This is the fourth “weekly review” for my Groundhog Day Resolutions, covering the last week of the June push. With a major holiday on Wednesday, car trouble, and an unexpected death in the family, this has not been the most productive of weeks. However, I was able to maintain some forward momentum thanks to the processes I started putting in place last week.

RECAP of LAST WEEK

My week started learning that my dear cousin Brian, a mere 31 years old, had passed away from a sudden attack of pancreatitis. He was gone in a matter of days, leaving me stunned and devastated. Brian shared a lot of similar characteristics to me when I was younger, or so I thought: sensitive, hard on himself when he didn’t measure up to his high standards, and shy. As he grew out of his teens and twenties, I saw that he was starting to come into his own as a creator and enthusiast of many interests, and I was really excited about seeing what he would ultimately achieve as he overcame each personal challenge. The other cousins have rallied and are helping plan the memorial service, and I’m rearranging my schedule and finances to head over to California for a few days. I will miss you, Brian…

There were some minor distractions such as the 4th of July and a rather expensive car repair that kept me from leaving the house from Monday to Friday. This afforded me the opportunity to focus on work because there wasn’t much else to do.

Here’s what got done last week, as preserved by the #accountability message I maintain throughout the week.

[4] - ACCRUAL LOG DAILY REVIEW (5x) (see COMBOBULATOR for notes)
[x] - Send invoices for June
[x] - TUE new menu pages for legacy client
[x] - SAT GHDR Review
[.] - Port UNISYS server (continuing)
...
[x] - MON 30M GHDR review, post
[x] - Book flights, accommodation, rental car
[/] - TUE new website push 15M - FAIL
[x] - Confirm/Resched Appointments
[x] - Sched airport transportation - THU
{/} - Q. The Quality VS Frequency Blog/Stream Content Conundrum (SUSPEND)
{/} - GIFT FOCUS on PATREON VIDEO (SUSPEND)
{/} - Research alternative Promise-based syntax for Call() (SUSPEND)
{/} - Creative Summit github pages site?  (SUSPEND)
...
[x] - MON drop off car
[x] - WED 4th of July Day
[x] - FRI pick up repaired car

{ } soft goal, [x] done, [>] bumped, [-] removed, [/] failed, [.] in-progress, [+] added+done, [4] repeated 4x

Two of my recent process improvements center around daily review, in particular making sure that I was using my Accrual Bucket not only to log what worthwhile things I was making, but also to remember my goals. I only billed about 3 hours of work, though. This coming week will be somewhat challenging with the pending flight to California, but I think I can get in a couple of good days.

I introduced a new notation for my list, using curly brackets to designate “soft to-do items” that would be “nice to do”, but were really not critical. After not looking at them all week, I finally decide to kill them. As I wrote in the July Groundhog Day Resolutions Review, I am reducing the number of active to-do projects to just two, and they are (1) billable development work and (2) working on my new knowledge management/static site generator website (codename: KM-SSG). While I feel kind of lame for reducing my workload, it’s clear I’m not making appreciable progress on any of the big items anyway. This is worth a try. The improved process tracking and rituals I’ve been writing about in these weekly reviews seem to be working. Also, my diet is still working! The key benefit of dieting for me has been the elimination of brain fog. I’ve also lost a few more pounds of weight over the past two weeks, so I am trending downwards still

THE WEEK AHEAD

So here is my reduced to-do list:

• Development: try to finish the network transaction code before leaving for California. 15M minimum push every day.
• KM-SSG: put some effort in every day. 15M minimum push every day.
• Maintain my slow-carb and intermittent fasting regimen.
• Prepare some words for Brian’s memorial service.
• Gather pictures for Brian’s memorial service.
• Review the Accrual Bucket every day (4 times, given the short week)

I need to really push on the billable work due to all the unexpected car and travel expenses, so that is this week’s major push. I also want to keep moving on KM-SSG because I think this is a critical path barrier. You can read about it in my KM-SSG tracking post if you’re curious.