my 1 project per day goal
 

I decided that I want to get more done this year and actually record it so that I have some idea what it was that I finished. I'm a full time stay at home dad with my own business that I work at in the evenings as well as having a ton of home projects/hobbies that get a bit of time here and there. So I figure since I rarely ever have "free time" to just veg lets figure out where all of that time goes. The goal is to complete 1 "project" every single day of the year. They can be trivially small, or massively large but if it's going to take more then a single day to complete I'll break it up into smaller chunks so that something can be finished daily. If I'm having an extra productive day I'll list multiple things getting done. I won't be listing the regular day to day projects like getting the laundry/dishes/vacuuming done. If anyone else is interested in posting up like this feel free to use this thread, just put the date and what you did. I'm always interested in what everyone else is working on.

Jan 1 - setup "Remember the milk" to-do list software. I find I always have lots to do but keep forgetting about projects so I found this online, registered, setup the chrome extension to link it to gmail which I'm always in, then linked it to Tasque which gives me a desktop link to the same data. I started adding projects as well as day to day things I need to remember to do. Already lots in there.

Jan 2 - I took the empty topbar beehive I built last year down off of the roof. It was rushed to be ready in time for swarm season and I never got some things done on it. The swarms never came, although I did get serious interest from scout bees, so the hive still being empty it was time to get some work done on it. Todays task was to add a landing board since I think it will be interesting to see them on it. Then I primed the entire outside of the hive. 8 months outdoors without any paint on the wood had resulted in black mildew staining so I sanded it down first.

Wow, that's an ambitious goal Strider!

My resolution is to make One CO2 Reduction / Local Food project or change per month for 2011. This is a continuation of my New Year's Resolution for 2010 and I made 10 projects/changes last year. I didn't fully meet my resolution goal, but I made progress and plan to do better this year.

How did everyone else do for 2010? Have you made resolutions for this year?

Tim

I once worked with a software guy at XYZ Computers Inc., one day he decided he would
try to make some improvement to the 'system' every single work day.

He did a few things that were pretty good, and then started making new forms.
Like any bureaucracy, we had hundreds of forms. This guy made it his goal
to simplify these forms. After months of changing all of our standard forms into
unfamiliar forms, he decided we had too many forms.
He then started reducing our forms count, by consolidation or combining forms
into bigger more complex forms.
When I quit my job, he was heading for that one big do-it-all form.. :)

Since I'm a procrastinator, I can't really understand trying
to force creativity by setting time constrains or fixed time limits on getting some work done.

To make things worse (for me), working within a bureaucracy wasn't fun.
Since their thing is all about dead-lines.
Getting the job done on time, even if it was poorly executed.

But, my last job had more relaxed goals and rules. There was the occasional deadline,
but most of the time, getting it done right came before, getting it done within a certain time frame.

Anyways, my point is..?. Life it too short to worry about working all the time.
Always take an hour or three during each day, to smell the roses/coffee etc.
Do what you want to do. Read, listen to music, talk on the ham radio etc..

When you get really old, you are gonna kick yourself for not going snorkeling, snowshoeing or fishing more frequently..

Life is also about having fun. But paradoxically, some work is fun for me.. :)
Installing some new PV can be a lot of fun.. :D

If I wanted to go snorkeling, snowshoeing, or fishing I'd just add it to the project list. I want to install a solar hotwater system, wire most of the house for datalogging, build a greenhouse onto the front of the house, get bees on the carport roof,... and I want to do it all with my family which so far is working just fine since my wife and the one kid old enough to walk loves helping. If this was all pure drudgery work then year I'd never try to get a bunch of it done every day. This is my way of making myself kick back and enjoy life.

My goal is pretty simple, just use less energy than last year. There are many ways to do this and I'm constantly changing my mind, but as long as that happens I'm happy.

Agreed! Strangely though, I don't have trouble finding time to read, listen to music, mountain bike and ski. I do get a lot of satisfaction at completing these projects and each new challenge is 'fun'. My 1 project per month goal is a reminder to prioritize the things that aren't quite as much fun as heading to the mountains. :thumbup:

Tim

Jan 3 - I went to see a friend that does controls design/work for a living and we drew up my "plan" for the solar hot water preheat system in autosketch. This will be used as part of my permit application with the city for the system. I'm hoping to do a small write up explaining the basics of the system, and some of the components used and then fill out the cover page and submit it this week. No big rush though. They've effectively been closed since before christmas with tomorrow being the first day back so they'll be busy enough I don't want to bug them.

Jan 4 - I added another light to the circuit in the basement. This one is about 10 feet over from the one it connected to and it is right in the middle of the basement. It's a big improvement worth the hour of work and $5 in parts. My 2 year old daughter helped by following with the shop vac cleaning up sawdust from the holes I was drilling. She was quite disappointed when I wouldn't let her handle the wiring up on the ladder.

Jan 5 - I spent some time outside pulling the interior of my truck apart to get access to the seatbelt in the back that holds my son's car seat in. It was not locking correctly when it should have been. After digging all the way in there I found that it's a sealed unit and there was little I could do about it so I smacked it with a bit of force a few times until the little piece that had stuck came free. That seemed to have worked as it's fine now. It's not a safety issue because it either works and locks in place or it doesn't and I have to try again or move his seat so it's good enough for now.

Jan 6 - I did some research and ordered a travel berkey water filtration system to use when camping and in the event of emergency. My climate has lots of water most of the time and I store a bunch of it in rain barrels for the gardens year round so I've got a few hundred gallons sitting there. As well the ditch in front of the house runs pretty constantly 10 months out of the year. I wouldn't want to drink either of those sources without some serious filtering though. The berkey with the black filters is designed to make those types of sources safe to drink. Lake water when camping will be trivial for it. It's all gravity fed requiring no power and should easily keep my family of 4 in fresh water.