Things I did today

Well, almost. I didn't get to do any professional development today, but that's fine - I just did regular work so I could get it out of the way.    What gave me energy today? Finishing a project, but to be fair, it didn't give me much energy. What tasks or interactions drained my energy? Co-workers loudly discussing how Taylor Swift has already ruined the Super Bowl for them. What was my biggest win? Finishing that project and getting a second to 80% complete. What did I struggle with? Getting in gear for my evening. I've done my PT, but it looks unlikely that I'll do piano. I'd rather read. What changes can I make for tomorrow? Happily, I can work from home tomorrow. Tuesday being the day where everyone is in the office makes it the worst day for me. I think I'll make Tuesday evenings just quiet evenings where I only do PT and enjoy reading.

I'll stop the alliteration, but today was really great. I listened to the "original" source, Debbie Millman, on the Tim Ferriss Show for more insight for the 10 Year Plan. (I put original in quotes, as she was introduced to the 10 Year Plan for a Remarkable Life from her professor.) I realize (but still will change) why I put so many "mights" in my previous attempt. So many of Millman's questions are directed to college-aged students - "Where will you live?" "What will your career look like?" "What kind of car will you have?" The answer to those are what I already have. In 10 years, I expect to live in the same city and have the same career. I also hope to have the same car, but it's already over 14 years old. A lot of my life is already decided - not in a way that makes me feel like I'm in a rut, but in a way that makes me settled and able to enjoy other things rather than worry about what career I want to be in. All he...

Timebox for Monday: Week 3: Become a certified Power BI Data Analyst Quarter 1: Finish Power BI Skill Track and do exercises in The Definitive Guide to DAX Complete Case Study Analyzing Job Market Data in Power BI (done) Have a similar level of fitness as my exercise partner Quarter 1: Create daily PT exercises habit Continue habit and find two small times, and one half hour, for PT (still not easy) Achieve intermediate level playing for piano Quarter 1: Play through all of Alfred's Adult Learner 1 and learn five fakebook songs Become proficient in these songs in Alfred's Adult Learner 1: The Entertainer Somewhere Over the Rainbow Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas (at least I'll have enough time for that one) Find a fakebook song to learn (Also still not easy) Cook through the 4 Hour Chef Quarter 1: Read through 4 Hour Chef Read the first four lessons (done) Go through the Brent Ozar DBA Mastery courses Quarter 1: sp_Blitz exercises Walk through the second five errors ...

 Happily, I feel much better, but it means the things I wanted to get done on Friday had to be pushed to Saturday. No matter, though, I was able to spend time with one of my friends and that was really joyous and pleasant! Tomorrow, though, I'll get back to scheduling a timebox for the week, as I feel a little lost.  I'm expecting to get through my normal weekly review and resume my PT and piano exercises.

I was looking forward to a Free Friday with no timebox and enjoyment of whatever I pleased, but GI issues meant I spent most of the day in horrific pain, so I didn't do any piano or PT. I just sat in my most comfortable chair and attempted to read. I'm hopeful but not convinced I'll be able to sleep tonight. We'll see. 

 Boring, I know. I could do better than Thankful, but I am thankful. I got my work done - decided to switch doing work vs doing professional development in the morning. Glad I did that - because I was contacted for support when I was planning on doing my MS Learn course on Power BI. That can be done anytime, even on the weekends on my personal computer. The support stuff couldn't wait. But I'm thankful that I'm done with my week and can put work away while I have a relaxing weekend. What gave me energy today? The interesting detective issue I needed to solve. What tasks or interactions drained my energy? Meetings that I had to attend but couldn't add to nor mostly ignore in favor of other tasks. What was my biggest win? Getting my tickets done so I don't have to think about them until Monday! What did I struggle with? Waking up after only 5 hours sleep! What changes can I make for tomorrow? Tomorrow is a completely different schedule, so just making sure I get enoug...

 I was able to accomplish most of what I wanted to get done today, and supported four people on four different projects. Not bad. However, I did get engrossed in a show about a sous chef and forgot I wanted to play piano - so that's the only thing I didn't do today. Not too bad. For the 30 day productivity challenge, today's email is about daily reflection. Ali poses a set of questions to ask at the end of each day. Sure, I'll try it out. What gave me energy today? My lunch walk What tasks or interactions drained my energy? Answering questions from people who should already know the answer, or know how to troubleshoot instead of waiting for the next step to be spoonfed to them. What was my biggest win? Working with a developer to diagnose an on-prem report server error in UAT. We were fast to debug, and easily shared what pieces we knew together and get the solution in place. What did I struggle with? Getting my own project finished. I have high hopes for tomorrow, thou...

 I was able to feel accomplished on a few things, but had enough open problems and meetings to feel pretty tired overall. Of course, working in the office is always draining. During the pandemic, I got used to the peace and quiet, and the loud people got used to being loud, so both going back to a smaller office with lower wall cubes means it always is exhausting to the people who like quiet.  However, I did manage to get everything except for PT done today, and as it's not the end of the day yet, I still have a bit of time. I finished the Brent Ozar QA sp_Blitz sheet and will start going through his videos next week. I started the Microsoft Learn readings on the PL-300 exam. I played piano, but things weren't working well, so I didn't push it, just played what I felt like playing. Time for a timebox for tomorrow, then off to PT, then reading. That looks pretty good. I don't think I'll be having a Woeful Wednesday with that plan.

Don't get me wrong, it was a fine Monday, it was just not magnificent or marvelous, and alliteration is fun. I was able to get a lot of things started and a few accomplished today, like the DataCamp case study, so I think I'll switch to see what Microsoft Learn has to offer - though there are still a few case studies I can still do in DataCamp. I didn't skip doing anything I wanted - I read, learned more about Notion, played piano and did PT, so I'm pleased about all that. Tomorrow looks not too bad, but I have meetings from 11am - 3pm, so I'll have to make sure to get all my work and professional development done early. And, since I'll have to be in the office, I can't do PT nearly as easily, so I'll have that in the evening. I'm trying to plan something fun, like a game or reading. I notice I fill my day with work and then some more work - on hobbies that currently take effort instead of hobbies I can just relax and enjoy, so I am "planning...

What a lovely Sunday! I don't have many tasks that must be done so I get to relax. The gathering yesterday was a lot of fun and everyone had a great time. I was able to conquer most everything on my list except for PT, which is getting more urgent as my next appointment is on Wednesday. I must get stronger! Let's see how Week 2 went: Week 2: Become a certified Power BI Data Analyst Quarter 1: Finish Power BI Skill Track and do exercises in The Definitive Guide to DAX Complete Case Study Analyzing Job Market Data in Power BI (Only got halfway though the course as I had too many support calls at work. Hoping to finish it up this week.) Have a similar level of fitness as my exercise partner Quarter 1: Create daily PT exercises habit Find three separate times to do 33% of my exercises (This was mostly successful, but was difficult to achieve during the weekend. Much better than weeks prior, and I'm happy about that.) Achieve intermediate level playing for piano Quar...

 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...

 Today's productivity email discussed How to Finish Projects - and the answer could be: Make your deadline shorter. After all, a task will take as much time as you give it, so give it less time. While that sounds good for some tasks (or else you get stuck in the "it's 90% perfect, I can tweak it just a little more..." phase) I definitely didn't meet my shorter deadline for a creative project today. Meant to get it done at 7pm, and I finally finished it at 9:15. Instead, I have 10 minutes to finish this blog. I did finish buying plane tickets for the 2024 solar eclipse, so that is quite exciting! Oh, one of the tips from the email is to shorten the deadline by 25%-50%. As I've been writing this post for 7 minutes already, I'd better quit and try again tomorrow.

This time, the productivity email about the 5 minute method came at an opportune time! The 5 minute method boils down to "If you're procrastinating on a task, set a timer for 5 minutes and do that task for just 5 minutes, then you can quit." However, in most cases, you won't want to quit until you get to a natural stopping point or at the completion of the task. Gee, the 5 minute method plus the 3-3-3 (or my 1-3-3) method seems to be quite the winner.  So, I did: Three Maintenance Tasks Unloaded the dishwasher Tidied my desk Made the bed Three Shorter Tasks Played piano Took a half hour walk Put air in my tires Three (one) hours of work: Finished Data Connections in Power BI, then had 20 minutes left of my hour, so I started Deploying and Managing Assets in Power BI.  I was so close to the end of the track, I decided to finish it after lunch, and now I have a DataCamp certification of Data Analyst in Power BI! That looks great! I was able to find other resources on Da...

 Apparently, if you try to write daily in a blog when you're 24, falter after a few months, try again at 34 and make it an entire year (though I had to take a break for a few weeks then write several posts per day to catch up) then write sporadically for the next 3 years, you eventually get to 600! It seems more anticlimactic and almost accidental. Oh well. Maybe I'll be better planned when I get to 700. Today was great. I did manage to get one of my own projects done! The rest of the time was devoted to supporting others. And when I say 'rest of the time', I mean it. I started working at 6:45am to prep for a production deployment and didn't stop doing support tasks or attending meetings (I had only three today) until 12:20, where I made a sandwich for lunch. In the middle of making the sandwich, I was contacted to help with another issue, so I helped while eating lunch. After it was solved and I was thinking about taking a break, another person requested assistance...