Time as a Value Indicator

My friend Dave talked with me about something that I’d like to blog about.  Something I’ve been wrestling with – but not because it’s bad, but because it is so revealing.  He asked me to list of my priorities, which I did, and then he asked me to tell him how much time I spent on each one of those priorities.  He said, “If your relationship with God [in my case] is your first priority, how much time are you spending on that relationship?” Humbly I confess to you: not enough.  There’s a really big difference between my priority list and my time management.  I need to do some shifting.

As my girls get older I’m trying to spend more personal time with them.  It’s hard with all of the demands on my life, but I want that time to reflect their value and their priority.  Because I work from home Jessica sees me a lot more than many wives may see their husbands.  I get to go on lunch dates with her.  On Tuesdays and Thursdays we often drive the girls to school together and then drive home just the two of us.  I think Jessica knows I’ve got her as a priority and that she’s invaluable to me.

If you think of me, pray for me, I’ve got a lot I’m juggling, but I want to make sure there’s time for the things that matter – I want my friends and family to know they’re valuable to me.

So: what are your priorities?  Do your activities reflect that?  Do your activities reflect value to the outside observer or the recipient of the time?

Dear Friends and Family: Stay Away from Windows 8

I don’t normally post a lot of tech advice here.  People ask me for it sometimes, and I give it because they ask.  I’m stepping outside of that pattern to say that you should avoid Windows 8.  It is to user interfaces what being kicked in the face is to life experiences.  In case you didn’t major in analogy in school I’ll put it like this: using windows 8 will be painful, unfamiliar, and they have moved all of your cheeses.

Windows 7 was awesome. I upgraded to it the day it was released on all 4 of my family’s computers.  It was that good.  Windows 8 is a major let down with lots of potential confusion.  Windows 8.5 may be better. They may release Windows 8.1 (remembers Windows 3.1?) that fixes some of the major issues Windows 8 has.  But for now, stay away from it.

Reasons for this, you ask? 1) The move to a semi-tablet focused interface means that a lot of things you know about Windows are gone by default.  There is no small, easy to navigate start menu.  2) The start button is gone if you switch to desktop mode.  If you press the Windows key on your keyboard you’ll be faced with the tablet application picker (AKA: Windows Metro).  3) They’re copying Apple and creating a Windows store just like iTunes and the App Store.  This will mean that over time Microsoft will limit what developers can publish and will censor material based on their corporate needs and drive.  This is unacceptable.

If you make change for change’s sake, you’re just annoying users who have become accustomed to a pattern.  If you benefit the user with these changes, then there’s a trade off that hopefully most people will see the value in.  This is not that positive change, this is just making change to pretend you’re innovating to ‘lead the market’.  Bad move, Microsoft, bad move.

<done ranting, sorry>