Maybe not totally…but it’s really helping me take the pressure off as far as getting my work done.

I posted a few days ago about how I need to manage my time better.  After a 2-week experiment with Outlook’s Task List, I can honestly say that I think I’m making headway with this.

Here’s my struggle:  I rely too much on my terrible memory to keep track of my tasks, and that just doesn’t work.  I end up wasting more time remembering and hashing over things that still need done, which wastes more time because I start to stress over it…it’s just NOT a good cycle!

What I’ve started doing is typing a new task into my Task List, either when someone asks me for something, or if I even just think of something that needs done.  I categorize them accordingly, but I don’t put a due date on them yet.  This way I can at least get the task out of my head and into somewhere that it’s going to stay. 

When it’s time to plan my week, I take the tasks that are on my list and begin assigning them due dates for the week that I am planning.  I only assign 2-3 tasks to each day, because I still have help tickets and standing meetings to take care of.  On that day then, I concentrate only on the tasks listed for the present day.  Once I’m done with the tasks, I tackle help tickets or anything else that needs my attention, and I only stop mid-task for scheduled meetings and urgent support issues.

So far this method appears to be working.  Things are getting done, and I honestly feel a LOT less stressed throughout the day.  Outlook 2007 does a great job of grouping the task list by days as well, so things are easy to read.

I’m sure this sort of method is documented somewhere, so I don’t feel like I’m posting anything earth-shattering, but it has had a positive effect on me, so I felt like it was worth sharing.

This past Tuesday I had the opportunity to drive out to Granger Community Church to hang with Jason, Ed, Kyle, and their team of volunteers as we got to see a demonstration of 2 high-powered products from Fluke Networks:  The EtherScope and the OmniView.  Kevin from Fluke did a fantastic job demonstrating what these units are capable of.  The guy knows his stuff.

Jason has a very good write-up on some of the things that we picked up throughout the demo.  You can read the rest yourself, but here’s a small tidbit…

The BIG take away of the night for all of us was the incredible impact bluetooth devices have on access points!  A single bluetooth device in use causes an amazing amount of interference in the .11b/g range.  Kevin said he’s seen as few as 12 bluetooth devices take down an access point!  What?!  We all started turning on our bluetooth phones and doing partner searches and the real-time wifi graphs on the Fluke’s were going nuts!

Just like was everyone else, I was blown away by this.  How in the world has this not been widely publicized?  Did I miss it somewhere?

Are wireless manufacturers going to use this to make .11a and .11n easier to market?  I mean, seriously, was b/g equipment NOT tested against other wireless gear that would be used in like manner?  “What that?  Your b/g wireless products are falling victim to an influx of bluetooth devices?  Here, we’ve got some sweet a and n units that will work MUCH better.”

Sounds like a good forced-upgrade plan.  Maybe not, but it was enough to make my mind slip into conspiracy mode.

The next day I was able to hang with the Jason, Ed and Kyle and basically go through a normal work day with them.  I had my laptop with me, so I VPN’d in to NewPointe and took care of some support issues when we weren’t in discussion about anything.

I finally arrived home around midnight exhausted, but VERY glad to have had the opportunity to hook up with everyone at GCC.  Big thanks to Ed, Kyle, Jason, and their volunteer team for making an Ohio geek feel welcome. :-)  I always leave there wiser than when I show up.

I’ve been seeing posts all over the place (here, here, here, oh and here) about local Church IT Roundtable events happening across the country.  I think this is AWESOME.  I had the opportunity to attend the first CITRT at Granger last year, and I benefited in a huge way from it.  I wasn’t able to go to Houston for the spring Roundtable, but from all the notes I’ve seen elsewhere, it was a great time for those who were there.  (Trust me, I’m not going to miss the “Fall Edition” )

With that in mind, I’m going to throw this out:  Are there any IT Directors/Coordinators/Volunteers in churches in the Central/Northeast Ohio area that are reading this blog?  If so, are any of you interested in getting together for a roundtable-type discussion?  I’m really interested to hear what anyone has to say on this.  Leave a comment if you’d be interested and we can start talking about what this might look like.