This week should be a short workweek because of the holiday yesterday … Family Day! … But somehow this week has managed to turn into a longer week then normal, I have a scheduling conflict that requires me to be in Oshawa Today and I usually only work Wed, Thurs, Fri in an office environment (stability, regular pay, etc..) this leaves me Sat, Sun, Mon, Tues to do the freelance stuff on my plate which you would think is more then enough time, but it never is…

The original plan was to work 3 days in an office / part time gig and 3 days on freelance leaving me one day to NOT work. It hasn’t panned out this way yet. But I’m still trying. I know that I’m pretty blessed in the sense that I can get away with working a nine to five grind only three days a week, but I did have to sacrifice a fair bit to accomplish it. (about 50%) of the income I could normally make in a week doing freelance. In the end though the stability is more important then the money because with just freelance you can end up going weeks or months with no work which translates to no pay.

Unfortunately though the flip side of that is the ability for scheduling in appointment in just two of the normal weekdays, I don’t have myself set up yet so that things move fluidly. Which is the criteria that I have marked to call this method of working successful. When I manage to have a few months of continuos work for the freelance and the regular working side and I don;t have to work until 1am or Saturdays, then I will be able to say that this is a good way to work. Until then I’ll hold my judgments.

I’m so excited! some of my favorite things happen in the spring, you fell alive and full of life, the birds return, the snow melts away, little buds appear on the trees, the rain comes and makes that awesome smell of damp earth that you only get in the spring and which is only comparable to the awesome smell you get of the decaying leaves in the fall. Before you know it the weather has turned warm enough to get out on your bike, and then your in the woods coasting down a single track of hard packed earth, the sound of the june bugs buzzing in the distance, the smell of the fresh blooms filling your nose.

I love the way the world looks from a bike. I like to go for a nice long ride, slip off the trail part way through, balance a rock and contemplate the awesomeness that is the earth. I’m SOOOOO excited! … Thanks to Craig (who I WILL get out on the trails this season) I have these great Vibram Flo’s (Five Fingers) that I can’t wait to take for a bike ride again … I only got in one ride before the end of last season with them and I’m starting to go a little mental waiting to get out again. This year (about half way through the season) I would love to get last years Stump Jumper… (Last years model is always cheeper). That would be sweet…

I’m not getting anywhere with Adsense, but I haven’t actually tried, I just tossed some loose advertisements up to see what the effect would be… Note to anyone out there thinking that will work… it won’t … in a month and a bit I have generated the whopping amount of $3.56 (three dollars and fifty six cents) from Adsense … I’ll try not to spend that all in one place

But seeing as I’m the type that likes to take responsibility, I can’t possibly say that its Googles fault like some of the lame flaming Interwebians do … (That is a word btw… I just made it up) . … I digress, where was I? … Oh.

I haven’t done my homework, and I haven’t tried to customize the advertisements on the site yet. So I started doing some research and reading, because lets face it … If I can actually generate some noticeable income off of my site I would be reenforcing my goals for the year and we all know that I really want to succeed. I also figured that if I document the process then I will be making the steps that work reproducible and thats going to benefit not only me but you … the reader (providing that your interested in monetizing a site with Adsense). Make sense? … It does to me, so I’ll go with it

I will make sure to post updates to this topic as I see different results, (w00t!!! more content to write) please bare with me while I make modifications to the locations, sizes, and types of ads that I post … I’m sure that some will have a negative impact, and I want to know… .So, as always, feel free to comment, flame, or provide general feedback to this little experiment. It’s ok to fail, as long as I do it forward

As a side note … I also think that I should be sorting out some ‘pages’ of content based on theme and me unique perspective on the universe … So watch for those to show up in the left hand column … (providing the left hand column doesn’t get moved to the right) and If you think you have an interesting idea for me to write about… click on comment below

Worked late (4:30-ish AM) finishing up that lagging project (finally!!!) … Overslept, had a meeting with Mr. Bradfield (Jeff) at noon, but I didn’t even drag my but out of bed until 12:30… (but look its 8 full hours of sleep!!!!) Sent him a text to let him know we were still ‘on’ and that I was just behind, and drove down to Scarborough. I was going to nab Mr. Lodin (Kal) along the way, but he was already downtown so it was just Jeff and I.

We had a good time, did some work on his site (http://www.jeffbradfield.ca) and discussed a project we are collaboratively working on that moving really slow on account of us not getting together and keeping on top of things… I’m going to try again for the monday morning meetings (mastermind group). Jeff and I reviewed some layouts for the site we want for the new project and I’ll spend a few cycles this week (during my morning commute) seeing what I can get hammered out in terms of a loose ‘spec’.

We want to keep really agile on this and because it’s a collaborative thing between some great colleagues that I’m proud to call friends… its pretty relaxed.

Hopefully this will be one of those projects that turns into a revenue stream for us and will send us cheques in the mail … I really like those projects … the ones you do once but keep getting paid on. (You can thank Timothy Ferriss for my new found love of the 4 hour work week ideals).

I set Jeff up with some GTD love too … I’m sure that if has a peek he will get hooked.

Oh, and YES! .. I did get it done, and I feel great because of it

Trying to get a project that stalled in the final steps cleaned up and tied off is kinda like managing software developers or herding cats … The client wants to get the project done, but takes forever for the feedback loop, then because I have other things going on and this project is way outside of timelines so I have to sacrifice something else to get it done, or let it continue to eat my brain because it’s not done and the next actionable item is for me to get it done!!!

Gah!!!! Ok, so I will get this done today (no matter what) … It doesn’t matter if I have to work at it constantly until 3am … I will get my part done, and move this over to waiting for approval. But naturally, I have other things coming at me as soon as I think this, so I toss it into my list and set a due date on it (today) … That should motovate me (I don;t like going to bed until my list for the day is clear) …

Who knew that GTD would appeal to my strange sense of time like this? Will it stay this way, (I’m hoping it gets easier once I get more of the ‘stuff’ out of my head and into my system) … Right now tho, I’m finding all the things that have to get done because they have been spinning for so long. (Normal for the GTD (so I’m told)) … but when you start to see all the things you need to get done, and have been spinning …

It’s a little overwhelming, on the one hand you feel good because you know that your making steps for a bunch of things that you have kept trapped in your head, on the other hand some of the things you have been puttin goff for so long you feel like your going to have things to do forever … and you have to hold yourself accountable and that makes you a little miserable so your feeling good and rotten at the same time.

Ok, back to working …

Well it looks like that new project is a go, Kal, Geoff, and Myself met last night for a dinner meeting and went over some details, I’m not at liberty to say what the project is or is about, but it’s a pretty good idea, if I do say so myself, and considering all the ‘good ideas’ I hear, thats actually saying something.

We will be aiming for government grant cash, but have set aside a percentage of the company that we are willing to part with for VC … (Why I’m even considering the VC route again is a little beyond me, I guess I believe in the project that much) … But Geoff is confidant that raising funds won’t be an issue, and isn’t sure we will need to do the VC thing … But time will tell the tail.

I’m excited, but need to get some sleep (even though this goes live tomorrow AM … I’m writing it now, and I should get to bed before I end up in trouble)