I was way into random before the iPod shuffle came along. Years back on my Atari 800 XL I built a program called Random Album Selection. This was a time before the CD or MP3 existed and everything was on vinyl.
Using Atari Basic, I wrote a program that allowed me to enter my albums and it would randomly select an album and side to play. I realized the benefit from this as I realized that Random is Good.
I would buy new albums and play them over and over again until it would sit with my other records never to listened to again. But after developing the program, I would be listening to albums that I wouldn't normally listen to and enjoying it very much. There was something to this random stuff.
Flash forward years later and I'm working on a version of Time-Creator.com. I start to think that if random is good for albums it's probably good for selecting what I should do. If you're in the habit of doing certain things and those things aren't getting you to where you want to be then Random Task Selection might be better than you selecting what to do.
I've built this feature into Time-Creator. You can filter on your "A" or top priority tasks and randomly select one to do. Now like the iPod shuffle, random task selection is good. Matter a fact I like to think of it as asking God what to do. So Random is Good and Random is God.
You can download the latest version of Time-creator at my website. Note it's an early alpha version a little buggy but very useful. You do need Excel 2007 or 2010 right now to use it.
Saturday, October 6, 2012
Tuesday, October 2, 2012
Rock Climbing and Software Development
The other day I was working on a very complex project at work and had very tight deadlines. It was a bit overwhelming. I started to think that software development is a little like rock climbing.
When you go rock climbing, you start up the rock pulling yourself up the mountain using your hands and feet. But as you move up you reach a point where you need to grab a rock to keep moving up but none appears to be available.
This is your first hurdle. This happens in software development when you get stuck on a problem with no apparent solution. When you're on the rock it can get scary. But if you don't panic and keep looking you'll find a place to put your foot or grab with your hand to continue up the mountain.
So with software development, stay with the problem keep looking. If you do you'll continue to make progress just like rock climbing.
When you go rock climbing, you start up the rock pulling yourself up the mountain using your hands and feet. But as you move up you reach a point where you need to grab a rock to keep moving up but none appears to be available.
This is your first hurdle. This happens in software development when you get stuck on a problem with no apparent solution. When you're on the rock it can get scary. But if you don't panic and keep looking you'll find a place to put your foot or grab with your hand to continue up the mountain.
So with software development, stay with the problem keep looking. If you do you'll continue to make progress just like rock climbing.
Sunday, September 30, 2012
The Benefits of Time Tracking
Time tracking is usually a dreaded task by the people who need to do it. Lawyers, accountants, software developers, professionals need to know what they spent their time on.
The reason it's disliked is that it's difficult to do until Time-Creator came along.
There are some subtle advantages to tracking your time:
The reason it's disliked is that it's difficult to do until Time-Creator came along.
There are some subtle advantages to tracking your time:
- You can identify time wasters
- You can make better estimates if you know how long similar tasks take
- A program can check if you're doing the right tasks to help you achieve your goals
- You can better balance your time by knowing that you're spending too much if it on one project
- You can be warned if you're taking too long on a task
Now time tracking isn't that easy but Time-Creator has the following features to help you effortlessly track your time:
- Auto-tracking.- Track based on the Window you are using or Excel sheet you;re on
- Track from a button press - Track time based on pressing a button that performs a task (Button Bar)
- Track from an alarm - Track your time when an alarm pops up
- Track from your to do list - If the task is in your to do list or on any cell just press ctrl+T and you're tracking it.
- Time Adjustments
These are just a few of the benefits. Try the software at http://Time-Creator.com to see how time tracking can help you.
Should I build an Excel 2000/2003 version?
As I build Time-Creator, I'm wondering if I should make the software work on Excel 2000/2003. The first requirement is that you need a copy of the software and I have one on an old laptop.
The second is will there be enough customers that use this version to make it worthwhile? I've started on making my program compatible but then realized it's taking away from my main focus. I could always come back to it.
As I'm working on it I'm finding a number of compatibility issues with the VBA code I'm writing using Excel 2010. The biggest ones are:
Though, it's very tempting as I've spent around 5 hours already on this I may try to get out a version.
What version of Excel do you use? Should I build an Excel 2000 compatible version
The second is will there be enough customers that use this version to make it worthwhile? I've started on making my program compatible but then realized it's taking away from my main focus. I could always come back to it.
As I'm working on it I'm finding a number of compatibility issues with the VBA code I'm writing using Excel 2010. The biggest ones are:
- Ribbon isn't available in the previous versions
- Callbacks don't work
- Sort command issues
- New bugs introduced by changing code to support Excel 2000
Though, it's very tempting as I've spent around 5 hours already on this I may try to get out a version.
What version of Excel do you use? Should I build an Excel 2000 compatible version
Saturday, September 29, 2012
Estimating Your Work
How important is estimating your work accurately? Very important. I've spent many a late night at work due to poor estimates. Most estimates fail because many things aren't taken into account when you make your estimate. Some common things are:
- Vacation time
- Holidays
- System Down Time
- Interruptions
- Production Support
- Emergency work
- Sick
- Co-worker on vacation
- Bugs
- Time testing
- Time documenting
- Time training
- Time hiring
- Training classes
- Hard to solve problems
- QA cycle
- Meetings
- Emails
- Co-workers needing help
- Experience of person doing the work
- Support for person doing work
When it comes down to it a lot can go wrong. So the first this is to make sure you don't leave out tasks on your plan. Also it helps to have a history of how long things take to better estimate how long new tasks will take.
In addition, if you miss deadlines you'll get a poor review and can even get fired.
Estimating is important.
Some of the things that Time-Creator can do for you is:
- Easily track your time so you can know how long similar products have taken in the past
- Track how accurate your estimating is
- Know percentage of time is spent dealing with non-work type issues
- Help you manage scope creep so that more functions aren't added while keeping the same deadline
Take a look at how Time-Creator can help you.
30 Second Ad - Part 2
Today I worked on the 30 second ad as it kept coming up on my to-do list. The text for the ad is:
One of the things I realize about doing this work is that you won't get it perfect and the Nike "Just Do It" slogan is very appropriate. It doesn't need to be perfect, but needs to get done. Perfection can come later.
| If you're overwhelmed with too much to do, Kravatz Inc. has a new product called Time-creator. It's an Excel spreadsheet, that helps you reach goals, stay focused and deal with interruptions. |
| The software features a todo list, alarms and time tracking. This will enable you to get more done in less time. |
| There is no product on the market like this. |
| Go to our website at time-creator.com to view a demo or try the software. |
| We are limiting the number of free downloads we will allow, so do it today After 9 takes here's what I came up with: |
Time Management
What is time management? It's making the best use of your time. It's easy to tell if you're not managing your time well. You're:
- Not reaching your goals
- Rushing or late for meetings
- You don't seem to have enough time
- You're always procrastinating
If you're looking for a great book on time management I would recommend Timothy Ferriss' best seller "4 Hour Work Week
."
So what's the best use of your time? First figure out what your goals are then identify the tasks to reach the goals, pick one of the goals, then start doing the tasks. Adjust and repeat.
One problem I have is "too many things to do." I've recently solved this problem with software I call Time-Creator.
One thing Time-Creator does is make it easy to track how you're spending your time. Once you have this information you could look for ways to find better use of it. For example are you spending too much time on emails or non-productive tasks? Time-Creator will show you. The beauty of of Time-Creator is that it makes time tracking as effortless as possible. Is the new guy at work taking too much of your time? How much? Are certain people interrupting you too much? So the first step to better managing your time is to figure out how you're spending it.
I currently have 1,616 tasks to do which would overwhelm most people but only 226 are "A" priority. So to decide what to work on I use Time-Creator to randomly select a task from my "A" list and either re-prioritize it skip it, or work on it. I'll update this with a video soon so you can see how easy it is.
You can go to http://Time-Creator.com to download the latest version. Note that the current version requires Microsoft Excel.
." So what's the best use of your time? First figure out what your goals are then identify the tasks to reach the goals, pick one of the goals, then start doing the tasks. Adjust and repeat.
One problem I have is "too many things to do." I've recently solved this problem with software I call Time-Creator.
One thing Time-Creator does is make it easy to track how you're spending your time. Once you have this information you could look for ways to find better use of it. For example are you spending too much time on emails or non-productive tasks? Time-Creator will show you. The beauty of of Time-Creator is that it makes time tracking as effortless as possible. Is the new guy at work taking too much of your time? How much? Are certain people interrupting you too much? So the first step to better managing your time is to figure out how you're spending it.
I currently have 1,616 tasks to do which would overwhelm most people but only 226 are "A" priority. So to decide what to work on I use Time-Creator to randomly select a task from my "A" list and either re-prioritize it skip it, or work on it. I'll update this with a video soon so you can see how easy it is.
You can go to http://Time-Creator.com to download the latest version. Note that the current version requires Microsoft Excel.
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