Seeking Coastal Utopia

What happened? You just looked at the clock and it is the end of the day, and you did not do what you intended to do. Although it was on your list of things to do, you talked about it, you made the plans, yet you never got to it. How is that possible? Retrace your steps during a typical working day. “what the hell happened?” by Jonathan Rados on  Unsplash Email. Facebook. Instant messaging Meeting Email Phone call. Meeting Another phone call. More (a metric buttload more) instant messages. Meeting. Email. . . . Huh, look at that at, the end of the day. And you did not do a single thing on your list. “person distracted by their stupid smartphone” by Erik Lucatero on  Unsplash Now let’s look at the weekend. The intent is to work on Halloween costumes or carve pumpkins, or . Coffee Email Web searches News Exercise Xbox Chores Grocery shopping. XBox Cleaning Dinner prep. Dinner Movie or TV Bedtime. Well...

Constraints are everywhere. What?! You don’t know what constraints are? “person showing handcuff” by niu niu on  Unsplash You live in, with and around constraints, you just do not know that we typically call a constraint. The most appropriate definition for a constraint is a restriction or limitation. One that you are compelled to either avoid or to complete an action. Constraints can be analogized to a bottleneck where you are unable to perform an action because the available tools, equipment, resources, time, money, etc. are unavailable for you to complete the necessary actions. Instead, we need to view constraints as a catalyst to be more creative, to be more imaginative, to figure out a solution to your problem. Not as a barrier or a reason to quit. Constraints are our friends. The term constraint has been around the manufacturing world for several years. It is used to identify and label bottlenecks in manufacturing or production systems that cause delays or backl...

What is time? Can you stop time? We only have a limited amount of time available to us. If we waste it, we no longer can make the best of it. Time is not an unlimited resource. Why are you delaying? Why have you failed to take that first step forward? Are you waiting for more time? Have you made the conscious choice of not stepping forward, of doing something more with yourself, more with your life, more with your work? Each *tick* of the clock, 3600 times every hour, steps us closer to the death knell. “stopwatch at 15” by Linda Perez Johannessen on  Unsplash Fear. It paralyzes us it — freezes in our tracks . Why do we let fear rule us? Why don’t we learn how to use fear to our advantage? What happens when fear takes over? Time slows down, and it feels like time stretches into eternity. How do you use that time stretching tool to be able to produce more to do more? What are you afraid of? Time? If we fear time, then what do we do to help alleviate tha...

Manual central switchboard 1900 — B ritannica Back in the olden days, the late 1980's and early 1990’s — days of the 80286, 80386, and 80486 Intel processor chip series, there was concern over switch costs, which was the identification of chip latency and overall utilization based on the number switches and their frequency. Effectively a reduced capability due to the “cost” of switching tasks in a multithreaded environment. However switching costs are in today’s vernacular when it relates to investments of time and money; such as changing suppliers, changing brands, or even changing products. There is a physical and psychological investment in developing those original supply bases, in that it costs effort, both mentally and physically, to change brands. For example, you wish to change banks. Think of the switches, the changes you have to make from all the accounts you have. Deposits, automatic payments, checks, debit cards, all the changes that have to take place. The amount of...

“analog clock at 12 am” by Loic Djim on  Unsplash Simple Project Management Simple project management is probably a misnomer. Difficult at times, easy if you own it. But you want to make it a necessary tool for the management process for successful project completion. Who does what by when Any questions? You can stop reading now if you know this. If not, please feel free to continue. WHO — is the person that owns the particular task — this is the person WHO owns this task. They may have a team working with them, but this named person is the owner. The go-to person for everything related to the WHAT . WHAT — is exactly that thing the WHO is doing. The task that the person is expected to do. It is a very explicit task they are required to accomplish. Specificity is highly recommended depending on the complexity of the WHAT WHEN — represents the date or even what time the WHAT is expected to be completed and by WHO . It is okay if the task is com...