drainedThis morning i discovered that someone had sent me e-mail over two weeks ago on an important project and i hadn't responded. Now, he is (rightfully) very unhappy with me and considers me unreliable. And i am disappointed in myself.
I just totally missed the message. Part of it has to do with the deluge of e-mail that i'm drowning in, i suppose. E-mail is the most frequent thing i do besides breathing, but every time i open my mailbox i feel like i'm wading through a huge, unwieldy mess. I keep dropping the ball on things and disappointing a lot of people. I really hate disappointing people. The engineer in me immediately thought about how it would make a significant difference to my life if i had a better way of organizing my e-mail and to-do items, and how some better software would improve the situation (perhaps a free-form to-do list for PalmOS, more lightweight than the existing to-do list, etc.). But i think the root of the problem is that i overcommit.
Currently active work commitments:
- DeanSpace: DeanLink module
- Kingman: cooking, house printer purchase/installation
- CS184: programming assignments, autograding system, discussion section
- Education class: readings, book report, class project
- Thesis research proposal
Neglected or overdue work commitments:
- DeanSpace: database abstraction layer
- Crit: get the server back up
- Dean Media Team: media collaboration workspace
- Zest: implement a new archiver for Mailman
- OpenGenomics: implement a Web interface for Mermaid
- Kingman: people are waiting for me to fix their computers
New things i want to start or get involved in:
- Ftang: web application server in Python
- CHI short paper (two-handed touchscreen-plus-tablet interaction for laptops)
- capability security for the Web (join the ongoing discussion on cap-talk)
- campaign against Microsoft's security plans (NGSCB, WRM)
- Ducky's wealth distribution visualization
When i look at everything, it's so overwhelming.
