I have been keeping a eye on the team over at 37Signals for a long time. I have read their Signal vs. Noise blog for quite some time. I also use their products Basecamp and Highrise to manage projects and contacts. The founders, Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson, recently released the book Rework.

I purchased this book around lunch today and couldn’t put it down. I finished it in one afternoon. My main thought: companies that follow the principles in this book are the kind of places I want to work. Rework turns traditional business theory and planning on its head and teaches to filter out the noise, identify the heart of the problems and get things done. Git rid of long, pointless meetings, and what if business plans and start moving.

This won’t be the last time I read Rework. I already have some of the principles posted near monitor at the office. It doesn’t matter if you are a mail clerk or a CEO you need to read this book.

I was processing through my RSS feed this morning and ran across this image on the lifehacker.com site. It was very funny and so painfully true I had to share it. The Original picture is from The Oatmeal and can be foun here

Original Image from The Oatmeal

Another lifetime ago I considered myself an athlete.  I played football and according to some I was pretty good.  I had a fairly quick time in the 40 yard dash and could lift mountains of weights.  I could eat 8,000 calories in a day and it didn’t matter because I was going to burn it off on the field or in the weight room.  Exercise was a major part of my life.

That was another lifetime ago.  Now I am a Technology Consultant and sit in a cubicle all day.  While I was happy with my life I missed the competition of the field.  About 6 months ago, with the blessing of my wife, I started playing rugby with the Houston Athletic Rugby Club (HARC).  After working out with the team over the summer and practice in the fall I find myself very out of shape, hardly being able to finish one half of play.  After 6 months I found that while I had a strong exercise knowledge my body has changed from what I was taught and I realized I needed help.  With some friends like Kim Murgatroyd Website|Blog|Twitter reporting amazing results from the P90X program I decided to give it a shot.

The Challenge

• 90 Days of intense workouts
• Nutrition and lifestyle change

The Goals

• Reduce my body fat down to that to that of an average male my age.
• Change my lifestyle to be more active and make choices that reflect that.

While this blog is normally a place that I share technology knowledge I know that I am not alone in my struggles.  I am not the only IT guy out there that wishes he was in better shape.  This will tell my story and serve as a place for everyone to hold me accountable.  I will share my successes, my struggles, and my thoughts.  If you have your own stories of lifestyle transformation I would love to hear them.

Embracing and Enjoying the Freedom is part two of our Unplugging series of posts.  When being freshly unplugged it is natural to feel like something is always wrong.  The iPhone or Blackberry you keep in a death grip can be replaced by a frosty beverage of choice.  Americans are struggling with an addiction to technology.  The term ‘crackberry’ is not without merit.  CNN published an article exploring if Technology and the Internet are ‘addicting’.

Trying to go on vacation and going ‘cold turkey’ from your technology can be difficult.  Discipline and structure of your time off can help free you from the technological chains that bind us and allow us to truly relax.

1. Be active or engaged.  Sitting around with nothing to do will cause your mind to drift back to things at the office.  Reading a book in a hammock in the back yard might not be active but your mind is engaged.
2. Before your time off, whether it is the weekend or a true vacation, create a list of planned activities.  Creating this list will serve as a todo list and keep you busy.  While your mind is focusing on these activities it is less likely to focus on things at the office.
3. Defer incoming requests.  Part one of our series discussed preparing others for your absence.  No matter what you do some people will not respect that you are not available.  There are some people who think that their requests are always an emergency.  Screen your calls and send them to voicemail.  Your voicemail should be set up with a message to remind people that you are not available and provide them with contact information of your backup contact.

Recently my wife and I took a much needed respite from our jobs for a vacation to Cabo San Lucas, Mexico.  As we were packing for our trip I looked at all of the things I was taking.  One of the main things I was not planning on taking was my laptop.  I was going to a foreign country and intentionally not taking my work with me.  I have not done this in a very long time and found it incredibly liberating and refreshing.

This is the first in a three part series that will look at how I was able to successfully pull off a week long vacation being unplugged.

Preparation is what makes unplugging possible.  Without the proper preparation my trip would have been interrupted with multiple phone calls and requests.  The first step to being prepared is to be organized and cognizant of what is going on in the projects you are involved in.  Review your project list and current active tasks to identify a realistic goal to reach before leaving for your trip. 

Communication is of vital importance during the week leading up to an extended absence.  During this communication stage it is important to cancel or reschedule any re-occurring meetings with the explanation that you will be unavailable to attend at all.  If you are working on a team ensure that you communicate any updates and vital operating information to your team.  Once your team has been notified ensure that you identify a member that can be contacted in your absence.  Communicate this information to any relevant clients or contacts and then ensure that this information is listed in your email auto response. 

Let everyone know again a day or two before you depart that you will be leaving.  Some people have a hard time understanding that you will be unavailable.  Reiterate during this communication that you are going to be unavailable for the future but have updated your team on any relevant project status.  Also identify in this communication who users can go to during your absence.  For example, identify a junior DBA who has been briefed on your projects.  

As an IT Consultant there is nothing harder than taking over a project of working with a client that does not have good documentation about their systems and processes.  Documentation is one of the most important things that any IT Professional can do.  This post is not meant to harp on the importance of documentation but it is critical for being able to walk away from your computer and take a vacation.  Communicate the location of all documentation to your team so that they will seek answers there instead of interrupting your vacation for an answer.

Future posts in this series will cover how to handle your time while on vacation and how to jump back into the flow after you return.  Stay tuned for more in this series.

As part of the ProBlogger.com 31 Days to Build Better Blog series the first task was to develop an elevator pitch for this blog.  When I started this blog it was just going to be a personal blog for me to expand my writing but the topics have become more and more technical.  Some topics have gone beyond that standard reader.

Going through the exercise I have defined the following things:

With these items in mind I made and attempt at an elevator pitch.

Providing solutions for complex technology problems.

I do think that my tagline is not the only thing that needs to change on my blog.  I am going to need to find a different Name, Logo, and URL.  I guess the journey begins.

After reading the Mashable article Twitter, Facebook, Digg: Can You Join too Many Social Networks? I couldn’t help to think about the social networks that I am belong to and how I use them.

I, like many others, joined Facebook while I was in college as a way to easily communicate with friends. It caught on like wildfire. It helped me get back in touch with friends that I had not talked to in many years. Like many others, this was our first exposure to social networking.

As I left school I still used it to keep in touch with friends and share pictures but I found myself using it less and less. I update my status on Facebook mobile via my Blackberry or through a multiple update service like Ping.fm, but rarely visit the site itself.

I have found Twitter facinating. Never would I have thought that I would use a service like this but it has become very useful. I use Twitter for a wide varity of things from keeping up with breaking news to advertising new posts to my blog. With its recent explosive growth, almost 752% in 2008, I find myself looking for other ways to integrate this service into my workflow.

More and more services are integration with Twitter. Twittercal allows Twitter to integrate with Google Calender. As a user of Remember the Milk I am able to add tasks via Twitter and the user rtm. These are the ones that I currently use there are many others.

I use LinkedIn in many of the same ways that I used Facebook but on a professional level. Through LinkedIn I am able network with my professional contacts. As my professional network expands LinkedIn provides me a way to expand my reputation as a subject matter expert by answering questions. It will even has a job list for aiding for in a job search.

Flickr is much less social for me as it is a mechanism to share photos with family and friends. I have recently extended my use of Flickr to including images for posting on my blog. With our subscription to U-verse TV we are able to view our photos on any TV in our house.

Del.icio.us is used for social bookmarking. I am still beginning to leverage the power of this social network. Del.icio.us is a great way to bookmark items that are potential blog ideas.

The move to the big city has brought lots of changes to my life. A new job for my wife and I, a new home, lots of time driving in traffic. I have a pretty straight forward commute from Katy down I-10 to the Galleria area. View Larger Map

I have started to track information about my drive in a Google Spreadsheet. I have started to track my drive times against when I depart in an attempt to find an optimal departure time. Check out the spreadsheet to see the info I am tracking.

Drive Time Graph

I am going to continue to track this date for some time as there have been many changes in the past few months that have the potential to skew the data that I have been recording. I have noticed unusually altered traffic patterns at the beginning of my reporting. This can be explained as the days following Hurricane Ike. Another reason could be that the construction along the I-10 corridor has been completed. This has alleviated some of the bottlenecks on the road. The final stages of construction has allowed for the HOV lanes to open back up and soon the lanes for the new toll road. Once the extraneous factors have been removed from my reporting I expect to be able to poll more accurate data and provide more reliable solutions.

09/16/2008 – AM – Power was restored to our apartment.  We have entered the recovery process.  It will take Houston a long time to recover.

09/14/2008 – 12:50 – The data service went out on the phones.  Text messaging and phone services still work.  Some power has been restored.  Sara’s parents have power restored.  We are going to stay here until we get power back at the apartment.  As soon as we can get pictures posted I will do it.

09/13/08 – 13:43 – Utilities are out.  The rain and wind have all  but stopped.  Sara and I are going out for a drive later and will take pictures to post.

09/13/2008 – 09:42 – The power went out at about 02:00. The wind picked up to steady hurricane force winds and blinding rain. Updates to this blog will be made from my iPhone so they will be text only. For pictures check out my Flickr page mentioned in my previous post on storm tracking.

09/13/2008 – 00:44 – The rain has started. The rain is holding steady but we still have all utilities functioning. I have found a good link that will sow rada for our zip code. It can be found on Weather Underground.

09/12/2008 – 22:05 – Wind speed holding steady. Still no rain. All utilities still functioning.

09/12/2008 – 21:54 – Wind speed has increased again but we still have not seen any rain. Winds are now sustained. All utilities still functioning.

09/12/2008 – 21:04 – The wind has started to pick up were we are really not getting sustained winds only gusts. All utilities still functioning.

09/12/2008 – 20:02 – The sun has set and the wind has picked up. No rain. All utilities still functioning.

09/12/2008 – 19:27 – As of yet there is nothing to report. The winds have picked up a bit but nothing major. Cable (TV and Internet) and power all still functioning.