The lack of ownership bothers me, because what happens with those projects now? I would sure like to know! I spent long hours and some late nights on them, sometimes I was the only one working on them. Unfortunately I can’t see what happens now because those unfinished programs belong to my customers.

So (now that I am between unfinished projects) I have started working on some projects of my own. This has led me to learn some new things about myself. Working from home on my own projects requires so much discipline it is almost like learning a new job. I do allow myself opportunities to work on home projects, but I have to be really careful not to let things get out of hand. I don’t want to end up with more unfinished projects!

I’ve also been setting goals for myself as a new company. I’m hoping to start earning revenue through other streams besides just consulting. This is a daunting shift for me, especially because I’m not earning revenue while I’m developing right now. Hopefully some projects will start earning recurring money soon though. That means I have to set priorities.

I’m also giving myself some time every morning to evaluate or re-evaluate my goals and to setup tasks to achieve those goals. This is a little different from what I do while consulting for clients, when I would simply set tasks for the day or week in order to get the project done. Now I am taking an even bigger picture look at the future of my career and the future of my company. I’ve still got a lot to look at, work on, and learn – but it is exciting.

I’m also hoping that the next contracts I will work on will be for longer-term contracts. The last few were under six months, I’m hoping to find work on 9 month+, multi-developer contracts from now on so that I will not only have time to finish them but also work on some larger teams and take more of a leadership role rather than be the sole developer.

I’m also going to keep in mind that not every change is permanent! I’ll be evaluating what I’m working on daily to see what is working and what isn’t. It’s a sort-of “agile” way for me to treat my business, career and life! I’m excited and looking forward to the future.

Oh, and one more goal is to blog at least twice a week. I’ve made that promise to myself before, but this time I’m giving myself time to do it instead of trying to find time to do it in.

I’ve been reading a book called Success God’s Way by Dr. Charles Stanley, one of my favourite podcast friendly preachers. The chapter I read yesterday was about the successful use of time, and I was really impressed. Probably one of the biggest problems I struggle with lately has been time management and the effective use of time. I have often felt very overwhelmed by the problems involving working, maintaining my house, managing my father’s estate, building a relationship with my wife, and maintaining relationships with friends – and also trying to fit in time to read books at the same time.

It hasn’t been really easy for me, and probably one of the biggest problems for me is that I didn’t set clear goals for my use of my time. While this book is obviously a book by a Christian author for a person setting God based goals, there is a chapter on time management that wasn’t entirely Bible based, and related some interesting stories from successful business men that Dr Stanley follows himself; at the end of every day he writes down a list of items he would like to accomplish the next day in order of priority and importance, then the next day he follows this list in accomplishing tasks and getting things done.

Probably the most brilliant part of this plan is actually planning the time on the night before. This might seem funny, but to me it makes the most sense! Even when I was working in an office I would spend a lot of time spinning my wheels doing things like getting coffee, checking emails and reading blogs first thing in the morning because I wouldn’t have a set goal for that day in front of me yet. Usually by about 10:30 (or my third cup of coffee) I would snap out of it and start planning my day and getting to work. That is a lot of wasted time in the morning! I’m not sure how bad it has been in the last two weeks, but after reading that chapter last night I’ve been really motivated to change!

In keeping with the tips I’ve learned from this book I’ve started using a new tool, called the GTDTiddlyWiki for managing my goals and for organizing my tasks. I’ve got a default list of Today’s Tasks (today I set it in the morning, but I reviewed and set Tasks for tomorrow at the end of the day) and also a list of Short (next 1-4 weeks), Medium (1-6 months), Long (6 months – 2 years) and Very Long Range Goals (2+ years).

My Short Term goals mostly relate to my current tasks and things I need to get done, Medium Term goals are things that are a little more vague like “Keeping up with ASP.NET developments” that will transform as new code is released, Long Term and Very Long Term goals are goals about my company (i.e. growth by number of employees and earnings) and writing a novel.

I wonder what the effect of reading these things will be on me? I’m excited to find out. I’m going to try to post to the blog a little more often, and this is definitely one of the things I will blog about.