Candles, a Spreadsheet, and Taking a Break

I'd love to be working on Spiral Light Candle's website (spirallightcandle.com) upgrade, but it's just as well that I'm not. My site design and programming skills are a bit rusty. And seriously out-of-date. Writing HTML aside, I haven't worked with the nuts-and-bolts end of website design for a few years.

Skills: Old, New, and Rusty

Which, at age 60, doesn't feel like much time. But when it comes to information technology, it's a little like an expert flint knapper thinking about working as a machinist. I've been asking my son, who earned his A+ certification recently, when there's a technical issue.

And: yes, those are the words of a proud dad.

Amazon.com's user interface is designed with non-technical folks in mind, though, so I've been able to lend a hand with the Spiral Light Candle Corp. Storefront there.

Thanks to a checkered job history, I've been a licensed radio operator/disk jockey, have experience delivering flowers, and spent about a decade as 'the computer guy' and database manager at a small publishing company. I also answer phones and make coffee.

Speaking of coffee, it's time for a coffee break.

Analysis: A Task That's Work

I learned how to set up spreadsheets, among other things, in that 'database' job: including getting spreadsheets to do things that aren't in the manual. And that's another topic.

The point is, I know how to set up something where you put in numbers and get organized, calculated, results.

That's what I've been doing this week, setting up a complicated, über-detailed budget and sales forecast spreadsheet for Spiral Light Candle. Actually, I don't think it's "über-detailed." But there's a lot of equipment, processes, and people, that go into making and marketing candles: and my son-in-law has mapped out what he thinks we'll need for the next several months.

My task is to take his notes, and make a working spreadsheet out of then. By last Wednesday.

I enjoy working with data: figuring out how to break it out into categories; finding relationships between sets of data; setting up the results so that someone else can easily use them.

When I have to do something on a deadline, though: that's more 'work' than 'fun.' Deadlines are wonderful motivators though.

Break Time, Productive Time

That Wednesday deadline went whizzing by, but that was the for the 'detailed rough' version. Today, I'm closing in on getting what he'll need when he talks to some folks next week.

This 'coffee break' is taking longer than most: but I think it's worth the 'extra' time. I was literally getting a headache, almost unheard of for me, figuring out how some of the data was supposed to connect.

Now that I've been away from that maddening matrix for several minutes, I think it's going to make more sense. You've heard the usual psychobabble about 'subconscious' and 'unconscious' before, so I'll skip that.

I still have time for the 'done and ready' version of this spreadsheet, and decided to use my brain for something unrelated. The light exercise of walking over to the microwave and heating coffee helps, too.

Anyway, break time's over. I don't see it as 'wasted' time, since I'm coming back to the task at hand with a (slightly) fresher mind and a (marginally) revived body.

Urgency, Priority, and Nitpicking

This spreadsheet is still high priority, and it's now urgent.

But the difference between "priority" and "urgency" is another topic. Several, actually.

Good grief! I was going to say why I think it's vital to get so nitpicking about details: and I'm out of time. That'll have to go in another post.

Not-entirely-unrelated posts:

• "The New York Times, a Crazy Bonus, and Entrepreneurs"
  (March 16, 2010)
• "The Best Organizational System in the World Won't Work"
  (September 8, 2009)
• "Managing Yourself as a Small Business Owner: Trying, Anyway"
  (November 10, 2007)
• "Back to Work"
  (June 18, 2007)
• "Goofing Off When You're the Boss"
  (June 14, 2007)

First Full-Time Employee, and a Busy Monday

Spiral Light Candle Corporation (spirallightcandle.com), my son-in-law's latest venture, has a full-time employee, as of Friday. Last Friday, that is, not the one coming up.

So why am I spending part of today, getting Spiral Light Candle Corp's Amazon.com account ready? I've got about 20 years' experience in marketing, which makes me a pretty good choice for the task. I'll get back to that in a bit.

Now, some blatant, shameless self-promotion. Almost. Actually, it's part of what I'm preparing for Spiral Light Candle Corp's Amazon account:

About Us

Spiral Light candle all started with a simple question: "Why does a candle only burn straight down?" With this in mind and his interest in motion and video, inventor and entrepreneur Aaron McWilliams had made the world's first spiral burning, self-filling prayer candle.

Following his love of the Catholic faith, Aaron's first venture into the Catholic market came when he opened a Catholic book and gift store in central Louisiana with his late wife Kelly. After she was diagnosed with terminal cancer, Aaron and Kelly decided to document this difficult journey in an effort to share their experience.

Later Aaron and his new wife, Sara, founded Oasis Productions and completed the documentary entitled: "The Art of Serenity, A Journey of Faith."

Today, Spiral Light Candle Corporation is the McWilliam's newest venture as they stay close to their faith, and strove to provide new and compelling product lines for the market they love.

How Does It Work?

Spiral Light self-filling candles are a new twist on an old staple. The self-filling candle is first lit, using the horizontal wick on the upper edge. The candle burns around the hollow center with the wooden wick allowing the wax to drain inward, filling the center.

The horizontal spiraling wick self extinguishes when the inside wax level reaches the top of the spiral, to prevent any spilling. This creates a solid pillar candle.

By writing your prayer intention on the wooden wick before inserting it in the candle's center, you start bringing your prayer and the candle together. As the spiraling wick burns, a pillar candle forms around your written intention: to remind you that God never forgets.

Back to Me

About four years ago, I posted about the 'Chinese business model:' hiring relatives as a way to get motivated, loyal employees. It's the way quite a few folks in the Far East operate. Here in the West, we've had bad experiences with bosses who hired their idiot brother-in-law: so we call it nepotism, and pay more for the skills of occasionally-excellent non-relatives.

I think it's a cultural thing. This family works pretty well together, which isn't the case for everybody.

I've spent part of today working for my brother-in-law - at zero cost to the Spiral Light Candle Corp. - because he's family, I'd probably think the product is a good one, no matter what. Or at least say so. Also because I'm a part-owner of the company. If we succeed, I'll get paid - indirectly.

But so many stores have ordered Spiral Light's candles - and then ordered more - that it's not just my opinion. These things have a wide appeal.

And, no matter what happens, I've gotten a good review in graphic design and marketing.

Now, it's time for a coffee break and my daily exercises.

Related posts:

• "Catholic Bookstores, Choices, and Reasons"
  A Catholic Citizen in America (August 3, 2011)
  Particularly
  • Why Run a Catholic Bookstore?
  • Evangelizing, Not Annoying
  • Sour-Faced Saints?
    • Not the best role models, I think
• "Trade Show Preparation: Is Work Important?"
  A Catholic Citizen in America (August 1, 2011)
  • Depends on what you mean by "work"
    • And "important"
• "Families, Vacations, Catholic Marketing Network's 15th Annual Trade Show, Schedules, and a Candle"
  A Catholic Citizen in America (August 1, 2011)
• "I'm Not a Forty-Year-Old Kid Any More: Time, Organization, Energy, and Priorities"
  (July 20, 2008)
• "Hiring Relatives and the Chinese Business Model"
  (June 5, 2007)

'New and Improved' Schedule Worked: Pretty Much

Last week, I started working with a 'new and improved' schedule. ("The Best Organizational System in the World Won't Work" (September 8, 2009)) Ten days later, I haven't followed it perfectly, but that's okay: I got the important tasks done. Most of them, anyway. Easy Griller and Narcissus-X are surprisingly hard blogs to write for.

Still, I can do better. I've penciled in (literally) some time tomorrow, for moving items around on the schedule - mostly, a matter of putting all of each day's 'to do' items in one spot.

That, and a procedure of crossing out tasks as I do them, printing a new schedule sheet each week, dating and filing them as they're filled, should help me spend more time productively, and less on 'management' tasks.

Eleven Blogs, Thousands of Posts: Dropping the Ball is Too Easy

I've got nearly a dozen blogs now, and discovered that I can't trust my memory to update each of them in a timely fashion.

Besides, I think they'll do better if visitors learn that they can count on something new on certain days.

I still think I can make blogging a reasonably profitable occupation - but I'm also looking at other ways to make money. More about that another day.

Now, if I'm going to get that apple eaten by an hour before Mass, I'd better wrap this up.

Related post:

• "The Best Organizational System in the World Won't Work"
  (September 8, 2009)
• "I'm Not a Forty-Year-Old Kid Any More: Time, Organization, Energy, and Priorities"
  (July 20, 2008)
• "Organizing, Schedules, Impulse, and Making Decisions Without Agonizing"
  (August 4, 2007)
• "Getting Organized: Not the Best Start"
  (August 2, 2007)
• "Tomorrow I Gotta Get Organized"
  (August 2, 2007)
• "Stay Focused: But on What?"
  (July 30, 2007)
• "Scheduling, Organization, and Less"
  (July 21, 2007)
• "Next Week I Gotta Get Organized"
  (July 20, 2007)
• "Computers and Kids: Return of the Sequel"
  (June 27, 2007)
• "The Principle of the Speckled Ax"
  (June 19, 2007)
• "Back to Work"
  (June 18, 2007)

The Best Organizational System in the World Won't Work

One of the advantages - and disadvantages - of being self-employed is that you get to set your own schedule. No more having a boss keeping track of what needs to be done and when.

I've got, so far, eleven blogs and a handful of projects that I 'really ought to work on.' The blogs are a high priority - not because they're fun to write, but because they're what's bringing in the most revenue.

I had a task schedule, defining what needed to be done and when, dividing the week into half-hour segments. When I was done, it visually represented a reasonable, practical allocation of time and effort.

I last modified it on April 27 of this year. A little over four months later, I've come to the conclusion that I haven't used it because I won't use it.

Reasonable? Yes. Practical? Yes. The way I work? No.

The Best Organizational System in the World Won't Work

My task matrix was far from the 'best' anything. But even if it had been the ultimate organizational tool, it would have done me no good - if I didn't use it.

The problem, I think, wasn't so much that I don't like schedules. It's that my mind doesn't work that way. Deadlines I can handle.

So, the new-and-improved schedule has time for things like Mass and Soo Bahk Do marked out - and deadlines for each day in bold.

We'll see how this works.

The Soo Bahk Do, by the way, is a more hopeful thing, than part of my regular routine. I started learning, some time ago, but stopped a bit before getting my hips swapped out. I'm getting a little less out of shape now, so it's a matter of deciding to get involved again.

I'm Not a Forty-Year-Old Kid Any More: Time, Organization, Energy, and Priorities

My wife told me that she'd like to see more of me. Apart from giving me reason to question her aesthetic sensibilities, it brought me back to an issue that I'd noticed.

Properly Prioritizing Projects

Several promising projects have slid off the back burner, and are somewhere behind the stove now. These include:

• Artwork for an existing website
• A new website's
  • Graphic Design
  • Site architecture
    (fancy talk for organization and navigation)
  • Copy
  • Artwork
• Content for a somewhat-lapsed blog

I'd known that I'd been letting a bit of the non-urgent slip by, but hadn't realized how big that pile behind the stove was.

Worse, I realized that I hadn't been spending as much time with my wife and kids as I could - and probably should - have.

Sound familiar? Nothing new here.

This week I took a deep breath, and about a half hour, to think about where my time and energy was going.

I'm Not a Forty-Year-Old Kid Any More

The first thing I decided was that it was time to admit my limitations.

• I need sleep
  • At regular intervals
  • Around 8 hours a day
• When I don't sleep I get tired
  • When I get tired I get stupid
  • When I get stupid my productivity goes down
• I need exercise
  • There's a cartoon, doctor saying to patient, "What will fit better into your daily schedule: exercising for one hour, or being dead for 24?"

Family is Important

Sure, an exciting, rewarding career and a thriving business is fine (I'll let you know when I've got both!), but there's not much point to either if you don't have, and keep up with, your family. At least, that's the way I see it.

Urgent and Important Aren't the Same Thing

I've been paying attention lately to blog posts and website issues that needed to be dealt with now, or sooner. That sort of thing can be distracting.

Details are Important - So is the Big Picture

I've let two things happen: Concentrated on the details of keeping an ambitious set of blogs and websites fairly up to date; added little tasks one at a time, until the principle of the camel's back applies. Since I'm the entire staff, as well as the manager and head of the company, I can't let the detail work become overwhelming.

Or, rather, I shouldn't have.

Reality Check and the Next Step

I don't do my best work after about 10 or 11 at night. What made me aware of that was a late-nighter I did recently, when I couldn't think of the word "pretentious." For me, that was spooky: like a driver not being able to remember where the switch for the headlights is.

So, I'm cutting back my workload: to get better work out of me; make more time for my wife and family; and have the brains, energy, and creativity I'll need to spark up "Easy Griller" and "Minnesota for Web-Wise Travelers," and create "Loonfoot Falls," the website.

It's probably going to mean lower traffic in the short run, since the biggest time-eater right now is "Apathetic Lemming of the North." I've been doing six posts a day - mostly what I call 'micro-reviews.' It's fun to do, people like to visit, but I think I need to grow other places online.

We'll see how this works.

Organizing, Schedules, Impulse, and Making Decisions Without Agonizing

I haven't gotten to the two tasks on today's list yet. I still hope to, but I'm running out of 'today.'

There's a bit of an excuse: going through an online community discussion thread this morning, I found a lead to two other online communities of bloggers: from a source I've learned to trust.

I'm trying to develop a fairly large footprint of places where my blogs can get noticed, so I spent quite a bit of today setting up a presence in one of them. We'll see if that was good use of, or a total waste of, time. Or maybe something in between.

Impulsive? Yes. Foolish? I'm not sure. On the whole, I think that increasing visibility of six blogs that exist, and have potentially revenue-producing advertising, is more urgent than putting a couple of gizmos on an existing website.

One thing for sure: I'm not going to spend much more time thinking about that decision. That would be a total waste of time for sure!

Feedback, or lack thereof, from the new online community will give me an answer with almost no effort on my part.

I think the lesson here is 'decide. Then move on.'

Getting Organized Without Angst

I'm 20 minutes past the end of my time slot for blogging today, but I'm not going to worry about it. I hit a promising set of posts, and checked them out while they were on the browser.

Overall, I think I've saved some time by doing this now, rather than shutting down and setting up again.

Now I'm 25 minutes past the end of that time slot.

Time to wrap up.

Getting Organized: Not the Best Start

It could have been worse.

Instead of working on my Sauk Centre Journal the first part of this morning, working my blogs, and then graphics for another website, I monitored the 35W bridge disaster while working blogs.

I suspect that most of my readers were more concerned with I-35W's bridge over the Mississippi River in Minneapolis, than about my midweek update about life in small town America.

However, I'm getting at the S. C. Journal entry now, and then I'll be back on schedule.

Tomorrow I Gotta Get Organized

And I probably will.

I got an inexpensive 18-month planner, scribbled the top projects for tomorrow into appropriate time slots, and set it aside for reference tomorrow morning.

And I just remembered a detail that I missed. That's what these notes are for: jotting down things that would be forgotten or ignored.

There. Got that written down: the non-trivial, time-dependent item that I left out of tomorrow's to-do list.

This system should work: it's simple, and avoids the sort of self-micro-management nuttiness I've tried before.

Time will tell. And so will this blog.

Stay Focused: But on What?

It's been several days since I posted on this blog.

In that time, I took video of the Stearns County Fair and put together one three "Realreels" about the fair that I plan to put online.

I created a 3d landscape, ostensibly as a sort of comic-relief for a business website that I'm developing for myself. Actually, it's an opportunity for me to learn how to handle 3d authoring software for use in a publishing project that might, maybe, get off the ground next year.

I kept up to date with an online community or two, where I meet people, learn more about the blogosphere and how it's perceived, and (I hope) develop a contact or two, and create interest in my blogs and websites.

I updated blogs; noticed that I'd gotten seriously off-topic on one, and made a course correction; launched a blog on outdoor grilling that I hope will help feed a website about outdoor grilling - and vice-versa.

I put the outdoor grilling website further toward the front in my priorities. I won't say that it's a disaster, but it is about as exciting as a telephone directory as it is.

What was the title of this post? That's right: it had something to do with focus.

An issue that I've noticed, at least with me, is that I tend to spend more time than I should on projects that most engage my talents and interests. Those aren't necessarily the ones that should get the most attention, though.

Without a supervisor to keep track of me, I have to keep an eye on me, myself.

Easy? Fun? No, but that's not the point. All the jobs need doing, even management.

Scheduling, Organization, and Less

The group that I edit a bulletin for was part of the Sinclair Lewis Days parade today: an annual event.

As their wagon passed, they chanted "where's our bulletin?!" It's at the printers, and will (I hope and trust) be ready Monday, and in the mail a few hours after that.

How they'll react when they discover that I had to use last year's information, I don't know.

As part of several weeks of highly deficient organization, I lost updated information for a major fund raising event. As I predicted in the "mea culpa" article I wrote to explain what happened, the information in question showed up quite shortly after the bulletin went to the printer.

Nertz.

Next Week I Gotta Get Organized

It happened again.

It took me all evening, and part of the next morning (it's not quite 1 in the morning as I write this), to finish five videos, ranging from about five to fifteen minutes long, for a website I run.

About an hour ago, I realized that I had a bulletin to finish by the seventeenth of July. Not August: July.

That's a little awkward, since it's now 55 minutes into the 20th of July in this time zone. Make that 56 minutes.

If there ever was a time when I could keep a half-dozen or so unrelated schedules juggled in my head, I can't do it now. Besides that, my wife reminded me that I can't pull all-nighters, sleep a few hours, and spring forth the next morning with a clear head.

It's time to get some sort of formal scheduling process started.

Not entirely unrelated to what I've written so far: I also discovered that I can't stand for well over an hour under a bright Minnesota summer sun without a hat, without turning the acreage on top of my head a rather attractive shade of red.

My wife, noting the condition of my scalp, turned to our second daughter and told her to "get the oil, and do his head."

And so, while I continued with my video production, my daughter oiled my head.

Computers and Kids: Return of the Sequel

This continues the micro-saga of how my 11-year-old son's effect on a 3d render last Monday has helped me learn a few things about how to managing business and family under one roof.

The story to date is in Computers and Kids: the Sequel (June 26) and Computers and Kids: Home-Based Business vs Bionicles (June 25).

There were one or two moments earlier this week when I felt like restricting all access to the 'work' computer, except for vital, by-appointment-only tasks. That wouldn't have been reasonable, though, and would have violated my policy of letting the kids learn by doing. Hair-raising though that may be.

So, I sat down and thought of what was actually needed to maintain a safe working environment for me and the software. I came up with a five-point list, the third point of which was my responsibility to put a prominent written notice up whenever a critical software operation was running without supervision.

Having keyed my five points into a text file, I gathered the kids around the 'work' computer and discussed them. I learned about three sites for the 'white list' of acceptable game and/or video downloads. Looking up ownership of the sites, I decided they were okay, and added them.

The five-point reminder sheet is posted by the computer now, and I'm fairly confident that we've got something better than a temporary solution.

The Principle of the Speckled Ax

Possibly because I was driving him to the ragged edge of insanity over some minor aspect of a project, my father once told me the story of the speckled ax.

As he told it, a father and a son were preparing to cut wood by sharpening the ax. This was back in the days when axes were most easily sharpened by holding them against a spinning grindstone. The grindstone was turned by a hand-crank or, sometimes a foot pedal or plate like a potter's wheel.

The son insisted that the ax had to be thoroughly polished, so that there would be no specks of rust left.

The father pointed out that, as long as the edge of the ax was sharp and clean, a few spots of rust elsewhere wouldn't matter.

The son kept insisting, though, and the father finally agreed: on the condition that the son turn the grindstone while the father held the ax.

And so the father held the ax against the grindstone as the son turned the crank. Time went on. The edge of the ax was sharp and clean, but some specks of rust remained on the sides. More time went on as the father methodically polished one speck after another from the blade.

Finally, drenched with sweat, the son said, "Dad, I think a speckled ax is okay."

The point of this is that "The best is the enemy of the good" (Voltaire, in the Dictionaire Philosophique, 1764). It's fine to want everything to be as good as it can be right away, but it's unrealistic to expect that to happen.

I had an opportunity to apply this philosophy today. My not-ready-for-prime-time website, Minnesota for Web-Wise Travelers, has cosmetic problems as well presenting a few technical and organizational challenges.

The page header just doesn't look right. Not by my standards, at least. I spent just over an hour on it today before deciding that getting the site up and running before summer is half-over was more important than aesthetic values.

So, it's goodbye to Brian the Art Director and hello to Mr. Gill the site architect.

Being able to distinguish between what would be nice to achieve and what is vital to a project can determine whether a project finishes on time and budget: and sometimes whether it gets finished at all.

I've worked for bosses who had a hard time distinguishing between the vital and the preferable. Now that I'm the boss, it's a little more apparent how easy it is to get distracted by a side issue.

Back to Work

As a rule, Monday hasn't been one of my most productive days. That's why I've used it for gathering statistics, doing errands, and other less-than-exciting, routine tasks.

It just occurred to me: maybe that's why Monday isn't a particularly productive day. Self-fulfilling prophecy. Positive feedback loop. The Incredible Shrinking Man.

No. That last one's a fifties movie about a guy who gets up close and personal with a spider.

I'd better reconsider the Monday routine, although those dreary tasks have to go somewhere.

The statistics were the dreariest of the lot today, in terms of tasks. Summer isn't the hottest time of year for my flagship site, Brendan's Island (brendans-island.com). I suppose that's because it's the time of year in the English-speaking northern hemisphere when folks tend to get outside and enjoy the weather.

And sagging site statistics tend to drag my morale down.

A slight anodyne to that is a graph I set up in the Excel spreadsheet I use to track such things, showing current viewer stats in comparison with the same period a year ago. One page has been more-or-less consistently gaining ground for well over a year, and I hope that some of the losses on other pages are a sort of correction for some publicity I got about a year and two years back.

Back to reconsidering routines.

I didn't get my eight hours last night, due to a recurring failure to make a self-imposed deadline for updating a particular page on Brendan's Island. There was a time when I could get away with stunts like that, but my body seems to have gotten more assertive, and demands decent treatment.

Besides, it's bad form to delay tasks like that. Also just plain dumb.

On the up side, I found and entered information about a couple dozen more Minnesota destinations and diversions. They won't make it into the version of Minnesota for Web-Wise Travelers site (minnwebwise.com) that I'm cobbling together, but should make it into an update/upgrade I have tentatively slated for September of this year.

On another up side, I now have permission to re-publish the original version of a poem that was called "The Dean's Spell Checker" when I first ran into it.

And I'd better call it quits while I've got two "ups" to report.