turbofish
07-11-06, 08:42 PM
I am always doing this, biting off more than I can chew. Quick to volunteer for a project that sounds like fun while already taking on a rather heavy load due to vacations in the office. Plus adding side projects that I work on during off hours. Several examples that are going on right now for me:
Background: I work for a company that sends you stuff in the mail like coupons, notifications of service, invoicing, catalogs, and well, junk mail.
I had this idea [that is usually where bad things start!] of providing an extra service for our clients: providing pre-sales and post-sales marketing services. Pre-Sales - finding what their target audience it and market just to that audience.
Post-Sales - sending their data back to us after their mailings, find out what zip codes or even down to block group the markets that performed well and those that didn't do so well.
It is something that I did for a company before, but on the FIPS level [county] and without quite so much information to sift through. What I am working with is about 4 GB of census data that can pin point the minute details of what is happening where you live. So here I am sifting through over a thousand columns and millions of rows of data - all on my PC at home- for fun. My whole weekend was spent reading the fun filled manual explaining the data dictionary and details on the data itself.
Last night, I spent the evening helping a lady who totally screwed up both of her machines
Today, I excitedly volunteered for two huge data projects. One of my little projects today lead me to volunteer to create a whole new application.
Tomorrow, I will fixing my sister/brother-in-law computer after work.
I am always doing this. It is the reason I wake up in the wee hours of the morning or just not sleep at all - too much to do because I am always coming up with new ideas, new directions, or just not being able to turn people down. Life is just a constant mix of self inflicted distractions.
Is this common?
Background: I work for a company that sends you stuff in the mail like coupons, notifications of service, invoicing, catalogs, and well, junk mail.
I had this idea [that is usually where bad things start!] of providing an extra service for our clients: providing pre-sales and post-sales marketing services. Pre-Sales - finding what their target audience it and market just to that audience.
Post-Sales - sending their data back to us after their mailings, find out what zip codes or even down to block group the markets that performed well and those that didn't do so well.
It is something that I did for a company before, but on the FIPS level [county] and without quite so much information to sift through. What I am working with is about 4 GB of census data that can pin point the minute details of what is happening where you live. So here I am sifting through over a thousand columns and millions of rows of data - all on my PC at home- for fun. My whole weekend was spent reading the fun filled manual explaining the data dictionary and details on the data itself.
Last night, I spent the evening helping a lady who totally screwed up both of her machines
Today, I excitedly volunteered for two huge data projects. One of my little projects today lead me to volunteer to create a whole new application.
Tomorrow, I will fixing my sister/brother-in-law computer after work.
I am always doing this. It is the reason I wake up in the wee hours of the morning or just not sleep at all - too much to do because I am always coming up with new ideas, new directions, or just not being able to turn people down. Life is just a constant mix of self inflicted distractions.
Is this common?