sacha chua :: living an awesome life

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Weekly review: Week ending February 3, 2012

Categories: review, weekly Posted on February 5th, 2012 by Sacha Chua

Two weeks to go before I leave IBM. My current project is in user acceptance testing, and I’ve addressed practically all the feedback that the client sent. The project manager is impressed at how quickly things get done. There’s nothing like a clear end date to sharpen one’s focus! I want to get as much in before I go.

We’re squeezing another project into my last ten business days. I’m going to help a developer learn Drupal and take over this project for a non-profit based in Toronto. It’s good work, and it would be great for her to pick up Drupal.

Braindumping about how to rock at IBM will probably have to wait until after I leave. Folks can take care of resharing the resources internally. I’ve got quite a few tips to share. =) It would be great to see the ongoing conversations, but oh well!

This week, W- and I volunteered for the students’ field trip to the Ontario Science Centre. That was quite informative. We also spent a lot of time helping J- with her homework, as she has a couple of assignments due this week.

Busy week, but a good one. Next week will be good too!

From last week’s plans

  • Work
    • [X] Discuss project T transition
    • [X] Work on project C styling
    • [-] Plan farewell lunch
  • Relationships
    • [X] Visit the Villanuevas
    • [X] Help with J’s homework
    • Volunteered to help with field trip to Ontario Science Centre
  • Life
    • [C] Look into switching to WIND and porting my number in order to take advantage of their data plan; decided against it for reliability reasons
    • [/] Collect referrals for accountants who focus on small businesses
    • [X] Figure out way to track and highlight exceptions thrown by Quantified Awesome

Plans for next week

  • Work
    • [ ] Work on any UAT issues for project C
    • [ ] Train Regan for project T
    • [ ] Have exit interview
    • [ ] Plan pre-experiment lunch
  • Relationships
    • [ ] Help J- with homework
    • [ ] Get in touch with the Villanuevas regarding museum visit plans?
  • Life
    • [ ] Take more book notes – checked out lots of books from the library!
    • [ ] Go to doctor for regular checkup
    • [ ] Have eye exam
    • [ ] Look into health insurance

Short URL: http://sachachua.com/blog/p/23143

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Weekly review: Week ending January 27, 2012

Categories: review, weekly Posted on January 29th, 2012 by Sacha Chua

I talked to my second-line manager (the manager of my manager) this week. It looks like all systems are go. Heading into my last three weeks at IBM! By golly.

This weekend was a busy one. I did a cooking sprint: beef stew, a stirfry with beef and cabbage, lots of cookies, two loaves of bread, and a pot of oatmeal. That should make our routines smoother for the rest of the week, giving us time to help J- with her homework.

I also worked on the bugs people have started identifying in Quantified Awesome. =) Sometimes the bugs are embarrassing, but I decided to squish my excuses and let people try things anyway. It’s fun tailoring systems to people again. I remember maintaining Planner Mode for a lively community of Emacs geeks, and I loved making all these little tweaks to help them live and work more awesomely. That was fun. It would be great to do something like that again.

From last week’s plans

  • Work
    • [X] Set up external environment for project C
    • [X] Finish styling project C
    • [X] Talk to second-line manager and other coworkers regarding plans
    • [X] Talk to lots of people about transition
  • Relationships
    • [X] Get together with Gabriel and other friends
  • Life
    • [-] E-mail potential users about time tracking analysis
    • [-] Apply things learned from Quantified Self Toronto: Epic Quest of Awesome, time analysis
    • [X] Research tips for starting a business in Toronto
    • Researched incorporation options in Ontario
    • Fixed more Quantified Awesome bugs
      • Monthly view of time summary should now be displayed whenever you try to summarize a range longer than a few weeks (fixed missing file)
      • People should now be able to create accounts through Google (fixed user creation issue)
      • Clothing logs and analyses can now be viewed (fixed permission issue)
      • Added end timestamp and manual timestamp field to time records
    • Read lots of information about starting a small business

Plans for next week

  • Work
    • [ ] Discuss project T transition
    • [ ] Work on project C styling
    • [ ] Plan farewell lunch
  • Relationships
    • [X] Visit the Villanuevas
    • [ ] Help with J’s homework
  • Life
    • [ ] Look into switching to WIND and porting my number in order to take advantage of their data plan
    • [ ] Collect referrals for accountants who focus on small businesses
    • [ ] Figure out way to track and highlight exceptions thrown by Quantified Awesome

Short URL: http://sachachua.com/blog/p/23135

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Weekly review: Week ending January 20, 2012

Categories: review, weekly Posted on January 21st, 2012 by Sacha Chua

Big week! Several intense days and late nights, but still lots of progress.

Plans for next week

  • Work
    • [X] Finish functionality-related tasks for project C
    • [X] Work on styling for project C
    • Decided what I want to do in 2012
    • Told my manager and my project manager about my plans for experimenting with business
  • Relationships
    • [X] Go to Rails Pub Nite
    • [X] Go to Quantified Self Toronto meetup
    • [X] Go to IBM get-together
    • Followed up with people after Rails Pub Nite and Quantified Self Toronto meetup
    • Helped J- learn Inkscape for her math / media studies project
  • Life
    • [-] Quantified: Open up time tracking to folks
    • [X] Quantified: Set up bug tracker
    • Brainstormed business ideas
    • Typed up my notes from “Start With Why” and “Lean Startup”

Plans for next week

  • Work
    • [ ] Set up external environment for project C
    • [ ] Finish styling project C
    • [ ] Talk to second-line manager and other coworkers regarding plans
    • [ ] Talk to lots of people about transition
  • Relationships
    • [ ] Get together with Gabriel and other friends
  • Life
    • [ ] E-mail potential users about time tracking analysis
    • [ ] Apply things learned from Quantified Self Toronto: Epic Quest of Awesome, time analysis
    • [ ] Research tips for starting a business in Toronto

Short URL: http://sachachua.com/blog/p/23122

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Weekly review: Week ending January 13, 2012

Categories: review, weekly Posted on January 14th, 2012 by Sacha Chua

From last week’s plans

  • Work
    • [X] Work on more functionality for project C
    • [X] Check end date for project C, next gig
    • [X] Check out U – pretty cool
    • [-] Draw more IBM comics?
    • Fixed Lotus Connections community toolkit forum support
  • Relationships
    • [-] Tidy up downstairs
    • [X] Spend time with Ninong Gus and Ninang Amparo
  • Life
    • [\] Open up Quantified Awesome to at least one other person – Still working on cleaning it up. Maybe I should just bring people in and see what breaks.
    • Quantified Awesome: Added graphical goal feedback
    • Quantified Awesome: Started cleaning up registration
    • Settled into more memory on website

Plans for next week

  • Work
    • [ ] Finish functionality-related tasks for project C
    • [ ] Work on styling for project C
  • Relationships
    • [ ] Go to Rails Pub Nite
    • [ ] Go to Quantified Self Toronto meetup
    • [ ] Go to IBM get-together
  • Life
    • [ ] Quantified: Open up time tracking to folks
    • [X] Quantified: Set up bug tracker

Time analysis

Work Good 40:57 hours this week
Sleep Good 61:05 hours, average of 8:43
Personal/social discretionary Good 23:05 social to 17:44 personal
Work/discretionary balance Good 40:57 work, 40:49 discretionary

Pretty good, actually! It was a little tight in the beginning, because I used last weekend to get some work done instead of tinkering with Quantified Awesome or focusing on chores. I used the time on Friday to focus on building and planning, and that was time well-spent.

Next week, I’m attending a couple of events, so I have less evening hacking time. I’m looking forward to being inspired by the events, and to more hacking and planning.

Life is good.

Short URL: http://sachachua.com/blog/p/23108

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Weekly review: Week ending January 6, 2012

Categories: review, weekly Posted on January 7th, 2012 by Sacha Chua

We used the holiday weekend to organize and back up our files, so there was a ton of tidying up. Looking forward to taking more pictures and writing more notes this year!

From last week’s plans

  • Work
    • [-] Finish styling inner pages for project CG – worked on converting more pages to panels
    • [-] Implement automated screenshots – not yet done
    • [X] File insurance claims – filled out form, will drop in mailbox tomorrow
  • Relationships
    • [X] Hang out with Scott and Maira
    • [X] Connect with more friends
    • [-] Help W- with his projects
    • Celebrated J’s 14th birthday
  • Life
    • [X] Add data entry to Quantified Awesome offline interface
    • [-] Add access control to QA for privacy
    • [-] Write tests for QA
    • [\] Add charts for time – in progress
    • [X] Post results from tracking community-supported agriculture
    • [X] Take more book notes
    • Upgraded website hosting; much snappier now, although may downgrade after a month

Plans for next week

  • Work
    • [ ] Work on more functionality for project O
    • [ ] Check end date for project O, next gig
    • [ ] Check out U
    • [ ] Draw more IBM comics?
  • Relationships
    • [ ] Tidy up downstairs
    • [X] Spend time with Ninong Gus and Ninang Amparo
  • Life
    • [ ] Open up Quantified Awesome to at least one other person

Time analysis

Work Good 32:12 hours this week Four-day work week
Sleep Medium Average of 8 hours per day Made up for two short nights; overall more tired, though (stdev 1:16)
Personal/social discretionary Medium 18:37 personal stuff vs 8:13 social Focused more on personal projects

Lots of time spent tidying up files and sorting pictures!

Short URL: http://sachachua.com/blog/p/23102

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Weekly review: Week ending December 30, 2011

Categories: review, weekly Posted on January 1st, 2012 by Sacha Chua

Lots of progress on Quantified Awesome thanks to last week’s long weekend. Looking forward to building more this long weekend. Good progress at work, too!

From last week’s plans

  • Work
    • [X] Work on project CG (Drupal)
    • [-] File insurance claims
  • Relationships
    • [X] Have a massage
    • [X] Spend time with W-’s family
    • Started playing LEGO Indiana Jones
    • Tidied up kitchen
    • Got lots of new food containers, yay!
  • Life
    • [C] Build Android interface for Quantified Awesome time tracking – cancelled
    • Made HTML5 offline interface instead

Plans for next week

  • Work
    • [ ] Finish styling inner pages for project CG
    • [ ] Implement automated screenshots
    • [ ] File insurance claims
  • Relationships
    • [ ] Hang out with Scott and Maira
    • [ ] Connect with more friends
    • [ ] Help W- with his projects
  • Life
    • [ ] Add data entry to Quantified Awesome offline interface
    • [ ] Add access control to QA for privacy
    • [ ] Write tests for QA
    • [ ] Add charts for time
    • [ ] Post results from tracking community-supported agriculture
    • [ ] Take more book notes

Time analysis

Now that Quantified Awesome has turned out to be a pretty convenient time tracker, I’ve been thinking what I want out of time analysis. I’m interested in a few things:

  1. Am I doing good work within the hours I want to work, or is my focus slipping? (~8 hours per work day, not too much over)
  2. Am I sleeping well? How regular can I make my sleep? (Between 7.5 and 8.5 hours on average, and work on reducing standard deviation of sleep length and start time.)
  3. In terms of discretionary time, do I have a good balance between personal projects, social time, and miscellaneous relaxation? (At least 30% of discretionary time used for Quantified Awesome, and at least another 30% for socializing.)
  4. Where am I shifting time from, and does that follow my priorities? If I spend more time on one thing, am I happy about where I’m spending less time?

The reporting system I’ve built so far makes it easy for me to answer the first three questions, and I should bring back the functionality that lets me answer the fourth easily. In the meantime, here’s this week in (fewer) numbers:

Category Total Average Notes
Work 24:53 8:17 (over 3 days) Long weekend
Sleep 60:58 8:42 Lots of sleep, pretty relaxed; length stdev of 1:11
Unpaid work 4:54 0:42 3:39 cooking sprint on Sunday
Personal 13:13 1:53
Discretionary 63:58 9:08 Long weekend

Discretionary breakdown

Quantified Awesome 24:24 38% Building web and offline application for time-tracking
Social 19:32 31% Holiday get-together with W-’s family
Writing 7:01 11%

Hmm, now to build this into a dashboard…

Short URL: http://sachachua.com/blog/p/23089

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Weekly review: Week ending December 23, 2011

Categories: review, weekly Posted on December 25th, 2011 by Sacha Chua

We’ve been enjoying a quiet holiday weekend with plenty of long walks and cooking. There are seventeen containers of beef bulgogi lunches in the freezer, not counting the two we had for lunch today already, and W- is cooking a large batch of chili.

I’ve made lots of progress on building tracking into my Quantified Awesome web app, although I haven’t rolled out the code yet. We’re planning to spend time with W-’s family tomorrow, and then I might use the last free day to build an Android interface for my time tracker.

From last week’s plans

  • Work
    • [X] Wrap up project O
    • [X] Get started on project CG
    • [X] Write about lessons learned from project O
    • [X] Catch up on e-mail
  • Relationships
    • [X] Tidy up house
    • [X] Consider planning holiday or post-holiday get-together
    • [/] Send rest of Christmas cards
  • Life
    • [X] Reconsider outsourcing; identify possible tasks and tradeoffs
    • [X] Parse CSV from Tap Log Records in Quantified Awesome Android app
    • [-] See about simplifying/automating my weekly review – put data on one page, then consider Emacs integration?
    • [X] Catch up on e-mail
    • Added categories and time tracking to Quantified Awesome

Plans for next week

  • Work
    • [ ] Work on project CG (Drupal)
    • [ ] File insurance claims
  • Relationships
    • [ ] Have a massage
    • [ ] Spend time with W-’s family
  • Life
    • [ ] Build Android interface for Quantified Awesome time tracking

Time analysis

Under construction, still logging data =)

Short URL: http://sachachua.com/blog/p/23081

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Copyright © 2001-2010 Sacha Chua (sacha@sachachua.com). Please feel free to reuse content under a Creative Commons Attribution Sharealike license unless otherwise noted.