phpsmith Posted December 30, 2016 Author Posted December 30, 2016 @dandielionous - Here is another picture of Ula, this is a common place for her to sit while I'm at my desk working Day 14 - I feel the past few days I've been a little off, it could be that my wife and I are both fighting a bit of an illness after the holidays, or it's just a haze from the lack of entertainment. I have been working out a lot more, and that has been great - I feel I have a strong urge to work out now, something I didn't have before. I definitely attribute my desire to exercise as a direct result from just not gaming - whether its allowing myself more time to do other things or as a way to keep my mind active. I'm not really sure, but I'm enjoying it quite a bit.After my problems with the car yesterday, I did manage to do a good amount of work. Although again, I didn't put in many billable hours - just about 2. I'm hoping to change that today, because I got feedback on my project I had submitted to a client last week and unfortunately it's not very good. I had read on these forums that someone else was using the "Headspace" app, which is just some simple meditation app but it helps remind you to "Take 10", which is just 10 minutes to meditate. I've been enjoying it a lot, although it sort of bothers me that it's a hefty price tag to continue the service (in my opinon, anyway).Work aside, I feel like I need to fill a more social void in my life. I work from home, primarily with clients I establish a connection with but then only see once every month or so. My wife and I are new to the area, we just moved to our house in August. We're in a neighborhood/development area still but there are not many people around our age around here. We've been both looking at some things to maybe volunteer for or get involved with - one thing I was thinking about was starting a Meet Up in my local area for developers. I'd like to get out and meet more people with my same interest, the thing is that MeetUp organizers need to pay a $9.99 fee to run the meetup. I'm thinking about just trying it out for a little bit to see how it goes. I think if I got involved/volunteered my time with a few different organizations or groups that would open up a lot more socialization.After receiving my work back yesterday I'm feeling a bit discouraged - I'm usually pretty good at completing a project to near desired outcome but this one will require quite a bit of rework. I feel like I'm losing my touch a little bit, so I think trying to dedicate an hour in the work day to educational things might be a good goal for me to set. Unfortunately, it's too late for this one - I gotta get it right and in the client's hands.Welp, time to fire up the kettle and get going. Nose the grindstone today. "Quality is not an act, it is a habit" - Aristotle
gankylosaurus Posted December 30, 2016 Posted December 30, 2016 Good to know that your wife's on your side in this endeavor. What happened with the car, by the way? Even before you mentioned the alternator I was thinking that might be the issue. If that's true, shop around a little. My ex had to replace hers and the shop bought her old one from her, so it brought the overall cost down considerably.Hope you feel better soon. I know I get in a funk when I get sick around the holidays. Don't overwork yourself - sometimes your body needs a rest.
dandielionous Posted December 30, 2016 Posted December 30, 2016 (edited) @phpsmith Ahhhh she's so cuuuuuute! What a good dog! Thanks for showing me the pic! My dog that passed Butters used to put on the most pathetic look every time I started to take her picture, ha hahah.At least Ula will pose! Edited December 30, 2016 by dandielionous
Mhyrion Posted December 30, 2016 Posted December 30, 2016 Great going! I love the quotes.Perhaps talking with other dog owners while walking Ula could be another way to socialize as well?
Cam Adair Posted December 30, 2016 Posted December 30, 2016 Enjoy reading your updates. Thanks for sharing, keep 'em coming!
phpsmith Posted December 31, 2016 Author Posted December 31, 2016 Thanks everyone for the feedback @gankylosaurus - I drip charged the battery overnight and tested it out yesterday, I drove to the bank fine, but the battery light is on. I'm going to check it out again tonight with my DMM to see if the alternator is actually charging the battery or not, at least I read you can just check the voltage on the battery while the car is running to see whether or not it's working. I also need to just check the connection sand make sure they are solid. Great suggestion on the shop buying the current one, I can ask about that.@dandielionous - She does well posing, or maybe it's that she's just trying to get a treat. @Mhyrion - I do want to meet more dog owners, unfortunately the ones near me while I take her for a walk are mostly retired. We aren't exactly in a city, more of a rural neighborhood that's quite aged so most people are at work. I should find some dog parks to bring her to though! Thanks for the suggestion Day 15 - I'm in a very good mood today. I feel I have lots of energy, I'm focused, and ready to take on the day. It could be because I had extra strong coffee today, but I'll attribute it more to the exercise and less and less desire to game.I've been working on my own business project, doing some great work on it and feeling confident and excited about it's launch. What I do primarily is software development, so it takes a while to build what I want and it's a bit more involved than things such as HTML, CSS, and other languages. I enjoy it a lot as a mental challenge. Yesterday I won some more business after I shot a quick message to a potential lead, I spoke to the owner of a business looking for a website over the phone and sent him my estimate with options. I haven't done that in a while, it feels great to possibly drum up a new customer. He hasn't gotten back to me since I sent him the quote yesterday, but since it's New Years, I'll wait until Monday to follow up with it. Although I'm "always on the clock", I like to wait until Monday-Friday to do a lot of my business since that's more of my operating hours. It helps set expectations for people when you have operating hours. The only calls I want on weekends are emergencies... and those I don't want either My wife is out on a long walk today with Ula and her Sister-in-Law and her dog. I told her if Ula was troublesome (didn't get along with the dog) to give me a call and I'll come pick her up so she doesn't have to worry about it, but since I haven't gotten a call yet it must mean they are doing well. She gets agitated with other dogs, and also I've noticed that she doesn't like her back legs or tail touched. Since she's a rescue, we don't really know her history which means she could of had some traumatizing experience. I've been doing a lot of reading on dog training, of course, and learned that in order to prevent any possible "situation" (read: biting), you need to train your dog to have positive feelings with those types of touching. So, I've been acting like a child and trying to annoy my dog by touching her tail, pulling lightly, touching her back legs, pulling her fur, pulling her ears, and giving her treats after doing each of those things. It's kind of an interesting concept, but one that makes sense.Anyways, today is New Years Eve. We won't be doing anything too crazy, there is that new Star Wars movie out that I've been wanting to go see. My wife and I rewatched Episode VII yesterday (we have a bit more to watch) and then we are going to go see the new one. After that, we are going to go socialize with her family for the New Year. I'm looking forward to it.Tomorrow we have plans to go brew a batch of beer with her brother and his wife, something we taught them how to do. I used to be pretty heavy into beer brewing, but haven't been lately. It's fun though, the whole process is so biological, a lot more than people realize.I plan on working out again today too, something I have done for the past 4 days which is hard for me to believe. I feel it's becoming more of a habit, something I look forward to each day. I don't really remember having this feeling before, I used to groan and moan when it was time to exercise.Well, I think I should wrap up this journal entry. I'm feeling great today, the sun is shining, it's 15F outside (just how I like it, below freezing), and I feel on top of my own little world.My quote for today is from Randy Pausch, which if you don't know who he is, read a little bit about him on the link in his name. He has many great quotes, but the one I'm attracted to today is, "I think the only advice I can give you on how to live your life well is, first off, remember... it's not the things we do in life that we regret on our deathbed, it is the things we do not."
dandielionous Posted December 31, 2016 Posted December 31, 2016 (edited) I found this book very helpful. Living-With-Wolfdogs The author Nicole Wilde has several good books out.I previously had a high-content wolf dog and a pit/chow mix. I found this book very helpful for both of them. Edited December 31, 2016 by dandielionous
Cam Adair Posted January 1, 2017 Posted January 1, 2017 My quote for today is from Randy Pausch, which if you don't know who he is, read a little bit about him on the link in his name. He has many great quotes, but the one I'm attracted to today is, "I think the only advice I can give you on how to live your life well is, first off, remember... it's not the things we do in life that we regret on our deathbed, it is the things we do not."Great guy!
phpsmith Posted January 2, 2017 Author Posted January 2, 2017 @dandielionous - I'll have to check that book out Day 16-17This weekend my wife and I have been much more social, so posting was a bit late. We went out to one of her Brother's on New Years Eve, stayed up late, had a slow morning the next morning and in the afternoon went to another one of her brothers until pretty much the evening.It's nice to hang spend time with family and friends, something my wife and I are striving to do more of. My wife has more of a drive to do it than me, I think that's mainly because I'm a little more selfish with my time. Not a bad thing to be selfish with your time when running a business, though. But it is nice to get out of the house and socialize.We moved to a new rural area this year, all of our friends are further away (the closest are about a 30-40 minute drive). Something we have been wanting to do is join some local groups of our interests and see if we can't find a few more local friends that we can hang out with more regularly without the worry about driving in icey conditions, the long drive itself, etc.Anyway I'm going to make this a bit quick of a post, I have things I want to do today. I didn't work out yesterday and we haven't been getting the best sleep with the New Years Eve events. Trying to normalize our sleep schedule a bit more. Also, I spent the morning watching a movie instead of being more active so I want to feel good about today and my productivity.By the way, I thought the Rogue One star wars movie was great. If you are a star wars fan, I think you'll like it.Time to do a little TCB
Cam Adair Posted January 3, 2017 Posted January 3, 2017 Good job being a bit more social. I understand the desire to protect your time as a business person - but being social is also very important because it's very easy to get isolated as a business person.
phpsmith Posted January 4, 2017 Author Posted January 4, 2017 @Cam Adair - Thanks It does feel good, I need to do more of it. In fact, I started a local Meet Up to start trying to find more local social connections.Day 18-19Updating two days at a time now. I felt better when I was just doing one, in the morning right away, it sort of set the tone for the day. The good news is, I've been productive with my time. The reason I've sort of been absent is just because I've been dedicating a lot of time to self development and personal projects - I'm finally starting to draft up an initial design for a software project I've wanted to start for a long time - essentially, it'll be a "Parks & Recreation" type app for my home state. I've always enjoyed the outdoors and I'm hoping this would help others find ways to get outdoors more that is closer to them.Additionally, I've gotten back into some study. I feel like I've taken a sidestep and stopped caring about learning or understanding new things concerning my career, and in a constantly changing world that is technology, that's not a good thing.So not too much news, but the good news is - I still have not had much of an urge for games or gaming. I feel slightly overwhelmed if anything with the thought of "Needing to play catch up" with the time I have spent on gaming.My goal for the rest of the day will be to send out my invoices to my clients, do a bit of billable hours work (I need to keep progress on this), and to work out. Anything else is bonus.Also, I want to be sure to update my journal in the morning and get caught up with more others journals. I feel I've been missing that focus.PS - Funny story. My wife and I made a pizza yesterday. Ula, our dog, snuck off to the Kitchen as we were relaxing in the living room. We heard some noise so my wife immediately decided to see what she was up to (yeah, you know where this is going), and as my wife turned the corner there is Ula with a whole slice of pizza in on the floor infront of her! My wife said she was about 5 feet away, jumped at Ula so she could try to get her away from the Pizza, and she ate the whole thing before she was able to grab her. A whole slice of pizza in less than a second.We put the pizza away and noticed that she not only ate one, but two slices. We didn't even hear her eat the first. She had quite the shit eating grin on her face. She spent the night in the kennel since I thought for sure she was going to throw it up.
Mhyrion Posted January 4, 2017 Posted January 4, 2017 Good going man! So not too much news, but the good news is - I still have not had much of an urge for games or gaming. I feel slightly overwhelmed if anything with the thought of "Needing to play catch up" with the time I have spent on gaming.Time is irretrievable and perhaps you should not consider it all lost, but rather a learning experience. You can focus on what you can achieve and do now; which is exactly what you are doing!PS: Sounds like your dog has great taste
phpsmith Posted January 5, 2017 Author Posted January 5, 2017 (edited) @Mhyrion - Agreed! And a crazy appetite, she ate two whole slices of a large pizza, my wife and I had one each. I'm pretty sure she just swallowed the pizza whole instead of chewing...Day 20 - Getting a start to my day by catching up on journals and updating my own feels good, I feel it sort of helps me formulate my goals in my mind. Yesterday I finished off the day with spending more time in the office, then my wife and I went and cooked supper around 6:30-7 and played a board game/relaxed the rest of the night. It was very nice.Yesterday I mentioned to a few different friends that I had quit gaming, both play games one more regularly than the other, they both agreed it's just such a time waster. One of my friends I mentioned it to, who is my closest (best man at my wedding), had said that he feels it's such a waste when he plays games too, but it's a nice release after a day of work. I agreed, I said for me it was a much bigger problem I'm sure than for him, he had never been a gamer. He mentioned he plays about 5 hours a week, I laughed. I was playing 7 or more hours a day before the start of the Detox ;).Still though, I tried to be supportive about it, it's interesting how even at 5 hours a week he felt he wasted that time.My other friend I mentioned it to plays a lot more, because he does not have solid work right now. He does have a wife and child that keep him off the games a bit more, but he does play more during the day while the child is at daycare/wife is working he says. He was admiring of quitting, I fully expect to hear from him soon about him limiting his time or quitting as well. Having a close friend who is also quitting would be fun.My wife and I went to an accountant yesterday, we need to find one in order to process the taxes for the business. Simply put neither of us have the skills to do it, my wife is pretty much my accountant but all she is doing is balancing the books and running payroll. Speaking of which, I'm starting to run myself dry a bit in the company. I haven't been doing enough billable hours, even though I've been given enough opportunity to. I don't know what it is that keeps me from doing billable hours and making money, maybe I don't find the work for my clients as interesting as doing my own work? At any rate, the hard truth of it is I need to dedicate more time to my clients.So for today, I plan on doing 4 hours of billable work. I also plan on going for a short run outside in this lovely weather with Ula. I feel bad she hasn't had the opportunity to get outside much besides going to the bathroom on a leash, she would enjoy a good outdoor run. I think I also need to get more activity to get my heart pumping, a good cardio exercise.With the other part of my day today, I'm going to focus on my own professional site. I have started to look for more clients, there has been more than one occasion that I could of had a potential lead from visiting a business but not having a business card on me or feeling confident to send them to my professional site, I need to change my mindset. I need more outreach and outside sales to grow.So with the other part of the day, I'll be working on that.As for quotes, I have one for today, this one by Tim Ferriss, a man I don't especially care for due to some skeptical business practices and narcissistic qualities, but it's a good quote never the less and he is successful - "Focus on being productive instead of busy." Edited January 5, 2017 by phpsmith
Stevec2283 Posted January 5, 2017 Posted January 5, 2017 @phpsmith Sounds like you're doing well. Maybe you could be a source of encouragement for your two friends and maybe they will follow your example and also quit gaming one day. I agree with @Mhyrion in that we should focus on what we can do now.Keep up the good work!!!
phpsmith Posted January 6, 2017 Author Posted January 6, 2017 @Stevec2283 Perhaps, one is definitely a lot worse than the other since he's currently not working right now. Thanks for the encouragement Day 21 - Yesterday I felt super productive, but again I had no billable hours. I learned that I'm really focused in the morning hours, after lunch/work out I get less focused. So, I'm going to dedicate a day or two or three a week to do billable hours in the morning and then switch to non-billable in the afternoon - unless I'm on a good streak with billable hours.Even though I had no billable hours yesterday, I did have a great day. I have another lead for a job, that makes my second warm lead in a week, which is really good news. I won't grow unless I acquire more customers, get word of mouth out there, and build a rapport. My wife and I went to meet with another accountant yesterday who we really liked, we need one to get the business books in tip top shape and help us plan for the future of the business as well. It's our second time meeting with an accountant, we'll meet with one more because I like to have a rule to get 3 estimates before a decision is made.After the meeting we went out to eat, which was fun. I was talking a lot of work and I was feeling worn out, so we changed topics and I decided to not talk work for the rest of the evening (if she caught me, she could stop me ) It was pretty nice to not keep bringing it up. I can get pretty involved in it throughout the day, of course.So when I woke up today it was another bitter cold day, -20F. Yesterday I actually went out for a run with Ula in the -10F weather, I should of worn a facemask or something but it wasn't too bad, I only ran a mile. I've been learning about this sport called "Canicross", basically it's just running with your dog, but it gets to a more competitive level when you have a dog that will actually pull you. Think of like a sled dog race, but no sled and you're running behind the dog. Typically it's only one dog you run with, or maybe two - I think any more than that and you run risk of falling over and being dragged. It's really interesting to me, but you need to teach your dog a few commands - all similar to sled dog racing. I think I'll keep running with Ula every now and again, she's young and a pretty strong pup, I feel like she needs the exercise and what better one than to pull me around for miles Today I have two goals, one is I need a new estimate sheet that I will be sending to potential customers. I told my lead yesterday I'd be sending him an estimate sheet shortly with options, so I'd like to get that out ASAP.Second, I want to focus on billable hours today and billable hours only. It's silly that I have business now that pays well and I'm just not doing it. I need to change that.Besides the working billable hours and sending out an estimate, I'll be working out again today of course. I've been keeping up with that really well, and I feel it helps me take a break.
phpsmith Posted January 9, 2017 Author Posted January 9, 2017 Day 22, 23, 24 - Wow, these days are starting to add up. It's hard to believe it's been 24 days since I had went through and uninstalled all my games and besides the Christmas Day VR "Everybody Talks Nobody Explodes" game, which is still a game but quite a social one, I haven't had an urge or slipped yet.It's starting to feel more and more how much of a time waster the gaming has been. I've been 24 days game free and thinking about what I have done in the past 24 days, it's a whole lot more than the past few months.Both the weekend days went by pretty quick. I think I was catching something yesterday but today I feel better, I was just so lethargic that I didn't want to do much but I did work on a few house projects with my wife. The day before we had some family over for a bit, my wife volunteered at the local co-op (something I will be doing as well, I'm excited and looking forward to it) and I went to a local blacksmith meeting, something I haven't done in quite a long time. I'm excited to get back into that passion, it's one I enjoy quite a lot but just haven't taken the time to enjoy.My wife and I did something this weekend that is very simple but one we've been meaning to start doing - we stuck to our schedule of going to bed earlier and waking up early. Usually during the week, we get up around 630-7am and go to bed between 9-10pm. On Friday/Saturday night we would stay up, as many people do, and it makes Sunday night/Monday morning usually very difficult. This weekend we got up at 7am both Saturday/Sunday and went to bed before 10pm. It has made this morning a lot more tolerable than others.I didn't get much exercise this weekend, something I wanted to do but I think I strained my calf a bit on doing some heavier lifting. I feel better today, yesterday it was quite sore - Friday is when I was doing the exercise so hopefully it's just getting better now.I'm trying to get a bit more billable work done today and this week, I'm going to prioritize my mornings to be a quick 1 hour or so of personal catch up as well as business catch up and then start at it right away. The afternoons can be for more personal/professional work but the mornings will be dedicated to billable hours. I'm confident that will help me get some more cash flow.A bit boring of an update, but that's it. Onward and upward
phpsmith Posted January 10, 2017 Author Posted January 10, 2017 Day 25 - It's snowing like crazy out. Yesterday we had a lot of snow too. It's really pretty, I love the snow, I love the cold.I'm feeling great so far this week, I didn't get to work out yesterday because I'm taking it easy. I think I pushed myself too hard, but I think today I might try a work out. Sunday I brought my car in to get it looked at since I had an issue with the battery, turns out it was the alternator - so that sucks up $300. Oh well, not much I could do about it.Yesterday, my wife and I did some project work around the house. Something we never do on weekdays, but it was really a nice change. I did a lot of great work on my own projects yesterday, and I also did a bit of billable hours.I've felt overwhelmed with my personal projects for the last couple weeks, frantically getting things up and going. However, I did start to do some simple project management, which has proved to be extremely helpful in getting an idea of what I need to do NOW vs what can be shelved for later. Also, it has made me realize that I really want to do two things at once, and without sufficient time, I just need to contract out some help to be able to do the two things at once.So that is what I'm going to try. I'm going to go at the billable hours hard, while I offload some of my personal work to some contract workers. Hopefully, it works, and I'm able to focus on bringing in some money while my contractors are focused on developing the content I want completed.Some goals for today: Get at least 4 billable hours in, possibly more. Do a bit of project management, maximum 30 minutes. Meditate, I've been shirking that. Workout.
Cam Adair Posted January 11, 2017 Posted January 11, 2017 Good job getting some things done and being productive. It all adds up a little bit each day!
phpsmith Posted January 17, 2017 Author Posted January 17, 2017 Days 26-32 - Long time no post - I've been very busy. I've been very good on keeping off games as well, a few days in there were pretty darn tough where I felt bored and didn't get much done but I was able to soldier on and put those feelings aside.I've been extremely productive, which is great. I've brought on a little help in the form of a couple of contract workers and have been able to really concentrate, especially in the past few days, on billable hours and appeasing my clients.Over the weekend my wife and I were very social, we had two full days of friends visiting. I also started a local MeetUp group and last weekend was the first meeting and it went well. On top of that, my wife taught her first spin class which was a great experience.The daily posts are hard to keep up, and so I think I am going to be relaxed on it. The community got me going towards no games and the daily posts were great at first - but I feel less of a draw towards gaming at all now and I need to keep the momentum going both in my life and business as it's got a great trend right now.So with that said, I'll be posting less frequently but I'd like to keep posting at least once a week. I need to go read up on more journals around as well, I like reading others and seeing how people are doing.
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