daily thought 5 - how can i make this good

The time has come, I’ve left town and arrived at the big city. Oh how it all changes, you go from feeling like the coolest motherfucker that has ever lived to being reminded you have a lot to do if you actually want to be the coolest motherfucker in town.

Anyways, it’s Saturday, work starts on Monday and I need to make sure I absolutely crush it. Question is, what can I do to make this a worthwhile weekend? There’s many possible answers to that question, so let’s define “worthwhile” a little more; (1) A worthwhile weekend can be a fun weekend…I will start work on Monday so many people would say to take advantage of this last weekend and enjoy it, that’s a possible answer. (2) Some others may say that since it is my last weekend before work I should probably set myself up for success and not get totally shitfaced, rather, do things that will allow me to hit the ground running when the clock hits t-48hrs, another possible answer. I say let’s do a bit of both, in a well constructed balance.

Easy to say, but I’ve been down this trap before, I write something that sounds decently nice, feel good about myself, and then go out on the day and accomplish none of the things I said I would, why? because vagueness is an excuse for inaction. Let’s keep stabbing at it then.

I’m not quite sure of what framework to use to help plan my “good” weekend, I also don’t want to spend hours sitting here thinking about the proper framework as that would defeat the entire purpose of the exercise, so in that spirit, let’s go with an easy one that just came to mind, let’s have three buckets, Must do’s, Should do’s, and Nice to do’s*. Pretty self explanatory, now all we have to do is put things in each of those buckets - trying to avoid yet another trap, not setting realistic expectations.

Must do’s:

• There are some work forms I need to have filled.
  • Fill out work forms
• I need to buy cookware in order to be able to meal prep.
  • Buy cookware
• With cookware in hand, I’ll have to get the food I want to cook.
  • Buy groceries
• Most tedious of all, I then need to actually cook the meals for the whole week.
  • Meal prep for the week
• Little things often get past our sights, but as they accumulate, they take up our mental space and energy. Little things like pushing off cleaning or doing laundry. Thankfully I have some accommodations around those, so my tasks won’t be as arduous, mostly just figuring out the mechanics around them and setting up a plan that I can follow for the next few months.
  • Figure out when cleaning happens in the apartment.
    • After doing so, set up a plan to (1) not be a complete horror story to the cleaners, and (2) maintain the room decently organized consistently.
  • Figure out how the laundry service works.
    • Set up a plan to (1) organize dirty laundry efficiently and often, rather than in bulks one day, (2) understand and note down the timelines for when things need to get dropped off, when to expect them back, time for setting them up, etc…
• I haven’t been stellar at personal money management…fortunately, there’s light at the end of the tunnel, and with some careful planning and some discipline I can probably get myself back on track. For that then, I will simply try to do two main things, (1) try to plan out (forecast) realistic expenses from week-to-week so that I have a baseline (and top case) for spending, (2) open up and set up any accounts I need to be able to manage my money properly and not have fun tokens to spend like a crazy guy.
  • Create spending spreadsheet
  • Create a plan for where money goes (Savings plan)

Should do’s

• One of the things I set up myself to do while I was back in town was getting myself to exercise again, ideally, I won’t loose that “habit”. Why am I not putting this on the must-do’s list then? Good question, I think the answer is I am trying to do my best not to set myself up for failure.
  • Go to the gym at least once this weekend.
• There are some study materials (books, courses, etc…) I was given as optional training before I start work. It’s an extensive list, I want to say it’s something like eight books, four 8-hour online courses, and two video lectures. Although sometime in the near past I would’ve simply written to do all of it, that is just not a realistic expectation. Because of that, I’m just going to say that my goal is to do two focused study sessions, let’s say of 2 hours each.
  • Study for 2 hours each day (Whatever material, just, focused study)
• Maybe a week and some days ago I had a chat with soon to be boss, we chatted for about thirty minutes on the topic of some potential projects I could be working on over the summer. I have zero background in any of the topics, and it would probably be smart not to show up as complete idiot on the subjects come my next chat with him. Again, realism here, do I wish for the next chat with him I could have three full MVP’s of the projects so I could “impress” him? yeah, sure. But that just won’t happen, though that does not mean to not do anything, so instead, let’s set up a goal of having a baseline understanding of what the main concepts I need to understand are, and have some decent routes of action I can show him that regard to how I would start the projects.
  • Learn and understand what Liquified Natural Gas (LNG) is.
    • Create a rough route of action of how the start of the project would look.
  • Learn and understand what rate cases are and how they work within the utilities space, have an understanding as well of how AI + data center power demand will affect the space.
    • Create a rough route of action of how the start of the project would look.
  • Learn and understand how hydrogen storage works and what it is.
    • Create a rough route of action of how the start of the project would look.
• Hopefully not, but most of what I have been writing so far will probably be a bit tedious, it’ll be work just generally, so it is only fair that I set out some things that will allow me some wind down time. We’ll make them easy enough.
  • Go for a walk and explore the neighborhood (30-mins at least both days)
  • Read a non-work related book (30-mins at least both days)

Nice to do’s:

• It’s been good having this page, I’m not going to say I love writing - it’s good, it sort of helps clear my thoughts and feelings, but come on, its work - but I am somewhat enjoying this. So it’d be nice to keep doing it, though by no means a priority, at least not this weekend, thus, why it claims a spot in the nice-to-do list.
  • Write and post on page
• On the topic of the page, I’ve noticed that a lot of the friction I have with doing stuff (writing included) its the fear that I won’t have something that is up to standards, so why even start. Well, that’s just a path to a life of inaction, so, rather, maybe having a way to be okay (less friction) with not having something perfect, instead, something started, will be a good thing. For now I will make it as easy as being up front with you - yes, you - by creating a place within the page called “In progress”, where I will put whatever writing I start, whether good or not, whether finished or not. We will make a promise, on your end, you won’t judge me - at least no too harshly - as these will in fact be works in progress, and on my end, I promise I will try my best to actually come back and finish those writings and publish them in their respective places.
  • Create “In progress” bin.

And that is that. It’s 12:36 pm already, so 1/4 of my weekend blew away sleeping, getting breakfast, and writing this. Now it’s time to do the hard thing, actually go do stuff. I’ll create another post on my end and have a simple list with all of the things I said I’d do, I’ll make it simple, just a bullet point with the thing and a space below for “notes”, through the next thirty something hours I will do my best to fill out that list and write how I went/felt about things. You will see the finished list come 11:59 PM on Sunday night.

Little note: There are a bunch of footnotes I thought - and I would like - to put in. I thought writing them down in the end would be a good idea…but I disagree with that now. Maybe I’ll come back and edit this, maybe I won’t, in any case, lesson learnt, just write footnotes as you go.