Vacation is rapidly approaching, and there are 10X more things to do compared to available time. The usual approach has been to go for the more boring list and as a house owner there is an endless supply of things to attend. I have things on that list that has been there for five years. But one has to prioritize… Me and my wife just tried a new approach. We wrote both a “chore list” and a “fun list”. Consequently, this shall be our best vacation ever, Inshallah.
Read MoreAbout two weeks ago, my three-year-old son broke his left index finger in an accident at kindergarten. The little guy went to the hospital and got patched up with a plaster. Two weeks, and then re-check was the verdict. Usually, he is like the Duracell bunny, which I solve with physical activity, especially biking. Now, however, he is temporarily disabled from our usual energy burning activities, and that means excess energy. A lot of excess energy. We could perhaps put him on a treadmill connected to the power grid and let him single-handedly solve Europe´s energy crisis. That’s why I realized quickly after he came home with the plaster, that this thing will not last two weeks. I’d be impressed if it would last the day. This, in combination with teaching an intensive university course, is a recipe for disaster. It’s very difficult to change the course schedule on short notice. My past self however, has been taking good care of us. When I scheduled the course, I added not one, but two reserve bookings in the end just in case. Tomorrow I am heading to the hospital for the second time to re-make the plaster which came off again. I would be beyond stressed right now if it weren’t for those reserve slots. Now I feel inner peace instead.
Read MoreLast Saturday I spent digging around 15 meters of network cable in the ground. The only thing that remains now is to make a wall pass-through and install some wall outlets in the houses and then finally, all our houses are hard-wired with cat6 cables. It’s something that I have been waiting to do since we moved here, to get rid of the shaky Wi-Fi connection. But you must always rank-order your work and it took me four years to execute more important priorities before I could start solving this simple but highly annoying problem. And it felt so good to put it all back together. When I was done, it really struck me that there are few things that feels more satisfying than to complete some proper physical labor, to the degree that you can raise the “mission accomplished” sign.
Read MoreI have been visiting my mom and dad during the Christmas holidays, and the visit has clearly demonstrated the importance of routines and habits. When you are administering a two kid-two dog family, routines are very important to get anything done. But the challenge is to keep the routines going when you’re away for a couple of days. One of the habits that did work though, is the writing practice. I was about to go to bed, when it hit me “What a minute, it’s Monday and I haven’t written my weekly piece.” So, not allowed to go to sleep yet. This is the 108th weekly piece without interruption and I am not going to start tonight. My writing habit has become like a giant flywheel that is spinning at high speed. There is MORE resistance to NOT write, than what it is to fire up the laptop in the middle of the night and get going. How interesting!
Read MoreA couple of days ago, winter arrived in all its glory from one day to the next. It dumped a lot of snow in just one day, and the ice on the sea started to form. However, with snow comes the need to displace snow for walking paths and accessibility. There’s nothing wrong with getting some physical exercise, but a snow blower can be a wonderful companion throughout the winter season. Unless they suffer from gasoline incontinence, like my trusty companion developed last spring.
Read MoreThere’s a Swedish saying “En olycka kommer sällan ensam” (When it rains, it pours). If that is true, the opposite must also be true, but I don’t know any similar saying by heart. So, I prefer to think of it as if the universe is smiling at you. Because it sometimes feels as if the whole universe conspires to help you. When I have had those positive experiences, the typical scenario is that I am extremely stressed out about something, and then suddenly the problem just solves itself without attention. Yes, sometimes the best solution to a problem can simply be to just ignore it. Last week I experienced one of the most enjoyable smiles so far.
Read MoreOne of the things I enjoy about being a civil engineer is that there is a custom in Sweden that everyone in the business goes on vacation during the three weeks 29-31. In practice, this means that the email and the telephone is completely quiet for three whole weeks. I don’t even have to turn off my work phone or put it into flight mode. And the best part is that my second son arrived precisely two weeks before the building vacation, which meant I could grab my ten days of parental leave and connect five whole weeks with my family. Peak life. However, there was a couple of dark clouds on the horizon which I couldn’t get rid of until this last Friday.
Read MoreAfter Covid, many of us have realized how much time we save by not travelling to various meetings. However, is it possible that we are now having more meetings instead? And perhaps they aren’t as disciplined? Yesterday I had a conversation with an architect and we both felt that some weeks there are so many meetings that it is difficult to clock in any productive work at all. In our conversation we did some brainstorming and came up with an idea that might work. What if there was an industry standard within civil engineering that looked something like this: Mondays – Internal meetings, Tuesdays – Client meetings, Wednesdays – Productive work, Thursdays – Client meetings and Fridays – Productive work again. Imagine how much easier it would be to focus and to optimize scheduling.
Read MoreWe all have different personality profiles with corresponding strengths and weaknesses, and I have learned the hard way that one of my biggest weaknesses is my ability to gather and pack my stuff on a short notice. For example, a couple of years ago I was going to do a university lecture and record it for later YouTube publication. As you can imagine, it involves a lot of technology with microphones, cables, sound cards, cameras etc… My lecture was scheduled to start around 10:00 in the morning, and since we lived close to campus back then, I thought it would be fine to gather up my stuff in the morning just before I leave. My wife got home before me that day, and when she entered our little office the whole place was a complete mess. Cables and stuff were lying everywhere, and it is probably what a home burglary looks like. However, my wife knows me well so she could easily figure out what had happened.
Read MoreOne thing that I have clearly noticed as a self-employed consultant is that you always need to over-book yourself. Because even if your schedule is at 125%, things get cancelled, deadlines are moved, and most of the time, my 125% schedule becomes 100%. This has worked fine for me for the last year. However, you also need to allocate time for unforeseen events, which runs contrary to the above statement. Your kid might get sick, your dog needs veterinary treatment or urgent mistakes come to the surface with your clients. These instances may bump your 125% schedule up to 200% if they coincide. These past weeks has been some of the worst ones so far. And it traces back to problems about a month ago. So, what can I do to avoid similar workload explosions?
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