5 Key Steps to Managing Multiple Projects

Multiple projects can be frustrating

It is sometimes thought the more baskets you lay your eggs in the better the chances one of those baskets won't be dropped.

Many bloggers will advise that a person only try to handle one project.  Of course you can find other advice that says one should try to diversify their projects and should try to cover multiple avenues.

These opinions can be found with blogging, writing novels, painting, sculpting, photography, web design and most other independent hobbies or careers.

If you have decided that multiple projects fits your life better it may prove to be difficult, but it can be just as rewarding.  If you can organize your projects, dedicate yourself to your goals and stick to your plans you may start to see why some people support this work method.  However, if someone trying to accomplish multiple things at once is not disciplined and structured, the weight and complexity of the tasks could become unmanageable.


  Below are some tips to prevent the multiple tasks from becoming too complex, too difficult to allocate sufficient effort too, and/or too difficult to maintain:

• Keep a planner
• Document your labor
• Read motivational material
• Don't try to plow through
• Dress for Success

It might not seem like five things can make you or break you but as a web designer/writer/tech. consultant I have found that a consistent structure is essential to handle to varied work loads.  If you don't always meet your goals and expectations then these five key things can drastically help you accomplish your tasks and get your work done.  It doesn't matter if you are trying to make your personal life more efficient and less stressful or if you are trying to begin something new.

Keep a Planner

It is important to keep a planner to organize the various future plans of all of your projects.  Sometimes it can be good to even have more than one planner.  Write down your goals, important events and other things you want to plan for and remember.  Then as you do things daily record what you do.

Recording your tasks, project related or not, helps identify what you spend your time on, if anything isn't receiving the proper amount of time (too much or too little), and helps you appreciate how much you accomplished.

Compare what you planned to do and what you actually did and use this data to alter your new future plans and to change anything that isn't working out with your current schedule.  If you realize that you are productive in the morning then schedule something that has priority for that time and move less important things to times when you have recorded less productiveness.

Keeping a planner makes a huge difference and I was really hesitant to start, but once I did it helped organize my thoughts, plans, goals, and allowed me to better manage myself by being able to look and see what I accomplished when and how that compared to what I thought I would accomplish.

Document Your Labor

If your project makes money this may be slightly more important but either way it is good to keep tabs on how much time you are spending on each individual project.  If one project is producing more revenue per hour of work on it than another project you may want to adjust your priority accordingly.  If you have a personal hobby it is beneficial to know how much time and effort you have put into it so as to keep your other activities in congruence with your efforts.  

Someone trying to manage multiple projects needs to know their value, profit or not.  The time you spend on them alone gives them value to you, so document your labor.  

If your hobby turns into a profitable venture then having your labor already documented and organized will give you a big advantage when doing logistics and making projections.

Read Motivational Material

A little self explanatory.  If you want to accomplish something, surround yourself with things that will inspire you to do so.  Read quotes from people that are related to your individual projects that make you believe you are capable and can carry invaluable tips or advice.  

Read things that inspire you to be a better person, a better chef, anything that gives you more get-up-and-go.  Something that inspires you is better than nothing that inspires you.  

Just be careful not to get overly inspired and increase your work load beyond capacity.

Don't Try to Plow Through

Studies as well as a plethora of anecdotal evidence has shown that most people operate best with 45 minutes of concentration and 15 minutes of a break.  Feel free to alter that to fit your personal habits and schedule but the general principle should be kept close to heart.

If you try to focus on a task for much over an hour you will become far less productive and will have to put more energy into maintaining a less effective work flow.

Busy bees can alternate 45 minutes of one project with 15 or 30 minutes of a more relaxed or less stimulating project.  If you know that you have projects that don't use much of the same muscles or brain functions (yes I know the brain is a muscle) you should try alternating between them.

Research has also shown that trying to process too much of the same information can decrease efficiency as well.  That means that if you are trying to study material then you shouldn't try to process the same information (read, note cards, videos, etc) for more than an hour or two.  While this limits how much of something you can tackle in a day, wasting exponential energy on something that will not equivalently benefit you can make your task far more difficult and stressful than actually studying it a little less!

Dress for Success

A cliche, but with reason.  If you wake up, get clean and tidy, and put on an outfit that empowers you and helps you feel the way you want to feel you will be taking a gigantic step toward success in whatever your pursuit.

Being clean and getting dressed will make you feel healthy and invigorates/refreshes people.  It removes waste from the exterior of our bodies and makes us feel more comfortable and confident.

By showering and dressing nicely first thing you ensure that no matter what happens, on a basic level, you are ready.  Clients could show up or be visited, you are already tidy and prepared.  A run to the store for supplies is easy when you are already dressed, once their if you run into any important people or events you will be confident due to your hygienic state and comfortable appearance.

Doing this eliminates the stress of being caught off guard from the rest of your day as well as ensures that you accomplished a goal.  If you get ready first thing then you can mark that off your to-do list and that will enable and inspire you to accomplish another goal, as well as eliminating possible negativity from other external variables the day before.



(Because everyone is different you might not follow these steps word for word.  Like most advice it should be adapted to the individual without losing its primary integrity.)


If you have any anecdotes in accordance to these tips please leave them in the comments and share/like or however you express yourself if these tips have helped you.

Carlsberg Elephant in the Room

Carlsberg Elephant- Empty

Wow.  I did not expect the results this beer yielded.  While I had heard mixed reviews from my peers, I had hoped the beer to be good.  I don't normally "root" for a beer any more or less than I want all beer to be good tasting, but a reference to the brewers in the BBC show The IT Crowd tickled me.

Taste:

The only thing that really matters.  I was astonished when I noticed the alcohol percentage was 7.2 and yet the flavor was crisp and refreshing.  It tasted much like any other beer of the same style except it tasted "cleaner", as if all the things that made light beer not favorable were void.  

Recommendation:

Definitely not a beer for someone looking to impress their friends with complex flavor descriptions and notes and hints of bull-ogna.  I would, however, recommend this beer to anyone who wants a good base to judge beer from.  Due to its clean taste and somewhat high alcohol content it is both easy for new drinkers to enjoy and get a feel for how light beer should taste as well as will get them to the giggles almost twice as fast as some beers. 

Ratings

Taste- 7

Price- 7

Overall- 7

Overall I give this beer a 7 both due to its lack of bad flavors but also due to its lack of exciting flavors.  While great for novice beer drinkers, not so great for the veteran.

Middle Americans are Aack Basswards

I can see the Bill from twister throwing the bottle!

I don't mean the middle class.  Those in the heart of America know that the central time zone is full of diversity, yes it is also full of corn and cows, as well as many amazing places many people do not know about.  One thing it does have that never ceases to surprise even the oldest and most stubborn of locals is the weather.

Looking out my window yesterday, almost smack between Missouri, Kansas and Oklahoma, I witnessed a bright sky as the sun set.  The atmospheric conditions were so that a double rainbow appeared across the sky (no bs it really did).  It was an 80 degree day, with some wind and some rain throughout.

Today, I looked past the various plants that grow in my kitchen window to see snow flakes being tossed around in the air.  The past week had been nice and tosty, my hike two days before drenched my back where my pack rested with sweat.  When I fell asleep the night before it was a cool 50 degrees, nothing odd for a warm spring day.

Meteorology does not confound me.  I know what conditions cause such sporadic weather.  I could bore (or excite if you have an interest in meteorology) you with cold fronts and warm fronts and patters from the gulf and the pacific and how the geography effects the atmospheric conditions, but that does not mean everyone wants to have half of their summer clothes out and half of their winter clothes out.

We are lucky that we don't have feet of snow in the morning, a burning hot and humid midday, and ferocious stormy nights.  This part of the country can be amazing.  But if you want it to be sunshine and rainbows don't change your mind the next day.  Can we not have winter in the winter?  Is it not okay to let spring be spring and the seasons keep to themselves.

Whether the weather is caused by natural conditions (it is), HAARP getting their kicks and giggles (maybe them too) or maybe the seasons just can't decide who gets custody of the center of America.  Regardless, the men and women of the middle will endure.  If the May 22nd tornado couldn't scare my neighbors in Joplin, Mo. off than a game of season roulette will not either.  As someone who values temperate climates, I just want to know what to expect.

If you saw a double rainbow comment where!  If you have been hot and then cold and aren't Katy Perry then tell us about that too!

3 Ways to Effectively Protest

Protesters outside of a Boeing Plant in 1943

News and media outlets are constantly ranting about activists, special interest groups and public protests.  If you log onto Facebook you can easily find posts about Westboro Baptist Church protesting funerals, people protesting government presence in Nevada or other more violent acts.

I am not going to tell you what to believe or what to stand for, that is only for you to decide.  However, if you need to make a large scale change to accomplish your goals peacefully and legally, whether you wish to alter government regulation or social norms or whatever your wish, you will need to go about it in a much better way than most of the people you see in the news.

Where

Many people will attempt to make their cause known by protesting in one form or another.  The biggest mistake many protesters make is protesting at an ineffective, and often inappropriate, target.  Fox News reported on the Rancher's Protest in Nevada.  While all of the cattle may have been returned to the original owner, the taking of the cattle by the federal government being the cause for the unrest (whether it was justified or not), the situation became a very dangerous one as the Fox article describes.

Protesting at the location of the issue has only put innocent federal employees at risk as well as many civilians while allowing those able to alter the issue relatively unaffected.  The federal employees do not have much of a say in the matter, they do what they must like we do to fulfill their hierarchy of needs.  Armed protest at the site of the extraction puts those federal officers on edge since they want to do their job (whether they agree with it or not) and go home safe while armed men and women are protesting.  

Location is important because the federal officers are not the ones who make the decisions regardless of how much you deter them.  Congress and the Executive Branch are in-charge of the issue, so should you not protest where they are?

Who

Now you know where to protest, and who.  Who is crucial, if your protest doesn't make the right people aware of your cause, then nothing will change no matter how many other people want it to.  I am not saying that there are all powerful people or beings that the people cannot overcome if need be, I am saying that if an invincible safe can only open with a magic key it doesn't matter what you do, you need that key.  Whomever it may be, whether it is one person or many, you need to decide who can help you make the most and best change and focus on them.

Instead of the protesters risking harm in armed protests against federal agents, resulting in the return of the cattle (for now), the protesters could have protested at locations that those who control the situation are.  If they had done so the conflict may have a long term agreement made nationwide.

Why

If you are going to try to change something, you should have a good reason.  The social media has made it easy for people to take stances on anything.  Groups try to make it worth their supporters whiles by using elaborate marketing and vague information, many groups.  So many people trying to get so much noticed can create a sea of what can seem like trivial and silly causes and goals of the uninformed.  It is actually the largest ocean in the world, you know Internet Bull Ocean.  

Do you want your cause to stand out?  Then make it legit.  Be straight with your supporters, be calm and respectful to your opposition and be right.  If you believe in your cause and the good it will do, if you know who to get support from and who to broadcast your cause to, and if you know where those people are and peacefully and respectably focus your efforts at those locations you can change the world.

Do you believe you know more ways to protest more effectively?  Tell us in the comments below, like if you like, share if you want others to read too.

Where Do You Go in the Morning?

Ever drive in the morning?  Not too early, around eight-o-clock in the morning?  If not then you might not get why I am so astounded as to where everyone is going.  Even if you drive through traffic every morning you might not have had the same question on your mind as I do.

Where is everyone going?

I am sure that no one is driving around during the morning for no reason.  They are starting their day, making the world go round.  A large number of the people are driving to drop someone off, spouse, friend, kids.  Some of the people are making the walk or drive of shame.  Other people are off to work, to their office or lab or store or restaurant.  Not often do we wonder where the other people around us are going, even less do we wonder how they feel.

What is everyone feeling?

If you are anything like me then you are feeling miserable in the morning.  Many people also disagree with Benjamin Franklin, and disdain waking early.  Other people couldn't sleep in if they wanted to, trying to sleep  in later only to find their eyes wont stay shut.  

To me this shows that people are already feeling a wide array of things.  They may be grumpy or happy that it is morning.  They may be happy to start their day and do what they have to do, or they might dread the day.  You cannot tell if someone is going to work or a funeral, a party or a college class.  

Why does this matter?

The fact that this matters might not be obvious.  The morning by definition is the start of what society perceives as the day.  If we can better understand the world at its most volatile time, when people feel so many things for so many reasons, the weight of everything for the next 12 hours on their shoulders, we can better understand ourselves.  Research has been conducted over morning interactions time and time again by people and organizations all over the world.  Where one goes in the morning sets up their day, in one way or another.

Comment how you believe your mornings matter, and where you go and how you feel in the morning.

3 Ways Anxiety Runs Your Life

Do these normal people feel like this too?  Why am I the only person who feels like this all the time?

"haywire"-Porsche Brosseau 

I have dealt with anxiety my entire life.  It creeps into bed with you at night and slips into the shower in the morning.  Anxiety is the monster that only you can see and, even when you do see it, it might be too frightening for you to even acknowledge it is there.

1. Anxiety Affects Everyone.

While many people may think that would make it easier, the fact that everyone feels some degree of anxiety makes it difficult for those who suffer from anxiety more severely.  The Anxiety and Depression Association of America define the symptoms of Generalized Anxiety Disorder as anything from fatigue to irritability to stomach issues to insomnia or difficulty sleeping.  I can (almost) guarantee that everyone reading this does not have GAD but does feel they exhibit one or more of those symptoms to some degree.  Since no one can really tell exactly to what degree someone feels something, it makes empathy for the anxious difficult for those who might not understand the severity of someones anxiety.  Those with anxiety may not realize that it is not normal while it also makes it difficult for those with anxiety to have the confidence to acknowledge the problem, after all they probably feel anxious about that too.  

2. Anxiety Drains Confidence

If you think back to the last obstacle you faced and overcame, could you say you would have still overcome that obstacle if you didn't summon the courage to?  Would you have ran that 5k if you felt like it was something that could ruin your life?  Do you think you could have won that fifth grade spelling bee if you didn't have the confidence to guess on that last word even though you weren't actually sure?  Someone with high anxiety could very well dread those situations, regardless of their ability.  This is because anxiety can drain someone of their confidence, like a thirst of despair that cannot be quenched and, like many things, anxiety is easy to break away someones confidence but slow to build it back up.

3. Anxiety Causes Anxiety

I doubt that anyone has ever asked an anxious person how they are doing and had that person reply, "I feel horrible, desperate even.  I don't even understand why."  We already talked about that a little bit in the first point.  I doubt you even noticed the person who never volunteers to give presentations at work making their self appear small in a corner away from the rest of your co-workers.  Maybe you did notice them, but did you approach them?  If you did, did they talk or did they try to avoid you?  It has nothing to do with you, don't worry you don't smell, but it does have everything to do with anxiety.  Imagine your entire life.  Imagine all the triumph and what makes life worth living to you.  People who get grabbed by anxiety feel like they have no hope of that.  The anxiety causes them to feel like they can not succeed until they have not and by then even if they try they have a sea of could not and would not and regret to swim through.  

It is something that effects us all.  How we deal with it and to the degree it effects us is something we must all figure out.  However, the hardest part of anxiety is acceptance.  Those with anxiety need to understand that they are not alone and that others would and do want to help understand their anxiety, if you are unsure as to what is causing your feelings than hopefully this provided some insight.  

If you have any comments, advice for others with anxiety, your own story about anxiety, or if you are anxious due to all the talk about anxiety leave a joke in the comments to help us lighten the mood.