• 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

• 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

• 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”

• 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

• 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

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.

• 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

• 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

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!

• 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

• 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

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…

• 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

• 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

Under construction, still logging data =)

• Work
  
  • [ ] Wrap up project O
  • [ ] Get started on project CG
  • [ ] Write about lessons learned from project O
  • [ ] Catch up on e-mail

• Relationships
  
  • [ ] Tidy up house
  • [ ] Consider planning holiday or post-holiday get-together
  • [ ] Send rest of Christmas cards

• Life
  
  • [ ] Reconsider outsourcing; identify possible tasks and tradeoffs
  • [ ] 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?
  • [ ] Catch up on e-mail

I slept quite well this week. To my surprise, work was pretty decent too – must have been because I didn’t work on the weekends. I’ll probably do a little work this week because we want to get in more testing and bugfixes before we wrap up this project.

Activity	Average	Weekday average	Weekend average
Sleep	8.8	8.1	10.3
Work	6.2	8.7	0.0
Discretionary	4.8	3.8	7.2
Unpaid work	2.4	1.2	5.4
Personal care	1.9	2.1	1.1

Let me see if reporting the averages will help me format this table better when it comes to making archives. =) Long tables require more work in formatting, because I have to make them span columns well. I still have the information I want – how much time I have for discretionary activities, how much I work, how much I sleep, and so on.

Hmm, I might reduce my weekend sleeping a little bit, since it’s more of an indulgence than a necessity at this point.

Activity	This week	Last week	Delta	Notes
! Discretionary	33.2	30.3	3.0
! Personal care	13.0	14.2	-1.2
! Unpaid work	16.9	13.1	3.8	Batch cooking
A – Sleep	61.2	61.3	-0.0
A – Work	43.6	49.1	-5.5
D – Emacs	1.5		1.5
D – Family	0.3	0.1	0.2
D – Harry Potter	3.6	0.3	3.2	Finished story mode =)
D – Other	0.5	0.3	0.2
D – Play	4.7		4.7
D – Quantified Awesome	6.4	11.7	-5.3	Fixing bugs, working on Android
D – Read	0.2	0.9	-0.7
D – Social	3.4	5.6	-2.2
D – Travel		2.0	-2.0
D – Writing	12.8	9.3	3.5
P – Drink		0.4	-0.4
P – Eat	4.9	6.2	-1.2
P – Plan	0.3		0.3
P – Routines	5.6	4.9	0.8
P – Walk	2.1	2.8	-0.7
UW – Cook	7.5	1.6	5.9
UW – Other	3.4		3.4	Errands
UW – Other travel	0.8	0.1	0.8
UW – Subway	1.7	1.2	0.5
UW – Tidy up	3.5	10.2	-6.8

We’ve added a night-time ritual of building with LEGO. =) It’s fun.

• Work
  
  • [ ] Follow up on possible next engagements
  • [ ] Work on high-priority project O tasks
  • [ ] Follow up on project T

• Relationships
  
  • [ ] Help fix up the house again
  • [ ] Add more memories
  • [ ] Send Christmas cards and packages
  • [ ] Post blog review

• Life
  
  • [ ] Plan Android app for self-tracking

This week was pretty good, sleep- and work-wise, despite two launches and lots of household upheaval due to energy efficiency improvements. I managed to get an average of 8.8 hours of sleep, I kept work to reasonable limits (40 hours for my main project, and 7 hours for the other one), I helped out around the house, and I even had some time to work on blog reviews and Quantified Awesome hacking. Not bad at all. All crunch weeks should be like this.

Activity	Sat	Sun	Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri	Total	Average	Weekday average	Weekend average
Sleep	9.6	7.1	9.3	8.6	9.7	8.9	8.1	61.3	8.8	8.9	8.3
Work	3.8	8.3	5.7	7.8	9.8	6.6	4.8	46.8	6.7	6.9	6.1
Discretionary	5.6	2.8	2.4	5.2	2.5	3.5	8.2	30.3	4.3	4.4	4.2
Unpaid work	4.0	5.0	1.6	0.2	0.8	1.2	0.2	13.1	1.9	0.8	4.5
Personal care	1.0	0.8	5.0	2.1	1.1	3.8	2.7	16.5	2.4	2.9	0.9

The big changes this week were:

• more time working on Quantified Awesome – added filters and all sorts of capabilities for reporting on my Tap Log entries, did some textual analyses of my blog
• less walking, because I worked from home two days this week
• less socializing, because W- helped J- with homework
• less planning, now that I’ve figured out what I want to do over the next year
• less cooking
• more writing – working on my yearly blog review
• more tidying up and moving furniture around

I think the next thing that will help me improve my tracking is for me to build my own Android application. Tap Log Records is nice, but it waits for you to finish entering all the information before it records the timestamp, and it doesn’t have some reporting capabilities that I would find really handy on my phone. I could suggest improvements, or I can build something that I can eventually get to sync with my service. I’ve been meaning to learn more about app development, anyway, so this might be a good learning experience. After the letters and blog reviews, I think…

Start	12-03	11-26
End	12-09	12-02	Last week
Activity	This week	Last week	Delta
! Discretionary	30.3	24.2	6.0
! Personal care	16.5	24.0	-7.5
! Unpaid work	13.1	11.0	2.1
A – Sleep	61.3	63.1	-1.8
A – Work	46.8	45.6	1.2
D – Family	0.1	0.1	0.1
D – Harry Potter	0.3	0.9	-0.5
D – Other	0.3		0.3
D – Quantified Awesome	11.7	5.0	6.7
D – Read	0.9	3.5	-2.6
D – Shopping		1.8	-1.8
D – Social	5.6	10.0	-4.4
D – Travel	2.0		2.0
D – Writing	9.3	3.0	6.3
P – Drink	0.4		0.4
P – Eat	8.4	9.7	-1.2
P – Plan		3.7	-3.7
P – Routines	4.9	6.5	-1.6
P – Walk	2.8	4.2	-1.3
UW – Cook	1.6	5.7	-4.1
UW – Other travel	0.1		0.1
UW – Subway	1.2	3.2	-2.0
UW – Tidy up	10.2	1.9	8.3
UW – Wait		0.2	-0.2

• Work
  
  • [X] Project O: Get ready for launch
  • [X] Project T: Get closer to launch
  • [-] File expenses
  • [-] Work on Connections Toolkit
  • Put together cartoon and logo for SamePlace

• Relationships
  
  • [-] Clear furniture so that insulation can be installed
  • [X] Go to Quantified Self Toronto meetup
  • [X] Add memories to Quantified Awesome
  • [-] Get Quantified Awesome ready for other users

• Life
  
  • [-] Take pictures of rest of clothes
  • [-] Increase test coverage to at least 60%

• Work
  
  • [ ] Survive launch of project O
  • [ ] Survive launch of project T
  • [ ] File expenses
  • [ ] Upload new cartoon

• Relationships
  
  • [ ] Clear furniture and simplify stuff
  • [ ] Add more memories to Quantified Awesome

• Life
  
  • [ ] Experiment with tracking mood more
  • [ ] Add public/private and todo/done to text notes

As mentioned, I rejigged my time tracking system to use Tap Log instead of Time Recording.

Activity	This week	Last week	Delta	Notes
! Discretionary	22.7	29.5	-6.8
! Personal care	27.9	14.2	13.7
! Unpaid work	11.0	11.4	-0.4
A – Sleep	64.6	59.6	5.0	More tired this week, so I slept more
A – Work	41.8	53.4	-11.6	Cut back so that I have some slack for next week’s hectic launches
D – Break		0.9	-0.9
D – Family	0.1		0.1
D – Harry Potter	0.9		0.9	Played with J-
D – Quantified Awesome	5.0	4.1	0.9	Added Tap Log analysis, memories
D – Read	3.5		3.5	I, Claudius; Claudius the God
D – Shopping	1.8	2.8	-0.9
D – Social	8.5	18.6	-10.1	Study group, Quantified Self Toronto
D – Writing	3.0	3.0	-0.1
P – Eat	9.7	2.2	7.5
P – Exercise		2.9	-2.9
P – Plan	3.7		3.7	Figured out my plan for the next year
P – Routines	6.5	9.0	-2.5
P – Walk	8.0		8.0	Separated this from P – Exercise
UW – Cook	5.7	3.5	2.2
UW – Subway	3.2		3.2	Separated this from UW – Travel
UW – Tidy up	1.9	2.4	-0.4
UW – Travel		5.6	-5.6
UW – Wait	0.2		0.2	Tried tracking waiting for a little bit, decided not to

Activity	Sat	Sun	Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri	Total	Average	Weekday average	Weekend average
Sleep	7.8	11.8	7.9	12.3	7.5	8.5	8.8	64.6	9.2	9.0	9.8
Work	2.9	0.0	10.7	8.2	6.4	6.2	7.4	41.8	6.0	7.8	1.4
Discretionary	8.8	2.9	1.5	0.8	4.5	1.6	2.6	22.7	3.2	2.2	5.8
Unpaid work	3.9	2.7	1.1	0.6	0.9	0.5	1.4	11.0	1.6	0.9	3.3
Personal care	0.7	6.6	2.8	2.2	4.7	7.1	3.8	27.9	4.0	4.1	3.6

• Work
  
  • [X] Project O: Get ready for big demo
  • [-] Project O: Get to 100% test coverage – at 92%
  • [-] Project T: Bugfixes, final round of testing? – mostly there, check again Monday
  • [-] File expenses
  • [X] Move flashcard app to internal host
  • [X] Get ready for flashcard demo

• Relationships
  
  • [X] Go to Rails Pub Nite on Monday
  • [X] Host study group: long division, repeating decimals, views of 3D objects, nets
  • [-] Build memories into Quantified Awesome

• Life
  
  • [X] Work on user support for Quantified Awesome
  • [-] Simplify stuff interface – what would it take to make it a system my mom can start using?
  • [-] Get ready for Quantified Self Toronto demo
  • [X] Fix mobile version

• Work
  
  • [ ] Project O: Get ready for launch
  • [ ] Project T: Get closer to launch
  • [ ] File expenses
  • [ ] Work on Connections Toolkit

• Relationships
  
  • [ ] Clear furniture so that insulation can be installed
  • [ ] Go to Quantified Self Toronto meetup
  • [ ] Add memories to Quantified Awesome
  • [ ] Get Quantified Awesome ready for other users

• Life
  
  • [ ] Take pictures of rest of clothes
  • [ ] Increase test coverage to at least 60%

Activity	Sat	Sun	Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri	Total	Average	Weekday average	Weekend average
Sleep	8.8	9.9	6.5	11.2	7.9	8.1	7.3	59.6	8.5	8.2	9.3
Work	3.7	0.0	9.0	7.5	9.5	11.1	12.6	53.4	7.6	9.9	1.8
Discretionary	8.3	9.5	5.6	0.2	2.0	0.5	3.5	29.5	4.2	2.3	8.9
Unpaid work	1.6	3.0	1.2	1.3	2.4	1.9	0.0	11.4	1.6	1.3	2.3
Personal care	1.6	1.6	1.7	3.9	2.4	2.5	0.6	14.2	2.0	2.2	1.6

Activity	This week	Last week	Delta	Notes
! Discretionary	29.5	34.2	-4.8	Channelled into work instead
! Personal care	14.2	22.2	-8.1
! Unpaid work	11.4	11.2	0.2
A – Sleep	59.6	58.7	0.9	That’s good
A – Work	53.4	41.7	11.7	Lots of overtime; did this instead of playing Harry Potter
D – Break	0.9	8.2	-7.2	Less playing this week
D – Drawing		0.9	-0.9
D – Other	4.1	7.5	-3.5	Slightly less work on Quantified Awesome
D – Personal		3.6	-3.6
D – Reading		0.5	-0.5
D – Shopping	2.8	1.6	1.1
D – Social	18.6	9.4	9.2	Visiting family, going to Rails Pub Nite, helping with homework
D – Writing	3.0	2.4	0.6
P – Eating	2.2	4.9	-2.7
P – Exercise	2.9	9.2	-6.2	Hitched a couple of rides, so didn’t walk to the subway station as often as I normally do
P – Routines	9.0	8.2	0.9
UW – Cooking	3.5	5.1	-1.6	Mmm sweet potato fries
UW – Tidying	2.4	2.9	-0.5
UW – Travel	5.6	3.2	2.3

• Work
  
  • [X] Give a presentation on automated testing
  • [X] Get project T closer to launch
  • [X] Finish applying the theme for project O
  • [X] Set up production environment for project O
  • [-] File expenses – postponed
  • Rails: Learned how to extend ActiveRecord::Base with my own association methods
  • Rails: Started running coverage tests
  • Rails: Built an interactive tutorial feature for project O
  • Rails: Added import users / activate users for project O

• Relationships
  
  • [X] Host another study group
  • [X] Help out with home renovations planning
  • Helped repoint the bricks using lime mortar
  • Crunched some data on Homestars reviews
  • Helped out with study group on Think on Your Feet
  • Wrote down more stories.

• Life
  
  • [X] Add contexts to stuff-tracking
  • [/] Get system ready for Quantified Self demo
  • Changed Quantified Awesome to use Twitter Bootstrap – now it looks all Web 2.0-y
  • Fixed bugs related to library cards, food tracking
  • Played Lego Harry Potter 5 – 7: fun!

• Work
  
  • [ ] Project O: Get ready for big demo
  • [ ] Project O: Get to 100% test coverage
  • [ ] Project T: Bugfixes, final round of testing?
  • [ ] File expenses
  • [ ] Move flashcard app to internal host
  • [ ] Get ready for flashcard demo

• Relationships
  
  • [ ] Go to Rails Pub Nite on Monday
  • [ ] Host study group
  • [ ] Build memories into Quantified Awesome

• Life
  
  • [ ] Work on user support for Quantified Awesome
  • [ ] Simplify stuff interface – what would it take to make it a system my mom can start using?
  • [ ] Get ready for Quantified Self Toronto demo
  • [ ] Fix mobile version

Okay! I decided to work less and sleep more, and I did. I still got plenty of stuff done at work (lots of development, a presentation, and more!). Interestingly enough, discretionary time was down a little from last week, even though it felt like I had more free time. Oh, that was because I counted repointing the bricks on Saturday as exercise time, although it could also be filed under social.

Activity	Sat	Sun	Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri	Total	Average	Weekday average	Weekend average
Sleep	8.2	9.3	7.7	7.8	8.6	8.9	8.2	58.7	8.4	8.2	8.7
Work	0.0	0.0	9.2	8.5	8.5	8.1	7.5	41.7	6.0	8.3	0.0
Discretionary	7.2	8.8	2.1	4.6	4.0	2.3	5.2	34.2	4.9	3.6	8.0
Unpaid work	1.0	2.2	2.1	1.2	1.4	1.9	1.5	11.2	1.6	1.6	1.6
Personal care	7.7	3.7	3.0	2.0	1.5	2.9	1.6	22.2	3.2	2.2	5.7

Activity	This week	Last week	Delta	Notes
! Discretionary	34.2	35.9	-1.7
! Personal care	22.2	14.8	7.4	More exercise
! Unpaid work	11.2	14.8	-3.6	Less cooking
A – Sleep	58.7	49.1	9.6	Yay more sleep (more than a full night of additional sleep, even!)
A – Work	41.7	54.4	-12.7	Keeping it within reasonable bounds
D – Break	8.2		8.2	This is all LEGO Harry Potter…
D – Drawing	0.9	0.1	0.7	A little bit of planning for the website
D – Other	7.5	12.4	-4.9	Lots of progress on my Quantified Awesome project!
D – Personal	3.6	0.1	3.5
D – Reading	0.5	2.5	-2.0
D – Shopping	1.6		1.6
D – Social	9.4	16.1	-6.7	Study group
D – Writing	2.4	4.6	-2.2	I should write more blog posts about what I’m learning
P – Eating	4.9	1.8	3.1	More relaxed meals
P – Exercise	9.2	3.8	5.4	Repointing, lots of walking
P – Routines	8.2	9.2	-1.1
UW – Cooking	5.1	6.1	-1.0
UW – Tidying	2.9	6.9	-4.0	Should do more tidying up today
UW – Travel	3.2	1.8	1.4	Commuting to work every day

I think I’m on the right track. Next week will probably involve more socializing (Rails Pub Nite meetup, etc.) and more hacking (getting Quantified Awesome ready for demo on Nov 30), so I might take time away from cooking and playing, and maaaybe a little from sleep.

I totally fell off the waking-up-early bandwagon. I think that’s due to playing LEGO Harry Potter, because I ended up going to bed around 11:30 instead of around 10. I could reset and save the game for weekends, which stretches it out for longer enjoyment.

I could also wait for J- and only play it with her, turning it into a social-ish activity. We’d complete it in a little less time, but playing would be a little less flexible for me. It’s okay, I can just spread it out over time.

Life is good.

• Work
  
  • [X] Work on project O: write more tests
  • [X] Project O: get e-mail templates finally sorted out
  • [X] Get project T closer to launching – chased down a few more bugs
  • [X] Prototype flashcards
  • [-] Work on Lotus Connections Toolkit migration – some more work needed

• Relationships
  
  • [X] Have Maira and Scott over for board games?
  • [X] Help out with home renovation planning
  • [X] Follow up on things Mom was interested in

• Life
  
  • [X] Make lots of food
  • [X] Continue tracking stuff

• Work
  
  • [ ] Give a presentation on automated testing
  • [ ] Get project T closer to launch
  • [ ] Finish applying the theme for project O
  • [ ] Set up production environment for project O
  • [ ] File expenses

• Relationships
  
  • [ ] Host another study group
  • [ ] Help out with home renovations planning

• Self
  
  • [ ] Add contexts to stuff-tracking
  • [ ] Get system ready for Quantified Self demo

Activity	Sat	Sun	Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri	Total	Average	Weekday average	Weekend average
Sleep	6.6	6.8	7.2	5.7	8.0	7.4	6.4	48.1	6.9	7.0	6.7
Work	0.0	5.8	10.3	11.6	8.7	10.6	7.3	54.4	7.8	9.7	2.9
Discretionary	6.7	7.1	4.3	5.3	2.6	1.5	8.2	35.9	5.1	4.4	6.9
Unpaid work	9.2	1.8	0.3	0.0	2.1	0.9	0.5	14.8	2.1	0.8	5.5
Personal care	1.5	2.5	1.8	1.3	2.6	3.6	1.5	14.8	2.1	2.2	2.0

Activity	This week	Last week	Delta	Notes
! Discretionary	35.9	32.4	3.5
! Personal care	14.8	22.2	-7.5
! Unpaid work	14.8	16.2	-1.4
A – Sleep	48.1	50.7	-2.6
A – Work	54.4	46.5	7.9	Time came from not biking
D – Drawing	0.1	0.1	0.0
D – Other	12.4	9.4	3.0	Work on quantifiedawesome.com
D – Personal	0.1	0.6	-0.5
D – Reading	2.5	4.9	-2.4
D – Shopping		2.1	-2.1
D – Social	16.1	4.3	11.8	help with homework and study group; board games with Maira and Scott
D – Writing	4.6	11.1	-6.4
P – Eating	1.8	1.9	-0.1
P – Exercise	3.7	11.3	-7.7	used Metropass, but started walking from one station away
P – Routines	9.2	8.9	0.3
UW – Cooking	6.1	9.0	-3.0	beef bulgogi experiment
UW – Tidying	6.9	4.6	2.3
UW – Travel	1.8	2.6	-0.8	Worked at home 2 days this week

Next week, I want to sleep more, work less, and channel some of that extra time back into discretionary work.

• Work
  
  • [X] Project O: Lots more work
  • [X] Project I: Follow up on SQL Server changes
  • [-] Project T: Follow up on pre-launch – meeting next week
  • [-] Prototype flashcards – probably Rails
  • Submitted annual results
  • Shared lots of visualization examples

• Relationships
  
  • [X] Facilitate another fun study group
  • [-] Help J- with writing – maybe next week

• Life
  
  • [X] Have massage!
  • [X] Write about more quantified self stuff
  • [X] Find other quantified self bloggers
  • [X] Improve measurements for home dashboard – added summary
  • Added stuff tracking to dashboard
  • Improved CSA tracking

• Work
  
  • [ ] Work on project O: write more tests
  • [ ] Project O: get e-mail templates finally sorted out
  • [ ] Get project T closer to launching
  • [ ] Prototype flashcards
  • [ ] Work on Lotus Connections Toolkit migration

• Relationships
  
  • [ ] Have Maira and Scott over for board games?
  • [ ] Help out with home renovation planning
  • [ ] Follow up on things Mom was interested in

• Life
  
  • [ ] Make lots of food
  • [ ] Continue tracking stuff

Activity	Sat	Sun	Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri	Total	Average	Weekday average	Weekend average
Sleep	8.0	6.9	7.9	7.0	7.2	7.9	5.7	50.7	7.2	7.2	7.4
Work	0.0	1.1	8.2	12.6	9.8	7.7	7.2	46.5	6.6	9.1	0.5
Discretionary	5.6	6.3	4.5	1.6	3.5	1.9	9.0	32.4	4.6	4.1	5.9
Unpaid work	1.7	7.8	0.5	1.0	1.6	3.0	0.6	16.2	2.3	1.3	4.8
Personal care	8.7	2.0	2.8	1.7	1.9	3.5	1.6	22.2	3.2	2.3	5.3

Activity	This week	Last week	Delta	Notes
Discretionary	32.4	37.5	-5.1
Personal care	22.2	12.6	9.6
Unpaid work	16.2	12.2	4.0
Sleep	50.7	61.1	-10.5
Work	46.5	44.5	2.0	Extra time getting tests to pass
D – Break		1.3	-1.3
D – Drawing	0.1	0.7	-0.6
D – Other	9.4	0.1	9.2	Worked on personal tracking system
D – Personal	0.6	6.6	-6.0
D – Reading	4.9	4.4	0.5
D – Shopping	2.1	2.1	0.1
D – Social	4.3	17.1	-12.8
D – Writing	11.1	5.3	5.8	Made time for this
P – Eating	1.9	1.3	0.6
P – Exercise	11.3	1.8	9.5	Biking on weekends, walking to subway for work
P – Routines	8.9	9.5	-0.6	Pre-cooked oatmeal saves a little bit of time, but not much
UW – Cooking	9.0	1.9	7.2	Processed the vegetables, prepared lamb korma
UW – Tidying	4.6	6.6	-2.0
UW – Travel	2.6	3.7	-1.2	Worked from home one day, biked to work another day

So it looks like most of the extra time got moved from sleep, hobbies, and socialization. We didn’t have J- this week, so we spent less time helping her with homework (just the Friday study group). I made more time to write, which felt good. I’m also experimenting with doing more up-front cooking instead of waiting until our home-made frozen lunches dwindle, so I spent more time cooking this week.

I’d like to get work under control next week. This probably involves comparing the relief and happiness I can get by scratching the itch in my brain (bugs, tests that still need work…) versus other things that might have less immediate but still valuable payoff (working on my personal projects, investing in relationships). It seems like an excellent idea to work when something’s taking up brainspace so that I can get it out of my head, but there’s always more work to do. Solving one issue leads to another, and another, and another. Work can pose an infinite number of challenges with short-term payoffs. Down this path lies a dangerous temptation to neglect other things, though, so I think it might be more useful to get better at putting those brain-itches into perspective.

I’m sure that if I sit down and make space to think about it, I can come up with ideas for non-work activities that create even more value. I need to externalize that list, because it can be hard to compare a clearly-defined work task (solve issue X in our queue) with a vague idea that I may want to spend more time on relationships or personal projects. It can be difficult to admit that some clearly-defined tasks (ex: get the Lotus Connections Toolkit working again) end up with lower priorities than exploratory tasks (ex: do a freezer audit and nudge us closer to a better finished meals:frozen ingredients ratio).

There’s also the risk of procrastinating things that are really worth doing. At some point, the mental cost of carrying these ideas around (or even stashing them in one’s to-do list) outweighs the benefits of other activities. Still, it’s a good idea to make sure your priorities strongly influence how you spend your time, particularly when work is so fun that it can suck you into flow experiences. Flow isn’t bad, but it’s also not always good.

I’ve circled around this idea for several paragraphs now, so there’s probably something here that I need to pay attention to. Hmm.

—

Also, wake-up times have edged forward a little bit. Let’s see how the end of Daylight Savings Time changes things, too.

• Work
  
  • [X] Project O: Flesh out autosave on the form
  • [X] Project I: Follow up on SQL Server changes
  • [X] Project T: Follow up on pre-launch changes
  • [X] Interview at least two people about happiness and connectivity in our consulting practice – interviewed one person
  • Set up new laptop – yippee! Happiness just went way up.
  • Came up with some ideas for happiness and connectivity – extended game of human bingo, photo flashcards
  • Helped people with Web 2.0 questions
  • Scheduled IBM Drupal Users Group automated testing talk for November 16
  • Project O: Lots of new functionality and bugfixes!

• Relationships
  
  • [X] Help J- catch up with school
  • [X] Attend secondary school info session
  • [X] Sort and share pictures
  • Facilitated math study group on exponents and scientific notation
  • Helped J- with history
  • E-mailed one of my godmothers because she’s currently in Toronto
  • Met with energy advisor for pre-grant assessments

• Life
  
  • [X] Take notes on library books
  • [X] Copy measurements into home dashboard
  • Bought a domain for my quantified self ideas

• Work
  
  • [ ] Project O: Lots more work
  • [ ] Project I: Follow up on SQL Server changes
  • [ ] Project T: Follow up on pre-launch
  • [ ] Prototype flashcards – probably Rails

• Relationships
  
  • [ ] Facilitate another fun study group
  • [ ] Help J- with writing

• Life
  
  • [ ] Have massage!
  • [ ] Write about more quantified self stuff
  • [ ] Find other quantified self bloggers
  • [ ] Improve measurements for home dashboard

Activity	This week	Last week	Delta	Notes
! Discretionary	37.5	42.4	-4.8
! Personal care	12.6	16.6	-4.0
! Unpaid work	12.2	14.6	-2.4
A – Sleep	61.1	53.2	7.9	A few naps; consistent early-morning wakeups
A – Work	44.5	41.1	3.4	Thought I would be taking more time off on Friday, overcorrected
D – Break	1.3	0.8	0.5
D – Delegating		0.2	-0.2
D – Drawing	0.7	0.8	-0.1	Practising drawing faces
D – Other	0.1	10.6	-10.5
D – Personal	6.6	16.2	-9.7	Less work on dashboard this time
D – Reading	4.4	1.0	3.3	Reading lots of books and testing my library-related additions to dashboard
D – Shopping	2.1		2.1
D – Social	17.1	5.6	11.5	School Halloween event, high school info night, study group
D – Writing	5.3	7.1	-1.8	Didn’t feel like a lot of writing. Want more!
P – Eating	1.3	1.1	0.2
P – Exercise	1.8	3.8	-2.0	Quick walk to subway and back
P – Routines	9.5	11.7	-2.2
UW – Cooking	1.9	1.9	0.0	Batch-cooked oatmeal, packaged our rib lunches
UW – Tidying	6.6	5.6	1.0	Getting ready for energy inspection etc.
UW – Travel	3.7	7.1	-3.4	Commuting to work

Details: (Things may not multiply exactly due to rounding errors)

Activity	Average	Weekday average	Weekend average
Sleep	8.7	8.2	10.1
Work	6.4	8.8	0.2
Discretionary	5.4	3.8	9.2
Unpaid work	1.7	1.1	3.2
Personal care	1.8	2.1	1.2
Count		5 weekdays	2 weekend days

• Work
  
  • [X] Project T: Catch up on tasks, prepare for launch
  • [X] Project O: Catch up on work, set up integration server
  • [X] Project I: Follow up on SQL Server configuration
  • [-] Pick up new computer, replacement badge? – postponed, waiting for shipment
  • Helped people with communities
  • Brainstormed ways to help improve other people’s happiness and connection at work

• Relationships
  
  • [-] Help J catch up with school – next week
  • [X] Share stories from trip
  • [X] Catch up with laundry
  • [X] Catch up with blog comments and email
  • [X] Go to Quantified Self Toronto meetup (Friday)
  • [-] Go to secondary schol info night – next week

• Life
  
  • [X] Take it (relatively) easy
  • Added lots of functionality to my home dashboard: clothing matches and status, library books, measurement tracking (ex: time)
  • Experimented with routine improvements: hair towel, podcasts, drawing
  • Scheduled more blog posts

• Work
  
  • [ ] Project O: Flesh out autosave on the form
  • [ ] Project I: Follow up on SQL Server changes
  • [ ] Project T: Follow up on pre-launch changes
  • [ ] Interview at least two people about happiness and connectivity in our consulting practice

• Relationships
  
  • [ ] Help J catch up with school
  • [ ] Attend secondary school info session
  • [ ] Sort and share pictures

• Life
  
  • [ ] Take notes on library books
  • [ ] Copy measurements into home dashboard

Activity	This week	Last week	Delta	Notes
! Discretionary	42.4	106.0	-63.6
! Personal care	16.6		16.6
! Unpaid work	14.6		14.6
A – Sleep	52.8	62.0	-9.2	Timezones, jet lag?
A – Work	41.6		41.6	Back to work
D – Break	0.8		0.8
D – Delegating	0.2		0.2
D – Drawing	0.8		0.8
D – Other	10.6		10.6
D – Personal	16.2		16.2
D – Reading	1.0		1.0
D – Social	5.6	106.0	-100.4
D – Writing	7.1		7.1
P – Eating	1.1		1.1
P – Exercise	3.8		3.8
P – Routines	11.7		11.7
UW – Cooking	1.9		1.9
UW – Tidying	5.6		5.6
UW – Travel	7.1		7.1

Category	Average	Weekday	Weekend
Sleep	7.5	7.5	7.6
Work	5.9	8.1	0.6
Discretionary	6.1	3.7	11.9
Unpaid work	2.1	1.9	2.6
Personal care	2.4	2.8	1.3

• Work
  
  • [-] Tidy up more project T issues – partially complete, more work to be done next week
  • [X] Import data for project O
  • Filled out new computer form, yay! Looking
  • Found SME for prjoect T, briefed on project

• Relationships
  
  • [X] Celebrate anniversary – dinner at Dr. Generosity
  • [X] Spend time with family

• Life
  
  • [C] Delegate blog-checking to virtual assistant – Cancelled, not needed
  • [-] Add library pickup check – Not yet implemented
  • Added clothing analysis to home dashboard

• Work
  
  • [ ] Project T: Catch up on tasks, prepare for launch
  • [ ] Project O: Catch up on work, set up integration server
  • [ ] Project I: Follow up on SQL Server configuration
  • [ ] Pick up new computer, replacement badge?

• Relationships
  
  • [ ] Help J catch up with school
  • [ ] Share stories from trip
  • [ ] Catch up with laundry
  • [ ] Catch up with blog comments and email
  • [ ] Go to Quantified Self Toronto meetup (Friday)
  • [ ] Go to secondary schol info night

• Life
  
  • [ ] Take it (relatively) easy

Vacation threw my schedule out of whack, in the best way possible. Timezones confused my time-tracking thing, too. So, no pretty graphs this week!

Jet-lag assisted days, once things settled down:

Day	Woke up	Slept	Waking hours	Slept
2011-10-07	5:44 AM	11:23 PM	17.65	6.35
2011-10-08	7:30 AM	7:30 PM	13.43	10.57
2011-10-09	6:46 AM	11:42 PM	16.93	7.07
2011-10-10	7:48 AM	11:52 PM	16.07	7.93
2011-10-11	5:32 AM	9:36 PM	16.07	7.93
2011-10-12	7:50 AM	9:59 PM	14.15	9.85
2011-10-13	7:31 AM	9:36 PM	14.08	9.92
2011-10-14	7:57 AM	11:13 PM	15.27	8.73

• Work
  
  • [X] Add summary to project T
  • [-] Migrate project T – postponed
  • [X] Follow up on SQL search for project I – found possible experts
  • [X] Gather requirements for project O
  • Added user management to project O
  • Set up Redmine issue tracking for project O

• Relationships
  
  • [-] Pack for trip
  • [X] Help with build class

• Life
  
  • [-] Draw
  • [X] Get through reading backlog
  • [X] Suspend library requests
  • Added clothing to home dashboard

• Work
  
  • [ ] Tidy up more project T issues
  • [ ] Import data for project O

• Relationships
  
  • [ ] Celebrate anniversary – dinner at Pho Hung?
  • [ ] Spend time with family

• Life
  
  • [ ] Delegate blog-checking to virtual assistant
  • [ ] Add library pickup check

Activity	This week	Last week	Delta	Notes
! Discretionary	44.5	45.4	-0.8
! Personal care	15.7	17.8	-2.2
! Unpaid work	9.0	9.2	-0.2
A – Sleep	52.5	54.6	-2.1
A – Work	46.2	41.0	5.2	Preparing for migration (postponed), getting things ready before we go
D – Break	0.1	6.8	-6.8
D – Drawing		0.7	-0.7
D – Personal	20.9	13.2	7.7	Working on home dashboard
D – Reading	7.0	1.1	5.9	Clearing my reading stash
D – Shopping	1.4	11.9	-10.5
D – Social	3.6	6.9	-3.2
D – Volunteering	3.4	3.7	-0.3
D – Writing	8.1	0.9	7.1	Queueing posts
P – Eating	4.3	2.3	2.0
P – Exercise	5.0	5.8	-0.8
P – Routines	6.4	9.7	-3.3
UW – Cooking	1.9	1.5	0.4
UW – Tidying	2.6	4.6	-2.0
UW – Travel	4.5	3.1	1.4	Commuting to work every day

• Work
  • [X] Test project T and develop more features
  • [X] Start on project O
  • [X] Follow up on project I – sorted out miscommunication, fixed SQL server config, restarted search for SQL expert
  • Provided project C with advice on finding Ruby on Rails developers
  • Had another Hello Monday comic published on IBM intranet home page

• Relationships
  • [X] Help with build class
  • [-] Pack for the trip
  • Picked up more gifts
  • Attended Eoin Colfer’s book event at the Toronto Public Library

• Life
  • [-] Write backlog of blog posts for trip
  • [X] Delegate another two tasks
  • [X] Fix sleep analysis in my time tracker dashboard
  • [X] Draw

• Work
  • [ ] Add summary to project T
  • [ ] Migrate project T
  • [ ] Follow up on SQL search for project I
  • [ ] Gather requirements for project O

• Relationships
  • [ ] Pack for trip
  • [ ] Help with build class

• Life
  • [ ] Draw
  • [ ] Get through reading backlog
  • [X] Suspend library requests

Activity	This week	Last week	Delta	Notes
! Discretionary	46.0	42.2	3.9
! Personal care	19.4	15.3	4.1
! Unpaid work	10.5	15.5	-5.0
A – Sleep	51.0	54.5	-3.5	Hmm, that’s interesting. Stopped snoozing, generally went to bed around 11 PM
A – Work	41.0	40.5	0.5
D – Break	6.8	2.5	4.3	Tales of Monkey Island went on sale, so I picked it up
D – Drawing	0.7	1.9	-1.2
D – Electronics		2.0	-2.0
D – Personal	13.9	0.8	13.1	J- was not with us every day, so homework got replaced by hacking
D – Reading	1.1	2.9	-1.8
D – Sewing		1.6	-1.6
D – Shopping	11.9	3.4	8.5	Trying to find dress clothes and shoes for J-; shopping for our trip, too
D – Social	6.9	12.1	-5.2
D – Volunteering	3.7	3.5	0.2
D – Writing	0.9	11.4	-10.5	Side-effect of having a backlog of posts; must tweak
P – Eating	2.3	1.7	0.6
P – Exercise	5.8	2.6	3.2
P – Routines	11.3	11.0	0.3	Time spent getting ready for work
UW – Cooking	1.5	4.0	-2.5
UW – Tidying	5.9	6.3	-0.3
UW – Travel	3.1	5.2	-2.1

• Work
  
  • [X] Put together and give IBM Drupal Users Group presentation on Source code and configuration management
  • [X] Implement more features for project T
  • [X] Follow up on project I
  • [-] Prototype some more for project O
  • Revised IBM comic
  • Gave project C tips on finding Ruby on Rails people
  • Tried out Maxivista for extending my Windows desktop onto my second laptop; interesting, although a little quirky
  • Tried out VirtuaWin for virtual desktops.

• Relationships
  
  • [X] Help with build class
  • [X] Follow up on cat boarding
  • First study group: square roots, convex/concave shapes

• Life
  
  • [X] Get a massage
  • [X] Prototype decision tracker in Org mode
  • [X] Start putting together notes for myself
  • Built my first Teensy USB project
  • Read lots of Kindle samples for one of our upcoming projects
  • Tried out Tales of Monkey Island demo, considering getting game (hmm… time…)

• Work
  
  • [ ] Test project T and develop more features
  • [ ] Start on project O
  • [ ] Follow up on project I

• Relationships
  
  • [ ] Help with build class
  • [ ] Pack for the trip

• Life
  
  • [ ] Write backlog of blog posts for trip
  • [ ] Delegate another two tasks
  • [ ] Fix sleep analysis in my time tracker dashboard
  • [ ] Draw

Activity	This week	Last week	Delta	Notes
! Discretionary	43.0	52.1	-9.1
! Personal care	16.5	14.8	1.8
! Unpaid work	15.5	10.2	5.3
A – Sleep	52.5	58.7	-6.2	Stayed up later
A – Work	40.5	32.2	8.3	Regular work week
D – Break	3.4	2.0	1.4	Watching
D – Delegating		0.1	-0.1
D – Drawing	1.9	3.2	-1.3	Some sketching
D – Electronics	2.0		2.0	Moved my footswitch to the Teensy board!
D – Personal	0.8	12.3	-11.5	Less hacking
D – Reading	2.9	5.5	-2.6
D – Sewing	1.6		1.6	Made a cushion for the kitties
D – Shopping	3.4	2.5	0.9	Getting things for our trip
D – Social	12.1	19.2	-7.1	Helping J- with homework
D – Volunteering	3.5		3.5	Build class
D – Writing	11.4	7.2	4.2	Wrote a lot of posts!
P – Eating	1.7	2.8	-1.1
P – Exercise	2.6	5.6	-3.0
P – Routines	12.2	6.3	5.9	Prepping to go to work / coming back from work, staying up later
UW – Cooking	4.0	3.1	0.9
UW – Tidying	6.3	5.7	0.6
UW – Travel	5.2	1.4	3.8	Went to the office three times this week

• Work
  
  • [X] Start on redesign for project T
  • [X] Do other coding tasks for project T
  • [X] Follow up on project O
  • [X] Revise drawings for Hello Monday! comic series: Bluepages done, next: work from home
  • Resolved server crash issue for project I
  • Improved Community Toolkit code – fixed bug
  • Regularly checked in on project I

• Relationships
  
  • [X] Go to Quantified Self Toronto meetup, share notes on time tracking
  • [X] Reply to questions about quantified self
  • [-] Follow up on cat hotel / vets – choose an option
  • [X] Volunteer at Free Geek Toronto: take inventory of equipment, filter cards, improve checklist

• Life
  
  • [X] Dashboard: Make hour visualization more flexible
  • [X] Dashboard: Get input from CSV
  • [X] Brainstorm other ways I can use delegation to improve life
  • [X] Take advantage of long weekend to plan projects
  • [-] Replace curtains (Value Village or Canadian Tire?)
  • [-] Look into buying summer flat shoes while they’re on clearance – postponing until next year
  • [X] Laptop: Copy photos and sketches onto new hard drive
  • [-] Try microphone as sound sensor
  • [-] Prepare month in review with stats
  • Practised with photo flashcards of people’s names and faces

• Work
  
  • [ ] Put together and give IBM Drupal Users Group presentation on Source code and configuration management
  • [ ] Implement more features for project T
  • [ ] Follow up on project I
  • [ ] Prototype some more for project O

• Relationships
  
  • [ ] Help with build class
  • [ ] Follow up on cat boarding

• Life
  
  • [X] Get a massage
  • [ ] Prototype decision tracker (Org?)
  • [ ] Start putting together notes for myself

Activity	This week	Last week	Delta
Sleep	58.8	55.4	3.4	8.4 hours per week, back up to normal
Work	32.2	40.1	-7.9	3-day weekend
DISCRETIONARY	52.0	43.3	8.8
D – Break	2.0	2.4	-0.4
D – Writing	7.2	11.4	-4.2
D – Personal	12.3	13.5	-1.2	Dashboard hacking
D – Delegating	0.1	0.6	-0.5
D – Social	19.2	9.0	10.2	Science Centre and Quantified Self
D – Drawing	3.2	2.0	1.3
D – Shopping	2.5	2.0	0.5
D – Reading	5.6		5.6	Getting through lots of books
D – Other		2.5	-2.5	No electronics hacking
PERSONAL CARE	14.8	17.6	-2.8
P – Eating	2.8	5.0	-2.1
P – Routines	6.3	6.4	-0.1
P – Exercise	5.6	6.2	-0.6
UNPAID WORK	10.2	11.7	-1.5
UW – Cooking	3.1	7.4	-4.3
UW – Travel	1.4	0.6	0.8
UW – Tidying	5.7	3.7	2.0

Reorganized my time categories to match up with those used by OECD Society at a Glance reports for ease of comparison.