Importance of Blocking Time in Schedule

This morning I had a number of work-related meetings and then had to take my wife to the doctor's. She had one of those screenings where they knocked her out and she needed a driver to take her there and bring her home. Furthermore I was not allowed to leave the campus until the procedure completed and my wife awake enough to go home. Being required to stay at the doctor's office for 2 hours, I asked the admitting attendant if they had a soft-serve ice cream machine since I couldn't go anywhere. They did not but she said she would mention it to the doctors. I doubt anything will change but if US prisoners are required to be able to watch television, doctor's offices should provide soft-served ice cream when you have to wait more than an hour.

Fortunately the office did have WiFi to use for those of us waiting. I made sure to log onto the system and get some work done. Should anyone need to reach me, I made an entry in my public-work calendar that I could be reached for anything except meetings. That worked well as I had one fellow colleague reach out for clarification on some of the data I am very familiar with. I provided an answer and continued to work on other things.

Whenever I go to schedule a meeting with fellow work associates, I always check everyone's calendar to make sure I am not scheduling over their activities. My hope is that others do the same with me and they almost always do. There are some occasions when a meeting will have quite a few participants and the scheduler must pick a time that will work for the majority of the attendees. If possible, those that can move things to attend will.

After getting home from the doctor's office today, I looked at the next several weeks and scheduled my morning exercise. I am fairly flexible right now and don't need to exercise at specific times. However when I see my schedule filling up, I block time in my schedule to keep people from taking the only time slots in my day where I can exercise. While some treat daily workouts as optional, I don't; probably because of my love of soft-serve ice cream. My health is important enough to me that I do all I can to stay as healthy as possible. I also blocked off time tomorrow evening to spend time with my wife. That is the description I used: "Time with Wife." Most people wouldn't dare try to schedule anything over it and if they do, it must be really important but there is no guarantee I'll be there. My son is good about scheduling his personal time on his work calendar as well. He is a bit more cryptic in his description as he uses: "Personal time, do not schedule."

A lot of people complain about their work/life balance and with some companies there is a huge problem. For me, I try to let people know when I am tied up with personal things. Being forthright and honest provides a level of comfort and trust to management. That goes a long way towards evening out the work/life balance and helps make my employment at Sony that much more enjoyable. 

Medical Robots

I got home from skiing today and found my son watching "The Empire Strikes Back." I love the Star Wars movies and so I joined in for some of the viewing. If you look at all of the movies, they are really the stories of the 2 robots: R2D2 and C3PO. Science fiction always has a use for robots but the only ones we have today are for building things, exploring other planets, or vacuuming our homes.

Yesterday I had to go to the doctor to renew a prescription. I used to never visit the doctor. Now I go quite frequently and know him well. He knows that I live in Utah and work in the Bay Area. He knows I am headed to Japan tomorrow. I know that last month he took his 3 daughters to Europe. My visit with the doctor lasted a good 20 minutes but most of the time we just talked about families and trips. I didn't mind the visit but afterwards I realized that I could have saved myself a lot of time if I could have replaced my doctor with a medical robot.

Don't get me wrong, Doctors play an important part in helping to diagnose illness and help us remain healthy. I just know that healthcare costs continue to rise and nothing our government is doing will keep that from happening. I suggest we give scientists at NASA a larger budget and have them build medial robots like the one that fixed up Luke Skywalker after his unfortunate interaction with the abominable snowman on the ice planet Hoth. When I look at all of my doctor visits over the past 3 years, only one of them really needed a physical doctor. The rest could have been to visit a robot. Most of the time when I go in, the doctor checks me over and then sends me to the medical lab next door to give a few vials of blood. Then I get a call from him the next week and he adjusts the quantity of a medication. For my visit yesterday, I just needed a prescription refill and my recent blood work from December eliminated the need to test my blood. A robot could have taken care of that for me.

New Favorite Technology

This morning I was the perfect husband and brought my wife to the doctor's office for a routine screening. They sedated her for the procedure and I was needed simply to drive her home afterwards. Fortunately I came prepared for my stay in the doctor's waiting room. I brought my laptop and both of my mobile phones. I also brought one more seriously needed piece of technology that has recently become quite beloved.

We got to the doctor's office and my wife filled out a bunch of paperwork. I sat next to her and kept glancing over at the television. I have to admit that I have not watched any television in the past several months. Furthermore I think you can count in decades the last time I have watched day-time television. The only word that comes to mind is, "Garbage." Every time I would look over at the Today show with Kathy Lee, my stomach would churn and my mind would ask, "Isn't it time for her to retire and go away?" Unfortunately the sound was up and I couldn't help continuously glancing over and getting nauseated.

I thought about bringing my laptop to the doctor's office and rather than just pulling it out of my computer bag, I brought my whole bag. In it was my new favorite technology: earplugs. I actually have 3 different sets in my bag. The first is a set of closed-foam plugs that Hampton Inn's started giving away for free. That is what I used today and I was glad I had them. Once I put them in, I could work on my laptop and got some important management tasks done.

The other two sets of earplugs I carry are not really "earplugs." They are two different kinds of headphones. The first is a set of ear buds that came with one of my tablet computers. They are great in that I can play music through them and they also do a fairly nice job of limiting outside noise. The other set of headphones are some more expensive over-the-ear kind that also have a noise cancelling button. Simply put them on, flip a switch, and about 90% of outside noise just goes away.

I enjoy all three sets of ear plugs I carry. Sure I could have used any of them to drown out distractions and get some work done today. I didn't want to listen to music and so the simple foam earplugs worked. Sometimes simple is all you need.

Time for Glasses

I just had my birthday and have to say that getting old really sucks. While I tell everyone that I am still 17, my true age is slightly north of that. Ok, maybe a lot north of that. This year for my birthday I got a string of doctor's appointments and news that I had better start taking better care of myself. One of those doctor's appointments was with an eye doctor.

My vision has always been pretty good and so I have never felt it necessary to visit an eye doctor. This year I couldn't opt out of it as my regular care physician made me go. My wife celebrated that I was finally visiting the optometrist as she has been wearing glasses for most of our married life. She was in the room when I sat down for the eye exam. The eye chart went up on the wall and I got to read off a bunch of letters. Then I read the smaller ones and had it confirmed that I still have 20/20 vision. That was the good news and I had a smug look on my face as my wife accepted the news that I don't need glasses for distance.

Then it came time to test my reading vision. My wife knew the outcome as she has slowly watched my arms become too short to read the time on my watch. I wish I could say that I came away from the appointment without needing any glasses. Fortunately I only need them to read and I don't think they are that strong of a value. Furthermore I can get them at any drugstore without a prescription. So Friday evening I picked up a 3-pak of glasses: one for the house, one for the boat, and one for the office.

I have been wearing my glasses in the evenings and have felt a much stronger urge to read. I didn't think my desire to read had diminished that much in the past few years. However now I find it much more enjoyable and realize that my diminishing eyesight has had a negative effect on my reading habits. So if you find yourself not wanting to read as much as you used to, you might want to get your eyes checked. Of course you also have the option to get an electronic reading device like a Kindle and just use a bigger font.