I’m trying to sleep, and for some reason it’s just not working out for me, so I decided I would give a long-overdue update on what’s been going on in my world.

My job description has changed. As of 2 weeks ago, my job responsibilities have shifted a little bit. I am phasing out as the video production lead, and will be picking up the responsibility of the care, upgrades, documentation, and training of our video equipment and software (switcher, routers, Pro Presenter, etc.). It’s something I pretty much already did, but it was never “on the record.” I’ll still be working with most of the production crew for training and such, but my presence won’t be felt as much during production time.

Facebook is going by the wayside. I’m still sending blog posts over there, but I just don’t have a whole lot of time to mess around with it anymore. It’s adds distraction to my day, and I’m seriously tired of being invited to try out silly applications, or being asked to be a freeking pirate/ninja/vampire/etc.

If you need to get in touch with me, there are still ways to do it.

1. Just email me - {extrabass} {at} {gmail}. I won’t usually reply with lightning speed, but I will see it eventually.
2. Find me on the CITRT IRC Channel. I usually park there during the day.

I’m gearing up to give GrandCentral a try. The concept is very tantalizing to me … one phone number for everything, the ability to forward to any phone I want and screen calls, centralized voicemail, the whole bit. Yeah, it bugs me that I can’t get a local number yet, but most calls I take are from cell phones anyway, so it’s not a huge deal to me.

My blog habits are changing. I’m finding more than ever these days that there are many ways to spend my time that are “just alright,” but not always profitable. As such, I’ve been making some cutbacks on my blog reading. I’ve already weeded out quite a few blogs from my reader, and will continue to do so as I feel necessary. As far as cutting back on my blogging, I haven’t really decided if I’ll be doing that (although I bet you’re probably thinking “Dave, you already excel at NOT blogging…”).

I’m going to give Twitter a try. One of my biggest hangups with blogging is the fact that it’s quite hard for me to concentrate on writing a complete post. I already have the attention span of a gerbil, so posting from work rarely yields anything worth reading. When I’m not at work (at home, hanging with Jess, or whatever), I really don’t want to have my mind in “full gear” all the time. With Twitter, I’m thinking perhaps I can give out small tidbits of what I’m up to without having to actually set aside time to write about it. I started my Twitter account tonight already, so if you’d like to follow it, just go here. There’s an RSS feed you can scoop up, or you can actually sign up and taste the Kool-Aid like I did. Your call…

That’s about all for now. This is not earth-shattering stuff, to be sure. However, I want to make sure that I’m spending my time as best I can, which is good for me, for NewPointe, and most everyone that I rub shoulders with.

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.