22:30 means ~4.5 are unaccounted for. On the one hand, fuck me. On the other hand, a lot can be done with the 4.5 hours I found.
Well, from memory:
– My browser is loaded with an abundance of open tabs, I spent about an hour archiving and noting some links with reading/scanning some of what I’d opened days ago. The majority of which was news and local research. It could’ve been longer than an hour, not certain.
– There was spinning.
– There was showering and dressing and I put away laundry.
– It took ~20 minutes to write out the pageboy pledge and growth questions to stick them above my desk for easy reminder.
– I don’t know how many times I got up for water, but I notice I sometimes walk away to refill my mug instead of sitting through what I’m working on. I think this is OK sometimes, but not if it’s an avoidance. Sometimes it’s good to be thirsty. I distinctly remember playing through thirst in basketball because absolutely not am I going to ask to be subbed out for my water bottle. While hydration is important, yadda yadda yadda, I can be more aware and strategic.
There’s going to be a balance between making myself more efficient and putting myself in the proverbial straitjacket, but the accountability mirror tells me I can err on the side of the straitjacket for a spell to get myself more action oriented.
2. Where did I ask smart questions? Where could/should I have asked *more* questions?
I followed up with MP about qualifying people’s claims.
I can follow up with trinque about his approach to his article series.
3. Where did I deliver on my word and where did I fail to deliver? What did I do to mitigate the fail and what do I need to do + who do I need to talk to tomorrow to sort the fail(s) out?
I don’t think I explicitly failed today, but I can account for my time better. I know I have to improve and sprint harder tomorrow to meet my various deadlines and chew through my backlog.
4. What are the priorities for tomorrow?
Finish the TMSR OS report. It’s not going to be what I want it to be, but I have to be honest move past it to raise the probability that March will be better.
5. How can I better use my available resources ?
I can get my drafts out for feedback. This includes the articles promised and also the framework we developed for our more general consulting service.
I can ask for feedback on the vision statement and genesis.
6. What should I do *differently* for better results tomorrow ?
If I’m up at 4, just stay up and take a nap in the afternoon if needed/wanted. Keep on the discipline of one task at a time. Be better with the clock tool and also discrepancies in the moment to improve reporting quality and efficiency.
Comment by Robinson Dorion — March 3, 2020 @ 3:37 am
This is in part why it’s ~always better to just ask the question immediately when you read – the point is to *clarify*, not to be smart or something. After all, when you talk face to face to people, do you also take a few days break to come back asking a question? Seriously, simple questions are best – if needed, there can be follow up questions and they’ll get deeper as the issue is brought to light, but that comes always from discussion, not from thinking alone about “what question” or “how to ask”. (And I’ll note there’s a mini-mountain of un-asked questions lurking about in this category of yours here -plus some more elsewhere- so maybe stop adding to them already, just ask when you read or it’s not much of a reading anyway.)
Breaks are fine and even needed, not like it’s particularly helpful to sit for hours without getting up either (nor is it very productive; past a certain point a short break does wonders anyway). That being said, it’s really not the water/getting up the issue but whether it works better that way or not – more a matter of whether your mind is still chewing productively on the task even as you go for water/whatevers or not, simple as that.
Sounds on the right track otherwise, keep it up.
Comment by Diana Coman — March 3, 2020 @ 8:06 am
1. What did I spend my time on?
Last night the sleep schedule was messed up in the other direction and I was awake well past midnight. A lot of thoughts were coming to mind, many regarding still unwritten articles. I captured some of the thoughts on paper to not lose them and in an attempt to tire myself out.
I slept till about 8am and had a 9am meeting with a client, which lasted 90 minutes with a 10 minute walk on each end and included some strategy discussions for the local market asking for referrals.
30 mins journaling.
30 mins chatting with jfw about schedule to visit CR.
1.5 hrs cooking and lunch.
2.5 hrs to write the TMSR OS February statement. Battled my own negativity to state it as plainly as I could muster.
1.5 hrs on JWRD sales funnel, most of which was chatting with a lead who is in the market for an implementation of a trading strategy in python that involves various block chain analysis. This is very early qualifying stages, but looks like it’d be an initial implementation of a strategy he’s specified and ongoing development/sys admin work.
2 hours discussing how to approach group rates for JWRD.
90 mins at what’s coming to be a Tuesday night basketball game with an owner of a real estate brokerage/admin and a day trader.
30 mins reading the latest Trilema on bureaucracy
0.75 hrs on this review. Deadline missed by a long shot.
—
14.25 hrs accounted for
2. Where did I ask smart questions? Where could/should I have asked *more* questions?
I asked about structuring a group offering, linked above.
I could have asked more questions in the TMSR OS report.
3. Where did I deliver on my word and where did I fail to deliver? What did I do to mitigate the fail and what do I need to do + who do I need to talk to tomorrow to sort the fail(s) out?
I published the February report prior to the 5th, but not on the 3rd as I’d estimated a couple hours before. I need to submit better to my Master’s judgment and train myself to take on and work through the top priorities.
4. What are the priorities for tomorrow ?
TMSR OS dependencies page.
JWRD sales.
5. How can I better use my available resources ?
Check in on spyked and ave1.
Ask about negotiating for software development/consulting.
6. What should I do *differently* for better results tomorrow ?
See where I can be more present and simply witness myself doing what I know I have to do.
Comment by Robinson Dorion — March 4, 2020 @ 8:07 am
So the tmsr-os February statement took a reasonabl-ish 2.5 hours but those were all in the night? Was this just because you had set the deadline on it on the 4th initially or was it just pushing it because unpleasant or what?
At 5, do check in with everyone in the project, don’t make the mistake of checking in only when/where things are not clear or not going exactly as you’d wish. The situation when people working well don’t hear *any* feedback sucks (I can tell you from that end, heh).
Comment by Diana Coman — March 4, 2020 @ 7:37 pm
I got a ~30 minutes in about mid-day. Between returning from the meeting and our chat. Our chat finished at around 16 my time at which point I lunched. Basketball was from 18:15-19:45. I overcame the pushing off the unpleasantness and working through in part because of the deadline and just the need get over myself to embrace the unpleasantness.
Thanks for pointing that out, it also agrees with my experience.
I forgot to mention I appreciate the March 3rd comment as well.
1. What did I spend my time on?
Considering the extent to which I remain UStarded took up a good bulk of my time and cycles. I know I’ve done and am doing a lot to change that over the years, but whatever remains is a big part of what I was allowing to hold me back. I’m writing in the past tense because fuck that, I let it hold me back long enough.
I let the discipline on tracking my time fall off.
2. Where did I ask smart questions? Where could/should I have asked *more* questions?
The conversation with MP was helpful in affirming to focus on wha
t I can control.
3. Where did I deliver on my word and where did I fail to deliver? What did I do to mitigate the fail and what do I need to do + who do I need to talk to tomorrow to sort the fail(s) out?
I failed to publish the TMSR OS dependencies page. The one thing I did to mitigate the fail was to write this report instead of allowing
myself to sleep. The harder times are where the systems are needed more, using them mitigates the failure.
4. What are the priorities for tomorrow?
Bitcoin history draft ready by 19 UTC.
TMSR OS dependencies page after.
5. How can I better use my available resources ?
A big thing I could do is write a list of what my available resources are.
6. What should I do *differently* for better results tomorrow ?
Be positive, take small steps with the big picture in mind. Doing the unpleasant, necessary things are where growth happens.
Comment by Robinson Dorion — March 5, 2020 @ 9:13 am
1. What did I spend my time on?
1 hr exercise.
30 mins journaling
30 mins reading Drucker
15 mins chatting spanish in #t-h
45 mins working on draft before I shared my difficulty in #o
1.5 hrs engaging #o
2 hrs reading the articles I was gifted
1.5 hrs cooking and eating – worked the French in there
1 hr on outlining next articles
1 hr on JWRD pipeline
1 hr reviewing charts and reading on recent fiat market drama
30 min nap
45 mins family business
30 mins making a list of my available resources
30 mins meditating
30 mins writing this review
—
13h 45m
2. Where did I ask smart questions? Where could/should I have asked *more* questions?
I asked about my writing struggle/decision after I thought through it a bit.
Not exactly sure where I could/should’ve asked more questions through what I was doing today.
3. Where did I deliver on my word and where did I fail to deliver? What did I do to mitigate the fail and what do I need to do + who do I need to talk to tomorrow to sort the fail(s) out?
I didn’t work on the TMSR OS dependency page published.
4. What are the priorities for tomorrow?
Reading/outlining to decide how I want to proceed with the writing.
TMSR OS dependencies.
Weekly/Daily Review/Plan on time.
Reset sleep schedule.
5. How can I better use my available resources ?
JWRD could use some sales literature published to link people to. The business plan has good information, but wasn’t intended for sales.
A prospect asked about relatively large OTC trades, ask MP about that.
6. What should I do *differently* for better results tomorrow ?
Obey my schedule better. I let the novelty of the day encroach on my planned time for TMSR OS dependencies draft and deadline for this plan, sleep schedule.
Comment by Robinson Dorion — March 6, 2020 @ 8:35 am
Not that bad and I can see some good observations coming out in clear from looking at it (e.g. at 5 and 6).
At 1 – since you had worked already on that draft for quite a while, you could have shared that too as part and parcel of “here’s the situation and there’s the trouble”. Not like it would have hurt anything, would it?
At 2 – in principle you can use that to look also at how you read/explore/study on your own. Questions have a very broad usefulness indeed and since it seems it was a reading heavy day – did you question explicitly (in your head or in notes taken, whichever works for you) what you read?
The above being said, if you really find yourself answering one/some question(s) with ~”nothing here” repeatedly and reliably over a long enough time frame, you can always look to replace /discard that question, not like the list has to remain the very same for ever – after all, the point is to help address current problem areas and as you improve it makes sense to review the questions at some point too. It’s a bit early yet for that yet, I’d say but not a bad thing to have in mind too – if nothing else, it helps as another sign of gradual improvements that might be harder to spot as such otherwise.
At 3 – heh, you answered only part of those questions there, didn’t you?
At 4 – how do you pick your priorities for the day? Because there you seem to have stuffed in “the priority list” essentially *everything* that is due/becoming late. I know you wish those things done but it’s not the most helpful way to make that list and it’s not setting you up very well (quite the opposite, hence my pointing it out here).
Perhaps think of it as prioritizing *every time* to maximize your success on that day rather than to recover from previous fail. If such prioritizing requires postponing some of the tasks then you choose which ones and you postpone them explicitly, communicating with any relevant people involved too.
The core of it is to aim to start every day with a clean slate in terms of “successes/fails”, because it’s a *new* day for a reason. Sure, add based on the review any mitigating tasks/goals as such if needed but there’s no automatic carry over of overdue tasks from previous days because it’s neither helpful nor healthy really. Overdue tasks need to be rescheduled, not just carried over. At the end of the day when you do the review, take clear note of any and all successes as well as fails, write them down explicitly, look at them as such and decide on what mitigation tasks might be relevant but once you did that, *put them to rest entirely*, that’s it, don’t carry their burden any further. When you plan the next day and its priorities, you look at everything as it is and pick for best outcomes, aiming to set yourself for success and not for further fail because of accumulated pressure/tasks. Does this make sense to you?
In this particular case, I’d say your first priority for today is actually the review+plan since those deliver max benefit really. Then it’s the dependency page. This is likely to be quite enough for a day considering you probably still have also JWRD work and blogs/logs and all that. If -and only if so set as such from the start- time permits, chipping away at the reading/outlining and decision on writing, sure. (The sleep schedule reset is in there anyway but it’s basically separate stuff/different category entirely.)
5 sounds right on target to me.
At 6 – there does seem to be overall a bit of a pattern forming in that you seem to end up most often spending your time on and as the day’s/outside events pull at you rather than on what you aimed for explicitly. While some flexibility and availability for unexpected opportunities are a good thing, the extreme is very damaging really (and quite disorienting at that, I’d say, huh). Is that what tends to happen?
Comment by Diana Coman — March 6, 2020 @ 12:14 pm
It wouldn’t have and this daily public review is proof of the value of being more open.
I do, but know I can get better and asking treating the reading like a conversation and asking as soon as possible seems like the way to do that.
Ok, I agree that it early, but good to underscore the perspective of growing out of old questions, growing into new questions.
I did only partially answer. I think the cause was, I should at least communicated to you or also in #t.
There has definitely been leaking from one day to another which is a problem that compounds, rather than a daily reset. The daily reset does make sense and I’m already feeling the benefit.
That has tended to be the pattern. I tried interrupting it last week with reserving the first couple hours of the day for explicitly what I’m aiming for, but that only lasted a couple days as the schedule drifted as a result of the leakage from one day to the next. Being more consistent with the first and last hours of the day is a top priority this week.
Thank you!
Comment by Robinson Dorion — March 7, 2020 @ 6:38 pm