Things I did today

 Today's timebox: I admit, I might not get to the cardio today. The temperature is 29 degrees and with wind chill, it is 18. I don't have exercise or hiking gear for those temperatures. Everything else, though, should work. Today's productivity email discussed needing hours of deep focus to work uninterrupted. I think that's so if you're creating, but when you're learning, you need breaks and smaller segments of time to digest what you've just learned. As I'm mostly learning currently, I don't think the hours of uninterrupted focus is right. Certainly would be when I get to a relative proficiency and am doing more creating than learning. When I get there, I'll let you know how I fare. 

 It's fine, though. I'm still getting a lot more done than previously. The 18th timebox felt apart a little bit in the evening when I was asked to help a friend out. Not a problem, as I still got everything attempted - I did some PT and some piano, just not as much as expected per the schedule. It's more important to help friends out than stick with a schedule for arbitrary reasons. So, dinner was cut short and I didn't get home until 10. It meant I didn't get to do my timebox for the 19th on the 18th, so I did so this morning, and couldn't figure out how I wanted to finish the day, since some of the morning activities were taking much longer than expected. Here's my half done timebox for Friday: I went on a much more thorough clean, which meant everything else was pushed out. No problem, though, I can work on them in the evening. Got all the cleaning chores done and prepped some food for a get together I'm invited to on Saturday. Time for dinner, then I...

 I'll be honest, I'm ignoring my Pomodoro breaks. What would I do in 5 minutes that would be useful as a break after 25 minutes? I guess I'll find out today. I'll be more strict on my Pomodoro timer and see if it makes an appreciable difference. Sadly, I can't leave meetings 5 minutes early, but for things other than that, I'll set a timer up. Thursday's timebox: I decided to push grocery shopping to tomorrow morning. As of when I planned out the day, I didn't know what I wanted to do between 4:30-5:30, but I'm sure I'll be able to find stuff to put away or organize. I have two instances of piano because I didn't do as well playing last night as I had hoped. Perhaps two half hour sessions (ok, 25 minutes per pomodoro) with a break in between will give me a chance to refresh. Today is forecasted to be much warmer, so I expect to get a walk in at lunch. Today's productivity email discusses task management systems similar to David Allen'...

Another timebox and some more refining.   I left the morning pretty blank because it was full of work meetings, and you can't hardly get anything done when you're stuck in a meeting. However, I was able to do PT exercises between meetings. I was successful reading about four of the first five errors in the QA version of the sp_Blitz output. I looked at the fifth, and it was a huge article that I knew I couldn't read and understand in the last 15 minutes I had for the hour, so I reread about the error I was least familiar with, instead. I was quite successful switching to the DataCamp case study and completing the first of three chapters in just under an hour.  After that, my schedule became a bit of a mess. I got enough PT done during meetings and lunch that I didn't need to do more PT in the evening. (I had taken the trash out earlier and found out it was so cold  that I knew I didn't have exercise clothes warm enough to be able to go out at lunch.) I decided to fo...

 Timebox Take 2 I didn't stuff much into today, which ended up good, as I was rendered pretty useless after 5:45. Not sure what happened, but it was clear I was not able to play piano. Luckily, I happened to get the PT done beforehand, so I really only missed out on piano for my goals today.  In much better news, I got the discount code for the PL300 exam. It expires in June, so I'll have plenty of time (as long as I keep at it) to feel good about my chances of passing it. I did a bit of research and it seems that they are not as extensive with the DAX portion as the data modeling and power query side, so I'll stick with the case studies and the exam prep guide I have instead of doing all of the exercises in my DAX book for the upcoming weeks and months. 

 So, how did timeboxing go today? I'd say relatively well, though I still have more to learn/tweak about the method. I woke up at 7:45, started coffee at 8, did two PT stretches while the coffee brewed, and grabbed the stuff needed to sharpen my knives. Coffee was brewed and in the cup by 8:10 and I sat down to drink it and read the news. Lesson #1) It takes more than 20 minutes for me to drink hot coffee. Luckily, organizing two drawers can be done in between swigs of coffee, so that's what I did at 8:30-8:45. I then grabbed the meal planning papers and finished the coffee while planning meals for the week. Things are looking good!  It's 9:05, coffee is done, first two tasks are done. Time to sharpen knives! Oh, it looks like the holder was put away slightly wet, which wasn't easily spotted due to the type of wood, so there's a bit of mold on it. Guess I'll rewash everything in the knife sharpening kit with very hot water and soap, and know that after I'm d...

Week 1 is done - how did I do? Week 1 : Become a certified Power BI Data Analyst Quarter 1: Finish Power BI Skill Track and do exercises in The Definitive Guide to DAX Finish Report Design in Power BI (done, plus the following course is finished!) Have a similar level of fitness as my exercise partner Quarter 1: Create daily PT exercises habit 75% of daily exercises as scheduled for PT (I mostly did some PT daily, but not nearly like I hoped. Need a better plan.) Achieve intermediate level playing for piano Quarter 1: Play through all of Alfred's Adult Learner 1 and learn five fakebook songs Play the first 20 pages of Alfred Adult Learner 1 (Seeing as I'm at page 145 - though not all the recent songs are at 100% proficiency, I've blown past my goal.) Cook through the 4 Hour Chef Quarter 1: Read through 4 Hour Chef Read the first 60 pages of 4 Hour Chef (I did indeed do that.) Go through the Brent Ozar DBA Mastery courses Quarter 1: sp_Blitz exercises Create spreadsheet for...