Tagged: about

How I Manage My Time

On the flight home yesterday I was thinking about how I manage my time, and relaxing in a Cafe after a long walk I thought I would jot down some notes.  First a little about me and my job: I am currently in a vision and strategy role, but really...

Tagged

Stu has tagged me and since he’s a friend of mine I will oblige, however not being a fan of chains this branch will end with me. Thinking of 5 things you don’t know about me is a bit if a challenge as my blog contains a lot of information already including an overly...

Where have I been?

Well I have been concentrating on work.  My doctors have recommenced that I spend no more than 6 hours and usually only 4 hours working at my desk, so I have been concentrating on work during those 4 hours.  Blog posting has therefore had to take a back seat, however...

100 things about me

  1. I was born in Lincoln in England in 1963
  2. I have one brother 2 1/2 years younger than me
  3. My Grandma claimed to be a medium, she was certainly very wise, and she told very convincing stories
  4. My Mum’s Grandad was Major of Lincoln
  5. I grew up with tremendous freedom roaming the countryside, building sites, abandoned airfields and gravel pits and reading
  6. My parents were amazing, I don’t ever remember being put under pressure, or ever feeling that I needed to work to gain their love and approval
  7. I grew up in a house with a huge garden and 50 tree orchard, the source of endless play
  8. I was a slow starter at school, I was 13 before I actually started to move up the sets, and never really found my feet academically until I was doing my first degree
  9. I suffered badly from acne as a boy and still suffer a bit now at 41,  but I learned not to let that sort of thing bother me, and learned to be happy with myself
  10. I suffered very badly from Migraine and Hay-fever as a child and remember spending lots of days debilitated by one or the other
  11. When I was …

Housework

HouseworkSince I started working from home I have increased the amount of house work that I do, my share is:

  • Washing the clothes and putting them away
  • At least one set of washing up
  • Tidying the kids rooms
  • Bed time stories

I don’t mind doing it to much,  but I have recently found that I actually quite enjoy it because I listen to technical conferences or pod-casts on my Treo to keep me occupied (except when reading the bedtime stories :-)).  Today I was listening to the 2nd Tablet PC Podcast that JK has just started, more details on his blog.  and I found that I was actually looking around for more cleaning to do so that I could listen to the end.  Debbie (wife) was pretty pleased when she got home!

Why I love working in the end-user and work-group computing field!

I have worked in this area for most of my working life and it continues to amaze me that it is still an area of IT that has the – untapped – potential to transform peoples lives.  Most of the customers I work with are struggling to deal with all the information they have to cope with in their work and home life (which are becoming more integrated).  They live high-bandwidth lifestyles!  Its with great interest therefore that I read the following results from the Information Work Productivity Council (IWPC) which is an independent group of companies and academics that have joined together to study the issue of information work productivity. The goal of the Council is to build a model that measures productivity in today’s information-centric business environment. 

They recently published the results of a survey into how the average user spends their time at work.  According to the study, the average user:

  • Spends 3 hours and 14 minutes a day using technologies to process work-related information—just over 40% of an 8-hour work day
  • Devotes 1.58 hours/day to e-mail (49% of the information processing time, and 20% of an 8 hour day
  • Spends 47 minutes, or 24% of IP time on telephone and voice mail
  • Receives …

What is Product Management?

I just came across an interesting article that discusses the Product Management role.  As you can see from this post it’s quite topical, so I have commented on some extracts below.

What is Product Management?

Most people accept that “product management” is a term used to describe the sum of diverse activities performed in the interest of delivering a particular product to market. Such a broad definition, used by many companies today, is the root of much grief because it dilutes the professional focus necessary to achieve successful results and allows virtually any product-related task to be assigned to the product manager.

I agree that this definition is too broad,  I believe we address it in my company by assigning project managers to do the delivery management and focusing on ensuring that the lifecycle management activities can be achieved effectively, rather than trying to do them all ourselves! 

The overall perceived obstacle that the typical product manager encounters is the pervasive lack of professional focus. One can be adequate at many things, but it is difficult to excel at many. Many product managers therefore view themselves as trapped in a never-ending juggling routine. Having too many tasks to juggle eventually …

Options

I am currently considering my career options.  After a year working part time I believe I have a very sound understanding of the opportunities and constraints associated with Adult Onset Still Disease and its affect on work. 

Very briefly the good:

  • I have a lot of time for learning and maintaining my expertise (in addition to my formal working day) and for thinking and reviewing
  • This equips me well for advisory and planning roles
  • I work an extended day from home
  • I need to do a lot of low intensity exercise, which also allows me to make phone calls and listen to technical briefings/conferences etc

and just as briefly the bad:

  • I need to work mainly from home
  • I only work between 4 and 6 hours a day
  • I am most suited to longer term work, because of the day to day variability of the conditions
  • I am better working in a supporting rather than leadership role

I have three main options that I am considering with my company:

  • Working within a Product Management team, which is primarily concerned with managing the products and services we provide to customers through their lifecycle.  This means making sure that we correctly …

How Still’s has affected my life – the answer suprised me!

I visitied my specialist last week and he asked me how Still’s affected me, focussing on issues like could I dress myself, cook etc.  I am fortunate that Steroids seems to keep the major inflamatory affects of Stills reasonably under control so I am able to lead a fairly normal life, when I don’t feel too good I just don’t do certain things, or get one of my 4 girls or my wife to help out.  

After I had left though I got to thininking how I have modified my life to work around Still’s and I realised what a major effect it has had, it’s just that I have adjusted in such a way that it does not seem that I have given too much up overall. In fact taken as a whole I think I am happier post Still’s, but that’s probably as much to do with my positive outlook on life as anything else.  These are some of the changes:

1.      I cann’t do all sorts of things I used to do:

a.       No DIY

b.      No climbing

c.       No weight training

d.      No hiking

e.       No heavy …

My research interests

A colleague of mine recently asked me what my IT research interests are.  It got me thinking; I am interested in lots of things, but only a few that I am prepared to put serious time and effort into.  Here they are: Personal Knowledge Management Team communication, collaboration and co-ordination,...