To my fellow Knowledge Workers or You suck at e-mail.

Are you a "knowledge worker"? I don't mean just my fellow brothers and sisters in IT. I mean do you work in a job where you sit at a computer and manipulate data, answer e-mails, do The Excel etc? Do you have an electronic leash that pushes e-mail to you on a 24x7 basis? E-mail is quite awesome because it really flattens out the communication landscape. However, this is also e-mail's down fall. We never get a break from work. All someone has to do is type a very short document and hit send and it's in your pocket in seconds. These e-mails are interruptions / a request for your time and attention. Whether you are aware of it or not, a work e-mail puts an open ended action item in your mind. I submit that we need to reassess our habits and adjust to avoid burn out.

For example, on Christmas Eve 2011 I received an e-mail from a co-worker that started "Merry Xmas, I don't mean to bother you." First the e-mailer acknowledged that it is a holiday, peachy I appreciate that. Second, the e-mailer stated they didn't mean to bother me. That statement is either naive or disingenuous, because the e-mail is a bother because it is a request for my attention. I either need to think through his problem and reply or make some other provision to make sure I remember to answer his e-mail on December 27, three days from the actual e-mail. Despite their statement to the contrary he was a bother.
Before you think I'm over reacting to a simple e-mail, think about it this way, would you accept a coworker coming over to your house on Christmas Eve / Day to ask you questions about work? I know I wouldn't, I'd be extremely bothered by it. E-mail has given people the power to send their stray thoughts to anyone at a moments notice. I submit these tiny and constant requests for our time and attention are a cause of stress in our daily lives.

How should e-mail be thought of? Before sending an email be sure to have plenty of substance to warrat the distraction. Two understand that it won't be returned right away if you aren't sending it during regular business hours, and maybe not even then. Consider the person you are sending email to might have several other people pulling them in various different directions. Put language in the e-mail releasing them of the burden of returning your email right away.

Here is what I am doing for the reminder of Christmas and for all future holidays.

1. I am turing off push e-mail to my phone.
2. I am setting my google voice number (ie work number) to DND
to avoid direct phone calls and text messages.
3. Setting an Out of Office Message explaining that their email has hit my inbox and will
be attended to when I get back from vacation / holiday.
4. I will check e-mail once or twice over long holiday's / vacations, IF I feel like it.

I've very seriously considered changing careers, many times, due to unnecessary interruptions during my personal time. I really don't want to change what a do for a living at this point, so all that is left is for me to set the proper expectation for when people I work with can have my time and attention. There is nothing you need that is more important than to me that warrants an  interruption  a dinner with my wife or  a laugh with my son. If you work within constraints simular to these, I challenge you to do the same during your personal time. You deserve downtime, you need time off to rest your mind. In the long run you will be a much better performer at work and you will be happier at home.

I welcome your thoughts in the comments.

-b

Wassial

I grew up drinking delicious wassail. I wanted to share the recipe with everyone so they could try as well. 

2 qts: Sweet Apple Cider

2 Cups pineapple Juice

1 1/2 cups orange juice

3/4 cups lemon juice

1 cup granulated sugar

2 sticks whole cinnamon

1 tsp. whole cloves

Bring ingredients to boil and serve hot.

Help me do something awesome 2.0

Dear friends,

Last year I invited you to help me do something awesome in celebration of me having a successful trip around the sun. I realize I didn't adequately express how awesome you guys were! I set out to help one family who was in town for cancer treatment at Texas Children's Cancer Center. What we actually ended up raising was  $1500, which was enough to sponsor 3 families! Pretty awesome right? Thank you!

So here is the deal, I've made it around the sun yet again. However, not everyone who started out in January is still with us. In the last year we all lost Sarah, an amazing person, to sarcoma. From my experience and having followed Sarah's journey I decided to do what I could to help make sarcoma go away. I started the Sarcoma Foundation of America, Texas Chapter. We have established a named grant dedicated to Sarah that will go fund ground breaking research for Sarcoma. Our goal is to raise $50,000 in the next year and we will need your help to do it! I'm asking that you help me celebrate my birthday by giving to our fund. If you can't donate please pass this link around so others can know about our efforts. Let's make this go viral! Thanks for your friendship. Let's do something awesome again and make sarcoma's days around the sun numbered!

Thanks,

Bryan

September follow up at MDAnderson

I just wanted to post a quick follow up from my resent meeting at the Sarcoma Center at MD Anderson.  I met with a new oncologist, mine original doc has moved to a different hospital.  My scans came up clean, ie no recurrence of tumors or infected lymph nodes.  The only issue they are currently worried about is my platelet levels. It turns out my levels have been dropping consistently over the last year and a half. Currently they don't have a reason as to why this is could be happening. I will be getting labs drawn a couple of times over the next four weeks to get a better view of what is going on. I'm not worried about this turn of events until there is something to worry about.

-b

I'm giving up my iPhone for a month

I'm giving up my iPhone for a month to use a Windows Phone 7, a Samsung Focus to be exact. I have been using the Focus for about three days and am really enjoying the experience. There are things about it  I really enjoy and there are a few things I feel annoyed by. I must admit I'm still learning the platform so I might be able to smooth out some of the frustrations going forward as I learn things. I also haven't done lots of research on the net about the platform. If my conclusions below sound uninformed, it's because they are. I do welcome your input on how I could better use the platform.

Initial impressions (Phone and OS impressions mashed together)

Pros:
I really like the interface. It's a nice break from the iOS / Android paradigm. It's simple and clean and very visually appealing.

The OS / Phone feel very responsive. No noticeable lag.

The interface is intuitive. I haven't had to guess at how to do a task. It just do what I feel would be correct and often find that is what I needed to do.

The presentation of the market place is beautiful. It makes the ultra sparten iOS marketplace look dated and the badly designed Google Market Place the ugly puke fest it is.

Cons:
Lack of apps. The iOS / Android platforms pretty much have an app to do whatever I need / want. So far I have either been unable to find or apps don't exist for tasks I do daily on iOS.

I'm guessing the OS doesn't handle multi tasking as of yet? If I'm streaming audio the audio cuts out if I go back to the home screen. This isn't a HUGE deal but think it's something the OS should do at this point. Maybe Mango will fix this?

The market place is messy. I tried to search for a Pandora app and mainly got albums I could download. I am not really sure if there is a Pandora app for WP7 but if there is it was lost in the mess of other junk that came up. Apps should be segregated from music.

More on this as the month goes on.

-b

Reflection

Last year was filled with lost of trips to MD Anderson for tests for a nasty 8cm stomach tumor. A lot of times I was running on autopilot and just trying to survive. At the time, if I had spent the time to "take it all in" I probably would have collapsed under the weight of it all. Cancer is a unique condition where you must endure endless tests, being poked, prodded, and humiliated. When I think back about my experience I don't normally think of the enormity of the varied test. I recently joined www.ihadcancer.com and when you fill out your profile you have an opportunity to list all the "treatments" you had. As I went through the list I was stunned by how much had been done to me. It really brought back some feelings that I had forgotten, some of which included fear, uncertainty, anger, and hopelessness. While I'm not happy to have gone through the experience, it was a time that puts things in to a very different perspective. If I didn't come out changed for the better I feel I wasted an opportunity to learn a grow.

Since that experience, I hope to be a resource for others who are also going through the experience. To stand beside them as they face life altering decisions. To listen to them when they are scared they might die. To encourage them to be strong and face their treatments. To help them know that there is hope and that cancer doesn't get an automatic win in their lives. I'm not a professional, just someone who has walked through a portion of pain and wants to help others along their journey.

Amazon - A place for deals

We are always looking for deals on items we purchase in our house. With the arrival of Jack our eyes have turned to deals on baby items. Amazon, in addition to their Prime Service, has another program called Amazon Mom. This program offers free shipping, if you don't already have a Prime Account, and further discounts on subscription items. I really like that you can schedule the delivery of these items and get a great deal on them. It removes some of the hassle from our already busy lives and saves us some cash. I highly recommend for new parents. If you don't already have a Prime account this service is free to sign up for, to remain eligible you have to spend $25 a quarter to stay in. Additionally, you can return an item bought under this program for up to one year for free. That is pretty killer IMO.

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