progress report february 2009
February 2009 has been an extremely busy month. Having decided in January to forego the return to university and embark upon the path of self-study I have dived head first into a massive study program. Ruby on Rails and Ruby from scratch. I’ll say more about this in the study section. But it has had to fit into all of my other work and goals. Even though I have been teaching fewer yoga classes I took on a few extra cover classes this month which brought in the money but cut into my study time. They were early morning classes too which I’m not used to doing and gave me a feeling of working flat out. The wheel building continues of course with time spent answering e-mails and researching bike parts taking up more time than the actual building of the wheels. It still fascinates me that so many people want wheels built. Having a child minder looking after Maya, my one year old daughter removes some of the load but she still needs to be paid.
So the main conundrum this month has been how to strike a balance between work and study. Study is essentially free time or unpaid time that is an investment and will hopefully lead to paid work. But in order to have that time one needs money: the reason why students go into debt. So even though I’m not doing a formally structured course I would still consider myself a student. I am sufficiently motivated to study which is fantastic and no time is wasted in doubt or internal “what if” scenarios. I’ve done plenty of that to reach this point. So the main thing is to create more time for study which means that something has to be either cut back severely or completely uprooted. The obvious candidates are the activities that although perhaps important do not generate any income.
The wheel building is one of these. There is a certain amount of income but compared to the time spent doing it, the amount is minimal. I was imagining that after the January rush things would die down, but this is not the case at all. As I have already mentioned, the main time hog in this instance is the answering of enquiries along with searching for and ordering parts. The sourcing of black spokes has also used up many precious hours. Add to this the inclusion of the completed wheels to the Wheel Log and updating the website and you can see that this is well below the National Minimum Wage. Time to put up my prices.
Riding a minimum of a 100 miles a week
At the end of February I went well over my target reaching 134.57 which makes me feel very confident in my ability to keep this up. Other weeks were pretty close to the hundred mark. Also in February I completed another thousand miles reaching the 15,000 mark on this particular cycle computer.
Meditation
I have failed on this one apart from the 10 minute session with my weekly yoga client. I do consider it important though because as my workload increases I need to maintain a clear head and a sense of detachment else I could end up in a real muddle. I keep saying that I have no slot but I think I need a more specific goal and perhaps tacked onto something else. Let me ponder a bit more.
My own yoga practice
As I mentioned in last month’s report my body doesn’t know if I’m teaching, attending a class or practicing on my own. But mentally, that is to say emotionally and intellectually I believe that practicing on my own is the best. Well, I’ve been doing so on top of the extra cover classes this month. Just a short session after a cycling journey. More of a stretch than yoga, but my body doesn’t know.
Keeping in touch with friends
Facebook, even though a way of wasting valuable time does allow for a regular but albeit fleeting contact with friends. It’s so much better to meet face to face or speak on the phone but at least it’s something. But I have been meeting friends too. It’s good for me as I spend so much time alone. What’s important here is that they are good friends, close friends rather than just acquaintances. Acquaintances can become good friends but I just don’t have the time at the moment and we are all busy. I don’t need company but I do need to connect. So only good friends will do otherwise it’s a waste of time.
The wheel log
I’m a bit behind in the wheel log and in a way I’ve carried it over to 2009 from 2008 just because I did it last year. People have found it useful but it does take time and I want to spend that time elsewhere. I have made changes to my wheel building services and increased the prices. It will put off some people but keep it as a hobby rather than a side business.
De-cluttering my life
One major source of clutter in my life lately has been the extra workload brought on by the wheel building hobby/business. I should keep a log of the number of hours I put into it. It also generates a lot of loose ends and left over bits: cardboard and old rims, etc. Disposing of a few old bits of paperwork does reduce clutter or selling a small item on ebay, but often it can be easy to miss the big things.
Relaxing & goalless activities
There just hasn’t been time but I have watched some TV and I have been playing a bit of xbox. It does take my mind off work and & study but I suppose I’m thinking about walks in the country and reading a novel in the park. Perhaps this month as the weather improves and I get better organised.
Learning PHP
Learning PHP has taken a back seat as I have been studying Ruby on Rails and Ruby. PHP will be useful but I think I will leave it one side for the moment. I know enough to do my work and look things up when I need to.
Get an IT job
If I get an IT job using the skills that I have so far then when do I learn Rails or Ruby? I can’t get a job doing that because I don’t know it yet and there is only a slim chance of getting any work with the lack of industry experience. So it’s about promoting myself as a web designer/developer and continuing to work from home. I have secured one contract so it means working on that and studying, which I can do. I can work from home and set my schedule how I like.
Learning Ruby on Rails
At the start of February I focused primarily on Rails and followed tutorials from the Learningrails.com series. But then I switched to simply learning the Ruby language itself. I bought a book by the same author who wrote the PHP book that I used last year to teach myself and I’ve spent the latter half of February doing that. Ruby by Larry Ullman, a Visual Quickstart Guide. I’ve almost completed the book and have reached chapter 13 out of 17. I should have it finished by the first week of March. How much of it I can remember is another thing altogether. But this is good going for me as I tend to get halfway through tutor books and then abandon them.