Focus

          Welcome back and I be pleased to hear if anybody had actually returned to the site but seeing as how there is only 29 views total so far, that's doubtful. Wether this is your first time reading this from the future (I suppose any form of reading would be the future) are more recently it's been a few days since I've posted anything. Today, I wanted to talk about project management and how to deal with the difficulties that arise from both the project and ourselves.

          The last few weeks have been a brain scramble from having to switch between projects and mindsets while also dealing with time management. Time has been a crucial concept for me lately because I have so little of it and so many things to do within it. One of my older projects has came back to life by the act of the company having found a designer for it, while my newer projects are fast approaching their deadlines with much programming still remaining. While these tasks are daunting in their own respects, they also make me excited. I love staying busy and having three projects to switch between, each with their own flavors, keeps me plenty busy. Time management is the most important virtue and demands a careful breakdown in order to weed out errors and feel proud of the positives.

         Important above all else to good time management is focus. Focus is being able to look at one task at a time, apply a step-by-step process, solve it while keeping it in perspective with the rest of a project. My definition of focus could be because I'm a programer and this approach is similar to  solving a programming problem but that's why I feel it's so effective in not only dealing with programming but a lot of life's issues. Firstly, being able to complete a tasks means forgetting everything that isn't related to the work and breaking it down.  I verbalize what the problem is (if it's not already in words), repeat it a few times, and then I begin listing my possible solutions in the broadest sense. For example, my last project required a data structure to be set up for storage of books with the author's names. I said to myself, "How do I get these books to be associated with these people?" Then I looked a little deeper, "How is every person going to be unique?" This is the first real base level, answerable question and is easily answered: unique id's. From this system I can build all of the parts that make up the project in my mind, the id's, fields of data, structure of trees, sorting, and create a blueprint of whats needed.

         From this point, it's easy. Like a recipe, I have all my ingredients and I just have to start building them then mix them together. Order within a program is crucial which has taught me how important it is for everything. Thinking, planning, and consistency are key in creating solid projects that aren't just passion but completion from consistency. Reward yourself for consistency and you'll be surprised by what your happiness ultimately creates.

         I have to get going but I really hope this starts getting a little more attention, perhaps I need to market myself more. Have a wonderful time and leave any comments that you'd like!

Thank you,
Joseph Priest