Goodness, time flies!

Been doing the Hustle Month thing, but haven’t been great at checking in every day to record my progress. I give it thought before I sleep, but haven’t had the energy to put pen to paper, to fingertip to touchscreen, as the case is.

But week 3 has been challenging - I’m not sure if the little corner of the economy I’m part of is a bit flat, but everyone seems to be very cautious - lots of things on the go, but also lots of people delaying payments.

So that has been taking up a lot of my effort - working the cashflow machine. I picture it (well, someone else did in a book I read, perhaps “Good to Great”?), anyway, I picture it like a huge stone wheel, a flywheel, and you have to trudge a lot to get it moving, but eventually momentum takes over and the effort decreases. I get the sense that the flywheel slowed slightly towards the end of June, so it requires a bit more effort.

Nonetheless, it’s been healthy - on two levels,

1. It’s made me re-evaluate what I’ve slowed down on - my own OPS website. It needs a refresh. So I started the sketch of its overhaul - that’s onepartscissors.com version 8, for those keeping track. We used to update annually, so that should be version 10, but version 7 has been very successful thus far, and hasn’t needed attention. However, I need it to be responsive, and it’s feeling a bit dated now - and the About Us section is actually horrible - its the flash file from v6 dropped in.

2. And more importantly, it’s reminded me of my place in the world - I sometimes need reminding that in 10 years of business, all I’ve done is be a below-average servant of a very Gracious and giving God. Everything I have is from His hand - and he has my back. So I need to remember who my benefactor is - where every cent in my bank account came from.

So the questions:

What did I do today?
Today I worked on a few quick projects, as well as completed a few nagging ones. It was a good productive day, and I got some sketches for my OPS site done. I also posted 3 new stories to my site.

How will it affect tomorrow?

These projects should result in fast income, and the long term effects of keeping my site updated is a good marketing activity.

Did I earn my sleep?
Today I did. This week as a whole hasn’t been productive as I hoped, but they were all factors outside my control, so I feel like I did what I could.

9 July 2012

So Week One of Hustle Month is done.

Although I haven’t blogged consistently every day to review my progress and answer my 3 daily questions, they have been in my mind, and it’s a nice way to end off the day.

Looking back on week one, I can pull the following lessons from my first week of HustleMonth.

1. Reviewing your productivity is a two-edged sword.

It is a very healthy exercise, but it does need to be a set timeframe. It is, after all, not Hustle Year. It’s a healthy thing to do for a defined season, and it helps you zero in on any slackness or laziness that has crept into your daily regime.
I’ve found that on most days, reviewing the day with the three questions was a good thing - it clarified my plan for tomorrow, and allowed me to define if the day was a success or not.
However, one or two of the days I felt it to be a burden, and I had to check myself to stop myself from obsessing about tomorrow or about something that didn’t go well today. You have to keep a healthy frame of mind through the exercise.

2. Balance

I’m realizing that a major component of what I define as success or productivity is Balance. If I achieved a lot economically, but I wasn’t gracious to the people I interacted with, that achievement counts for less. I enjoy the question, ‘what impact did today’s actions have on tomorrow?’. This question can be answered on a practical, as well as philosophical or spiritual level as well - “if I behave as I did today, will I become the person I want to be, or the person I don’t want to be?”

So I’ve found the exercise challenging and rewarding, and quite fun! Certainly a yearly deal for me, I know that now.

So a quick answer to the questions, for last week as a whole and for today:

What did I do today?
Today, I got a fair amount done on some of my more minor projects, which was a good thing - they tend to rack up and cause a bit of anxiety for me, even though they’re not worth much financially, they still need to get done.
I completed one or two projects that have been stalling.
Last week as a whole was a success - I made huge strides towards my larger month’s goals of responsive web design, less so on my iOS app, but still OK progress.

What impact does today’s actions have on tomorrow?

Today’s ‘clearing of the decks’ of smaller projects was good because it frees up my mind for tomorrow, so that’s good, but I should have done something on the iOS app, so that is a failing, which means tomorrow this becomes more pressing.

Did you earn your sleep?

I think I did. As well as achieving plenty on a Business level, we had a great dinner with some newish friends tonight, which was loads of fun, and good for the soul. People first, then things and money.

Phew, hectic two days! Didn’t even get to review yesterday, so here’s a double-header. It’s the 4th of July, so in honor of North “Bigger-is-Better” America, here’s my review of the day, X 2!

What did I do?
Yesterday was a bit less productive than I hoped - I had a doctors appointment I couldn’t avoid, which cut a dent in the day, but other than that, it was surprisingly productive.

What effect have I had on tomorrow?

Today was a good high impact day, finished off a few small projects and am ready now to begin devoting some big energy towards the iOS app.

Did I earn my sleep?
On balance yes, but yesterday could’ve been heaps better.
And yes, I’m saying ‘heaps’ cos we’re on a Masterchef Australia binge, mate!

2 July 2012
What did I do today?
Today was a good Monday; I took some excellent strides towards a clearer understanding of Responsive Design and how I’d like to do it, by implementing it in a limited fashion in a client’s site (the job at hand is only a ‘slight refresh’, so my time on the project is limited).

But having said that, I made good strides towards completing that project, and implemented a lot of what I learned there in my Responsive Drupal 7 boilerplate.

On the down side, some of the graphic work that is sorely needing to be done didn’t get done today, and for my favorite client as well, so that needs to be done first thing tomorrow. If I complete that, I will judge tomorrow a success.

What impact does today’s actions have on tomorrow?

I’ve got a good head start on the Drupal 7 theme now, so I need to press on there tomorrow, and also complete the stuff I didn’t today.

Did you earn your sleep?
I did. I think i was focused, generous, and motivated.

A tumblr user I follow came up with this interesting idea, and I read his posts with interest last year - Dan’s idea was to devote a month to productivity, and journal that productivity by answering three simple questions:

1. What did I do today?
2. What impact does today’s actions have on tomorrow?
3. Did you earn your sleep?

I liked the idea, and told him so, and he told me that he was getting quite a bit of similar feedback, and that he was going to try make it bigger this year, which he has - check out hustlemonth.com if you’re interested.

So I’ll be participating in Hustle Month, starting now with a recap of yesterday:

1 July 2012

What did I do today?

Today was Sunday, and that means Aerial Yoga in the morning, after that, I chilled with Auds my wife, ahead of a week of full-day work for her, which means we’ll see little of each other and be knackered when we do, so it was good to get quality time in!

What impact does today’s actions have on tomorrow?

On the work-side, I bent a personal rule of not working on the weekends by capturing the payments in and out of my business account so that my accounting program is up to speed, so that i can send out statements, nag those who owe me money, and know who’s priority and who isn’t.

So this has impact on tomorrow (Monday) in that I won’t have to spend the first hour of the day doing that, i can jump right into the projects that need to happen this week, which are legion.

Did you earn your sleep?

Yes, I think I did!

On to day 2!