Calm is Contagious

 I really think life / things are always chaotic and on the verge of disaster. It's just that we are either used to it, or simply don't pay attention to some of the factors. Life "gets" crazy when one of the crazy things we are used to changes, or we start paying critical attention to something that's new to us, but has always been there.

At my work we are definitely in a chaotic state. A large project that's been around for what seems like forever in it's development stage is "suddenly" ending. One of our major projects is expanding with an entirely new assembly line requiring new machinery, tooling, automation, etc. that all needs to be running within an aggressive timeline.

In my line of work, that it run of the mill normal. It is what we do. But when they are happening it seems every day that every action, every decision, every minor setback, or every completed task is either going to make or break us.

From my perspective, a lot of the conflict and made up tension amongst our team is good. It shows people are passionate about their work and they take pride in us all succeeding. Unfortunately some on the team are getting overwhelmed and consumed with worry or are showing signs of burnout.

Lately I have been putting forth an effort to make sure I remain calm in tense situations, and even in passing conversions don't project worry or panic in front of my team. Even if I am panicking and worried.

I try to lead by example. Even around others who are not directly on my team. Being calm during stressful times can help those around you by being a good example. 

It is interesting that this morning as my stress levels are higher than normal, that I picked up my worn copy of The Daily Stoic for the first time in over 4 months...

Today's Meditation: "If then it's not that the things you pursue or avoid are coming at you, but rather that you in a sense are seeking them out, at least try to keep your judgment of them steady, and tey too will remain calm and you won't be seen chasing after or fleeing from them" ~ Marcus Aurelius

As I reflect on the past few weeks as I type this and sip my coffee. I am aware of times were I was not the calm cool collected project engineer that I strive to be. 

With that reflection, I have a few things to focus on for the upcoming work week.

Several little things that all add up to remaining calm and positive

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As always, thank you for your time reading this. All comments are welcome. Even if you want to let me know how wrong I am. If you think others would get some sort of value, please share this on your socials.

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This Time It Will Be Different ...again

 Like nearly countless Saturdays, this is going to be the Saturday I get out of my lazy rut and get a ton of stuff done. No more sleeping in. No more doom scrolling or binge watching YouTube. I am getting up before the alarm and I will not stop being productive until the end of the day. I have too many unfinished projects around the house to waste my time!

Sound familiar? Yeah.. I said it too.... again.

I know better. Most of us do. Yet we fall into the same traps. "I'll relax today, but tomorrow is when I make the change. We should all try saying "I'm relaxing now, and now is when I am making the change... let's go.

We know what needs to be done. We know what we need to do. Now is the time, not tomorrow or bright and early next Monday morning. Now is the time.

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As always, thank you for your time reading this. All comments are welcome. Even if you want to let me know how wrong I am. If you think others would get some sort of value, please share this on your socials.

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We Need to Relearn How to Wait and See What Happens

A lot has changed in my lifetime when it comes to how fast things happen. Just look at ordering items for purchase. I’m old enough to remember looking through catalogs hat were sent to me in the mail, and looking through them for items I’d like to purchase. When I found something, I would fill out a form by hand and send that form with a hand written check back in the mail. Then wait 4, 6, even 8 weeks for that product to be delivered. Now days, with the Amazon app on my smartphone I can search for a specific item I want, tap the screen a few times and that item is on my doorstep within a few days. Often with tracking info being sent to me within hours of purchase.

With social media and even blogs like this, I can post a quick comment or image and pretty much instantly get a reaction for many people around the world. With super markets and big box stores, with a short drive I can pickup pretty much everything and anything I could want.

Also with social media and the 24 hour news cycle, we get all the information on local, regional, and world events that we could ever want. Maybe actually too much information. Incomplete information in the attempt to be the first source of the story. Which can be problematic as people take the first details as the indisputable facts, when it may not be really true at all.

Over the past few decades we have become so accustomed to speed and convenience, that we have forgotten how to wait. We have became very impatient with everything in our made up rush that we’ve made our days become. 

This is most concerning to me with news and information. We take initial accounts of an event as the complete story. We now think trade deals and international negotiations should be resolved instantly, instead of over weeks, months or even years. We all rush to confirm our existing biases on any topic, so we can quickly move on to the next world event that is trending on the socials. 

We need to relearn how to wait and see what happens.

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As always, thank you for your time reading this. All comments are welcome. Even if you want to let me know how wrong I am. If you think others would get some sort of value, please share this on your socials.

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Everything has to political now days.

 It is sad to me how things have changed in my lifetime on the political side of things.

Used to be, or at least it seemed to me, the general public was not so divided. When I was in school, teachers and professors didn't rant on their views on politics. To this day, if I looked back at some of them, I couldn't tell you if they were a democrat, republican or couldn't care less about a political party.

The last time I went back to a college setting for some night classes, the first half of the first class was a lecture on how Obama was going to save the world and if any of us in the room didn't agree, it was because we were racists.

Now day if you look at someone's social media bio the first thing that is stated is if they're a conservative or liberal and how much they hate the other side because the other side in intolerant.

The old saying of "don't judge a book by it's cover" has been replaced by "I know everything I need to know about a book's contents simply by if the cover is blue or red.

It's gotten to the point were there isn't even an argument, let alone a debate. We all just simply do the opposite of "the other side" regardless of what they are doing. 

Just look at EV's.

Many conservatives refused to even consider the practical advantages of an EV simply because the technology was fully embraced by the left. The left thought EV's were better for the environment and a cool gadget status symbol.

Now that the far left has turned on the largest producer of EV's because orange man bad, the far right now loves Teslas. 

The far left stopped liking Teslas because they were told to by the TV and social media and the far right started liking Teslas because the far left turned on them. You can't make this shit up.

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As always, thank you for your time reading this. All comments are welcome. Even if you want to let me know how wrong I am. If you think others would get some sort of value, please share this on your socials.

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Make Yourself Un-fireable

 Nobody likes the idea of good people losing their jobs. Most don't want their resources wasted either.

The cold reality of, well, in the real world, people need to bring value to what they do for a living. No matter what you do. Public sector, private sector. It doesn't matter. If your not helping things grow, you may have to go.

Fortunately losing a job is not the end of the world. There are always another opportunity for someone fired. The direct competition may be hiring, or it may require starting over by learning a completely new skill set. Regardless there is something else out there. In my personal experience, that something else ends up being much better.

That's all nice, but what if you have your dream job? That's when you need to make yourself un-fireable.

Here's the bad part. It's going to take effort and focused attention on continuous improvement.

You need to put constant effort on doing what you do, the very best you can do it. You need to become a subject matter expert. You need to constantly learn. You need to put effort into working well with others... even those coworkers you don't like. You need to be effective. You need to be efficient. You need to put effort into your work. 

Sounds rough, but to some it up. It comes downs to being focused on being the best you can be at what you do for a living and adding all those "soft skills" that make your work easier and are some of those important transferable skills. Skills that can help you become better at doing something else for a living. No matter if it is something completely different at another company, or if you get promoted up to a higher position.

Empty Barrels Make the Most Noise

 Empty barrels make the most noise. 

I like this saying, for it is such a spot on metaphor. You see this all around you in every aspect of your life. Those with really nothing to say, say the most. Those who scream the loudest about something being a crisis, when whatever has them raging is really not a crisis at all. 

From my perspective, these empty barrel people tend to be people who have succumbed fully to their biases. Confirmation bias, familiarity bias, etc. They have replaced any impartial reasoning with emotional fueled outbursts.

The echo chambers of the social media world we now live in has created a lot of empty barrels.

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As always, thank you for your time reading this. All comments are welcome. Even if you want to let me know how wrong I am. If you think others would get some sort of value, please share this on your socials.

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I Can Be Gone in 60 Seconds

If I had to leave my job, I could clear out my desk in about a minute flat.

I'm by no means somebody one would call a minimalist, however I have a pretty streamlined professional workspace. Everything I need to work fits in the typical office style backpack.

In our digital age, that is not very shocking. We have room for more information in a typical laptop than a building of file cabinets from the past.

But what can be difficult to keep under control are all the physical items you cant load onto a hard drive. Sample components of a product you produce. The big 3 ring binder catalogs from a vendor and other promotional items sent to you in the mail. Not to mention personal items like plants, pictures, etc.

I greatly reduced the clutter my workspace many years ago. When the company I thought I would work for the rest of my life suddenly shutdown. I spent far more time that was comfortable packing up. 

From that point, I had a rule of no more personal items at work that couldn't fit into a banker box. I also started keeping a banker box for that very need under my desk. I learned the valuable lesson that even if you are happy with your position and even if the company want you to stay forever, there can be no guarantees. Life happens.

This worked well for several years, until I took a new position at a company. It was a great opportunity that I could not pass up. During the first six months of the new role, I still had my old role, obviously at a lesser amount. I would continue to work my old position for a day here or a few hours in the morning there. We had this arrangement because I had a project that was nearly complete, so we'd spend more time bringing another engineer up to speed than if I'd just wrap it up.

There was one noticeable inconvenience during this period. The two roles required me to be in two seperate building. After having to go to a different build to grab something I left on my other desk afew times, I did another downsizing to my work kit that I still am at many, many years later.

Everything I need to work is kept in my backpack

Anything left at my desk if I'm not there, I can permanently leave behind if necessary 

So what's on my desk that can be left behind at anytime? Not much.

• Stapler
• Tape dispenser 
• Post it notes and some disposable pens
• A few personal pictures printed out on office paper & tacked to a bulletin board

Neatly packed in the backpack are:

Pens, markers, whiteboard markers, battery bank, chargers for phone & laptop, paper journals, first aid kits, an extra fleece, snacks, water bottle, and a few other EDC items.

This "office load out" has served me well for many years and has become a very practical and efficient way for me to work. Especially now that I work for a large company that both embraces the hybrid office workstyle, and has several sites in the region.

With our hybrid office, I am able to work from home a day or two (sometime more) from home. I can also be needed for a day or two at one of our sister site on occasion. Having everything I need to do my job from home, my office, a conference room, or somebody else's vacant office at a different building is the way to go. Never have to dig through desk drawers looking for a cable for a laptop.

Beside the convenience of being prepacked for a business trip or an unexpected work day from home due to illness or weather; I truly feel having this streamlined office in a bag setup makes me more effective and efficient.

If the future take my career to a position or location where I am only able to work from one and one location only, I would still keep this system going.

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As always, thank you for your time reading this. All comments are welcome. Even if you want to let me know how wrong I am. If you think others would get some sort of value, please share this on your socials.

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So I Guess I'm Going Full Homestead...

 I guess I'm going "full homestead" this year. Besides giving a try at raising quail, I'm going to up my gardening game too. Personally I don't think I qualify has a modern homesteader just yet, but who knows where that line is drawn. 

I was planning on planting a couple of containers of beans and maybe a pepper plant or two. Keep it simple. Well that didn't last long.

At work some new equipment arrived in some very nice crates. Crates that I thought would make some excellent planter boxes, plus nice leftover lumber from the lids and bottoms. 

So instead of them being broken up to send to the recycler. I get to take them home. 

Now with three large planter boxes, I decided to expand my plans for a modest little garden a bit. Then I started looking around the property and looking over a heirloom seed website, and you guessed it. Now I got a bunch more seeds to plant than I was originally going to go with this year.

In fact, I made two orders for seeds. I made a second order for what will become an indoor herb garden. When asking a coworker when I should start my peppers, the conversation then covered a bunch of gardening topics. More topics than I planned... But it was at the end of the day Friday and she loves gardening. No one else in the office apparently is into gardening, so she basically went off with excitement to talk to someone about her favorite hobby.

All that to say if I don't screw it up, I'll have fresh basil and oregano for my quail eggs. 

Eggs Away!

 Pretty much since the day I moved into my house, I had ideas of making a modern homestead. I nice garden, some chickens, maybe a pig ot two. Not a full on hobby farm operation to grow all of my own food. Just something to supplement my groceries and help me get through a rough spot.

I've raised a garden a few times but thats been about it. 

Now, with the price of eggs and constant hinted threats of bird flu. I'm going to raise poultry. 

What has always kept me from raising chickens is winter. The idea of shoveling out a chicken coop in the dead of winter is pretty much the deal breaker for me. I could raise some boilers, but I'll be honest. I'm lazy and the butchering process for chickens can be quite involved.

But then I remembered quail.

While quail eggs are about a third the size of a chicken egg, quail are easier to take care of, and reach maturity in 6-8 weeks instead of 6-8 months. Plus they are surprisingly harty, able to handle the Wisconsin winters with minimal shelter. 

So quail it is going to be. I have a bunch of hatching eggs on order and I have my brooding pins setup. Even gave my new incubator a test run.

Looks like the Lazy Homestead is going to be a real thing.

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As always, thank you for your time reading this. All comments are welcome. Even if you want to let me know how wrong I am. If you think others would get some sort of value, please share this on your socials.

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The Email Purgatory Folder

 Since 2019 I've been practicing a form of "zero inbox" with my work email. For over five years now, when I shutdown the work laptop, there are no emails in the Outlook inbox. I wish I started doing this years earlier. Those who follow some sort of zero inbox practice know how good it feels at the end of the day when there is nothing in the email inbox screaming for your attention.

My personal system is a bit different than what you'll see others do. Most follow a digital file structure for their emails like described by David Allen's Getting Things Done. A productivity book that you'll find displayed in the office of many middle managers. 

My email file structure is similar. 

• Inbox that gets processed several times a day
• A folder I named "In Process" which is my version of the "tickler" folder
• Several archive folders for each project / customer

Up to this point there is no real surprises if you're familiar with the GTD process. Emails land in the Inbox. Periodically throughout the day I process the emails. Accept or decline meeting invites. Delete older links in a email change. Act on urgent emails and/or the ones that take little time. Then move into the "In Process" the emails that I can address later, or I am waiting for a response, etc. Up to this point pretty much the same as everyone else.

What I do differently addresses the challenge most have with a Zero Inbox system:

How are you sure you don't delete something you may need later?

My solution; email purgatory. I have another folder I call "Hold 90 Days" that I place maybe half the emails I "delete" throughout the day. As the name suggests, this folder is setup to delete any email that is more than 90 days old. My logic is if I didn't need to look for an email in 3 months, it doesn't need to be saved. 

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As always, thank you for your time reading this. All comments are welcome. Even if you want to let me know how wrong I am. If you think others would get some sort of value, please share this on your socials.

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