My kids spent this week with my parents. They come home tomorrow. I'm really looking forward to seeing them, but I have to admit... I got a lot more done without them here.
Before you call "hypocrite!" on me and my claim that kids don't have to keep you from doing great things on the work front, I want to emphasize: (1) the number of hours worked does not have a directly linear relationship to the amount of work done. I've been getting a decent amount done even with my lower hours. (2) I took the extra time created by not having to help anyone else get ready in the morning, read bedtime stories, or do any of the other child care tasks I usually do and consciously decided to put that into work (and some chores about the house) because a recent review of my time logs showed me I'd been slacking a bit and I knew I wanted to increase my hours spent on work.
(If you're curious, I've been averaging about 30-35 hours/week of work, and I want to move that up to 35-40 hours/week, which I know from past time logging is my optimal work week in terms of getting sh** done over the long term.)
I keep time logs now because I charge some of my time out to clients, so I figure I might as well log all my work time. I'm not logging home time right now, although I've done that in the past. I've also logged just my work time at various points in the past, and I know that I can work more when the kids are around, I just haven't been doing so.
Frankly, I was really, really burnt out last year, and I needed some time to recover. I've had that time, and now it is time to kick it back up a notch or two. Having the kids gone for a week was a good chance to do that. I intend to keep my work at this higher level once they're back, both in terms of hours and in terms of actually making good use of those hours.
Anyway, this is supposed to be a weekend reading post. Shouldn't there be some links? I've got some for you, but they are extremely random this week, hence my complete failure to come up with a reasonable title for this post.
First up: big news! Annorlunda Books' second book is now ready for pre-order at Amazon. If you're one of the people who prefers other ebook outlets, I'm working to get pre-order pages elsewhere, too. I hope to have links for you by next week.
Meet one of my favorite local politicians.
When was the first time you became aware of your race? If you're white, your answer is probably actually about when you first became aware of other peoples' race. This was a really eye-opening and thought-provoking post for me to read.
This reflection on losing 100 pounds is really good.
I shared this piece about women's speech patterns in an earlier post this week, but I'm sharing it again because it is really good and you should be sure to read. Ann Friedman's piece on this topic is worth your time, too.
And if you're really intrigued by speech patterns and how they impact how people are perceived, I just finished reading Deborah Tannen's Talking from 9 to 5: Women and Men at Work
and it is really good. I'll also admit to finding it a bit depressing that a book that came out in 1994 was still so completely relevant.Zeynep Tufekci's post about why the computer glitch that hit the NYSE this week should scare you is really good. I may finally get around to writing a post about over-automation. If I do, it will be over at my real name blog.
More data about how to end homelessness.
Did you see that Ellen Pao has stepped down as Reddit CEO? I am sad about that, but hope she moves on to a happier place for her.
On a somewhat related note: ending abuse in an online community turns out not to be impossible.
Danilo Campos has some sobering thoughts about the lack of inclusiveness in the tech world.
The fun at the end:
Key and Peele's feminist pirate song is awesome.
This video of a girl and her dad having a beatbox duel made me smile.
So did this:
This guy was boating in Alaska when a pod of humpback whales pop up to feed. He makes the exact noise that I would. https://t.co/Df5vVSO5qv
— SimonNRicketts (@SimonNRicketts) July 9, 2015
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