So – part 2, er “Part B” of my 30-part epic.  Sweepstakes already abound as to how many posts I manage to make before I get bored and give up!

I’ll cheat a little today…

Positive Fact B

I have a very organised, very methodical and logical mind.  Every major decision I make comes down to hours of logical thinking and fine-tuning.  It’s why I’m such a great fit in the IT industry (although, strangely, no idea why I’m such a terrible coder).  I can very carefully visualise how entire networks and functionality is built, and how they all inter-depend or inter-relate with each other.

It also means that I rarely make decisions I regret.  That’s not to say that I don’t screw up – I do, and I sometimes do spectacularly.  But – the risk has always been considered, and I’m never really bitten in the ass by any decision that I have thought through.  Even some recent business-related issues – although unpleasant and inconvenient – was not a surprise, and the risk was considered beforehand (I could have handled it better, in hindsight, but again – no real regret with how things have gone).

So – no rash decisions, then, and very few regrets on business and work-related decisions that I make.  Happy days.

Negative Fact B

As I said, I’m cheating today.  So – today’s negative fact about my life is the fact that I have a very organised, very methodical and logical mind.  Déjà vu?

Alas – all that planning, forethought and preparation means I have very little time to actually spend committing to a task that I have spent ages planning.  Sometimes, the opportunity has flown right by before I’ve made up my mind.

Minor case in point – today, while at the gym, I was incredibly desperate for a pee whilst on the X-Trainer.  My dilemma was – should I interrupt my training program on the X-Trainer, head down for a pee, then come back and try to resume my exercise?  Or should I risk holding it in, with an escape plan on standby should I have an “accident”?  I spent a good 11-12 minutes debating it either way, and also formulating the best, most discrete way of quickly wandering away should I momentarily lose bladder control.  In just under a quarter-of-an-hour, my routine on the X-Trainer was pretty much complete anyway, making my whole thought process moot, as I had to hang on for another couple of minutes before leaving.  Yes – it actually took me so long to come to a decision that I ran the high risk of public humiliation, as well as rendering my dilemma moot through the passage of time.

On a professional basis, I have possibly one of the most complex task-management systems ever.  I have a whole notebook in Microsoft Office OneNote dedicated to managing my business goals.  My current professional tasks span 5 tabs, each holding anywhere up to 30 pages, and each page containing up to 50 tasks (although, on average, anywhere between 10-25 task).  Yes – I’m not exaggerating when I say that I have planned for myself, an overall to-do list of over 5,000 tasks.

My greatly logical mind creates big overarching goals (say, renew Microsoft Partner registration for 2009), which is broken down into smaller tasks (say, renew Information Worker competency), which is then broken down into yet another sub-task (complete 3 client references), which is still yet broken down into a smaller task (complete client reference for XYZ Limited).  This huge task “book” takes a couple of hours every day to tend and update.

All of this is linked to Microsoft Office Outlook, which I use to manage the atomic tasks (that is, tasks that cannot be broken down any further and are my “next step” items).  These are the tasks that I sync to my phone, and which I try to perform on a daily basis.  In order to ensure that I do tasks, I then link each task item as a calendar item in my diary, thus (in my mind), scheduling an item to be done at a particular time.

Excellent – my mind says.  However, I’ve just burned through pretty much a whole morning managing my business tasks, and any unforeseen interruption (say, a quick 20 minute chat with one of the guys in the office, or an unplanned phone call), and my elaborate plan all falls to pieces and I spend ages rescheduling and re-prioritising.

Yes – it’s shit, and  I need to find a way to be more effectual.  The other thing that galls me around this?  I also have an equivalent for my personal life and personal interests, but rarely visit that due to lack of time.  It is somewhat disheartening to look at my personal life, and see how stagnant it has become both in terms of self-development/self-improvement, and how totally unbalanced my business/personal life is.