Monthly review: March 2009

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<stretch> What a great month! I learned so much. =)

From last month:

  • Sort out my paperwork: Almost there. I just need an updated reference letter from my manager. Hooray!
  • Finish this phase of Transition2: About to release today!
  • Further integrate virtual assistance into my processes: See below!

We’ve made a lot of progress at work on a new release of our website, which will be deployed today. Along the way, I learned a lot about Drupal, and I shared our lessons learned at DrupalCon 2009 in DC.

I shared some tips and thoughts on public speaking and virtual conferences, which are becoming more popular at work:

Other geeky things: I shared my library reminder script. Gabriel Mansour’s ported it to Ruby, which is probably much more readable. I learned how to make directed graphs with Graphviz, too.

I also started delegating lots of tasks to virtual assistants, and that’s been interesting too. Here are some of my thoughts:

and I’ve documented some of my processes:

I’ve also shared two of the posts I asked my virtual assistants to put together for me:

(… and my blog has the #1 spot for the search “managing virtual assistants” on Google! Nifty.)

These experiments in delegation have prompted me to think about my own goals and see what else I can ask people to work on.

I’ve also been able to turn that energy to other people’s goals. I brainstormed ways I could help my parents’ business, even over a distance. I helped my parents learn more about ebooks and market research on the Net. I also created a Google Adwords campaign for my parents’ company. I like how I can do split testing on the ads, and Google will optimize the delivery over time. So far, 20 people have clicked through.

Thanks to the wake-up calls and to some schedule shuffling, I’ve been waking up early to write. It’s a great time to share what I’m thinking about or what I’m learning about life.

I finally got the next LifeCampTO sorted out: LifeCampTO: April 5 (Sun), 10:30am – 1:00pm, LinuxCaffe, too!

Weekly reviews:

Week ending March 29, 2009
Week ending March 22, 2009
Week ending March 15, 2009
Week ending March 8, 2009

March had Ada Lovelace Day and Pi Day. =) Whee!

Plans for April 2009

  • Virtual conferences and public speaking: I will put together two webinars and at least four blog posts about tips for public speaking, particularly for remote presentations. I think that would help make a difference at work.
  • Bicycling: I will get more comfortable on my new bicycle so that I can easily run errands or ride my bike for fitness and enjoyment.
  • Delegation: I will delegate more tasks and develop more processes.
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