Deliverable

Wow, we’re into May!

The “come hell or high water” list:

• I will do my other Pilates DVD on Tuesday and Thursday of this week.
• I will do push-ups on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday of this week, using the following reps: 25/15/10/5.
• I will completely eliminated the “Desktops to be sorted” folder from my firewire drive, and file / sort the contents of the remaining labeled folders.
• I will completely eliminate the contents of the “Downloads to be sorted” folder on my firewire drive. Any downloads I deem valuable I will burn to disk and file.
• I will post the “Minuet Steps” video by Wednesday evening.

Someday / Maybe (from previous weeks…):

• Create photo-page for main website

The “come hell or high water” list for the week ending 4/24/05… revisited:

• Trombone – I played trombone a couple of days this week, but really got sidetracked by an important presentation that I had on Friday morning. Rather than get down about it, I need to look closer at the “why” I should have played trombone two minutes a day last week, because I don’t think it was strong enough in my mind. It was more out of obligation than out of a pressing need, because when another more pressing need came up, I let the trombone playing slide. I’m not certain how to deal with this. I want to continue to play trombone. I do not want to let this talent/skill atrophy, but I do not know how to effectively motivate myself to maintain even a rudimentary practice routine especially without pressing playing opportunities (read: no gigs at the moment…). Is the answer to go out there and trade time for money (find gigs?).
• Push-ups/Pilates – I was successful in meeting my physical goals this week, though I did have resistance at times to doing my pilates work out. I think that I need more variety… I do have another pilates DVD, but it takes 15 minutes, instead of the 12 minutes of the one I currently use. It’s interesting how resistant we can be to change, even when we know intellectually that there is a benefit to be had.
• Presentation – This was a very successful part of my week. The presentation went very well on Friday, and I’ll be following up with more work on this to try to get this project finalized and bring in some cash flow. One point that could have been better was the fact that I needed to devote all of Thursday & late into Thursday night to finally complete this. I need to find a more balanced way to treat projects so that I don’t find myself in the 11th hour under the gun. I am happy that it wasn’t a desperate 11th hour push for this one… I’d done alot of work before Thursday so alot of what I was doing was just putting ideas that had been developed into presentational form. I can be more balanced though…I’ll find a way! : )
• Minuet Steps – I video’d the steps, but still haven’t posted them online. Why? Perfectionism at work here, I think. I could have just posted the video as is, but the perfectionist in me wanted to sync up a better audio track with his steps. Result: The steps still aren’t available online, thus benefitting no one.
• Treaty of Dover book – I did not re-read the Treaty of Dover chapter in my book.
• Desktops/Downloads to be sorted folder – I didn’t completely finish this task, but made a hell of a dent in it. I took what was 15-20 folders of “Desktops to be sorted” crap and whittled it down to one to be completed. We’re talking maybe five gig’s of stuff deleted here. Along the way I created 20 or so labeled folders which better define the things I didn’t throw out. It’ll be alot easier to now take this week and go thru those folders and identify things that I need in my day to day work, and things that can be archived. Also whittled away alot of the “Downloads to be sorted” folder as well. I expect to be able to knock out a good part of the rest of this material this week.

So, rather than judge as good or bad the results of this past week I’ll be content to document them, and move on to creating new goals for this week.

The “come hell or high water” list…

Due by Sunday evening, 4/24/05:

I will be able to make the following statements:

• I practiced trombone for at least 2 minutes a day, Monday thru Friday.
• I did push-ups on Monday, Wednesday and Friday with the following reps: 3 sets / 25-15-10
• I did pilates on Tuesday & Thursday.
• I created a concise & creative presentation for my meeting this week.
• I video’d the minuet steps and posted them online before class on Wednesday.
• I re-read the Treaty of Dover chapter in my Charles II book.
• I completely emptied / re-filed the contents of my “Desktops to be Sorted” folder
• I completely empited / re-filed the contents of my “Downloads to be Sorted” folder

Here’s how I fared:

Photo Gallery
I didn’t work on my Photo Gallery page this week.

Spotlight
I entered Spotlight into the Amazon.com film festival

Physical
I met my daily push-ups & pilates goals for the week.

Musical
I met my trombone practice goals for this week. In getting back to the horn I realized that Bach 36G was badly in need of repair. I took it in to have it fixed, and hope to pick it up this week.

Acting
I read from p. 156 to p. 270 in my King Charles II book, which by my count is 114 pages. My goal was to read 40 pages a day for a total of 120 pages read, so I’m doing fine with this one.

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Assessment
The thing that continues to confound me is the Photo Page of my website. I knew going into the week that this might be an issue. It’s one of those types of projects that doesn’t have a specific deadline so it keeps getting pushed back. The difficulty in creating a specific deadline is that it isn’t something that’s life or death, or isn’t something that specifically is bringing in cash, or directly affects my career. It’s something that I want to do, and in GTD parlance is an “open loop” in my life. Something that is kind of nagging in the back of my brain that I want to have completed. Perhaps I just need to amp up the intensity of the “why”. I need to find enough convincing reasons why finishing this will bring positive things into my life.
Question: Will I commit again this week to creating the Photo Section?

c.1450, “wholeness, perfect condition,” from O.Fr. integrité, from L. integritatem (nom. integritas) “soundness, wholeness,” from integer “whole” (see integer).

Couldn’t sleep…

Alchemy – (n.) – Miraculous power of transmuting something common into
something precious. [1913 Webster]

Incredible fortunes can and have been made with nothing more than ideas. Money is out there waiting to be made. It’s everywhere. It is as plentiful as our dreams. If you can dream it you can see it. If you can see it clearly enough you can build it. If you build it well enough, money will flow towards you in rivers of abundance. Imagination then is the key to wealth.

Was getting sleepy, but managed to fight the urge to fall asleep on the couch. That’s one thing that I really want to work on improvving. Was a good day. Got alot done and I’m feeling some shifts in attitudes that I think will be helpful. Off to bed now…

Feeling some resistance today to getting my pilates workout started. Thought I’d start a new category here and put down a few thoughts. Why the resistance? Is it boredom? Is it apathy? Why is it that we shy away from things that we know will make us feel better? Fear of success? I’ve experienced it a great deal with music. I know that I feel better after practicing, yet it can be difficult to keep a consistent practice routine going. The rollercoaster goes up and down. Periods of productivity followed by periods of inactivity & feeling bad when I know intellectually that the solution is to just get down to it and get past the fear and practice (insert activity here… practice… pilates…etc.). No answers, just asking the question. Time to start my pilates workout! : )

The idea is to list my deliverables for the week in this post, and then follow up with a weekly review. To that end…

Due by Sunday evening, 4/17/05:

Trebsworld Photo Gallery – Beta Release
Create a photo gallery using Folderblog that works and is easy to update. Blended to the look of the main Trebsworld site.

Enter Spotlight into Amazon.com film festival

To be able to make the following statements:

• I did one set of 25 reps & 1 set of 15 reps of pushups on Monday, Wednesday & Friday.
• I did a pilates workout with my video or DVD on Tuesday & Thursday.
• I practiced trombone at least 2 minutes a day on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday & Friday

Update: 4/15/05

I have 219 pages of the Charles II book to read by Wednesday. So, by Sunday evening, 4/17/05 I will be able to make the following statement:

• I read 40 pages of my Charles II book on Friday, Saturday & Sunday. (started at p.156).

One of the things that I like about blogs is their ability to help a user focus. My idea is to have a “Deliverables” blog that captures the things I want to accomplish in any given week. My ISP has a one click install of WordPress, and I’ve been hoping to continue trying out the software more fully to see how it compares to Movable Type. As this develops I’m sure I’ll discover strengths & weaknesses in the idea, but for now I’m going to just start and see where things go…

That’s the plan, at least.