Thursday, January 01, 2009
Health Check
I had doc appointment to start off the new year right... and that's part of my holistic plan this year...will get results back from key important tests... I am sure all is well, but if not, I will have a goal to fix it.
Wednesday, December 31, 2008
Closet and Basement Organization
I constantly struggle with messy closets, and unorganized basement. I am really sick of it, and want to see organized spaces for mental health and clarity. Over the holiday, I did make a dent in all of this... here's my progress.
1) Got rid of a junk drawer and a few boxes collecting junk in the basement. Found my old sunglasses, which I thought I lost! Still can look hot now in the sun.
2) Packed up a few bags of clothes/items not needed anymore, or not being used.
3) Cleaned up the basement, boxed a few items, and going to buy another shelf to put my stuff on... and maybe some books put on there too.
4) Re-organized 4 closets, moved some stuff downstairs in boxes/crates, but still seem to struggle with the amount of stuff, even though we don't buy a lot. I wish I could just get rid of it instead of piling it in boxes. However, it's hard to part with Latin and German Flashcards... just an example.
5) Painting supplies are now in one box downstairs.
6) All tools are in one area downstairs.
7) Unused pans/kitchenware in one box. Taking up space when not needed. For example, blender doesn't need to be upstairs all the time.
1) Got rid of a junk drawer and a few boxes collecting junk in the basement. Found my old sunglasses, which I thought I lost! Still can look hot now in the sun.
2) Packed up a few bags of clothes/items not needed anymore, or not being used.
3) Cleaned up the basement, boxed a few items, and going to buy another shelf to put my stuff on... and maybe some books put on there too.
4) Re-organized 4 closets, moved some stuff downstairs in boxes/crates, but still seem to struggle with the amount of stuff, even though we don't buy a lot. I wish I could just get rid of it instead of piling it in boxes. However, it's hard to part with Latin and German Flashcards... just an example.
5) Painting supplies are now in one box downstairs.
6) All tools are in one area downstairs.
7) Unused pans/kitchenware in one box. Taking up space when not needed. For example, blender doesn't need to be upstairs all the time.
Path to 20lbs weight loss
I still have about 20 lbs to go to make my comfortable weight.
Here's my plan.
1) Walk at work. I am moving offices, so this is going to make walking a bit easier, especially in the Spring. I have already blocked my work calendar during lunch time to do this. I have my clothes packed and ready to go.
2) Go back to my fish lunches and packing enough snack food for work. That includes yogurt, fruit, etc. That helped me the most when I lost the last 16lbs.
3) Stop the sugar/cookies. Sort of fallen off the wagon during the winter w/sugars. Will stop this immediately!
4) Eat smaller portions. I tend to be a healthy eater, but will overdo it on portions occassionally, so this is going to be sized down. For example, measuring the amount of pasta on my plate instead of just heaping it up.
Here's my plan.
1) Walk at work. I am moving offices, so this is going to make walking a bit easier, especially in the Spring. I have already blocked my work calendar during lunch time to do this. I have my clothes packed and ready to go.
2) Go back to my fish lunches and packing enough snack food for work. That includes yogurt, fruit, etc. That helped me the most when I lost the last 16lbs.
3) Stop the sugar/cookies. Sort of fallen off the wagon during the winter w/sugars. Will stop this immediately!
4) Eat smaller portions. I tend to be a healthy eater, but will overdo it on portions occassionally, so this is going to be sized down. For example, measuring the amount of pasta on my plate instead of just heaping it up.
Saturday, December 13, 2008
Getting Enough Fiber
Well, another week has gone by... not much was exciting, except for my increase in Fiber this week by eating enough bran cereal. The great thing is...that's going to help w/weight or any cholesterol issues.
Saturday, December 06, 2008
Lane Bryant--Enough's Enough
I took a trip to Lane Bryant this week because of some crazy holiday sales, and because pants won't fit me from any other store. To my surprise, Lane Bryant has re-sized their sizes, so for the first time in my life, I can say I wear a size 3 (which is like a real 16 or something). Anyway, I found it to be confusing and ended up in a different style and size than what the Pant Finder Person in the store told me I needed. But either way, I am not sure I follow Lane Bryant's style choices and resizing efforts. I predict this new sizing will be a major failure, as most ladies were ultra-confused in the store as to what size/style is needed. Some things are meant to be left unchanged I must say.
Cloth Diapers
It's official. I've moved to cloth diapers because of the huge expense on paper/huggies diapers, and the nasty-iness of having an extra bag of trash per week due to diapers. Right now, we're at a solid 1 bag o trash per week due to recycling efforts. U can't recycle diapers!
Here are some tips for cloth diapering:
1) Use a plastic covering (very cheap gerber ones work well) over the cloth diaper.
2) Do a pre-clean with Simple Green before throwing in the laundry.
3) Sanitize cleaning area regularly.
4) Wear gloves. I bought some latex ones for the poop removal.
5) Wash and wear!
Here are some tips for cloth diapering:
1) Use a plastic covering (very cheap gerber ones work well) over the cloth diaper.
2) Do a pre-clean with Simple Green before throwing in the laundry.
3) Sanitize cleaning area regularly.
4) Wear gloves. I bought some latex ones for the poop removal.
5) Wash and wear!
1 Week Off and Resolutions
I've had about 1 week off and some days from work. It's been really fun, and I've caught up on my sleep... but hopefully can return to blogging even though my days don't really lend themselves to much blogging and reading the internet. Through these days off, I've given some thought to what I want to try and accomplish in 2009
My 2009 goals are the following...
1) lose 20 lbs. I tried this last year and got nowhere although I didn't gain any weight. Will try again with increased workouts because my eating habits are not poor. Drink more water, etc.
2) start looking for graduate schools again. Possible try at MLS degree.
3) improve my professional wardrobe.
4) read more books
5) get more organized and get rid of items not needed or being used. This is huge for me, because I keep things for eventual use, but never get there. I already got rid of two bags of clothes this month.
6) be more social and develop professional network. I try to do this w/disciplined focus, but have slacked of in a major way in the last 2 years.
7) work in some fashion in a community post (school board or something). Not sure of what exactly to do here, but thinking local school board if I can handle dealing with more people than my usual day time job.
My 2009 goals are the following...
1) lose 20 lbs. I tried this last year and got nowhere although I didn't gain any weight. Will try again with increased workouts because my eating habits are not poor. Drink more water, etc.
2) start looking for graduate schools again. Possible try at MLS degree.
3) improve my professional wardrobe.
4) read more books
5) get more organized and get rid of items not needed or being used. This is huge for me, because I keep things for eventual use, but never get there. I already got rid of two bags of clothes this month.
6) be more social and develop professional network. I try to do this w/disciplined focus, but have slacked of in a major way in the last 2 years.
7) work in some fashion in a community post (school board or something). Not sure of what exactly to do here, but thinking local school board if I can handle dealing with more people than my usual day time job.
Thursday, October 26, 2006
Rescuing the Disaster Project
Here are some project management tips on how to rescue a sinking disaster software project. I am passing these along from my own experience in project management. In my current role, I am now a project manager (how did this happen???), but anyway, I learned a lot in 2006, and wanted to share this with you.
1) Be disciplined. Make sure to make all mtgs on time, post mtg minutes, and follow up promptly on action items. This may seem like "duh" but rarely do most team members have the discipline to follow up and maintain focus.
2) Reduce meetings. Set up weekly status mtgs (recommended once a week) with users.
Don't let users and management mtgs take up valuable work time. There's only so many hours in the day, and only a certain amount of time to actually get work done. Developers should not be in on user meetings, only unless they are absolutely needed. Management should be taken care of in other meetings, preferably once a week as well. Avoid "Panic" meetings... or "Status by 8:30 EVERYDAY mtgs." Everyone should bring their user questions, updates, etc., to this ONE townhall mtg. There does not need to be daily user mtgs. One person should run this user mtg, and take detailed notes to publish. These are handy when trying to research "what did we agree on last week?"
3) Try to understand what real complaints are coming from users. This is hard skill to find in others. A complaint from a user has to be researched to understand exactly what the user issue/requirement may be. Sometimes a blanket complaint does not reveal the "real issues." Asking 10 questions may help. I will list these in a future post.
4) Reduce team stress through Scope Management. Join a team mtg and find that "Everyone's stressed out." Why? Most likely, scope is not being managed. Make sure to do a health check on Scope. Are we following what we said or agreed to do for our users?
5) Make time for short term and long term planning. This is invaluable to think through all the "ifs" that may happen. Adopt the "Death Doom and Destruction" mentality, and prepare for the ultimate worst you can imagine, with Plan A, Plan B, and possible Plan C.
6) Don't let users dictate direction or requirements; however, help them find direction and requirements that are mutally agreeable for all. I am not suggesting that all members have to be happy with decisions or requirements, but at the very least, don't jump into "User said we need X feature. We must have this at all costs." Sometimes project direction or requirements are managed or massaged by the following 1) technical constraints 2) management direction 3) cost 4) scope. It's not always possible to deliver all that the user wants in the timeframes. Also, find out what users don't want. It's a clear picture of things your requirements SHOULD absolutely NOT do. Very interesting question to ask in mtgs.
7) Ask questions to understand more clearly the issues at hand. Ask questions... that's a big one for me. It gets annoying, but allows for people to vent or explain more fully what the issues are.
8) Define the following: Defects, missed requirements, change requests, and issues. This is important, because rarely do users understand defect vs. missed requirement.
9) WRITE DOWN the Requirements. The PM should be Requirements Hawk. Avoid having developer lunches where scope is changed, requirements updated, and then projects changed. If you get to attend any of these lunches, do so. You will learn a ton, and may find out pieces on info important to the project.
ANY requirement should be managed, documented, and written down. Don't accept "Well Dave agreed to it while he was taking a poop in the men's room." Feel the rage! Dave should take a poop and not try to change scope at the same time. You can still go to lunch with developers and developers can go to the restroom, but LUNCH and Poopy can be disasterous to THE Undisciplined Requirements Team (URT). Unmanaged requirements can move your project from Happy Plan A to PLAN C for Death Doom and Destruction.
1) Be disciplined. Make sure to make all mtgs on time, post mtg minutes, and follow up promptly on action items. This may seem like "duh" but rarely do most team members have the discipline to follow up and maintain focus.
2) Reduce meetings. Set up weekly status mtgs (recommended once a week) with users.
Don't let users and management mtgs take up valuable work time. There's only so many hours in the day, and only a certain amount of time to actually get work done. Developers should not be in on user meetings, only unless they are absolutely needed. Management should be taken care of in other meetings, preferably once a week as well. Avoid "Panic" meetings... or "Status by 8:30 EVERYDAY mtgs." Everyone should bring their user questions, updates, etc., to this ONE townhall mtg. There does not need to be daily user mtgs. One person should run this user mtg, and take detailed notes to publish. These are handy when trying to research "what did we agree on last week?"
3) Try to understand what real complaints are coming from users. This is hard skill to find in others. A complaint from a user has to be researched to understand exactly what the user issue/requirement may be. Sometimes a blanket complaint does not reveal the "real issues." Asking 10 questions may help. I will list these in a future post.
4) Reduce team stress through Scope Management. Join a team mtg and find that "Everyone's stressed out." Why? Most likely, scope is not being managed. Make sure to do a health check on Scope. Are we following what we said or agreed to do for our users?
5) Make time for short term and long term planning. This is invaluable to think through all the "ifs" that may happen. Adopt the "Death Doom and Destruction" mentality, and prepare for the ultimate worst you can imagine, with Plan A, Plan B, and possible Plan C.
6) Don't let users dictate direction or requirements; however, help them find direction and requirements that are mutally agreeable for all. I am not suggesting that all members have to be happy with decisions or requirements, but at the very least, don't jump into "User said we need X feature. We must have this at all costs." Sometimes project direction or requirements are managed or massaged by the following 1) technical constraints 2) management direction 3) cost 4) scope. It's not always possible to deliver all that the user wants in the timeframes. Also, find out what users don't want. It's a clear picture of things your requirements SHOULD absolutely NOT do. Very interesting question to ask in mtgs.
7) Ask questions to understand more clearly the issues at hand. Ask questions... that's a big one for me. It gets annoying, but allows for people to vent or explain more fully what the issues are.
8) Define the following: Defects, missed requirements, change requests, and issues. This is important, because rarely do users understand defect vs. missed requirement.
9) WRITE DOWN the Requirements. The PM should be Requirements Hawk. Avoid having developer lunches where scope is changed, requirements updated, and then projects changed. If you get to attend any of these lunches, do so. You will learn a ton, and may find out pieces on info important to the project.
ANY requirement should be managed, documented, and written down. Don't accept "Well Dave agreed to it while he was taking a poop in the men's room." Feel the rage! Dave should take a poop and not try to change scope at the same time. You can still go to lunch with developers and developers can go to the restroom, but LUNCH and Poopy can be disasterous to THE Undisciplined Requirements Team (URT). Unmanaged requirements can move your project from Happy Plan A to PLAN C for Death Doom and Destruction.
Welcome
Welcome to my new blog... I am moving more content over here in the next few days... but welcome...
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