Life as I Know It

Archive for the ‘Personal’ Category

The Kindness of Strangers

I even, despite my genetic disadvantage1, addressed and stamped said thank you note. I stuck it in my back pocket, intending to drop it in the mailbox near home on my way out.

I then proceeded to completely forget about it, and ride all over the neighborhood. I was leaving New Seasons when I realized it was missing.

Well, maybe someone will mail it, I thought. But they did me one better. When I got home, it was sitting on my mailbox. So now I don’t have to wonder if it ever got sent (assuming I can make get it safely to the mailbox on the next try).

Thanks for being so Portland, Portland.

1. My mom was notorious for intending to mail things and never doing it. Christmas cards sent eight months later? Completely typical. I sent more than a few posthumous cards after cleaning out her house. Man that must have been freaky for the recipients… 

How I Hacked My Sleep and Turned Into a Morning Person

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I’m not big into New Year’s resolutions, but the end of the year does tend to invite both reflection and planning. Being newly self-employed, I knew how important it would be to establish a routine. I also recently discovered the concept of the 30 day challenge. I like it because it’s less daunting than a year, but it’s longer than the 21 days it supposedly takes to create a habit.

Inspired by a developer I follow on Twitter, @ollierattue I set my first 30 Day Challenge of 2013 to get up before 7am each day, including weekends. I started on January 2nd.

This also nicely supported two of my other goals for the year to reintegrate regular reading and writing back into my life. Of the many articles I read, the best advice I found was regarding the importance of the evening routine in having a successful morning.

In other words, if you want to get up early, TAKE YOUR ASS TO BED.

Duh.

I crafted a night routine with the following goals:

  • No eating or drinking one hour before bed.
  • No screens (TV, laptop, phone) one hour before bed
  • Get ready for bed early in the evening
  • Spend the last 30-60 minutes before bed reading (paper or Kindle only)

In order to make the routine work, the first thing I had to do was give up live television. Most of the shows we like to watch come on at 10pm, which is when I should be turning the lights out. We can get all of our shows on Hulu anyway, right on our TV.

I also put my phone, which double as my alarm, on my dresser across the room. When it went off, I got up, turned it off, and headed straight into the bathroom, where I had my clothes laid out, and got dressed immediately. The space heater in the bathroom helps immensely on cold mornings.

My morning routine looked like this:

  • Feed cats. (They’re nearly always throwing themselves against the bedroom door by 6am so there was no chance of forgetting this vital step)
  • Do other cat chores (litter, water refill etc)
  • Make smoothie and tea
  • Write three pages
  • Review to-do list for the day
  • Clear email inbox

One of the things I read about waking up successfully was not to try to ‘ease’ your way to your target hour, but just go right for it. So I set my alarm for 5:30am most days and I was surprised how quickly it became normal to pop up at that time. It also became easier to go to bed early because very quickly I began to actually be tired around 9:00 or 10:00pm. There were some days that all I could think about after getting up was how soon I could take a nap. But I actually never ended up napping. I’d get wrapped up in the days tasks and soon I wasn’t having midday slumps anymore. I also stopped drinking coffee at home and started drinking large amounts of mostly decaf tea.

For my new writing habit, I use a site I learned about from Heather, called 750words.com. So far I have a 50 day streak. On the reading front, I set up a Goodreads account and I’ve read 11 books in the past six weeks, which might be more books than I read in all of 2012.

There are lots of people who will tell you that most successful people are early risers. I don’t know about that, and I’m not suggesting that anyone who sleeps past 10am isn’t productive. I’ve done plenty of great work between midnight and 4am.* I just decided to try something new, and so far I’m liking the results.

Early mornings give me quiet and automatic alone time and abstaining from any digital communication before I’ve given myself time to think has been great for clarifying my priorities. I even managed to keep to my schedule while changing time zones by three hours to attend the presidential inauguration.

When my 30 Day challenge officially ended, I had every intention of keeping up with it, but in early February I caught a cold and then I had surgery. This is my first week getting back on the wagon. Since my wife doesn’t even get home from work until 9:00pm or later on her work days, realistically I don’t go to sleep until 11:00 on those days. So I’m not hitting the 5:30am mark yet, but I’ve been able to keep to 7:00 or 7:30 at the very latest. I try to make sure I’m getting at least 7 hours of sleep on a regular basis. I know if I start shorting myself sleep just to make some arbitrary wake up time, I will crash and burn.

If you want to do a 30 day challenge, but need a little public accountability to stay motivated, there’s a 30 Day Challenge website. You can read notes from my sleep challenge.

I’m still deciding on my next challenge. The format is full of possibilities.

References:

I’m Done With Handshakes

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I don’t know who invented the handshake, but I’m gonna go out on a limb and say it was a bad idea.

Having been married to a nurse for seven years, I have managed to become quite the germophobe. I never really thought that much about germs before I met Jess and though I didn’t get sick all the time, one or two colds a year was pretty normal.

It only took a few months of living together before the new rules were thoroughly ingrained. Coming home from anything? Wash your hands. Rode the bus? Don’t even think about touching anything before you wash your hands. Getting into the car after a grocery run? Would you like hand sanitizer with that?

Even with my genetically enhanced stubbornness, I got the message pretty quickly. Though after seven years together she will still ask if I’ve washed my hands after returning home, just to be sure.

My colds went from one or two per year to every other year or better. What do you know, science might be on to something!

My vigilance must have slipped lately because I caught a cold just two weeks ago. It was cause for concern because I’m having minor surgery to remove some fibroids and if I was sick, then it would have to be postponed, probably for months. Luckily I recovered quickly and after that, I was even more paranoid.

I saw a news story recently about the fact that it’s not the cold that makes everyone get sick in the winter. It’s the fact that we congregate indoors because it’s cold. shaking hands, touching doorknobs, and touching our faces where our eyes and noses are just waiting to collect something nasty.

I’ve been to two events with large groups of people this week, and with the stake higher than usual, I made the decision to avoid all handshaking.

Easier said than done.

The conditioning of a lifetime is hard to break in a single evening. The first time a hand was offered to me, I explained that I wasn’t shaking hands. But later in the evening, my guard slipped and I reflexively reached out and grabbed–then instantly regretted it. I headed off to the restroom shortly after, to wash up.

Yesterday I attended my first Lunch 2.0, a networking event for tech professionals. This was going to be big challenge. Along with my name and title on my name tag, I wrote in parenthesis “(I don’t shake hands).” Lots of people still stuck their hands out at me of course, but I kept mine in my pockets, and explained that I don’t shake hands (at which point they would usually read the message on my name tag and we’d move on).

It worked pretty well. When a friend offered a pink swear instead, I countered with a hug, after which we ‘air fived.’ For strangers, I think fist bumping would be a good alternative as well, though I haven’t tried that yet.

I count the whole experiment was a success. And the more I thought about it, the more I realize there’s no reason to go back to risking my health just because of some stupid tradition. The Japanese are on to something with their custom of bowing. Much more sanitary.

So I’m planning to stick with it, and with any luck, I’ll just become known as ‘that weird person who doesn’t shake hands,’ and life will move on as usual–hopefully with less sniffling.

Big Changes

Hey there! You might have noticed that things are a bit different around here. I’m changing up a lot of things in 2013 and around here that means taking the site down to the studs and refocusing on my core mission to get back to writing regularly.

I’ve installed the Frank WordPress theme by P.J. Onori because it’s gorgeously simple and focused on the words. I’ll definitely tweak things as I go along, but since my biggest pet peeve about the web involves lack of readability (that’s a rant for a separate post), I wanted something that looks good anywhere you want to read it.

My previous design was done somewhat under duress and involved fulfilling a lot of requirements in order to graduate. Then of course, I got a job and this place has been all but abandoned since then.

I parted ways with Metal Toad last November and after spending some time remodeling our house, I’m now diving into starting my own freelance business.

This space will become my personal blog and I’ll launch a new business website with an updated portfolio soon. I’m actively seeking WordPress and/or Drupal projects. I’ve been away from WordPress for the past couple of years and I’m looking forward to getting back into it on a regular basis and connecting with the awesome WordPress community I know we have in Portland. I did manage to attend the last Portland Wordcamp, and I even got a fancy WP iPhone case from the man himself.

I still love Drupal too and I’m looking forward to Drupalcon Portland. I guess you could say I’m bi-technical.

So update your RSS readers, subscribe to posts or just check back soon. I have lots to say, and it’s past time to start using my voice again.