Showing posts with label work. Show all posts
Showing posts with label work. Show all posts
Monday, July 20, 2009
Magically clean inbox
I just found a cool trick for cleaning out your gmail inbox. When I started my gmail account the transition from folders to lables was akward and I had so much space it didn't seem like I'd ever use it. But now that I'm a GTD convert (sort-of) it really bothered me that I had 10k emails in my inbox. So I deleted some obvious spam and then archived the rest (see: http://www.ainotenshi.org/cleaning-up-your-gmail-inbox). Now my historical email is still there, and I can process the rest as it comes in by labeling and archiving if I want to save it. But I delete a lot more email than I used to and the satisfaction of having the Inbox at 0 messages is huge!
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
Time flies
wish I was having fun though. ParentMap uses word to keep track of employee time, and even excel is a bit annoying for this task b/c it doesn't handle calculations of time well. It can subtract time if i enter start and end times, but summing time becomes problematic when you get to 99 hours.
I looked for a free tool, because this is a simple task I want it to do. Start, end, date, project. Keep track for me and then add it all up at the end of the month, but break it down by day or project or both if I want.
I downloaded and started using HourGuard, and it is great except that I can't break down the report by day. Suck.
Other free tools:
simple - http://online-stopwatch.chronme.com/ allows you to keep track and export to csv
http://www.toggl.com/ - looks clean and simple
http://www.trackmypeople.com/ - seems fancy and am afraid they'll charge me to export csv or something
http://klok.mcgraphix.com/klok/index.htm - seems clunky to me. maybe just ugly.
I'm trying Toggl next. But I downloaded their widget for mac and setup an account and my login/pass failed so that is annoying. But it is nice that they have an online interface. We'll see how it goes. Any suggestions?
I looked for a free tool, because this is a simple task I want it to do. Start, end, date, project. Keep track for me and then add it all up at the end of the month, but break it down by day or project or both if I want.
I downloaded and started using HourGuard, and it is great except that I can't break down the report by day. Suck.
Other free tools:
simple - http://online-stopwatch.chronme.com/ allows you to keep track and export to csv
http://www.toggl.com/ - looks clean and simple
http://www.trackmypeople.com/ - seems fancy and am afraid they'll charge me to export csv or something
http://klok.mcgraphix.com/klok/index.htm - seems clunky to me. maybe just ugly.
I'm trying Toggl next. But I downloaded their widget for mac and setup an account and my login/pass failed so that is annoying. But it is nice that they have an online interface. We'll see how it goes. Any suggestions?
The new more efficient me
Ahh...the illusion of productivity. In an attempt to get organized, dump tasks out of my head and associate them with projects I went online looking for a good tool to keep track of my tasks. And I quickly discovered the world of Getting Things Done (GTD) and the cult of productivity that seems to flow from that. I hadn't heard of GTD before but some of the ideas resonated - that I function better when I get stuff out of my head and on a list. That there are some things I need my computer or the internet for that I can't do at the cabin on the weekend, but other things that I need to be able to sit and think which doesn't happen with the kiddos underfoot.
Anyways, I wanted to use the task feature in outlook/entourage. I like that I can assign categories to them, and due dates and priorities, etc. But I didn't want to pay for office. So I downloaded iGTD and I kind of like it. My only beef is when it comes time to process tasks - I'd like a view where I can see everything on my list grouped by project so I can sort it and still see everything in one place. Maybe it does this and I just haven't figured it out yet.
more GTD resources:
good place to start - http://www.43folders.com/2004/09/08/getting-started-with-getting-things-done
5 sentences - http://www.43folders.com/2007/07/12/five-sentence-email
Quicksilver - http://www.43folders.com/2007/06/19/buffington-igtd-01
http://blog.circlesixdesign.com/2007/06/21/my-personal-igtd/
Note: I resisted buying office for my mac b/c i didn't want to spend anymore money just so I could work. I already own 2 licenses for the PC and switching to a mac was pretty expensive already. But the home edition isn't really that much and I broke down. Open Office just didn't cut it for the excel data minipulation I needed to do (lots of data in many tabs, pivot tables, vlookup, if/then statements, etc.) - it choked or it just didn't work. I'll concede that it is possible that I didn't spend enough time learning the interface on a few of those, but the choking with big data sets (only 10k rows) was a big waste of time.
Anyways, I wanted to use the task feature in outlook/entourage. I like that I can assign categories to them, and due dates and priorities, etc. But I didn't want to pay for office. So I downloaded iGTD and I kind of like it. My only beef is when it comes time to process tasks - I'd like a view where I can see everything on my list grouped by project so I can sort it and still see everything in one place. Maybe it does this and I just haven't figured it out yet.
more GTD resources:
good place to start - http://www.43folders.com/2004/09/08/getting-started-with-getting-things-done
5 sentences - http://www.43folders.com/2007/07/12/five-sentence-email
Quicksilver - http://www.43folders.com/2007/06/19/buffington-igtd-01
http://blog.circlesixdesign.com/2007/06/21/my-personal-igtd/
Note: I resisted buying office for my mac b/c i didn't want to spend anymore money just so I could work. I already own 2 licenses for the PC and switching to a mac was pretty expensive already. But the home edition isn't really that much and I broke down. Open Office just didn't cut it for the excel data minipulation I needed to do (lots of data in many tabs, pivot tables, vlookup, if/then statements, etc.) - it choked or it just didn't work. I'll concede that it is possible that I didn't spend enough time learning the interface on a few of those, but the choking with big data sets (only 10k rows) was a big waste of time.
Monday, June 29, 2009
Workin' 9 to 5
I had just decided that I was content being home with my kids. It had been a year since I took a project consulting and I was grateful to not HAVE to work. But we ran through our savings and things were getting uncomfortably tight. A girl can only go so long before she needs a new pair of shoes.
Contentment is something I’ve been struggling with since I had kids. I think it is part of our nature but I think the culture we live in plays a big part. To long for what you don’t have. To think that satisfaction lies in the next ‘thing’ acquired. That if we just had XX our life would be so much easier. That if only we finished this one project on the house it’ll fit us perfectly. It seems like there are so many things that I was coveting and longing for. When you and your husband are working full-time it is easy to buy most of what you want or need – new clothes, cars, furniture, crafts, etc.
My decision to quit work was not hard for me. Carter was 10 months and I knew I wanted to have kids that were close in age. And the project I was working on at Amazon wasn’t challenging me and didn’t feel like it would make a difference. After you’ve influenced the growth of a billion dollar business, launching an incremental feature on an ad server just wasn’t cutting it. It was easy. I could do it in my sleep. And I was getting paid relatively well to work a couple of days a week in the office. But boys at 10 months are very fun – Carter was starting to walk, was very responsive, content, happy, exploring and just a delight. I figured I might as well start trying to have another baby it could take a while. And it would be nice to get diaper/preschool years over with and get back to building my career as quickly as possible.
And I really feel like kids need their moms close. That so much happens developmentally in formation of self before the age of 5. That I was best equipped to care and love on my kiddos. And that mothering full-time is the most important job I could take on – even if it was mind numbing at times and incredibly tedious. And generally I’ve been happy with that decision.
Except when I’m not. When what I do doesn’t feel significant. When I feel like my brain is fried and my memory shot. When I never get a pat on the back or praised for how smart I am. But it is really hard to network and drum up work as a mom, especially in the recent economic climate. Finding childcare to have lunch with former colleagues much less finding cash to pay for lunch wasn’t happening. And I didn’t have the energy or quiet time on the phone to make calls to people I haven’t seen in a couple of years to ask if they had projects they wanted to farm out off-site on a part time basis.
So when Sarah Bryar called me a month ago and asked if I’d consider working part-time from home I was surprised and at the same time not surprised at how excited I was at the prospect. The fact that Parent Map is a virtual company of a couple dozen women that work from home on a mostly part-time basis sounded unreal. And the fact that they needed help developing products on the web to generate revenue and meet clients needs fit right in the sweet spot of what I am good at – analytics, strategy, and online marketing. And the fact that they haven’t had anyone thinking about this piece of their business means that I can walk in and add value quickly makes this a no brainer. And it doesn't hurt that I AM the target customer, that I am in the thick of parenting and intimately know the customer. And I get to work ‘just enough’ - No more or less than fits in my life. Cha-ching! You can see why I’m excited. I’m a month into the job and loving it.
It isn't perfect. I need to get some help with the kids - I have no idea how I’ve worked 20 hrs a week this past month but I have. Things feel a little out balance right now. But once summer settles down a little and swimming lessons are over and I get a little bit of help, I’m looking forward to having blocks of time to think and be creative and feel productive. I can’t wait to see what we can build over the next few months and years.
Contentment is something I’ve been struggling with since I had kids. I think it is part of our nature but I think the culture we live in plays a big part. To long for what you don’t have. To think that satisfaction lies in the next ‘thing’ acquired. That if we just had XX our life would be so much easier. That if only we finished this one project on the house it’ll fit us perfectly. It seems like there are so many things that I was coveting and longing for. When you and your husband are working full-time it is easy to buy most of what you want or need – new clothes, cars, furniture, crafts, etc.
My decision to quit work was not hard for me. Carter was 10 months and I knew I wanted to have kids that were close in age. And the project I was working on at Amazon wasn’t challenging me and didn’t feel like it would make a difference. After you’ve influenced the growth of a billion dollar business, launching an incremental feature on an ad server just wasn’t cutting it. It was easy. I could do it in my sleep. And I was getting paid relatively well to work a couple of days a week in the office. But boys at 10 months are very fun – Carter was starting to walk, was very responsive, content, happy, exploring and just a delight. I figured I might as well start trying to have another baby it could take a while. And it would be nice to get diaper/preschool years over with and get back to building my career as quickly as possible.
And I really feel like kids need their moms close. That so much happens developmentally in formation of self before the age of 5. That I was best equipped to care and love on my kiddos. And that mothering full-time is the most important job I could take on – even if it was mind numbing at times and incredibly tedious. And generally I’ve been happy with that decision.
Except when I’m not. When what I do doesn’t feel significant. When I feel like my brain is fried and my memory shot. When I never get a pat on the back or praised for how smart I am. But it is really hard to network and drum up work as a mom, especially in the recent economic climate. Finding childcare to have lunch with former colleagues much less finding cash to pay for lunch wasn’t happening. And I didn’t have the energy or quiet time on the phone to make calls to people I haven’t seen in a couple of years to ask if they had projects they wanted to farm out off-site on a part time basis.
So when Sarah Bryar called me a month ago and asked if I’d consider working part-time from home I was surprised and at the same time not surprised at how excited I was at the prospect. The fact that Parent Map is a virtual company of a couple dozen women that work from home on a mostly part-time basis sounded unreal. And the fact that they needed help developing products on the web to generate revenue and meet clients needs fit right in the sweet spot of what I am good at – analytics, strategy, and online marketing. And the fact that they haven’t had anyone thinking about this piece of their business means that I can walk in and add value quickly makes this a no brainer. And it doesn't hurt that I AM the target customer, that I am in the thick of parenting and intimately know the customer. And I get to work ‘just enough’ - No more or less than fits in my life. Cha-ching! You can see why I’m excited. I’m a month into the job and loving it.
It isn't perfect. I need to get some help with the kids - I have no idea how I’ve worked 20 hrs a week this past month but I have. Things feel a little out balance right now. But once summer settles down a little and swimming lessons are over and I get a little bit of help, I’m looking forward to having blocks of time to think and be creative and feel productive. I can’t wait to see what we can build over the next few months and years.
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