When is 6 times 10 not equal to 60?

For those with any kind of math skills, they are looking at the title and saying “Um, Mr. 3Deers… 6 times 10 really is 60! Check your calculator… c’mon, you can do it!”

Just so everyone knows, I am not a math idiot… in fact, I was always pretty good in math (there is a reason I became a computer geek). You see, this is not really a math equation, this is a time management and concentration formula.

Writing programs (or blog articles) takes concentration. For me, deep concentration. When I am working on something it often takes me a little while to “get into it” and be able to churn out a quality product. When programming SQL, Excel Macros, WordPress, PHP or whatever, there is checking and re-checking. For blogs, it is writing coherent content. To do it right, I have to spend some dedicated time, not just six minutes here and six minutes there. I need an hour, not 10, six minute spurts through the day!

As a consultant, this can be a challenge. The phone rings, eMail, TEXT messages, Google Hangouts, Facebook updates on a photo of my dog, maybe even a honey-do request… Ahhhhhhh. Stop the madness! As George Jetson would scream “Help… Jane… get me off this crazy thing!”

How do I cope? Sometimes I don’t. Sometimes I just put the phone on silent (or in another room) and shut off the eMail. Sometimes, I just have to take the hour. Sometimes I have to shut off the world and do the one task at hand and do it right. Sounds so simple… right? Not really. It takes a lot of discipline, and that’s not easy.

I have responsibilities to clients, and answering questions quickly is at the top of the list. I often say that my inventory is just me… I’m the product. I need to maximize my inventory so I often try to get the programming or writing done early in the morning and weekends, when I am less likely to be interrupted. This helps, but I now have two kinds of inventory… developer deer and customer service deer.