Much of what you do at work every day is bigger in scope that most of what you will do for yourself. You handle work without any huge problems. So when it comes to yourself, shouldnt it be just as easy? You have one mind and two hands. As long as those are occupied, you are pretty much at your limit. So projects should never be looked on as one huge project. You must break it down. Even somebody building a dog house has to do this. There is no snap! and its a dog house. Frame ... floor ... walls ... roof ... doorway ... now there is no longer one project but five connected smaller projects. How hard is it to build a floor? Cut some 2x4 pieces, nail them together, cover that frame with plywood or whatever. Done. Framing the dog house? One 2x4 at a time. Cut it to the proper length. Nail it into place. Is that doable? Continue at this pace and soon you have a completed dog house. Actually doing it was nothing like what is seen when somebody hasnt started yet and looks ahead to doing it. That is part 1. Thats the easy part. Part 2 takes much more finesse. But its equally doable. I am doing final testing on the file capture part of my program. As such, I must create scenarios that should never normally occur in real life and make sure the program handles them properly. Because of the nature of what Im doing, it is an excessively laborious, tedious, grueling, and boring process to run these tests. I could just dive in and use brute force, facing it head-on. But all things considered, that is the least efficient approach to take. Our internal state of misery while we do something must reflect in the final product. Using the brute force approach, I have only two options: do nothing but test - which creates mortal depression - or take a break - which creates mortal depression because the program is just sitting. A third option is needed. Its all about keeping our internal state up as much as possible. We are not going to simply flick a switch and voila, we feel up and positive. Like anything else in life, altitude requires force to maintain. If we dont continually provide thrust, we will begin to lose altitude. Everything is about working our emotions - jockeying for position, maneuvering, finding holes we can shoot through, manipulating, working the situation. I have my new web site I am working on, but that is very much secondary, as every minute on that is a minute off the primary program. So, to balance the terror of the impending test runs, I will simply begin completing everything else - screens that havent been done, setup, uninstall, documentation, error handling, the whole ball of wax. Everything that isnt direct file capture. I completed the dock / float window functionality long ago but since all the filling in of most windows is so easy and minor, I put it off until the very last. Now its being undertaken as a balancing factor for the testing. Its a countermeasure to keep from losing too much altitude. Work an hour on the testing, work an hour on the web site, work an hour on everything else. Not only does it break up the sheer weight of the testing process, but it also provides the infinite added excitement of knowing that now, every last aspect of this program that has to be done before we can take orders is now being worked on actively. Nothing remains on the back burner. Its all front burner and then we go to market. This is just one example of how to maintain altitude. Every person, every situation will be different, but this kind of self-management is critical to completing something at all. We have limits, as humans, and if we dont work within them, nothing will ever get done.
Posted on: Tue, 04 Mar 2014 21:41:42 +0000
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