sabren.net archives
back to sabren.net...
back to the
archive...
entries for 2002/6/16
getting things done (again)
I started getting the "are you still alive" emails yesterday from my friends. I meant to stop and write a few words yesterday, but I didn't quite pull it off.
Basically, I'm still here. I had maybe five days there where I answered my work email and then just spaced out all day. Just sort of taking a step back and figuring out what I want to go with my business.
The control panel is taking forever. I've been finding it hard to focus on it, and working on it for an hour here and there just doesn't seem to amount to much. I've always thought I had a lot of skill when it comes to programming, but what I lack are the habits to make myself make things happen. When I was in school, and even when I worked for other people, I often would waste a lot of time, and then hurry up and get things done at the last minute. The trouble is, I usually got good grades in school and had a reputation for being quick at work.
And I still have that pattern. That's why zikeshop took two years
and my billing system took months and the control panel is still
just vaporware.
I'm getting better through. That book, Getting Things Done really
helped me a few months back, and I read it again the other day.
So now I'm going back through my to-do lists, and the
piles of notes to myself, and taking another look.
It's obvious now that many of the items I thought were concrete actions were really just ill-defined "stuff" that I hadn't bothered to think through. In other words, I was using the action list as a "remember to think about this" list. It seems so obvious that you have to think about work before you do it. So much so that I constantly delude myself into thinking I've done so. And so my action list gets all clouded up with half-baked ideas and nothing gets done.
Well, I'm not going to re-write David Allen's book here, but I'll just say that he's right: you need to define your work before you do it, and that's a skill I need to work on, and that's what I've been doing the past few days. Defining the big things and doing the little things. It's working, too. My pile of notecards is shrinking, my ideas are getting more organized, even my apartment is looking neater. If I can keep this up, I might actually start acheiving some of my goals. Heaven forbid! :)
Anyway. I gotta get back to work. It'll probably still be quiet around here for a few days...