This morning

For the first 1.5 hours, I was looking up information on my Military Star card.  I didn't get started on work for quite some time.

Ok, I'm gonna have to stop listening to audio books

I keep losing my train of thought while listening to 'The Valley of Horses'.

I did pretty good today.

There was only a quarter of an hour in the ‘wasted time’ category.  I even recorded all of my Clarity time.  If I work on some courses at home, that would be a trifecta. 

 

I know what I'm doing, now how do I fix it?

I think that one of the reasons that I procrastinate on starting things is because a 'commitment' issue.  I try to get classes or assistance on things such a programming language because, besides having someone that I can bounce questions off of, it 'commits' me to that thing -- learning a new programming language, dance class -- in my brain.  'Tuesday at 7pm' is devoted to that item, most especially when I have to go to that class.  Having paid for that class solidifies it, in a sense.  I'll even sit through the difficult parts having paid for that class; leaving means that I have wasted the money, and have missed something that I could have learned.  Whenever I don't do that, my mind doesn't 'catalog' that time in my brain as that 'work' period.  When I actually go to another location for the class I lose my focus less.

When I don't have that setup, there are a handful on other things that get chosen instead.  I keep my work setup on a different PC so that I don't get distracted by something on my main PC: an email, some web page, etc.  Even looking for a music track can lead to something that I had not planned on doing, such as editing tracts and files, or checking out stuff in folders, etc.  Even then, I will be on both at once, doing anything but what I'm supposed to be doing for work, and doing 'interesting' stuff on my PC.

The thing is, I want to do all of the things at the same time, even studying, or practicing, or whatever.  I would guess the easier, already set up, thing gets picked first.  I also have the issue of spending more time than I planned and other such crap, which doesn't help.  As in: oh, this will only take a few minutes, and it winds up taking three times as long (reading instead of skimming, maybe obsessing over neatness or sequence; then 'oh yeah, I wanted to do this, left it off of the todo list, crap let me go and get it started; and the weekend continues on that way -- and then throw in watching recorded shows -- and I get to Sunday night and some of the todo items undone, like maybe some work that I forgot all about or not starting on a work goal, or the messy workroom, etc.

Of course, it's always easier to choose when there is less to choose from.  When I went to community college in the 80s, all I had was class, so it was easier to give more attention to it.  When I started DeVry, work and school was somewhat separate, and doable.  Throw in marriage, and difficult classes, other things to turn attention towards popped up.  A lot of overtime, however that's a whole another post.  End of the 90's, I made myself choose one of two projects, so that I could see results that much faster.  Tried classes on and off, always stopped when either difficult, or that time that I was seeing someone (another different story),

This is probably very convoluted.  I'll have to go back and clean it up later/   

Progress this weekend

Even though I get many things done this weekend -- to the extent that I forgot all about a TITAS production on Saturday -- however I did not get to the two major things that I needed to: working on my work goal, and starting work on cleaning out my workroom.  I spent more time on a project that definitely could have waited: going through the Shimmy episodes, that have been sitting on my DVR for two years, to get rid of the dups.  I'm really putting off doing those two things.  I only have 4 months to get the recall screens ready to present.

Pomodoro

I've noticed something about the Pomodoro schedule that I've set up.  The Pomodoro time period usually seems entirely too short.  And I think that I know why.  If I'm bouncing from place to place, doing this and doing that, and not doing a lot of coding, then yes, the time spent coding will seem short, because it was.

Now that I've got the time broken up, I need to get the concentration to work in the same manner.

New software

I keep playing with some software that I bought for my phone.  It can really wait until later.  I have a couple of things much more important to work on, however I can't turn away from it.

Starting the day

I did pretty good for a couple of days, doing very little besides working on assignments.  Today, not so much.  I started off by doing some stuff that could have waited ... but would have been forgotten.

tsk tsk tsk

Not a very productive day so far.  It's been awhile since it's was this on a workday.  My mind has not been in the right place.

This morning

My mind is floundering around, trying to figure out which item to work on first.  I had already decided what to work on, and when, yet I'm still around, as though I'm missing something, or should be doing something else.

Oops, I did it again (I have got to stop quoting the Britney Spears song)

I spent some two hours this morning looking up information.  True, is was for articles and such for Dr. Barkley and ADHD stuff, however it could have waited.  One good thing I discovered is that even though my Evernote desktop is not working, I can work around it and use the web version almost as well.  I have to add a couple more steps, however I'm still happy with the outcome.

I HATE Clarity!

I CANNOT believe that it has literally taken me ALL day to finish filling out and submitting my Clarity!  This would be MUCH easier if I did this daily!  Literally, ALL DAY, because I kept putting it off.  And there was too much time that I had to figure out, since I had not marked it in ManicTime.  Will I never learn this?  And, I saw just how much time I had wasted, since I started marking Wasted Time again.  Really big sigh.

An epiphany

I've had an epiphany of sorts.  It's not necessarily the being distracted that's my major problem concerning getting projects done on time, although that can cause damage.  I believe that the main problem is not sticking to a timetable.  In many cases, I don't have a timetable.  I'm not referring to when a project is actually due, but instead a timetable for each of the components (i.e. tasks) of the entire project.  Not only do I need to set reminders for each part in Win-Organizer, I need to do the same thing in my Outlook Calendar, creating one for the assigned time period for that task, so that I can actually see the time lines in front of me.  If I have more than one project that I'm working on at one time, I can also see the effect of trying to work on the two at the same time.

I think that using the pomodoro periods that I have set up will help to cut down on losing focus to something other than actual tasks/projects.  Since the break notification is popping up every 25 minutes, that's an indication to me of where my focus should be/should have been.  This is good since it seems that I can't get the various blocking software to work here.  One of them mention on their web site that Windows 7 now does a lot of what their app does (meaning no updates on their end), so I should check into that as well.

I know that why I do this, I just wish that I didn't do it

I got wrapped up in creating, and then updating, a load list from my old SplashID data.  When I moved everything over from my old phone to my new one, that data file did not move over.  I've been trying to get Splash to dump the contents for over a year, so that I can load them into another app.  Now, with less than two weeks left before I had to send the old one off, it was either get it downloaded or type each into the other app one by one.  This became a big deal today because I needed to look up a password, and that triggered the events that eventually had me editing a list that was created last year that was sitting on my old phone.  Once I got started, I of course found it very difficult to pull away.  I really hate that I obsess over things.  Most of my morning has been spent working on something non-work related.

New Plans

Yesterday, I got myself set up to engage in my new work/study plan.  I installed software to lock my PC for a certain period in the evening, so that I won't do too many things that I don't need to be doing instead of working or studying.  We'll see how it works.  Hopefully, it won't be too easy for me to go around it like I usually do.

Today

Not too bad today.  Trying to follow my Pomodoro breaks.  Getting the list of little things I wanted to do -- moving notes to one location, renaming some music tracks that I listen to, downloading tech manuals and books, printing goLearn course screens -- at a slow, but steady pace.  It's better than my trying to concentrate on any one of them throughout the day, which means that I spend a lot of my time doing just that.  I also wind up checking my email and updating my ManicTime tasks much more now.

Yesterday

We finished up our goals for this next year.  I've got a pretty loaded docket.  It's not bad, though.  I have a lot of courses set up, and both of my pet projects are on it.  I like that a lot.

It never fails

I had planned to get to work on finishing my goals immediately when I got here, however other things got in the way again.  I wound up making some changes in my office that didn't need to be done at that time.

I've been bad today

When I got in today, I had planned on looking up the info that I needed to finish up my goals rating for last year. Actually, I had wanted to do that last night, but of course I didn't (I really, really need to write app to lock out my PC during certain times). I have yet to do that.

Why do I do this?

I just spent maybe an hour picking out courses that I would like to take. There were a couple of times that I thought to myself that I should stop and actually get to work, yet I kept on, because I so wanted to finish what I was doing. It was too big on an endeavor to do in a small amount of time. However, because I had started it, I was more concerned with finishing it.

Pomodoro session

I had just set my Pomodoro timer for 25 minutes and I wanted to see how much I could get done. In the span of 25 minutes, I hit everything else but work:

* restarted the media player to play a song again

* went to my other PC to start a course

* opened Visual Studio to review a project I started some months ago

* searched through Documents for said project

* read two emails

* opened program on mainframe session T and E, signing in to program I'm currently working on

* went back to Inbox and reviewed an email

went to portal, going to SDLC location, opening SOW

* worked on SOW

* went to Favorite Songs folder, searching for another song to play. Went to another folder to find song.

* went to inbox to clear unneeded, due to reminder to do so at that hour

* read two articles on Newser

Out of nearly a dozen things I did in 25 minutes, only once did I touch the one thing that I really needed to be working on.

Pomodoro, part 2

I came up with an idea to add to the pomodoro.  I want to be able to lock myself out of unnecessary windows when the pomodoro is running.

 

Pomodoro

I'm trying Pomodoro today. Right now, I have a large tomato that's sitting on my main screen, ticking away for 25 minutes. For most of that 25 minutes, I don't think that even half of it was spent on the actual task. I spend so much time going from item to item that I don't think I even know how to sit still for 5 minutes and do only one thing.

Hmmmmm, that's a quandary.

Readiness Rating Approver Confirmed Presentation MONICA P. COLLINS

One of these is my readiness rating and the other is my horoscope for today.

I got the surprise of my readiness rating today. After David and I discussed it, I’m now at ‘taking on a expanded role in my current position’. He is dubious about this rating, and I have no reason to blame him for it. I’m not consistent with my work. And the next position takes on my analysis and I definitely have problems with figuring out problems or solutions on other people’s logic.

My trying to get to a 4E is an entirely different issue. So is my trying to become a web developer. I do already know this, however, in my shooting for all these things to occur at the same time, I tend to merge it all together. What I mean is, I could eventually get to do some web development however, if my level of work stays the same, I’ll be doing it as a 4D. My problem is the same as it always it: having consistent work. To get to a 4E, I have to become better at analysis since that job does more than mine does. I did a lot more in my other position, however I had trouble in that arena there too. I can break down problems; unfortunately, I don’t do it as quickly as others, I don’t always come up with the correct conclusions, etc. These are probably the reasons that Dr. Barkley suggested that programming may not be the best IT choice for ADDers (as opposed to other IT positions like working with the hardware, as in a tech job). He didn’t imply the other jobs can’t be done by us, just that it would be a lot more work. Lol, I’ve know that for over 20 years. I should not lose sight of the fact that as much as I work to go further, this may be as far as I go. I’ve been at this level for a decade. Do I see myself staying here for another 10 or 20 years? I have also considered taking early retirement and then trying another tech job. I don’t know, I’ll have to see what the next decade brings. I’m more interested in building data processes than building PCs and repairing them, or building databases or other such things.

I need to do web coding, along with learning it, on my own. Instead of taking some courses and then saying ‘ok, I took these, now let me code something, please’ I instead need to take some courses, create some sites online, then go to my bosses and say ‘I’ve learn how to do some web coding, let me show you some of my work’. I’ve not done that in the past: I never have money for courses, or to purchase web space, plus, I have never wanted to create some dummy site. At the same time, I don’t want to create a site for myself because I wouldn’t be able to do it the way that I wanted, not to mention not having everything that I needed ready and in place, such as completed costumes to sell, performance videos to advertise myself with, etc. I know of a possible web site to develop for myself: for years, I’ve wanted to be able to put a list of my music in a site that can be accessed by me or others.

DART Van Pool

So far, a good deal of this week has been spent in rearranging my schedules, alerts, etc for my new leaving time due to my riding with the van pool now. I have worked, however, more than half of the last three days have been going towards rearranging things. And, some PC maintenance.

blocking sites

I had to go and block Wow! eBooks and ShareBookFree. I spent too much time on the sites looking for books. Even though most of the searches were for IT manuals, I did not need to spend that much time there. Not right now. Searching for a manual or two can be done in the 10 minutes that I have alloted myself. I don't need to look for the books uploaded for the last month before 4pm.

I hate being friendless

I never had anyone to share things with. I just came up with a project to work on that would be for my WebOS phone. Lacy has his IM turned off so I can't run it by him. I don't really want to run it by Massey because I wouldn't be able to get much help from him on it, since I don't think that he doesn't work with smartphones. It doesn't do much good to talk to the other few people here that I converse with.

This is why I wind up talking to husbands and boyfriends all of the time: I have no one else to talk to.

I hate this.

Crunch time

Not a good week. Coming off of a holiday on Monday, and leaving early (i.e. on time) Tuesday and Wednesday for appointments have not started this month off of the best footing. It doesn't help that I didn't have a lot of focus towards the last two goals that I need to try and finish before the 31st. I have to get all four components of the SDLC stuff finished, the fourth being the 'exceptional' item, so that it makes up for the SR that will not be completed. If needed, I'll abandon the SR after a week or so, so that I can concentrate fully on the SDLC. Actually, I think that I will definitely do that.

Big bites vs. small bites

Because I know that some assignment will take me quite a bit of time, I will (more than) often try to solve one of the smaller problems on my plate first. What often happens is that the small item tends to take a long time as well, leaving me behind on both of them.

------------------------------------------------------

I am cleaning out my digital post-it notes and I just came across this on one of them. I'm a bit better at this. I have assigned myself certain times that I can work on small tasks.