A Slice of Workday Pie

I don't know about you but I spend a lot of time at work, over half my waking day (which means most of my conscious life) at my job.  What we do for our work is part of God's plan for us.  Our work helps us move through life as beings created in His Image.  So what we do for a living, and even more importantly, how we do it, really matters.  I've been thinking a lot about my work these days and trying to decide the best way for me to do my work well.  Here are some activities I want to make sure I am doing every day to become better at my job: 

Learning
I've found I need to spend regular and intentional time learning, whether that's through traditional educational pathways (like college or trade school) or through books, articles, videos, social, or other online content.  (I've been amazed at what's available from a variety of teachers who share what they know online for free).  I  also learn from spending time in community with others in my profession.  This can be facilitated by attending seminars and trade shows or just going out to lunch with a colleague. There are many ways to learn and regardless of your learning style, time spent on education is time well spent.

Planning
I do pretty a pretty good job of improvising or "thinking on my feet," but I find I'm at my best when I have a plan for the day, the week, the month.  First, because it helps me prioritize the things that matter most.  In the whirlwind of a busy day, I can quickly find myself doing a lot of good things, but not always the best things.  Carving out the first 15-20 minutes of my day to determine the most productive route can make all the difference.  Second, planning my day helps me measure my progress.  I feel better when I know I am productive.  If I don't have a clearly defined plan, it's possible that I will end my day without a feeling a strong sense of accomplishment.

Doing
OK, this sounds funny, but I know a lot of people who don't actually do much work.  Do you work with anyone like this? Sometimes these people "delegate" work using their persuasive personality, or they play the "I don't understand this, can you help me?" sympathy card and someone else ends up handling it.  I had a mentor call that activity, "shuckin', jivin',and high-fivin'?"  You know, I've found that some people actually enjoy figuring out how to do as little as possible and get paid for it.  If you've seen the movie "Office Space," you've watched the main character try "to live out his dream of doing nothing" in a pretty funny way!  But the truth is, I believe most people really want to do good work.

Doing the work is a great place to spend most of your time. The work is where the rubber meets the road, where promises are fulfilled, and where what's on paper becomes reality.  Doing the work is where I gain the deepest understanding of my vocation.  The work is where I get to serve others.  My personality makes me prone to want to sit down for a coffee with a colleague to theorize and dream and pontificate, but doing the work is where I find I get the most satisfaction.  It just feels good.  However, like any of the other areas "doing" too much can pull you way off track.  In fact, I would say that overdoing leads to decay.  If you're working too much to keep learning, you're working yourself right out of a job.

Evaluating and Improving
After I've gotten the work done, I should evaluate it.  Was the customer happy?  Was the company happy?  Am I happy with the outcome?  If I'm working within the context of a team, a retrospective session after a project is a great way to figure out which things could have been done differently and which things should be repeated.  In our frantically paced workplace, evaluation is often overlooked to get on to the next project.  Of course, without evaluation, it is pretty difficult to improve, at least not improve proactively or reliably.  And who doesn't want or need to improve?

Sharing
I think we have a moral imperative to share with others, to a degree, the things we've learned.  The open-source movement will attest to this.  I would bet that just about every one of us uses and benefits daily from a service or product that someone gave away for free.  How you choose to share what you've learned is largely up to you.  There's a myriad of ways:  blogging, social media groups, You-Tube videos, pubic speaking, writing books and trade articles, or even mentoring an inexperienced co-worker.  All of these activities add value - and not just to other people - but to yourself.  You want to really learn a subject?  Just commit to teach, write, or lecture about it.

Innovating
This is time spent dreaming about something new and different and better for your industry or your company.  This is one of my favorite parts of work.  There have been times in my career where I've been paid to do a lot of this and that was pretty cool.   But honestly, even if innovation is not part of your job description, do it anyway. You have something to add, a unique perspective, and a wonderfully creative mind.  No one looks at problems and opportunities in the exact way you do.

I'm sure there are some things I've missed, but hopefully these areas cover most of the high-level activities I do at work.  The trick is making sure I give time to these activities in the appropriate measure.  I think our natural tendency is to give our time to those areas we like doing the most, which is great, but is can be problematic.  It's a pretty basic concept, but one I think it's worth stating, that time for work is finite and if I'm spending all my time planning, I won't have enough time left to do the work.  Likewise, if I spend all my available time doing the work, I have no time to innovate, plan, etc.  I thought I would make a chart of where I think I should be spending my time.  It's not done yet, but this is my best guess for my workday in a good ol' pie chart:


I'm sure the size of the pieces of my workday pie will changeover time and in various vocational seasons, but I think that regardless of their size, none of the pieces should ever go away completely.

En Passant

When I was a 5th-grader, my best friend Tom taught me how to play chess.  Tom was very patient with me as he showed me how all the pieces moved and taught me the basic rules. Tom gave me and understanding of the fundamentals.  At first, Tom beat me every time we played.  But over time, I got better, and eventually I played well enough to win every now and then. 

In college, I had a friend named Dave, who was a really strong chess player.  His father was a physics professor and was only a few points away from being an Expert Chess Player (1800 club.)  Dave learned the game from years of playing against his father.  Dave destroyed me game after game.  But through all of that chess board carnage, I got better.  Dave taught me about strategy.  Later, I played all kinds of people in my dormitory and it was great fun.  And yes, I even won a few times.

But over the years, the person I loved playing the most was my brother-in-law.  He's a great guy and a great family man and one of the most competitive people I've ever met.  He's one of those people you love to beat because you know how much he hates to lose.  I'm the same way; I am very competitive.  I remember one particular game we played where I was feeling very confident I had won.  I could see it - just a few moves away … and then, it happened.

I moved my pawn two spaces forward in what I believed was a perfectly safe move, and then my brother-in-law causally said, "en Passant" and took my pawn.

"En Pa-what?" I asked.

"You know, 'En Passant.'  It means 'in passing'.  When you move your pawn like that, I get to take it.  It's a special rule,  En passant."

"Well that's a bunch of malarkey!" I said, "I've never heard of that. What are you trying to pull?"

"It's just a rule …it's a real rule, Butch."

"Well I've never heard of it," I said curtly.

I was mad because  I thought my brother-in-law had pulled a fast one.  His so-called "En passant" meant I would lose the game.  I left his home that day feeling pretty upset about it.

Well, it turns out there is a move in chess called, "En passant."  It's fairly rare, but it is perfectly legal.  My brother-in-law was right.  He had legitimately beaten me and I had helped him do it.  It turned out that through all my years of playing,  I had never been taught, nor had I taken the time to learn all the rules of the game.  Even though I had outplayed my opponent, I had been undercut by my lack of knowledge.  And while I had mastered the fundamentals, learned the strategy, and was actually playing and winning games, I had allowed myself to become precariously vulnerable.  I think the thing that troubled me most was that I didn't know that I didn't know.  I didn't know there was more for me to learn, that there were finer details that could mean the difference between winning and losing.

Rules come in many forms depending on the game you happen to be playing.  In business, failure to know and follow the rules can result in fines and lawsuits.  In social settings, breaking the rules can result in being ostracized.  In criminal law, ignorantia juris non excusat.  Regarding the Faith, God tells us that ignorance has consequences:

Hosea 4:6:  "My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge …" 

I work in the Information Technology industry and I am perpetually surrounded by people much smarter than me.  Every day I am reminded of just how much I do not know.   I am a firm believer that regardless of your I.Q. or your years of experience, there's always room to learn more.  I've learned that unless I am intentional about seeking the areas of my ignorance,  and taking the time to fill those voids, I will become just another piece sitting on the side of the game board captured En passant.

Simply Content

I was speaking with a good friend, a prominent realtor in our area - she's helped us purchase our current home and a few others.  She said, "I know you write a blog. Have you ever considered writing about your move from a financial perspective?  It's starting to feel like 2005 again.  People are buying homes and moving into places that are really expensive.  Don't get me wrong, I make money when this happens, and that's good, but I think people are behaving like they will have jobs and money forever."

I can understand why.  Things are looking really good today.  Wow!  Look at the stock market!

And it looks like it's a really good time to buy a house.  Look how low home prices are!

And take a look at these interest rates!  Holy Schmoly!

Perhaps it is a great time to buy a house or a bigger, nicer one than the one you live in today.  My wife and I have purchased 7 homes in our 23 years together.  Some moves were due to corporate moves, some due to care requirements for our son, and others were just our desire to have a nicer home than we had before.  We've leaned a few things along the way I thought I would share.  They're pretty obvious, so don't laugh at me.  These were things we didn't realize at one point or another.

1)  Homes are not "great" investments.  Oh, sure there have been times when the housing market has soared and people made big bucks selling their houses.  But if your like us, you live in the house you own and the truth is, the price of a home today costs as much as it did in the 17th century.  Homes generally appreciate at 0.2%.  So, you're probably not beating inflation if you are using this as a retirement savings mechanism.

2)  The home mortgage interest deduction is awesome but it may not be around forever.  There are some huge tax benefits to owning home and carrying a big mortgage.  If you itemize your deductions,you can deduct mortgage interest and real estate taxes from your federal return.  Being a fiscal conservative, I generally don't support government subsidies of industries, and yes, I believe this is a subsidy to the housing industry.  Some have estimated that this deduction adds $70 - 100B to the US budget deficit annually.

3) Selling, buying, and moving is really expensive.
Commissions - If you're going to use realtor to sell your home (and you probably should) you'll pay about 6% of the sales price in commissions.  The average home price in 2010 was $272,000 - so that's $16,320.00 that will come out of the proceeds of your sale.

Closing Costs - When you buy that new $272,000 average-priced home, you can estimate that you'll somewhere between 2-5% in closing costs.  Let's say 3% for this example.  That means $8,160 is what you'll spend to get that next house.

Moving Expenses - I think my company once paid over $10,000 to pack and move my family and our possessions to a city only 2 hours away. While you can pay much less by moving yourself, there are still a lot of costs:  rentals, packing, gas, time, and of course, making the "big ask" of your friends and family:  "Hey … uh, Bob … what are you doing this weekend? You … you want to come over?"

4) Cash is King - If you don't have 20% to put down on your new home, I strongly recommend you ask yourself if you can really afford it.  Putting down 20% is really hard.  That means for our average $272,000 home, you'll need $54,400.00.  Otherwise, you'll be paying private mortgage insurance (PMI) which could tack another 0.5% or more onto your rate.  So, that 4.5% interest rate you got effectively becomes 5% and that can add up to a lot of extra money per year.  For our example, if you put 5% down on our $272,000 average home, you'd pay about $1300 extra per year in PMI.

5) Size Matters - Bigger homes usually mean higher taxes, generally higher heating and cooling bills, higher maintenance, and more time.  In general, more home = more money out the door every month.

Just over a year ago, I wrote  It's Complicated, a post about the unnecessary complexities I had created in my life that were consuming my time, energy, and financial resources.  Since then, we've sold our home and given up many of our possessions.  We bought, remodeled, and moved into a significantly smaller house.  I can't lie to you; it's been painful.  Moving is one of the top stressors in life.  The disruption in routine alone can make you crazy.

After all this negative talk, I have to say that I don't think there's anything wrong with living in a large and luxurious house if you can afford to do so.  But sometimes I wonder if, in their quest for larger or better house, people are really looking for something else.

I'm learning the hard way that houses aren't necessarily the same things as homes.  I think we all should live in a good home.   To me good homes are about, family, friends, love, good times, growing up, growing old, laughter, tears, warmth, safety, security, a place to rest. Those things can happen in a variety of settings from glorious mansions to dilapidated shacks.

I guess, in the end, I am trying to learn to be simply content with what I have today.

Philippians 4:11-12-

Not that I speak from want; for I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am. I know how to get along with humble means, and I also know how to live in prosperity; in any and every circumstance I have learned the secret of being filled and going hungry, both of having abundance and suffering need.