Category: Time

Useful Finds: Taking the time for a class rather than re-inventing the wheel, MS Excel

I generally avoid Microsoft Office if I can. It tries to do too much. And no matter how much I log in and confirm on whichever websites, if I am using Microsoft Office while I’m logged in to Windows on a different email than I bought the Microsoft Office license under, Windows and Microsoft Office throw fits.

Currently, I’m working on a project which needs Excel. I signed up for a couple of Udemy courses. I’m currently working my way through the first one, Unlock Excel VBA and Excel Macros by Lella Gharani. I’m only partway through and I’ve already learned a lot.

Thoughts About Technology: Our Brains Are Not Hard Drives. Write It Down.

I don’t like to admit mistakes. I think most people are the same way.

So none of us like to admit what we’ve forgotten. If we forget enough things, we start to forget what we’ve forgotten.

If it’s something I want to remember, I need to write it down. And if it’s worth keeping, I’ll eventually come back to it. Which means I’ll probably have to do some occasional reorganization of what I’ve written. Again, if the information is worth keeping, I’ll come back to it and it will be worth the time to reorganize.

It took me a long time to realize this. I thought it was just me, until I started to notice how few people keep notes on anything. And how much people struggle to recreate or rediscover information which I know they already had.

Write it down.

Mindset Monday: Use the Physical World as a Model for Your Expectations and Habits.

I usually leave the house with a coat, and a bag to hold my wallet, cellphone, and writing pad. If it’s a nice day, I might take along a digital camera in case I see something I want to photograph. I’ll also take a magazine or book if I might have some free time.

If I’m going to an exercise class I’ll take a bag with my gear for that class. A laptop and associated power cord and mouse in a backpack come along also, if I think I’ll need them.

I don’t take each of those things with me each time I leave the house.

When I install new programs on a personal computer, there’s often an option to add that program to the startup programs. Rarely are those programs a stand-alone executable: there will be background processes and programs they will start up in turn, just like I don’t take a laptop without taking a power cord and a separate bag or backpack to hold the laptop and power cord.

A personal computer with a ton of programs that start up with the computer takes a long time to start up. Similarly, if every time I leave the house I take everything I might possibly need, ever, it will take me a long time to leave the house.

When people ask me for help with their computers or other technology, rarely do they try to compare it to what they already know and do. Technology is a magical thing that they “don’t understand” and wish it would “just work.”

It’s not magic. It’s like any other tool.

Technician Tuesday: Velcro cable ties

I would not have thought Velcro cable ties would make such a huge change to my life, but they have. I have years of accumulated cables for various electronics, past and present.

No matter where those cables are, they usually look messy. I bought some Velcro cable ties. I am very surprised at how much they help control the tangling and clutter.

I’m also surprised at how meditative and pleasant it’s been to go through a pile of cables, separate, straighten, and tie everything up in neat bundles. It’s been great.

Mindset Monday: The tool is not the skill.

Way back at the beginning of this blog, I wrote about the importance of knowing what I want to achieve when I start working with a piece of technology. That post was about the importance of knowing my goal and motive.

My post today is the importance of not confusing the tool with the skill. There are lots of drawing and art software programs available, but none of them make me a good artist when I buy them. There are lots of software programs for music and sound available, but none of them make me a good musician, composer, or sound technician just because I bought them.

Becoming good at a skill takes a lot of work. It takes practice, and research, and looking at other examples in that same field, and more practice, and more research. It’s a slow process. I have to put in the work. I can’t trade money for the software program or electronic gizmo or whatever and have that also be a trade of money for time and effort. The tool is not the skill.

Technician Tuesday: Taking Breaks

Several weeks ago I wrote a post titled “Always Be Looking.” It was about how much of what I do isn’t new to the world, even though it might be new to me.

Last week I found another instance of that. Years ago I read the 20-20-20 rule of taking 20 seconds every 20 minutes to look at something at least 20 feet away while working on a computer*. Last week I found a suggestion for taking breaks in the November/December 2022 issue of Handwoven magazine. Just like being hunched over and staring at a computer screen, being hunched over and staring and warp and weft threads can also cause physical problems if it’s done without breaks.

The suggestions for taking a break in that magazine article are more detailed than just the 20-20-20 rule. In addition to looking away from the work every 20 minutes to do something else which takes a few seconds, the article recommended stepping away completely from the work, for a few minutes, every hour. I think that will be easier for me to remember.

(The specific article is “Healthy Weavers: Using Ergonomics for Comfortable Weaving” by Cynthia Evetts and Tina Fletcher.)

* The 20-20-20 rule really does help my eyes. More than that, it helps my whole upper body relax. I recently heard on a podcast that a focused narrow gaze will tend to make us more mentally focused and anxious, while a panoramic gaze will tend to make us more relaxed and less focused. Maybe the relaxation is something to do with that.

Mindset Monday: What is being accomplished?

How it started

The other day I was talking to a small business owner and a couple of the small business’s employees. We were discussing local business, small business, and business in general.

I said that when it comes to technology and people with technological skills, I think there’s a question which is impolite but still important.

How many apps do we actually need?

Not as individuals, but rather as users existing within a technological system. Specifically smartphone apps, which seems to be most of what programming and company announcements and startups are focused on currently, “and we created a new app for that,” how many apps do we actually need?

The small business owner replied that he has about fifteen apps to run his business and it seems like each one has its own associated fee.

How it’s going, now that I’ve thought more about this

Fifteen apps, which I’ll use as a starting point. Fifteen user IDs, fifteen passwords, fifteen apps to keep updated, fifteen apps which can break if an update goes wrong, and so on.

No, I’m not advocating for one-stop-shopping all-in-one apps that contain everything and do everything. Those work wonderfully until that one things breaks and then everything breaks. That’s why I stopped using PDAs back in the Palm Pilot days.

What I am advocating is for all of us, myself included, to stop and look at the technology we use from time to time. How much of what I use or have downloaded or installed is to monitor or fix a potential problem created by something else? Or if the potential problem isn’t directly created by something else, how much of it is created by my bad habits using something I already have?

What is actually being accomplished?

Technician Tuesday: More on how-to guides

Last week I wrote about what a great time it is to look for how-to guides. This week I ran across some how-to guides that have been around for several years.

A while back I purchased a Uniden scanner. I have been looking through Uniden’s support documentation on their website and while very thorough, it has a lot of information for more advanced users. There’s a difference between manuals for “here’s each option and what settings and attachments you need to use for each option” and manuals for “here’s some examples of what you can do with specific options and why you might want to use that option instead of the other three which look very similar.”

(In a completely different industry with completely different customers, this difference in types of manuals is why sewing and embroidery machine manufacturers are now selling “playbooks” in addition to the user manuals that comes with their machines.)

This morning I searched for beginner instructions on how to set up my scanner and found the sites Mark’s Scanners and Scanner Master. Scanner Master is a business specifically for selling and setting up scanners. And yes, they have how-to guides for a beginner which already look more helpful than what I was finding on Uniden’s site.

Mindset Monday: technology is not always the first answer.

There are some things I’m adept at on the computer. If I already know what I want to say, I can open up a word processor program and type it out, add some basic formatting, check it over and print it out. I think this is not a terribly amazing skill. But I’ve had several people tell me I do in 30 minutes what would take them hours.

There are times when technology is not the first answer. There are times when reaching for a computer or tablet or phone will hinder the creative process.

Reaching for a computer, tablet, or phone first will also make it easier to focus on the “how?” instead of more important questions like “why?” Also, “What’s my goal?” And, “Do I even know my goal?”

This is also not a new problem. Over 20 years ago I took a college technical drawing class. The first half of the class (much to my classmates’ annoyance) was sketching by hand. The professor explained they had heard from multiple recruiters about the lack of non-computer-aided sketching skills. More specifically, it really interrupts a brainstorming session if instead of reaching for a napkin or piece of paper to sketch on, the person with the idea says “Hang on, I’ll go to my computer and . . . “

Dan Roam’s book The Back of the Napkin – Solving Problems and Selling Ideas with Pictures, Expanded Edition was published all the way back in 2009. (ISBN 978-1-59184-306-1) Again, this is not a new problem.

Mindset Monday: Always be looking.

There’s nothing I do which is new in the history of the world. There’s a lot I do which is new to me. (Or it was new to me at one time.)

There’s always new ideas on how I can do things. Sometimes I find new ideas in unexpected places. Sometimes the new idea is something I was pretty sure I knew and then I find out a much simpler easier way.

The task might be new to me, but there’s someone out who’s done this for years and has tons of experience. I should go find that person, or find something they wrote, and try to learn all I can.

Another way to put this: “I’m completely self-taught!” is often not the bragging point some people think it is.