Journalistic

(While Training to Work on a Rainy Wednesday Morning)

You have to journal a little every day. Yeah, right. How is that possible? I do wish there was an i-Phone app that would allow me to journal directly from that device as then I might do it every day. Of course I am trying to Twitter every day which in turn updates my Facebook status, which is like a journal entry in some respects. In 150 character bytes, however. Come to think of it, maybe that is a good thing.

The first work week of the new year has commenced and I have accomplished a number of things I needed to do starting out of the gates. It was a pleasure to do project planning for Financial Aid system replacement using Mind-Manager and JVC Gantt prior to sending to MS Project. I will have to work out the proper sequence for getting the right value out of each of the tools. I think doing the initial phase, task, and rough sequencing in MindManager then sending to JVC Gantt to add durations, predecessors, resources and date constraints, then sending to MS Project for final refinement and for reporting and tracking. I do need to check out if it is possible to send back to JVC Gantt and sync back up to MindManager for re-planning later on.

Of course if I could simply use the MM/JVC Gantt duo for all my project planning and tracking needs I could keep MS Project out of the equation but for now the products don't seem mature enough to do all I need it to do particularly from a reporting stand-point.

One thing that hasn't gone so well is my desire to empty my email inbox every day. Getting more than 80 emails daily just overwhelms my ability to process them. I am going to keep trying, though. I hate the thought of using automatic filters and rules but it may be necessary. If anyone has creative ideas about this, let me know. I am already trying to get myself off emailing lists but those seem insidious and viral.

I am going to close this journal session now and send to the blog. I want to offer my readership (yeah, right) a little more than personal snapshots and snippets of poetic thoughts (as enjoyable and meaningful as I know those have been) so I'll try to include more posts of value (PoV?).

The thought for the day comes from Malcolm Gladwell's recent book, "Outliers", as he quotes and old saying, "No one who gets up before dawn 360 days a year fails to make his family rich." Sure there are lots of questions and comments possible about this, but for a hard-working dude who leaves his family before dawn every workday, it is something to hold onto.

Enjoy the rainy day wherever you are.