Weekly review: Week ending January 11, 2013

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It was an awesome week. I hit the ground running in my consulting engagement, coming up with a useful feature for the theme and learning more about analytics. I’ve also been working on learning more about sales. The sales script I drafted helped me a lot with a phone conversation, and I’ve been working on drawing and writing more pitches.

I’ve been working on exploring more of the vegetables and ingredients at the supermarket. This week, I prepared fennel and celery salad, and today I cooked quinoa for the first time. (Turns out to be yummy with dried fruits and nuts as some kind of breakfast.)

And I biked! Whee! Temperatures had been above zero for a number of days, and since there was no rain forecast, I biked to work on Thursday. The Martin Goodman trail I usually take to work turned out to be maintained and lit during winter (except for a small dark patch). Aside from a couple of snowbanks that I carefully walked my bike through, it was easy riding, and I made it in around the same time it normally takes in fall. The earliest I’d biked last year was February 21. If I can bike in January – and if I can slowly work my way up to biking in other weather conditions – that opens up lots of possibilities.

… and I’ve been going to krav maga and fitness classes with W-, so yay!

My calendar’s starting to fill up, but it’s a good sort of filling up. The year is off to a great start.

Blog posts

My favourite blog post from this week was #7 (Reading old letters and relearning how to write), because it felt good to explore that.

  1. Cooking: Warm lentil salad with sausages
  2. Emacs Org: Display projects with a few subtasks in the agenda view
  3. Planning by the numbers: Checking the length of my runway
  4. Visual book review: The Art of Pricing: How to Find the Hidden Profits to Grow Your Business–Rafi Mohammed
  5. Sketchnote: ENT101 Lived It Lecture–Kunal Gupta, Polar Mobile
  6. Business experience report: Amending my T2 corporate tax return
  7. Reading old letters and relearning how to write

Accomplished this week

  • Business
    • Earn
      • Achievement: Wrote a sales script and made the call!
      • Achievement: Asked for an introduction and drafted one!
      • Resumed consulting with E1 – analytics, theme
      • Followed up on I2 learn page
    • Build
      • Drew pitch for FITC
      • Contacted Whiteboard Studio regarding event
      • Asked for an introduction to GROWtalks organizers
      • Checked if authorship worked
      • Followed up / drafted testimonial for Jennifer and Nathan
      • Set up interview with Pat
      • Did another weekly review with Criselda
      • Talked to Patricia Kambitsch about partnering
    • Connect
      • Met Raj Dhiman
      • Attended “superpower league” get-together
      • Followed up with quick notes from conversation with Matt Gray
      • Drew thank-you cards
      • Met Matt of Bitmaker Labs
  • Relationships
    • Went to appointment
    • Brought Leia to vet for vaccinations
    • Learned another vegetarian dish
    • Prepared something vegetarian for superpower league
  • Life
    • Tried biking in winter!
    • Reached out to last month’s Awesome Foundation Toronto winner for an update
    • Reset my sleep schedule

Plans for next week

  • Business
    • [ ] Earn: E1 – analytics, etc.
    • [ ] Earn: Follow up on invoice
    • [ ] Build: Read Work the System
    • [ ] Build: Follow up with GROWtalks
    • [ ] Build: Simplify sketchnote based on Tipera’s feedback
    • [ ] Build: Draw pitch for MEGA Networking sketchnotes, answer questions
    • [ ] Build: Sketch Rock the Monkey seminar
    • [ ] Connect: Have lunch with Sharon Sehdev
    • [ ] Build: Do another weekly review with Criselda
    • [ ] Connect: Go to EdTechTO get-together?
    • [ ] Build: Prepare for TEDxOCADU
  • Relationships
    • [X] Learn how to cook with quinoa
    • [X] Help Rachel learn programming with Processing
    • [ ] Help W-‘s parents with computer
    • [ ] Write more letters
  • Life
    • [ ] Declutter
    • [ ] Study for the Canadian citizenship test

Time review

  • Business: 46.8 hours (E1: 24.4, Connect: 6.3, Drawing: 1.0, Illustration: 1.1, Coding: 1.7)
  • Discretionary: 22.9 hours (Social: 8.7, Writing: 1.9)
  • Personal: 23.9 hours (Routines: 11.6)
  • Sleep: 61.4 hours – average of 8.8 hours per day
  • Unpaid work: 12.3 hours (Commuting: 4.0, Cook: 2.5, Tidy: 4.5)
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