“Do you know what people did in the old days when they had secrets they didn’t want to share? They’d climb a mountain, find a tree, carve a hole in it, whisper the secret into the hole and cover it up with mud. That way, nobody else would ever learn the secret”
Yesterday I was able (I’ll say able since I was slightly late due to missing a train) to meet up with my friends Jason and Rachel for a simple nando’s takeaway (never really had a nando’s takeaway before) and to check out their new place and play some good old smash brothers brawl.
They’ve recently moved into their new place, it was their temporary stay until they found a place to start buying. The location was near to where Rachel worked / studied. It felt like yesterday that we were sitting on some steps in a shopping centre eating greggs bloomer sandwiches for lunch at college (food at college has horrific). Now they’ve found a place to stay and will eventually get into the whole mortgaging business, oh how we’ve grown.
...well for them anyway. I feel like I’m still stuck in a time bubble where I’m still at college, just that work is actually work in a company, and we don’t do games/p.e. (boo :P I like running). I think I need to begin the plan of moving out and starting a life of my own, though this will inevitably take time and money to execute. I suppose I can live with the salary I make, but it would be ideal if I can save up as well for that move in the property ladder. No point in renting and forever stuck in a “renting” state.
So what’s the goal? What’s the plan? Well I don’t intend on moving out this year, and maybe not the next either. I don’t think I’m in a comfortable position to move, both for financial and personal reasons. I think for the next two years I’m going to first get out of any existing debts I’m in (hopefully random juicy bonuses will help!) and then review whether the situation changes and that I’m comfortable in moving.
I’ve already begun saving up via a savings account. I just need to continue that momentum and build up a momentum of constantly saving up, ignoring expensive gadgets and games and focusing on more long term things. Having this goal down in writing gives me the clarity I need and takes me out of the zone where I feel like I’m simply procrastinating in life. I’ve been moving forward pretty rapidly and I don’t want that to stop.
So where do I see myself in 2 years? Well hopefully I’ll be living in my own place in London, with a more senior role in the company. I will be in a more comfortable position to review my status in getting my own place but at that time, I have a place I’m renting and saving. A place that reminds me of where Jason and Rachel are living right now, where everything is customised to perfection (subjectively) and taste. It would be a place I feel comfortable living in as well a place that’s actually near work (I’m losing 2 hours of my life per weekday just sitting down waiting for transport C to take me to destination B)
The goal is pretty standard for anyone, suppose it’s the milestones and timing that make them my goal. You definitely need to be in a place where you can stop and review on what’s going on in your life, so a lovely reminder from 43things will do just that.
That’s it for now, I’ve recently got a raise from work and hopefully I can prove my worth in the company. Things will only get better, you just need to have clear goals and an ass that won’t quit.
Remember when I said I wanted to learn how to play the Phantom of the Opera overture on the piano? Well here’s some progress. I’ve got my keyboard out once again! The damn thing was sitting somewhere else for quite a long time since there was supposed to be people coming in to fix my window (it’s broken!) but they haven’t done that still and it’s pretty much been a month since it was broken (well it’s new and broken! it was freshly installed with a crack and the door jammed up). Slowly I’ve grown impatient since these people who aren’t replacing it have no idea how much of a sacrifice this is. So why is broken windows and piano linked together? My room isn’t the biggest and in order to make room for this window to be fixed and installed, I had to move things around and ultimately move my keyboard somewhere else until it was all done so I can move it back.
Anyway, long story short, I’ve given up on waiting and just opted to move the stuff (it’s a painful move) back to window fixing mode once I have a clearer idea that someone is actually going to do it, but for the now… the keyboard is BACK!
Man it’s been a long time since I’ve touched a keyboard! The keys are all dusty and my fingers are twitching to play some random chords and arpeggios. After doing some random jams, I started to look into playing the Phantom of the Opera overture. Turns out it’s A LOT harder than I had imagine it’d be. There are so many bits to play on both hands! Things you’ll not notice on a naked listen, I managed to download a midi of the track and slowly worked out the notes from that (I can’t read music, and there isn’t music for the overture (that isn’t watermarked before you ask)) so yeah, it’s back to good old listening to it and playing it by ear and memory. That’s how I learn pieces anyway. It’s surprising how many songs I have hidden inside my head. Sometimes it requires a jog of my memory but I’ve never relied on written music to play a piece, it’s the best way but I’m simply not capable of reading it for now, not to mention I’m impatient to learn (maybe this could be another todo?) So yeah. The piece is pretty hard, but that doesn’t stop me from learning it slowly. When you want to learn something so hard, you just charge onto it head first and do your best, practice does indeed make perfectomundo.
I had a healthcheck at work on Friday, the test measured all kinds of stuff including blood pressure, fat, bone mass, how your stomach is doing, basically how healthy you are. Mine turned out pretty well, though I’m still pretty young compared to the other people at work. I was told to include exercise in my life to ensure I increase my metabolism when I grow older. He suggested to just do some weights so the day after, I bought some. It’s been pretty fun, my arms ache right now but I feel productive. Lets hope this continues! Will be a 43 thing to keep this up. I’m hoping to keep this up for at least 2 months. Will have at least 30 minutes of exercising to qualify as a session.
Things are so much clearer when you actively write about something you intend to do, even if it’s embedded in your subconscious. Once it’s out and about, you feel clarity in what you’re doing and you “know” what you’re doing. What you’re committed to do.
For this case, I’ve been ensuring that everytime I’m asked whether I need a bag, I take a moment to reflect on whether I NEED and in most cases, I really don’t. So I reply with a no to them.
That’s the easy bit done, always reviewing on your bag situation when asked, but when people assume you want a bag and start packing it, it’s frustrating on both ends to stop them from doing it. Nonetheless, that’s not going to stop me from saying no to shopping bags, previously I was doing it passively, now I need to actively stop them from doing it, you get used to it, some people are confused on why you want them to take it back out and some are more than happy to save a plastic bag. Nonetheless the goal is to reduce the amount of bags used.
I’ve also began selectively buying dvds and games too. Reading an article about a guy who threw away all his boxes made me review my current dvd collection, it’s pretty big. So keeping things digital will hopefully help me reduce clutter on my bookshelf. Avoiding films I wouldn’t watch or games I wouldn’t play is the key. It does get tough when they are super cheap. I might look into doing rentals. I really need to escape this desire to hoard and collect things. Even innocently buying a dvd will ensure that the future I’ll be questioning why I’ve bought it and only watched it once.
Anyway, dvd will most likely be another 43things, but then again that’s not a clear goal since you can’t really measure it (like this one)
Well, i’ve finished reading Getting things done. Some parts I skimmed since the author tends to boilerplate quite a lot in the book. What I thought was lacking in the book was a reference section where everything is condensed into a few pages for a quick recap.
So what did I think of it? It’s not bad at all. It does base most of it’s stuff on manual tools such as the retro pen and paper and loads of folders for filing. I fortunately am in a position where work is digitally stored and categorised. The hard work is literally done, leaving me with my inbox to sort out. This (and remember the milk) are the areas I will working GTD on. Though you can see the difficulties of implementing stuff that’s mainly done via pen and paper hard on the PC.
The processes it teaches are quite similar to what I originally had. i worked at a zero inbox methodology where I treat each email as something to action, they are filled into appropriate sections once I’m finished with them so a zero inbox would literally mean I have done all my tasks and have nothing to do.
The book teaches you to store things under sections such as “next action” for those tasks that need to be completed asap, “waiting for” for tasks that require following up by someone and “tickler/someday” for things that can be done… someday. I was particularly keen on the “someday” folder as it was something missing from my system, work out of the ordinary were collected into the system and stored somewhere where I knew I could access and start work on if I felt it was time. Everything begins to feel more logical when you start implementing it though. It’s hard to persuade someone to implement this since people tend to be resistant on their current methods and systems. Bringing a new system introduces the idea of “when it’s not broken, don’t fix it” so I’m quite stuck in telling people what they should do. But I suppose I can give my feedback on how the book has changed the way I work.
I’ve not implemented the task full yet (so I’m not counting that as complete) but soon I will.
Usually I’m not a fan of reading books that “teach” you to do things in a certain system. I myself am already pretty organised at things with my holy sync grail and my always empty inbox at work. But after hearing enough entries posted on lifehacker and seeing this article about using GTD on remember the milk. The curiosity of looking into this methodology has increased by ten folds. It seems like every geek’s dream. A world where tasks are managed, organised and logically categorised and worked on in a stress free process. Something that seems quite a far fetched ideal.
Nonetheless I bit the bullet and ordered myself a copy of the book. I was pretty amazed after reading a few chapters of it. The fact that we use our brains to do constantly remind and remember “stuff” that needs doing makes you suddenly realise how inconsistent we are as humans. Things really make sense in the book so my goal is to be able to follow this book and implement it at my work area. I probably won’t need to do the manual stuff purely because I work pretty much online and on the computer meaning there isn’t any paperwork to file at my end. This will be interesting.
So yeah, if you’re interested I recommend you grab a copy of David Allen’s “Getting things done”. It’s the perfect read for those who constantly have things on their mind.
Most people will know that this isn’t something I just came up with today, I’ve been dying to get myself a mac for a long time and I think it’s time for me to start putting these thoughts into actions if I ever wanted one. In the end, a mac is a pretty expensive purchase and cannot simply be bought on a whim (unless you are filthy rich).
Main reasons for wanting one is so I can use that as a way to get me back into music, I have protools but I don’t really use it due to the sluggishness that is my computer. I feel a macbook pro would be the right step in getting me back into making music, especially on the fly when I’m out and about.
Not only will it be useful for my music, it will also be nice to nice for photoshopping and other creative apps that pretty much run natively on the mac. Web industry itself are pretty keen on using mac, heck even Otacon from metal gear solid uses a mac pro. So we know it’s the stuff, so it’s time to make some actions and get this badboy some time.
The plan now is to slowly save up some money to purchase this. I don’t want to go overdraft or anything over the mac book pro so I need to make sure I actually have money to buy one. The problem right now is I don’t want to have the current mac book pro’s as my laptop, they are in dire need of a redesign ever since they’ve announced the next intel platform. Once the new platform is out and the case is redesigned to make use of the multitouch feature as well. I will pretty much splurge into the world of the mac book pro. But for now, it’s just not the right time. I will aim to have saved up half the money needed for it within 6 months (there’s a 6 month reminder on this bad boy) and when the new iteration of the mac book pro is out. I will buy one.
I remember when I first heard this in the cinema I was completely gobsmacked, it’s an epic piece from Phantom of the Opera and I really wanted to learn it. After randomly searching it on youtube I managed to find a piano rendition for it, so now, my goal is to practice this on the piano and be able to play it. Note this is the overture, not the actual “Phantom of the Opera” song. That’s good but I can play that already ;)
So yeah, new goal!
Everytime I come back home from shopping I realise that I return with a handful of excess shopping bags, these are usually thrown away or put into bad used since I simply have nowhere to put them. I’ve noticed lately that HMV now asks you whether you’d like a bag or not instead of handing you a bag in ensure you’re only getting it if you actually need it. I think the idea is awesome and I’ve started to make sure that I’m saying no when it’s appropriate. So yeah, though this would be a good goal to achieve. Nothing to measure it by really but I suppose I’ll review this in 6 months time and see whether or not I’ve reduced the number of shopping bags I’ve picked up from my room.
I would advise you all to do the same since it does do a little good for the planet, plus people can see what epic films you are getting :p. I’ll think of some more environmental friendly projects to do since I do get a nicer feeling everytime I say no to shopping bags.
Not sure why I picked Spanish for a language back in college, French is so much cooler. So I’ve decided I will self study the language when I have time. Seems like a pretty hard task to do with so much in my plate atm but I will try learning it passively so it will slowly catch on. This means subscribing to a French podcast and talking to Alice in French more, she’ll probably enjoy me trying and encourage me. So yeah. French. To the batmobile!
Everytime I visit quidco.co.uk I go “doh”. It’s an awesome site for saving some money with the whole affiliate incentive and I feel like I’m wasting the opportunity when I’ve realised I’ve not been using it to purchase stuff on play.com or whatever. So yeah, as a new 43thing, I’m hopefully going to get this damn thing sorted!
A lot of people use the board, so i thought it’d be a good idea to develop a wap skin for it. This will be fun, modifying an ungodly amount of templates
I own loads of dvds, thought it would be nice to actually watch them all, so many of them are still in its packaging. So yeah, hopefully finish it all!
Well I can safetly say I’m able to code with minimum help given from others. Learning code is always best when you practically do the damn thing
Thought this would be a good to do item since I’m very keen in ensuring that I’m finally out of overdraft and in a comfortable position financially to start paying my student loans faster, that will be another to do list item though once this one has been completed.
After a week and a bit at Optimost/Interwoven I’m getting more and more effecient at JavaScript, still need to get used to practices and stuff but all in all I’m definitely learning a lot and all :)
Finally got a job, really enjoying life with a job in the city. Lots of fun stuff to learn and everything :)
