Important, non-urgent tasks are the usual victim of my procrastination. For so long, there’s this one item that I’ve been dreading to do: updating our company profile. Every time I check my daily to-dos, it would sit right on top — highlighted in red — staring, begging at me to cross her off my list. I would coyly pretend that I don’t see it and skip right to the next item. On some days, I would stare at it, try to summon strength to actually do it then back down at the last minute.

This goes on for a while: 233 days to be exact. Then last week, a client asked for our portfolio. I pulled out our portfolio and prepare to send it. Then it hit me: all of the portfolios listed are dated and now irrelevant. I was trapped, it was the point of no return. I have to do it now.

Few hours and 3 cups of coffee later, I was happy to cross it off my list. Sometimes push is not enough. Sometimes you need to be trapped that the only way of getting out is to deal with it.

procrastinate

Good riddance.

MG Siegler agreeing with this New York Times article:

Just in time for the Labor Day holiday in the United States, Clive Thompson dives into the thing that will ruin the holiday for so many:

Why would less email mean better productivity? Because, as Ms. Deal found in her research, endless email is an enabler. It often masks terrible management practices.

When employees shoot out a fusillade of miniature questions via email, or “cc” every team member about each niggling little decision, it’s because they don’t feel confident to make a decision on their own. Often, Ms. Deal found, they’re worried about getting in trouble or downsized if they mess up.

This seems exactly right. I’d venture to guess that most email that is sent in the work environment doesn’t need to be sent. But it is as a way to cover one’s own ass.

In my experience, this goes beyond email. This happens on a daily basis and in all form of office communications (IMs, meetings, etc.). Some employees have a bad habit of including everyone or someone who has authority on the loop to sidestep blame or to at least “reduce” the blame on them. They think they are off the hook by asking someone’s approval before making the decision. By doing so, they can say, “hey, didn’t I asked you about this?”

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I just received our Fractures today. Fractures are photos beautifully printed directly on glass. I discovered it after listening to The Talk Show and ATP podcasts where Fracture is regular sponsor. The hosts are very generous when praising the product so I was intrigued. I checked them out but hesitated because it’s not cheap specially when shipping them internationally. However, if you’re a listener of the shows, they give a 20% discount code which is a pretty sweet deal.

Anyway, long story short, two weeks ago, I finally caved in and ordered two. I was really stoked when I got them. The frames are well-made and the pictures look vibrant. The borderless glass frame looks nice and elegant. It allows the pictures to easily blend in with our apartment. I did a semi-official unboxing (and hanging) of the frames:

If you want to know more about Fracture, here’s their promotional video:

 

I’m back.

It’s been 4 years since I did my last post for my previous blog. In that span of time, a lot of insane but amazing things happened. I grew up. I learned a lot. I got to lead a team and take on non-technical side of things. It was fun for a while until the daily grind of running a team caught up with me. I started to miss on little things. I have never lost touch to read and dig codes but it became such a burden to me. I got lazy. Not sleep-all-day lazy just I-am-no-longer-sharp lazy. At one point, it felt like I was excused to stay sharp because I know I am doing the other important matters.

That’s why I am picking up on blogging again.

I want to stay sharp—over the past few months, I have intensely pushed myself to get back into programming and brushed up with my soft skills. I want to make this as my default setting.

I’m a critic—I am opinionated on matters that I am passionate about: operating systems, indention styles, arrangement of apps in my phone (yes, really), pretty much any thing that I can obsess with. I would to love share the things I know about them and, occasionally, accept criticisms1 from other people. :)

Lastly, I’m sure that my friends are sick and tired of me polluting their News Feed in Facebook. I know I am a few post away from being unfriended.

On to the next post!

  1. I am still pondering whether to allow comments or not. I like Tumblr’s reblog feature but I don’t want to experiment too much with WordPress plugins. For now, comments are off. Let’s wait and see.