How I Did Today

Ok, I got through 6 pages. I needed to reboot my netbook (running too many days w/o turning off; installing, etc) so I didn't do the exercises on those pages. I'll have to do those this weekend, along with the final 3 pages or so in that chapter. Not too bad. I'll have to remember to just reboot the netbook every time I start. I'm amazed that it's been able to run at all with the Visual Studio stuff, with it's tiny little Atom processor lol.

I know that this is kind of hard to believe, but ...

... I think that I might do better at work watching videos over listening to music. When I'm watching my iPod, most especially if I'm watching something that I've seen before, I mostly listen to it, occasionally glancing down at the screen laying next to my keyboard. When I'm listening to music, most especially to a song with lyrics, one that I really like, or even a classical or jazz instrumental that I really like, I tend to sing or hum along with it. If it's really catchy, I'll almost dance along with it in my chair. I put more mental concentration into listening to the songs than I do semi-watching a movie or TV show, even when I know what I'm watching well enough to quote the lines. Interesting ...

ManicTime

I am going to start reporting my ManicTime statistics, preferably each workday. It's very good a pointing out where my time was spent each day. There have been many days in the past where I knew that I was busy all day, however I had no idea what actual work got done. With this software, I can easily see when I have spent too much time perusing web sites and other such time-wasting things.

So far this week, I have spent a fair amount of time on the conversion project, as I should be doing. That's good. I'll start posting a list of each day's breakdown, as soon as I figure out how.

Ok, time for a change in plans

Change in plans. This came to me this afternoon. I don't know why I didn't think of this a couple of years ago when I first started down this road. I'm tackling the programming books, and the goLearn courses before that, all wrong. Instead of just diving into the books without a game plan, I should have decided beforehand how much I expected to get finished within a certain amount of time. So, that said, here is the new game plan:

* I will spend a week on each chapter
* I'll divide the total pages in each chapter by 4 - for Monday through Thursday.
* I should read through that many pages during lunch.
* Any pages not completed by Thursday afternoon have to be finished over the weekend, if I want to keep up with my original totals.

Head First C# book

There are 15 chapters and 3 labs. That equates to 18 weeks, which I should be able accomplish in about 4 months. I would spend almost as long taking this course at a Dallas County Community College District college. This is 3 times as long as the ed2go.com online course I've been considering. That one is for 6 weeks and would cost $99.00. My going this route will take me 18 weeks however the (very visual) Head First C# book only cost me $8.39. I can live with that trade-off, lol.

The C# book averages 25-30 pages per chapter. Dividing that by 4, I should go through 6-8 pages a day. That should be possible. It also gives me something to shoot for each day, as in 'just 3 more pages, I just have to get to page 150, then I can stop.'

That's another problem about doing this without a gameplan: I'm setting a big goal of getting through the entire book, but I did not break it into smaller chunks. The 'smaller chunks' method is what would be happening in a class setting. I should have thought of this ages ago.

Mentoring

This week’s subject is mentoring.  More to follow.

Pitiful

I have not done enough this morning to qualify as work.

Treat Personal Internet Use Like a Coffee Break to Get More Done

This is from yesterday’s Lifehacker.  Interesting concept.

 

http://lifehacker.com/ - !5788540/treat-personal-internet-use-like-a-coffee-break-to-get-more-done

Treat Personal Internet Use Like a Coffee Break to Get More Done

Kevin Purdy — Watching every YouTube video sent your way, while keeping up on personal email, Twitter, Facebook, and SMS—it's all too much. But pretending you can't do anything online is futile, too. How does one balance the opposing forces? Recent studies suggest treating your internet indulgences as "coffee breaks" to get satisfaction and get things done.

Photo by Dennis Wong

In a look at recent science on internet distractions, James Surowiecki of the New Yorker finds a directly related study, in which workers were asked to watch a video of a ball being passed and count the number of passes. Some participants saw a funny video first, while others were given a screen noting that they could watch a video if they pressed a button, but were asked not to do so. Those who were brow-beaten about the option of a funny video made significantly more mistakes then those who could watch a video and, in a way, get it out of the way first.

Why such sub-standard performance from those with demonstrable willpower? Look to the classic "Marshmallow Tests"—personal willpower is something like a muscle, one that can become overused and ineffective if it's never given a break. And a break is just what Surowiecki suggests.

It's actually a logical evolution of one of the great inventions of the twentieth century: the coffee break. In the nineteenth century, letting wage-earners stand around drinking coffee would have seemed preposterous. But, in the early nineteen-hundreds, a Buffalo company introduced the idea of short breaks in the workday, and by mid-century it had become a hallowed office custom. The basic insight-that giving people some respite from difficult tasks, along with the chance to let their minds wander, will make them more productive-remains true.

Do you give yourself "internet coffee breaks" at work? How often could you fit them in, and would they be more effective than your current balancing act?

March Madness and the Cost of Distraction [The New Yorker]