Is this thing on?

Appears so. Boy, what a year, huh?

Seems I pretty much forgot how to post to this place.

Inspired by Jamiee Newberry, I participated in a month of tiny challenges. The goal I set myself for January was to find and record a “today I learned” item each day for the month. Each of those daily notes is attached as a webmention to this post; another handy use for that comment-like webmentions tool is that it can approximate something akin to tags just by linking. So that’s cool.

I have one final TIL to complete for the month. I’ve enjoyed it and the small and encouraging community that formed around the tiny challenge idea, and while I can’t say that every day was something particularly insightful, I do appreciate looking back on the month to see the way a small amount of effort each day adds up to something real.

So with that in mind I’m going to try another one for February. I’ve been listening with a lot of interest to the tiny challenges podcast; Jaimee and Daniel Steinberg have talked about “three words” that will help act as compass points for them during the year; ways to give themes to their actions and measures against which to set their success. I want to take some time in February to define three words of my own. The tiny part of the challenge will be to make a note to myself each day about my thinking or decisions related to my three words: this could be a single sentence or it could be more, but I’ll complete it each evening. I may or may not make this writing/thinking public, because much of it is really for my own brain, not for feedback of vetting. I’ll share some as I go, to be sure, but want to remove the obligation on myself to do something for an audience each day, as this was one of the things I wrestled with a bit this month.

By the end of the month I will have a fleshed out set of thoughts for each of three words that will help me shape my approach to the rest of 2016. So, bring it on, February!

#tinychallenges

Today I learned, officially, that I was a much, much younger man when we adopted our old dogs. This puppy is a lot to keep up with!

#tinychallenges

Today I learned that if you’re a dog person, the house just doesn’t quite feel right without a dog. And, should you happen upon a dog, you are basically powerless. We we went to the hardware store for furnace air filters and they just happened to be having an adoption event with Second Chance, a local shelter.

We we came home with furnace filters, of course, and also a little lady we are calling Gunnison. She is a border collie/Newfoundland mix. Oh my, what have we gotten ourselves into?

#tinychallenges

Learned a lot about some specifics of a work process that makes up a big part of a project I’m working on.

I don’t love having these obtuse TILs; it’s a consequence of my work not being so public, but that work nonetheless is a big part of what I do daily, so it’s natural that a lot of things I learn come from it. That makes it hard to reflect on them in this forum, sort of un-satisfying.

#tinychallenges

Today I learned quite a few ins and outs of a grand jury, because I have been called to sit on one weekly for the next few months. This will be interesting.

#tinychallenges

Some discussions the last few days but particularly today clarified part of my evolving job role. I’m used to being a doer, but lately a good chunk of my commitments are around facilitating: helping others do things well, helping build a strategy in which other projects will fit, and connect a lot of organizational dots. Don’t get me wrong, there are still a lot of deliverableswith my name on them; I need to exercise some agency and planning to find the right balance, for me, between making things and supporting others in doing the same. That’s an interesting, exciting challenge.

#tinychallenges

So. Tonight I learned that a strong part of my routine brain will remind me to take the dog outside when returning home late in the evening, even when I am coming home from taking the old girl for her last trip to the vet, where we peacefully put her to sleep at the age of fifteen.

My wife was the same: she promptly refilled her water dish when we got home. Longtime habits don’t go easily I guess. For the first time in many years we don’t have dog footsteps tracking around the kitchen.

This makes two old girls we have said goodbye to in the past few months.

So. Dammit.

#tinychallenges

Some of these daily things I learn are not so much new lessons as things I observe that I would like to take forward.

Today didn’t feel productive at work. It didn’t start as well as I like, and never got back on the right foot. I need to develop some better ways to come back from those unsatisfying and un-energizing starts. When I encounter this kind of day my best response is to start identifying and ticking off small, doable bits of work, but today I wasn’t quite organized enough to pull even that off. So I need to work on that, to notice when I’m not focused and be deliberate about getting myself back at it. Tomorrow is another day to do it.

#tinychallenges