dustyLogic

Purolator has a delivery service which guarantees a 9AM delivery. But, I’m not Purolator.

Some customers have unrealistic deadlines. I figure it’s because they don’t know how much work it takes to accomplish certain tasks. Which is perfectly normal, but not so easy to deal with. Just after I sold them the idea that my software solution will fix their problem, they want it for the next day. What I found works best is to divide the whole project into modules and deliver by modules. It still won’t be delivered the next day, but way sooner then the deadline for the whole project. In my short freelancing experience, customers always want something “now”. It doesn’t need to be the whole thing, but at least something that will make them feel that I am helping them and it’s just a matter of time, but things are on the right track. Some clients are more chilled out then others. Making your client feel more comfortable is definitely a “must have” skill for a freelancer.

I had a 30min nap today and it felt good. I was planning on having those regularly, but the plan didn’t work. I’m doing an on-site contract so it’s hard to justify naps.

Other than that, I think I’m done buying work tools for now. My start up cost was mostly licensing and I got all licenses I need for now. Actually, wait, I still need to buy a good office chair. Any recommendations?

Those are my hot peppers to be. I planted them few weeks ago to have something that is “alive” in my office. And NO, I didn’t start talking to plants yet.

I made a big mistake today. I calculated how much an hour of doing nothing costs me. Then I did something worst that that. I divided the previous number by 60. If you start looking at your time this way, you will never take a single minute off. Than means working evenings, nights and weekends. OK, OK, I’m exaggerating here, but it will make you think if you should say “I’m done for the day” or rather “I’ll do one more thing and then I’m done”.

Entertainment of the day: willitblend.com

Summer was here, but it’s gone now. After a weekend at +24C, +7C feels like winter again. I’m not here to talk about the weather, but honestly, I don’t have much to write about today.

I’m doing a contract for my previous employer. I have spent most of the day at his office. I did get quite a bit of work done, but over all I recall it as being boring few hours. Maybe because I find my other projects more exciting and I want to get back to them A-sap. I’ve spent the evening doing some maintenance work (rather unexpected). I introduced some minor bugs (very minor) to the latest version of my application that is currently in production. Not logical bugs, just interface glitches, but I like to fix those right away. Otherwise, I have to write them down on my To-Do list, and then get back to them eventually. Which will create even more work, sort of like a Sisyphean task.

On the healthy side of things, this is a good to read article for all of you desk jobbers: “7 Postural Habits To Make Now To Increase Your Health”.

We bought patio furniture over the weekend, so guess where will I be working from in the mornings?

This morning, it hit me like a falling brick.

I drove Aleksandra to work this morning. And then I realized that I don’t have to be at work at 9am. So I went for a walk to take some pictures (included in this post) of a London-like foggy morning. Unlike a friend of mine, I followed a path along the river. I was back home 30min later and ready to work.

I’m usually super motivated in the morning. So I start the day by accomplishing few shorter tasks from my To-Do list. Then check them off my list which makes me even more motivated. Then I attack a task that will take me at least few hours of that day. When I feel that my productivity depreciates, I press the pause button on the big task and I go back to my To-Do list to pick an easy task. Afterward, I press the play button again. At the end of the day I usually do regression testing.

Now that the summer is here, I plan to get into photography again. You can check out my gallery on DeviantART.

Another great day at home/office.

I can get a lot more done during the day then in the evening. However at around 11am I caught myself slacking off watching music videos on YouTube, including the new Madonna and JT and some old school. Other then that I’ve spent the whole day coding.

I need to figure out a good way of documenting my projects and keep track of changes. For now I’m using flat files and a note book on the corner of my desk. I’m running a database server at home, so ideally it would be something that would use a database for storage.

I decided that whenever I will feel to tired to do any serious work or just unproductive, I will spend that time looking for new tools and things that will improve my work flow. My time will be better spent doing low priority tasks then doing nothing at all. I hate doing nothing, it puts me in bad mood.

Looks like my Friday lunch plans will have to be moved to another day. One member of our lunch crew has a case of influenza.

I’m officially self-employed…and it feels good. Actually, it feels great. Just like when I got my first car and went driving around the city.

This morning I did some banking and then enjoyed sipping my morning coffee at my desk. (The coffee at home tastes much better then the office coffee, because it actually testes like coffee.) I like to pay my bills first thing in the morning because it doesn’t frustrate me as much to give money away when I’m half asleep, and then I forget about it.

My previous boss offered me a contract which I was supposed to work on today, but it was postponed by few days. It’s a good thing that I have some other projects to work on. I ended up working from 9am to 9pm, with few short breaks here and there. Starting next week I plan to cut down my hours and take some regular breaks.

I recently found an awesome IM client. Actually it’s an IM + Email + Social Network client. It’s called Digsby and it is a time saver. I can check all my email accounts and sign in to my multiple IMs and check what’s happening on Facebook, all that with just few clicks. I figured that it will save me about 20min a day.