Where Productivity Begins

Well I managed to find my file that contained my Productivity Points spreadsheet. So this week I am planning on getting started with it again. I've found after not doing it for 2 months that it really does make a difference in what I get accomplished around the house.

Quick recap for those of you new to my blog: The idea of Productivity Points is that you make a list of everything you want/need to get done in the course of a week and then assign how many times during the week you think that thing should be done. Items on the list should ideally be done that many times (some tweaking may be necessary) and no more than the number you have assigned it, because then you are taking away time from something else on the list that might need done. I use this project for things outside of my normal real world job. For example I have a total of 31 available points on my list and 10 of those are taken up with Chores around the house. The other 21 things are split up between things that could potentially aid me in my pursuit of self-employment/self-sufficiency. Historically when I've been working on this Productivity project, the chores get done and just a few other things, which is what I was dealing with before even trying to do this. So the real challenge is finding a way to use my time at home for more than just doing chores.

Self-Sufficiency

An area that I've been looking at more and more lately is the idea of self-sufficiency. Before global trade became so readily available, nations were forced to be self-sufficient. Now everything is outsourced to someone else. America depends on terrorist nations for oil and communist nations for food and goods. And look at the messes it makes?

The same concept applies to individuals and families. If you depend on other people for all of your goods and services then you are at the mercy of whatever the market conditions are. I don't plan on being able to be entirely self-sufficient but getting away from being TOTALLY dependent is a good goal to have I think.

Something that we are getting into is growing our own fruits and vegetables as much as possible. And from that making our own jellies and preserves. This past year we made enough jelly to not have to buy any for a year. We did have to buy some of the fruit from local growers though because our own production hasnt matured enough yet. I say if it tastes better, is better for you, and is cheaper, why not do it? If you have kids it can also be a great thing to teach them agricultural principles.

Another way I've been pushing a little more towards self-sufficiency is doing minor car repairs. I've done some minor stuff in the last year or so that didn't take very long to do and cost a lot less than taking my car to a mechanic.

The flip side to this issue is how much of your time is all this taking up? And could that time be better put to use elsewhere? These are questions that the individual needs to answer for themselves. Timothy Ferriss, the author of The 4 Hour Work Week, advocates outsourcing everything to better free up your time. And this idea does have some merit but if you can do more for yourself at less cost than having people do things for you then you don't need as much income to support yourself.

Take for example someone who is making $40,000 a year working 50 hours a week for some big corporation. Now what if that person took a job making $30,000 a year at 40 hours a week but spent ten hours a week doing things for himself that he previously paid someone else to do? It could be growing some food yourself, walking your own dog instead of paying someone, your own home and car repairs, or any number of things that you pay someone else to do because you simply don't have the time. I submit to you that taking care of your own life instead of expecting someone else to take care of it for you is much more fulfilling than working yourself to death in order to make millions for someone else.

New Phone / New Tool

I found a solution (i hope) to using my time wisely during my hour long lunch break at work. I bought a Motorola Q9m through Verizon. It's a Windows Mobile 6 smartphone that has all kinds of capabilities. One of which is a mini-version of Microsoft Office which allows you to edit and create Word, Excel, and Powerpoint files. It can also view PDF files but so far I've found this function to be a bit annoying as you have to zoom in on files to read anything and then you have to scroll around a lot to see the whole page.

So far I've been enjoying reading eBooks but to truly make this phone into a productive tool I am going to buy a couple of accessories. One of them is the iGo Stowaway Bluetooth Keyboard. It's a fullsize keyboard that folds up and connects to your phone using Bluetooth. The phone has a full keyboard on it but the keys are so tiny that I have difficulty doing anything beyond simple text edits with it.

The other accessory I plan to buy very soon is a Spectec miniSD Wi-Fi adapter. It will give me wi-fi capabilities without paying for Verizon's over priced data packages.

Productivity Points

One thing that didn't survive the computer crash was my Excel file that contained my Productivity Points system. If you are unfamiliar with what I'm talking about read some of my previous entries. So I am remaking the file in a very similar way but I'm working on some improvements as well. Perhaps when it's done I will upload it so others can bask in my productive lifestyle.

So in light of that and being away for a month I obviously got away from tracking my productivity progress. But I will return to it soon because I do feel that it will be a helpful tool if I stick to it.

Job Training

As I said in my previous entry there was a secondary reason why I hadn't been around for quite some time. With my new job I was in a different state for a month doing job training. After searching for and applying to and interviewing for new jobs for an entire year I finally got hired. I had been trying to get a promotion in the company I was working for for quite some time and the lousy district manager kept promoting guys that were younger than me, single and still living with their parents. Apparently being in your mid-twenties and having a family to feed didn't fit into their idea of a manager. Oh well...


The new company I'm working for is a bit smaller but it is in the same industry as the previous one. I am actually enjoying it quite a bit more, though I still long for the day when I can just work from home.


So this doesn't exactly help me in my pursuit of self-employment because now I am working more hours. But on the other hand I am also making a bit more money so I can fund other projects better and I have an hour lunch now so I'm planning on ways to be productive during that hour. We shall see.

A Major Computer Failure

So it's been quite sometime since I've posted again. But this time I've got a good excuse. Well actually a couple good excuses but I'll get to the other one in the next post. The first reason was that back in January I had a major computer failure and through many trials and tribulations I decided to just cut my losses and buy a new computer. Luckily I'm smart enough to have everything backed up on a second hard drive so I didnt actually lose any information but it did take awhile until I got the new computer and got all of my files back.

None of this was condusive to my pursuit of leaving the rat race behind. But neither was what I'm going to tell you about in my next entry...

A New Job

Well it really doesn't have too much to do with my pursuit of self-employment but I got a new job. Finally after 5 and a half years at a soul-sucking job I have found a new better paying job. But along with better pay comes working more hours. Working more hours could definitely hinder my self-employed pursuits but making more money helps me take care of my family better which is what is important right now. And making more money can also aid in funding self-employed pursuits like my music. I start on Monday so it's gonna be a new adventure.

In other news my tracking of my Productivity Points kind of fell by the wayside during the past couple weeks because of a major computer failure and subsequent computer replacement. I still don't have my tracking file back but 2 weeks ago I think I scored around 13 and then last week I scored at least 16. So things were improving but this week doesn't appear to be going as well though I'm still guessing until I have my tracking file back. I'm still seeing a trend towards getting things done that are always easy for me to get done and continuing to not get to some of the things that have been typically hard for me to get to.