Behind Schedule

So, I’m behind schedule.  And now that I know it, I can do something to fix that.  Sure, this is a long term goal set out over a long period, and it’s hard to guesstimate how long something is going to take.  But tracking a bit of data can be effectively used to determine whether you are ahead of schedule or behind schedule.

Here’s how I did it with a book.  I have a spreadsheet.  It keeps track of current location, total pages, percent complete, average increase, and days between reading.  I have all these to determine if I’m putting in the work necessary to accomplish the goal.  In this case, I’m reading a book to learn material.  Once I have read the book and learned the material, I will then build a prototype.  The prototype will be working by January 1, 2015.  So I’ve got limited time in which to read the book to learn the material.  So I need to be going through a certain number of pages per day.

After a few days of reading, I then calculate the average increase.  Then, it’s simple math.  

(Total pages – current page) / Average = days to complete the book

Now, with that number I can figure out whether I am ahead of schedule, behind schedule, or right on track.  I have a goal of completing this particular book in 60 sessions of 30 minutes per session.  I based that off 15 pages per 30 minute session even though I usually read faster than a page a minute.  But if you aren’t putting in 30 minutes of reading per day, then you aren’t going to hit your targets.

And despite my best intentions, I now know that I am behind my schedule.  The “so very easy” 15 pages in 30 minutes turned out to be more than I’m currently reading.  That’s one thing I gathered from Timothy Ferriss in The 4 Hour Work Week.  Anything working doing is work measuring and recording.

Rather than try to guess at how successful you are, find something to measure it.  Playing in the backyard with my kids, I’ve been trying to do a cartwheel.  Mostly for fun, but slightly because I’m moderately interested in the idea of parkour.  The goal of parkour is seamless movement through an environment at a high pace.  In order to do so, you need a decent bit of athleticism and coordination.  So I’ve been doing small things to work towards that. 

On cartwheels, I got to the point of thinking I was doing a decent job.  So I decided to record me doing a few cartwheels to see what I looked like doing cartwheels.  The hand position looked good, but I wasn’t fully extending my legs.  So I was kind of cramped looking, and my cartwheels looked weird.  They also lacked the seamless look that I was interested in the movement. 

So, far I haven’t fixed the cartwheel.  But I know  I need to read more than I have been reading in order to accomplish what I want to achieve.