A CHRISTMAS TRADITION

Gluwhein.

HAPPENING NOW

SOUNDS ABOUT RIGHT

Last night we took BluDog to a friend's house and it took him about 30 seconds to decided he wanted to own their Christmas tree so he pee'd on it.  Oops.  I'm sure in his head he was like, "Whoa, I thought we were inside but there is a tree in here...don't want to look like a fool in front of this other dog so I better pee on this here branch".

And, because this is the way things seem to shake out for us, there is talk of an approaching winter storm.  Which is cool because I thought driving for 13ish hours in good conditions would be boring.

I'll try to post during my travels but no promises.

Catch you on the flip side.

FAST AS FAST CAN BE

Maybe it's because it's the end of the year and time seems to be dwindling while my to-do list is expanding...maybe it's because I'm tired of never having enough hours in a day...maybe I'm tired of seeing so much time wasted.  Whatever the reason I have been really interested in finding ways to boost my productivity to complete as much high quality work in the shortest amount of time. 

Lately I've spent a fair amount of time reading articles and blogs about ways to boost efficiency and productivity.  Now, a lot of these are ideas work on paper but not in reality.  Others are great ideas but would only work if you were your own boss (ie-work on one task for 2 hours then take a 30 or 45 minute break to re-energize and refocus) or worked in an extremely flexible office. 

So far I've found a few suggestions which are feasible and have put them in place.  One, bundling all low priority tasks.  I have created a place for all of these assignments and tasks to "live" until it's time to complete them...so far, so good.  I've found I can get all of these low priority tasks done much quicker this way. 

Think about it, if you had one of these tasks crop up every hour, you would spend about 15 minutes and hour working on a low priority project.  Then think of the time it takes to get back into the required head-space for the higher priority project, about 5 or 6  minutes.  Pretty soon, all said and done, this low priority task is taking as much time time out of an hour as your high priority task.



I've also started scrutinizing my to-do list.  Obviously some tasks are very time sensitive and need to get done by a certain time.  Others not so much.  So the ones that have soft deadlines or no deadlines have been pushed to the bottom of the list.  I have found these are good Friday tasks.  Typically I can get most of them done in a day and it's a great way to start the weekend.

The most important take-away from my reading is this:  Not every task is a top priority.  And just because it is someone's #1 priority does not mean it has to be mine.  

Life is too short not to be as efficient as possible...at least in my eyes.

BIKE BUILDER

Because I don't already have enough on my to-do list I decided I want to build my own bike from salvage parts and (hopefully) a few new parts.  Why you ask...why not I say. 

One, I think it will be fun to hunt for the perfect parts...a great way to explore new neighborhoods
Two, I think it will be cool to have a totally custom bike. 
Three, I'm a glutton for punishment.
Four, I want a new project to tackle.

My goals for the build are pretty simple...don't spend more on parts than what a new bike would cost and make sure the wheels don't fall off when I'm riding it.

See, pretty simple.  Once I "officially" start I'll post some pictures.

TWO HEADLIGHTS

ONE HEADLIGHT

On the way to work this morning I noticed one of my headlights is out.  Typically, no biggie, it shouldn't take too long to replace.  But the weather isn't cooperating.  Today it was a high of 11 with the "real feel" at -5.  This weekend the mercury isn't supposed to reach 18. 

My brain has been in a tug of war all day.  The rational side pitted against the OCD side.  Who will win?  If I were a betting man, I'd wager this guy will be outside tomorrow cussing the OCD side.

NOT GOOD FOR PRESENTATIONS

It says "updating 33 of 80"