Strange week – and lots of loud language from the persian populist running the nuke programs.

• “Who are they anyway?” (referring to “the west”) – News24
• “World needs new world order” – PressTv
• “West not brave enough” – PressTv
• “Obama a disappointment” – Jerusalem Post

This apparent confidence is hard to assess – but the fronts are hardening. A broke and supressive regime is playing out a lot of their cards. Maybe it’s about to crack, maybe the global attention is intoxicating, maybe they’re terrified, maybe things are very different behind the scenes. We follow the story.

For some, a coach is just the right companion.  What about you? Your answer might be “yes.” Your answer might be “that is a good idea,” but “where do I even start?”

Let’s take a look at a few things you need to consider.   Since people are all made differently, it is a good idea to do your research.

When you are looking for a successful life coach, you need to find someone who has the experience and the personal attributes which will mesh with your own.   Personal coaching is still relatively new; however, personal coaching provides you the same benefits which rivals that of a sports coach. As personal coaching grows in popularity, the field becomes more crowded with people claiming they have experience and ability.  Look for a coach who is certified and has had experience in the field in which you are interested.  A coach helps you to get clarity into your goals and insights into what will make your ideas a reality.

What does 2010 hold for you?  How clear are you about what it takes to get there?  Have you dared to set deadlines?  How will you measure your success?

I am moving our email and specific event posts to Big Tent. This will allow you to see all the GS events for our different troops and Service Unit in layers on a month view of calendar. For example in January we have:

• Troop 3763 Mtgs first and third Tuesdays
• Troop 3310 Mtgs second and fourth Tuesdays
• SU403 events Jan 17 card decorating, Jan 23 Polar Swim, Jan 30 Badge Workshop

Additionally, we will be able to do ONLINE & PAPERLESS

• RSVPs
• event payments, and
• permission slips

This will allow me to spend much less time on troop paperwork! It will allow you to read your announcements via email or online or via Big Tent Blink. Big Tent Blink sends you an email at your set frequency and notifies you of upcoming event reminders! Your member information and addresses of our events will be secure in Big Tent because our group is a “members only” group that is not advertised on their directory.

To JOIN Big Tent:

1. Follow the link in the email invitation you received. If you did not receive an invitation or if you cannot locate it, please contact me after looking in your spam box.
2. Create your Big Tent account and enter your name and girl scout’s name(s). You can choose to include birthdays and upload photos also.
3. Join Creekside Girl Scouts
4. Expect another email invitation to the subgroups that you are involved.

I have set up Creekside Girl Scouts and the following subgroups:

• Troop 3763 Lil’ Sis’ Troop
• Troop 3310 Creekside Cadettes
• Troop Committee
• plus the SU403 and GSNETX events will be posted on the main group Creekside GS for each family to determine their interest and level of activity or busy-ness.

We use Big Tent for several of the homeschool groups, field trips, and homeschool co-ops to which my friends and I belong. It partners with Paypal for payment options. You and the troop can link your checking account to Big Tent with no service fees. I will post links about the safety and security of Paypal and Big Tent. We’ve learned to prefer Paypal over our debit card online, it’s much safer!

If you are still reading, I’ll tell you about how I see this working with the blog. The Juniors of troop 8793 are no longer part of “Creekside Girl Scouts” as I have created it. Anita simply decided she didn’t need a co-leader anymore and she will remain the leader of troop 8793. We have troop 3763 for Daisies and Brownies and troop 3310 for Cadettes. Next year we may grow again to include juniors IF there are sisters of girls joining our existing troops and IF there are parents willing to be co-leaders at those levels.

I love the way our sister troops are working together and the way families with multiple ages of girl scouts are benefiting from being part of Creekside Girl Scouts. Additionally, the girls are getting their separate age appropriate Girl Scout program. As a wonderful side benefit, I feel able to minister to families that I meet in the area, often by simply listening to a mom who needs to talk.

This blog http://creeksidegs.wordpress.com will continue to be the “public” place to refer new families, a place to link to all things Girls Scouts for our members, and a place to showcase the fun Creekside Girl Scouts are having. This is a place where your daughters can read and explore too, as they venture online. This blog is Sarah’s homepage for her computer. ) It helps her keep up with which Girl Scout event is coming up next!

Big Tent will be our “members only site” for events, calendar, cookie announcements, RSVPs, event payment, online paperless permission slips, GS announcements, and member forums, and leadership discussion. I hope you will join me on Big Tent as soon as possible and I hope it will be as profitable to protecting our busy time as moms. God Bless you this Christmas-time!

Empty Production Line

You would think after 18 months of forming and stabilising my development team that we’d have a pretty strong and settled process in place.  But the development team is only one player in a larger ecosystem and how that team is fed depends heavily on the requirements that they are given.

When you’re in the software building business, the pressure to deliver something – anything – by a certain date can be quite intense.  Sometimes its because a marketing campaign is scheduled, sometimes because a product is being released that the software needs to tie into or it may be that a service has been promised to customers or end-users by that date.  Whatever the reason, developers work best when given a fixed set of requirements to deliver by a committed, set target date.

Contrast this with a situation where one or more of the following situations occurs regularly:

• The client provides requirements with an assurance that they are “final and signed-off”, but continues to insist that small additions or amendments be made right up until – or even after – the final testing process has begun.
• The client – in agreement with you – settles on a deliverable date by which all scoped work should be provided.  This is then casually pushed out to accommodate scope creep or alter the requirements.
• The functional requirements are running late and the client asks that you just get started with what they’ve documented so far and the rest will be added in as you go.
• The final requirements provided to the development team include numerous assumptions, vague functional specifications and “documented omissions” that will – assuredly – be provided in due course.

People generally don’t enjoy working like this.  There is motivation, job satisfaction and a personal sense of pride (among other benefits) to be found in the challenge of achieving a goal.  People – and developers in particular – work well under conditions of managed stress and challenges where there is a tangible reward to be found at the end.  That reward is self-respect, the pride in achievement, appreciation, recognition or respect of the client and stakeholders and satisfaction in the delivery of a quality product.  Take away the measures for those motivators and you take away the motivation as well.

The Problem

Consider these scenarios:

1. Your development team is working to a tight deadline, busting themselves to achieve it.  At the last minute it gets moved out. Your team was expecting victory, some congratulations and appreciation (maybe a cake), and instead all they get is more work.
2. The team is working to a difficult deadline, and must cut corners. They build things quick-and-dirty because time is short and it’s better to have something ugly that works than something beautiful half-built. The deadline is pushed back and now the team (or, more likely, the Team Lead) have to explain why they did such a rough job. The time to clean it up is longer than the extension.
3. The deadline gets moved out, so the team realigns priorities, working on the new goals for the altered requirements.  The estimate for work is recalculated and work carries on towards the new deadline.  This happens once – maybe twice – more before the final deliverable is released.  The line manager asks the Team Lead how the original estimate compared to the actual development cost and the Team Lead must explain why the scope and cost started at Point A for $10 000, but finished at Point C for a total cost of $25 000.  (Even worse is if you have no adequate measurements of effort spend per developer and cannot even provide figures for how the estimate compares with the final product).

Vague deadlines open the door for:

• Delivery dates that are hard to commit to
• Meaningless estimates
• Impact on scope for other deliverables

Conversely, vague requirements lend themselves to

• Scope creep
• Technical deficiencies
• Redundant or inaccurate estimates

As a product owner, line manager or client, you should be concerned about this because

1. Your development costs begin to run away on you
2. Your product quality slips
3. Your development team becomes disillusioned, disaffected or cynical
4. Future projects are put at risk as your development team becomes accustomed to deadline extensions and scope changes

Any one of these issues should be enough to cause concern – if not from a purely cost point of view then from a risk and succession planning one.  So what steps can be done to ensure that the psychology of your software shop team is healthy and robust?

The Solution

When it comes down to it, there are two broad ways in which you can remedy the state of delivered requirements and conditions under which you are expected to deliver the final product: influence the client (i.e. require them to adapt their processes to accommodate your needs better) or influence your environment (i.e. adapt your own internal processes to compensate for those factors outside your control).  The first is harder to achieve in large amounts although depending on what is asked of the client and how the request is packaged up, some results may be better than others.  The second allows more immediate and practical scope for change, but may not provide the breadth of control needed to effect meaningful results.

To this end, the following strategies can help you add value to your own service delivery:

• Ensure you have tools for defining when a deliverable has been satisfied.
• Ensure estimates are based on tiny tasks, each no longer than a day or two.
• Ensure requirements are measurable (e.g. “Function X should work in exactly this way…”) and work with the client until they are.
• Build to your own shorter fixed time frames (e.g. monthly) that can be dove-tailed into the client’s delivery deadlines.
• Deliver only to your agreed time frames and initial scope, with any deadline or scope changes being pooled into a backlog to be commenced on completion of the original project requirements.
• Ensure you leverage the tools you have to give you meaningful information about how your production process is performing and identify ways in which it could be streamlined.

The concepts around Lean Software Development provide excellent, non-prescriptive strategies for approaching the development process and for looking at key areas in which to improve: in particular, minimising waste.

Well-Tuned Production

Ultimately, the best approach is to engage with the client and agree on a requirements / product delivery process that affords each party the flexibility they need coupled with the policies against which they can most effectively operate.  Setting the expectation with the client that late or incomplete requirements will result in those affected features being delayed for a future iteration (or until the requirements are satisfactory) and then committing to that will create a culture where there are consequences for a relaxed approach and reduces the waiting around or re-work for the development team.

No project – or any other relationship for that matter – can operate in strong and healthy way unless both parties are communicating effectively and often.  The development team can feel empowered and resolute with fixed, predictable deadlines and a set of confirmed, explicitly-defined requirements.  The client can feel more comfortable about their requirements delivery knowing that they can provide only those instructions that have been properly thought-out and need not operate under pressure to some intangible time frame.  Both parties know that if something can’t be provided in this iteration, it will not be forgotten and gets scheduled for completion on the next pass.

Protecting the head space of the development team is often stated to be the sole responsibility of the TTL, however the reality is that it often takes the contributions of a number of stakeholders to really create the sort of environment where the developer can fully thrive.

This year’s Punxmas was definitely one of the best. Thanks to everyone one for coming out, having a good time and making it a great show! Every band did great, the crowd was energetic and I got lots of good photos. I wanted to give a thanks to Deadlines for coming out and playing. This was their first show and they really impressed me with their old school 80’s hardcore sound. I can’t wait to see how next year turns out…

]]> http://wrightwriter.wordpress.com/2009/12/18/first-draft-blues/ Fri, 18 Dec 2009 21:57:35 +0000 wrightwriter http://wrightwriter.wordpress.com/2009/12/18/first-draft-blues/

Not every word needs to be a gem. Not in the first draft anyway. So why is it so hard to get the words on the page? I’ve got I’m-thinking-way-too-far-ahead-itis and it’s getting in the way of the writing.

I know exactly how I want my project to turn out, so I keep trying to get the work to a finished level on the first try. And I need to stop. I know if I keep on this road, I’m not going to even want to put fingers to keys and I’ll stop writing altogether.

Putting the words on the page was easy to do when I was writing NaNoWriMo. My self-editor was banished to the outer limits and I happily typed away at my story. Nothing was really at stake. I knew my NaNo story was unlikely to have a life after the month was over.

But this current project is different. I’m excited about it. I think about it every day. It’s consuming all my spare thinking time—well, what little there is among the holiday planning, finishing my teaching chores for the semester, and family. I have a goal to have it published by spring and I know it’s doable. (Yes, I’m self-publishing, but that’s another story.) In other words, this time I really care.

Okay. Enough. Right now, I’m giving myself a good mental kick in the pants to forget perfection and just get the words on the page. I’d love to hear your strategies or “been there, done thats” because I know what’s next is not going to be easy. But for now–

Kick. Ouch! Onward.

Christmas is only just over a week away and as I type I can still see some snow!  You’re probably in a rush to get home or to wherever you’re spending the Christmas vacation and graduate schemes, placements for next summer or the next academic year may well be the last thing on your mind.

They should be! Some deadlines will close during the Christmas and New Year period, so now’s the time to make any applications to those schemes that close soon.  You don’t want to leave it until New Year’s Eve to fill in the form that closes on January 1st because a) you never know how long it will take/when your internet connection my freeze up and b) some schemes may have a stated closing date but may be really full already so you don’t want to lessen your chances by being on the last-minute.

If you have a look at the vacancies section on our website, you’ll be able to search through the vacancies that are live on our system now and start making your applications.

Here’s a snapshot of some of the Industrial placement schemes on there now which close in the next few weeks:

• Merck, Sharp & Dohme Formulation Placement – closes: 30 December 2009
• 3M Industrial Placement Opportunities – closes: 31 December 2009
• ConocoPhillips IT Assistant – closes: 1 January 2010
• Atkins Global Student Placements – closes: 10 January 2010
• IBM Industrial Placement Scheme – closes: 31 January 2010

The following internships (easter or summer) close in the same period:

• Morgan Stanley Finance Summer Intern Programme, London – closes: 31 December 2009
• Civil Service Summer Diversity of Internship Programme – closes: 4 January 2010
• Macquarie Summer Internship Opportunities – closes: 6 January 2010
• UBS Insights Course (in March 2010 for those graduating 2012) – closes: 17 January 2010

Graduate Schemes with deadlines approaching are:

• BSkyB Future Talent Graduate Marketing Scheme (and other roles) – closes: 28 December 2009
• The Environment Agency Graduate and Sponsorship Engineers – closes: 30 December 2009
• Merlin Entertainments Graduate Management Programme – closes: 8 January 2010
• Unilever Future Leaders Programme – closes: 8 January 2010

So, while you’re off over the Christmas vacation don’t forget to check if any organisations you are interested in have deadlines approaching.  If they do, good luck with your applications!

Even the worst lawyers you’ve encountered – and we know there are plenty of them out there – have had the benefit of four years of college, three years of law school, and a passed bar exam in at least one state. The bar (no pun intended) for being able to call yourself a lawyer may not be all that high, but it’s there.

In contrast, any yahoo with a pencil and a scratch pad can call him- or herself a freelance writer. This is a frightening thing. The good news for you, however, is that just doing what you say you’ll do puts you leaps and bounds ahead of most of the pack.

There’s a great quote from Gloria Steinem in the January 2010 issue of Writer’s Digest:

There’s really a shortage of good freelance writers…There are a lot of talented people who are very erratic, so either they don’t turn it in or they turn it in and it’s rotten; it’s amazing. Somebody who’s even maybe not all that terrific but who is dependable, who will turn in a publishable piece more or less on time, can really do very well.

Encouraging, isn’t it? And, in my experience, completely true. Here are a few specifics to keep in mind:

1. Deliver what’s asked. If an editor wants a 500-word piece with a 100-word sidebar, don’t turn in 400 words total – or, nearly as bad, 1000 words. You don’t need to hit your word count right on the button, but don’t stray too far from it in either direction. You may think that an editor can pare your stuff down to the correct length, but that’s actually your job.

2. Hit your deadlines. All the time. Even better, turn things in a little early when you can (but don’t ever sacrifice quality in order to do so). Writers upon whom editors can truly rely are rarer than unicorns – become one of them and you’ll never want for work.

3. Turn in clean, polished work. Everything you turn in should be spellchecked, grammatically correct, and double-checked for accuracy. If you cite outside sources, include a list of them with contact information so that the publication’s fact-checker doesn’t have to hunt them down. The better you do your job, the easier you make theirs, and the more they’ll like working with you.

P.S. Preferred pricing on the “From Lawyer To Writer” Coaching Club ends Dec. 31st! Don’t miss out – learn more here.

The semester is over and with it my poetry class.  Tomorrow I bike to school to pick up my term project: a collection of poems with revisions and an essay describing what I’ve learned about myself as a poet.

I’ll tell you a little of my journey here.

Once upon a time, I hated poetry.  I thought it overly sentimental and pretentious.  Keeping an open mind, I signed up for Intro to Poetry in hopes that it would help me develop my descriptive abilities.

Day One.  The instructor, Josh, is young and passionate.  Our first lesson: “What is Poetry?”  He tells us that poetry conveys a message, just as any other writing, but it focuses on the details–on the specific, the concrete (evoking the senses) and the meaningful (evoking emotion).  That made me think of macro photography.  Probably because, at the time, I had been taking hundreds of photos like these:

Aloe Vera

Toes

That’s when Poetry and I fell in love.  I am a glutton for detail, and I dig into the human experience with an intensity that frightens the fainthearted.  We’re perfect for each other.

Day two.  Lesson number two: “Bad Poetry or What to Avoid”.  Josh tells us to stay away from abstractions, generalizations and judgements.  Judgements include stereotypes and giving undeserved emotion to people, places or things (e.g. angry wind, melancholy skyscraper, etc.)  In other words, they’re the very thing that makes a poem sound cheesy.

Our first poem, a “place poem”, is due at the end of class, to be written in only 20 minutes time.  I feel both nervous and exhilarated by the challenge.  Given line by line directions, this is what I wrote:

In Tempe, bicycles wheel along cracked sidewalks.

The spokes throw sunlight, poking drivers’ eyes.

Tires write stop marks against the white cement.

They sound like the shrieking of cats in heat.

The tires remind me

Of kids running

In canvas sneakers

On neighborhood streets.

But in Tempe, ice cream melts before your lips can touch it,

Cacti threaten you with sharp objects,

And coffee shops pull their shades, closing before ten.

Is the poem meaningful?  Not really, though it’s pretty accurate to my experience of Tempe, but the joy of creating such sensory-rich description emboldened me to write more.

In the first few months, I wrote twice as many poems as were due, and I tortured myself with a good 40 hours of revising my first assignment. This is when I decided that if there is a hell, it is filled with poetry revision.

The second half of the semester was rough.  Somewhere along the way I lost my thirst for poems and assignments were only written the night or morning before class because they were due.  I could probably point to many reasons for my loss of zeal, but it is best summed by saying that I exhausted myself with my own fervency.  Nonetheless, those due dates kept coming, and I ended up writing things I wouldn’t have otherwise written–thereby discovering things about myself I wouldn’t have discovered.

I still have the bad habit of only writing when I feel like it. That’s why it has taken me a month to write a new blog post. Many successful writers have advised daily writing–writing when you’re up, down or just plain apathetic. I’m starting to think this might be useful advice. Maybe I’ll follow it.

more of my poetry

Hey all. I realize many of you are in the thick of the college process right now. I remember the stresses, the deadlines, the applications, the essays, and of course the age-old question: Do you know where you are going to school next year?

If you are reading this you are presumably considering Bates. I don’t want to add any more pressure to your hectic pre-college experience, but in the last couple of years of blogging for Bates I have written a little bit about the process which I hope will be helpful:

“I realize that many of you are in the final steps of the college process and presumably, if you are reading this blog, considering Bates. Rather than push anything on you (you’ve dealt with enough of that I’m sure) I will leave you with one piece of advice: think seriously about what you want to get out of four years of education, what type of environment you want to learn in, what opportunities each school offers, and, in the long run, where you think you will be happiest. Ultimately, it is a personal choice and I wish all of you the best of luck in the picking process. There are a lot of great schools out there and I hope you all end up in the school that you feel best fits. You’re nearing the end of the process. Hang in there and good luck. I hope to see many of you at Bates next year.”

“If you are waiting to find out… all I can say is hang in there. I applied early decision and remember how nerve-racking the wait is. It is frustrating too because you feel completely powerless over the process. After all the stress and pressure of the big tests and applications, all you can do is wait and that can be very difficult. I know it is easier said than done, but try your best to just relax and go with the flow. If you get in, congratulations. If you get deferred, hang in there and don’t give up. If you don’t get the acceptance you hoped for, don’t be hard on yourself. There are so many great schools. Bates is a unique place that is very special but that doesn’t mean there aren’t other great schools out there.

You might be thinking, ‘easy for Paul to say all this… he is already settled and happy in school’. Yes, this is true but I was in your shoes not too long ago and understand where you’re coming from. Whatever happens, try to stay positive, patient, and open-minded. I wish all of you the best of luck.”

Until next time…

Potrebbe essere orientato a fare una foto al giorno, o forse una foto alla settimana o anche solo una foto al mese. L’importante sarebbe avere delle scadenze fisse, perchè le “deadlines” sono stimolanti ed aiutano ad essere produttivi, anche nelle attività creative.

Ed il tema ? Sicuramente eviterò un tema dove il soggetto sia di tipo tecnico. Ho visto degli splendidi progetti su Flickr durante quest’anno basati sul bokeh o sulla fotografia macro o sul bianco e nero ma… non fa per me.
Probabilmente mi orienterò su un tema… emozionale… su un fil rouge che dovrà unire le varie foto senza creare un vincolo tecnico.

E tu cel’hai un progetto fotografico per il 2010 ?
Potrebbe essere interessante condividerlo. O anche farlo in collaborazione.

Two weeks ago, I had an accident; I fell head first down the concrete steps into my basement. During the five hours I lay there, I realized that my unfinished book was unimportant. What was important was the way I lead my life. My daughter calls me “The No Matter What Lady.” No matter what I stick to my schedules. When writing a book, having a schedule helps when the unexpected happens. Unable to write new chapters at first, I added two weeks to my deadlines but I didn’t abandon them. Thanks to God, Advil and Arnica, I am healing and my mind is once again in full gear.

Writing a novel demands creative thinking. My creativity arrives in fits and starts. And that is how I write — in fits and starts. Some writers write three hours every morning but authors, unlike writers, create and that cannot be scheduled. I am an author. An author is a person who makes an original something or whose profession is making up stories written into books. A writer is any person who writes — even letters or a diary or e-mails. Nearly everyone is a writer, only some of us are authors.

Writing nonfiction on issues that have been surveyed thoroughly is easier for me than authoring my own ideas for fiction. I find being an author requires using resources. Aids, such as deadlines, help. One of the aids I use is a sheaf of blank sheets of paper and pencils in spots everywhere. So if I am watching TV, the pile of blank papers next to my chair says that I am not using my creativity.

What aids do you use?

When I quit work to stay home with him, my first goal was to potty train the boy.  Needless to say, this still has not occurred. Although he was young, I had read all kinds of things online about how to potty train kids before 18 months, and a cousin of mine had done it with all of her kids, so I thought – how hard could this be?

My last week of work, on one of my lunch hours, I even went out and bought a potty seat so we could start right away.  I read up on just what to do, and it didn’t seem all that hard.

Yes - our child has a potty seat on his head (he got a bath shortly thereafter)

The joke has been completely on me.  The boy loves the potty seat as you can see from the picture, but sitting on it – not so much.

Yes, this is our child with a potty seat on his head.  What can I say…we’re no closer to being potty trained today than we were in August.  Oh well, I guess. That’s the less type A personality in me coming out. No longer am I as stressed about deadlines. He’ll figure it out eventually.

For now I’m much more concerned with the germs originating from the potty seat on his head!

For some weeks now, maybe months, I have been building up draft posts behind the scenes here. Why do I never finish and post them, I wondered. Then I was writing a plan for my next major piece of writing (more major than a research proposal, longer than an essay… the much-anticipated dissertation). I realised that I’d need to set deadlines for each chapter, each section of writing.

If I don’t have deadlines for the blog, I’ll never post. I’d like to post, therefore I need some deadlines. I’m going to aim to post every week for the next year. This, being the week of my birthday, is a good start; this is Sunday, First Day by Quaker reckoning. I might post more often than once a week, but if I don’t post in that long, I’ll have to… think of some blog-related forfeit to undertake. What is the online equivalent of eating one’s hat?

I will post once this week (i.e. before next Sunday), not counting this post, and every week thereafter for at least a year.

Wish me luck and let me know if there’s anything you’d like me to write about.

Okay. NaNoWriMo has been over for almost two weeks now and how much writing are you doing? Are you writing every day? Or has your word count since November 30^th dwindled to an embarrassingly low daily average?  If your daily writing pattern has changed back to a not-very-inspiring normal, I’m betting you are not alone. It’s hard to keep going when such a great incentive has run its course.

I have a solution, but here’s a little background first. I’m part of a small writers’ group that meets once a month and during July this year, we set ourselves a challenge of writing every day. We kept our personal goals to ourselves, but we let each other know by the end of the day (and sometimes very close to midnight) that we had reached our goals by sending an e-mail with the word “done” in the subject line. The idea came from an article that I read in a writers’ magazine. An author said that this is how her writing group works every day.

For the month of July we met our goals, did lots of writing, and enjoyed reaching our “dones.” However, in August most of us went back to our everything-else-is-more-important-than-writing modes and … well you can imagine the rest.

If you’re missing NaNoWriMo and would like an incentive to get some writing “done,” I’m proposing a Twitter hashtag #ididthewriting. You set your own writing goal. It may be as simple as just thinking about the book and doing some brainstorming. It might be 500 words a day until the chapter is done. And you are free to adapt the goal to your life and writing needs at the moment and to not tell anyone what it is.

The purpose is to give yourself a daily reminder that you are a writer and to honour that by doing something writerly every day. If  you’re not on Twitter, post a “done” comment on my blog page or on an email to me at wright underscore writer at hotmail dot com. Now’s the time to think about what you want to do with your writing life and join me at #ididthewriting.

so i’m laying on my bed…
listening to the rain pour and die
just to pour again
actually wishing for an insomnia attack
yes i actually call them that
it’s just like asthma
you never really know when it’s gonna hit
i wish it would hit now
i feel like being so creative
but my eye’s are giving me a deadline of about an hour
so here are some thoughts for the early sunday morning:

obscure thoughts are the best kind of thoughts
because you can say them out loud, and still
no one will know what you’re thinking about

i’m having way too many jekyll and hyde fights with myself lately.
it feels so much easier to slip away
but i can’t find it in me to let go completely

rain streaming down my window
my cat’s purring
my dog’s snoring
i could listen to these all at once forever
and die happy

insomnia has a tendency to become a choice rather than an illness
at least for me
at least for now

clarity is a rarity
and i can’t find it after i sleep
i only reach it when i’m awake

and now i say goodnight moon
goodnight stars
goodnight love
wherever you are
falling asleep to the brilliance that is Chaplin
hoping that tomorrow will keep me relaxed

smile
though your heart is breaking
smile
even though it’s aching
when there are clouds in the sky
you’ll get by
if you smile
through your tears and sorrow
smile
and maybe tomorrow
the sun will shine through
for you
if you just
smile

When I first started teaching, I just had due dates for papers and found that students would often turn papers in late. To deter this, I added a penalty to late papers. Then, in a bout of altruism, I decided to try rewarding students for turning papers in on time with a small grade bonus. Interestingly, a reward worked far less effectively than a penalty.

Eventually I switched to having a due date for the paper draft and then a deadline for the revision of the paper. The due date for the draft comes with no rewards or penalties.  I set the date mainly to motivate students to at least start on the paper within the first month of the semester. I also have the draft so that the students will have a paper grade in place, just in case something goes wrong.  Not surprisingly, a significant number of students do not bother with the draft.

The deadline is different in that I do not accept a paper after the deadline. The deadline is, of course, near the end of the semester. While most students do make the deadline, some do not. Some do attempt to turn in something a week or two after the deadline, but I do not accept those papers. In such cases, the student gets the draft grade (even if it is a zero).

On one hand, I might be seen as cruel and unfair for setting a deadline. After all, students can run into problems and, of course,  getting a zero on the paper will cerainly result in a rather bad grade in the class. It might also be argued that deadlines are arbitrary-why that day and not another?

On the other hand, a good case can be made for having a deadline and not alowing exceptions. First, the deadline is fair as I use it. It is clearly noted on the syllabus and I announce it in class everyday. As such, it is not something that simply sneaks up to kill a student’s grade.

Second, the students have most of the semester to work on the paper and turn in drafts for grades. As such, it is very poor planning on a student’s part to do nothing until after the deadline. Third, since most of the students stick to the deadline it would be unfair to them to allow people to simply turn in papers late.

Fourth, allowing students to ignore deadlines teaches bad habits. While the deadline is a date I set, life is full of deadlines and it is both important and useful to get into the habit of meeting those deadlines. I do not do a student any service by helping train him/her that deadlines can be safely ignored and bypassed. After all, when the student runs into that deadline that cannot be ignored or bypassed and ends up in dire straits, then I would have to accept some tiny measure of the blame for encouraging that bad habit.

Finally, I meet the deadlines that I am required to meet as a professor (such as recording attendance so the students can get their financial aid and  entering grades on time so they can graduate). As such, it hardly seems unreasonable for me to expect the same of my students. Naturally, I also have a selfish reason for he deadline-I want to be able to get all the papers at once so I can grade them and be done with my work. Having papers trickle in after a deadline is like doing the dishes after dinner, asking in there is anything left to be cleaned, draining the sink, putting away the soap, towel and sponge…and then having one person after another drift by to throw in a dirty cup or plate and demand that it be washed.

Fortunately, most of the students do meet the deadline and have thus learned a valuable lesson.

To complete tasks comsistantely, a reward/punishment framework is needed. At the most basic level, the reward/punishment framework is set by a higher authority. For example, if the dog knows it will be given a bone which it sits when its owner says ’sit’, you can be sure that it will. If a human knows he will be fired from work if he does not consistentely arrive by 9am, he will most likely arrive by 9am!

The above scenarios are easy – In both instances there is a clearly defined task with an immediate reward or punishment. Both humans and animals function very well within this framework, in fact we are born to do so. This how our basic conditioning occurs.

But things today are a little more complicated. Sometimes tasks and deadlines have not been clearly defined, nor is there any clearly defined reward or punishment. Most people lack motivation in these situations when the reward punishment framework hasn’t already been defined for them by a higher authority. Why do it if there’s no pain to avoid or gratification to experience? The way to solve this is to clearly define the task and deadline ourselves, formally (e.g. write it down). There must be psychological pain associated with not completing the task (e.g. “I have let myself down… and life will be harder because I’ve left this”). And some kind of reward (e.g. “After I get this done, I’ll treat myself to this or that”). It’s necessary to remind oneself of the reward punishment along with the clearly defined task and deadline. Once a person is accustomed to doing this, it becomes habit. We then automatically begin writing down tasks and then following through with them. But it does require conscious effort in the beginning.

In summary, to get things done, we need the following:

1. Clearly defined task.
2. Precise deadline.
3. Immediate reward and/or punishment associated with the task/deadline
4. If none of these are set by a higher authority, we need to train ourselves to put this framework in place automatically.

Do you agree? Any comments are appreciated.

Beginning today, December 11, the winter submission period is now open. As stated on our Deadlines page, we will be accepting submissions completed since the beginning of winter quarter/spring semester 2009 from now until March 12, 2010. Please thoroughly examine all of our procedures and guidelines and proofread all papers prior to submission. Best of luck to all of you that have submitted thus far and happy holidays to you all!

I got up at 5 a.m. today do my usual stint of writing before going to work.  Sometimes it’s hard to slip out from under the deep blue, downy comforter that’s kept me warm all night.  But I’ve come to love this time of the morning, especially in the winter, when it’s still dark with no immediate promise of daylight.

And I have my routine.

I start the shower before turning on the coffee maker, which quickly fills my little “cottage” with the thick aroma of French Vanilla coffee beans.  I know that the coffee will be ready, and the hot water will begin to run cold, at approximately the same time, and I’m ready for both.

By 5:30, I’m cleaned, quaffed, and dressed for work.  My version of a flavored skim latte is steaming in my hand as I turn on the imitation Tiffany lamp next to my Mac, that’s been waiting for me since midnight or later, when I last turned it off.

As the low-wattage light refracts through the red, green, blue and gold pieces of glass, it’s the “official” sign that the writing process has begun, and won’t end until 7:25 when I start my mad dash to catch the 7:48 train to Grand Central Station.

Of course I write at other times.

But it’s those the early morning sessions that are the special ones.  While my mind is still waking up, and my heart is at its open best.  It’s that time between 5:30 and 6:00 when an important story line will flow with a richness that has often brought smiles, laughter and even tears streaming down my cheeks.

With those thoughts noted and detailed, I usually refill my white, Indiana University coffee cup around 6:15. And while I sip that second delicious serving, I open my front door, check the outside temperature and take my first long look at the day that awaits me.  It’s not unusual for those early morning moments, which could include a colorful sunrise, the white of driven snow, the gray of an overcast rainy day, or simply an animal scurrying across the driveway – to make their way into my writing, which resumes no later than 6:30.

Now I’m focused.

I’m totally awake and it’s no longer about the heart or that second cup of coffee which is usually cold when I finish it.  It’s now about knowing that I only have 55 minutes left to develop my ideas, correct flaws, and write like hell before I’m forced to adhere to my self-imposed deadline of 7:25.

And since I’ve never been good at self-imposed deadlines, I’m usually making a mad dash, if not an outright sprint, to catch the 7:48.

Like everyone else, the rest of my day can be anything but normal, where one moment can be crazier than the next.

However it’s during that early routine when my heart is open, the first cup of coffee tastes like dessert and the creative ideas are flowing.  I will admit that in the dead of winter, that toasty soft comforter can be like a seductive lover that is hard to leave. But most days I do.  Because I’m always at my creative best when it’s not really…

…the morning, but still night.

“The average human can’t remember more than seven things at once”.

No matter what you do for a living, you’ve probably got dozens of things to remember, and they’ve all got to be fitted into that ever elusive seven hour day. Perhaps it’s your job – to ‘get those things done’?

At Clear Thought we love ‘getting things done’. And for us, the one thing that really helps us not to forget to do things is the good old fashioned ‘To Do List’. We also love activity plans (or ‘project plans’). In a sense, they’re just a ‘To Do’ list arranged in chronological order with assigned delivery dates.

To Do Lists are powerful because they do a number of things:

• Keep you focused. Help you prioritise.

• Distinguish the ‘urgent’ from the ‘important’.

• Improve personal effectiveness.

• Deliver huge satisfaction when you cross or tick one off.

Some people also find that having more than one list is useful. One for work life, one for personal life. One for things to do ‘THIS WEEK’, ‘NEXT WEEK’, or ‘EVENTUALLY’. And it doesn’t matter how you keep them – by pen & paper or the latest hi-tech computer or hand held devise. Just as long as you keep them (up-to-date).

I once had a client whose American-owned business sent every member of its UK and US set-up on an ‘Advanced Outlook training course’. What they found was that very quickly their team’s productivity increased through correct use of Outlook. People started to keep on top of their tasks and To Dos. They turned up to meetings on time and managed their diaries and Inboxes better. Contacts were shared and kept up-to-date avoiding wasting time and effort asking other people, or looking for numbers and addresses themselves.

This client told me that in a way, a well kept To Do list and Inbox helped him manage his time better and lowered his stress levels. Now you might think we’re stating the blindingly obvious, but it’s the simple tried and tested methods that make businesses like us work. And we like to share our ideas and processes with anyone who thinks they would benefit from them.

At Clear Thought we use an online project management system called Basecamp, with a very effective To Do list function. We offer it free to all our clients as part of our service. You can allocate ‘owners’ of the To Do item, and set a deadline for when it has to be done by. And best of all, it’s totally private, secure and accessible anywhere.

To find out more about how we online To-Do Lists to get more from marketing resources, just ask for a demo. Or, if you’ve got a gigantic To Do list and need some help getting it done (in a ‘marketing capacity type of way’), please do get in touch.

A bit of clear thinking might make that seven hour day more a bit more of a reality.

By Cheryl Crichton | Associate Clear Thinker | Clear Thought Consulting Ltd | www.clear-thought.co.uk