When starting off in Git, here are some useful tutorials.
I’m keeping them here for my reference, eventually I’ll make a true post regarding my switch from SVN to Git.
- Beginner tutorial: http://gitimmersion.com
- References
Git tutorials
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Category Archives: Working
Plugin Example for Dayton Webmasters Group
Sometimes I wish I could copy myself
I started doing web development as a hobby many years ago. Eventually, I started making it my life career. The advantages and disadvantages quickly came very clear as you can see in my Working from Home post.
Development was once a fun hobby to pass the time. Then it became a job. The free time to work on personal projects is gone. All the dreams I once had to develop sites and systems for fun is now overtaken by the need to finish up and obtain new clients.
I also have a great desire to learn new things. I would love to learn new programming languages and better skills my design skills. I would love to continue to grow with my passion rather than be held still by it.
I’ve decided to copy myself, I will have 3 versions of myself throughout the day. Most people do this but rarely notice. The easiest way to notice is simply see how people react around different groups of friends, a lot of people will change.
The 3 New Types of Me
Working me
I will always have a need to work. It is one of my favorite things to do. My only issue is what I’m working on. Never do I get to work on one of my own ideas.
I always add a little flavor to every project I get. I add extra features that the site owner might not have thought of. But at the end of the day I can only say I did that, I can’t say it’s mine. I need something to be mine.
Therefore, I will have a work me that will focus on clients and I will limit my hours per day to simply working. A real world job would take anywhere from 8 – 9 hours of your day to get something done – sometimes there is overtime.
I am now going to get myself on a set schedule and follow specific work hours. I have clients with different sleep schedules so determining the right time of day to make this happen is difficult. I may just say that as long as 8 – 9 hours of work is done in a day, I’ll be happy. But this removes the structure which is an issue. I will also try to take two days off a week rather than working all 7 days.
For now, I’m going to say from 7am – 4pm I will be working on clients. Nothing more or less. Well, at least some time for lunch.
This will allow me a time to say no to the other two versions of me: playing and social.
Playing me
Everyone needs some “me” time. Time to do a hobby, read, or just watch paint dry. Without time alone, one never truly gets to understand themselves. I’ve decided to give myself 2 -3 hours a day for myself. I can read, play a game, or work on a personal project. Which ever I choose is my own decision. I just need to make sure I allow time each day to make myself happy and to grow without guilt.
This “me” time will be either after I’m done working or socializing. Just as long as I get some time to grow before I rest.
Social me
I have a lot of friends with very busy lives. I get invited to do multiple things a day and usually do very few of them, one if I’m lucky. People think since I work from home I have the ability to drop what I’m doing and just go have fun for the rest of the day. And this is very wrong.
They have the promise of a check on Friday, I only get paid when I get stuff done. Each day is a mini goal to finish something. I can’t just let time pass by because someone calls.
However, I can’t be a hermit and live in my office alone for the rest of my life. As I stated in my last two versions of me, I will have about 9 hours of work a day, and 3 hours of “me” time. This leaves about 4 – 5 hours of social fun. Weekends of course are a different story. There needs to be a cut off from work and play. Weekends will be for trips and more long term fun.
Conclusion
I need more structure in my life. I need to grow and have fun without guilt. Once I get a routine going everything should be cake. Productivity should go up. I can no longer just work until I almost fall asleep in my chair. I need a break and some fun.
I know this won’t be a one day change to get this all into place. Nothing of structure is overnight. But I’m going to start a countdown timer while I work to make sure I stay in my range. I’ll say no to social events until the timer is up. I’ll make sure I get some time each day to clear my head. I’ll make sure I set time aside for friends and family.
If I follow this simple yet complex structure, I think life will start to get a little more enjoyable. And who knows… one of my great side project ideas might end up becoming my new full time career.
Make a free WordPress plugin
Make a free WordPress plugin and everyone expects free support for everything WordPress.
I understand that most users that use WordPress don’t know what they’re doing and refuse to spend money to figure it out. I’m not going to be the one that teaches them all, there are plenty of tutorials. Just frustrating getting emails and forum post with people asking for free help with little benefit to me.
Relying on API’s
I made a script for a site that fully depended on an API for geo location. Found out today that the API is down. So now the whole site is down. And even if it comes back up online what if it happens again in the future.
This sucks, I’m going to have to rework a lot of code for that site. Sigh…
Backing up your files
When working from a home office the PC is not only a business machine, but sometimes it is also a home PC. It may hold photos from the family and maybe a game or two. Trouble with this is, home PC’s can crash very easily from extreme use and large files being stored on the hard disk. It is a good idea to keep constant backups of your data. I have realized this recently because of many mishaps.
Imagine waking up and finding your computer won’t turn on. Imagine the hard drive went bad and all your data is lost. What would you do? I would simply purchase a new hard drive and restore from an external backup drive. More important documents I keep on a free service called dropbox. The free service syncs files on PC, Mac, and mobile devices. I can place business files in a single folder and know they are safe and secure on the dropbox network. I will also know that when I turn on my laptop the files will then sync there. My business life follows me and helps me fee safe.
Next time I have a computer crash or a hard disk failure, I will only lose my time rather than my documents.
Plugin development
I was clicking around on all the plugins I’ve submitted to the WordPress codex today and realized that I had uploaded a new plugin ever two months. This month will be the two month mark since my last one, considering making a quick one or working on upgrading previous ones…
Gotta finish up clients first regardless.
Working from home
It seems that many people dream of the at home job. Imagine being your own boss, income being in direct relation to your work ethic and drive. Never do people think of the down sides of working from home. I know I didn’t when I first made the plunge.
Since the age of 15 I have always worked from someone else, since the age of 14 I worked in advanced web programming (beyond HTML/CSS). Web design and development was once a hobby and I had never thought it to be a full time job nor working from home and getting paid.
As I progressed in the business world, making more and more money each year, I also progressed in my programming skills. Everything seemed to be all in place until one day a friend of mine asked me to work with him in his web development business.
At first I worked on some of his clients part-time and then worked full-time at a bank. At the time he had an office and I had driven there a few times a week to work. I had seen his life, creating his own work schedule. Making good money and being his own boss. Each day he determined what he would work on, if he even had planned to work that day. As long as he finished clients by the deadline life was good.
I dreamed on the life he lived. Because of this dream, I started to hate my current job and look forward to this part-time web work. Then one day, he had mentioned that he had a plethora of work to be done, enough to keep me busy for months. The next day I quit my job.
Ever since I’ve been chasing my tail, working everyday and meeting client demand. Each month has been a race to acquire funds or finish projects in time. I gave up my old boss and steady hours for up to 8 bosses (clients) at a time and 16 – 24 hour work days. Though I am a lot happier doing a job that I love, I’ve obtained a lot more stress in my life. I know know the down sides of working for yourself. And from home (the office idea stopped when I started taking on clients for myself rather than through him).
Top 5 reasons why I dislike working on my own:
- Day and night I feel like I should be working. I no longer have that detachment from work. When I had left my previous jobs I no longer had thought about it. Now, even a holiday can make me feel guilty for not working.
- Knowing where the next paycheck will come from no long exist. I used to get a steady paycheck every two weeks. Now I have to search for work and hope they pay me a decent amount. The stress of finding money is always over my head, even when I have found plenty of work and have a fully bank account I still worry about further down the road.
- No more routines. I have to stay motived on my own to get work done. It’s hard to balance work and life when there is not clear cut work day. Especially when working from home where it’s so easy to be distracted by family.
- Sick days are a thing of the past. Now if I get ill, I lose days worked. There isn’t anyone else to take my place to finish the work. Sometimes I’ll go a few days working very sick just to get something done. Where normally I’d be in bed sleeping.
- Sociability, I no longer have co-workers. Meeting new people and have a place to go is gone. I now work from home and I’m limited to meeting only clients and people at late night dinners
Top 5 reasons why I love working from home:
- I always get a good night sleep. If I stay up too late one night, I rarely have to worry about getting up early the next day. This is only not true when I have a meeting with a client.
- Freedom. When a random friend comes to town, it’s not a federal case to stop working for a few hours to see them. It’s easier to drop something and work on it later as long as the deadline is met.
- Working in my PJs. I do less laundry getting up and working in my pajamas. It’s comfortable. Though, it’s been suggested to me that getting up and dressing for business puts me into work mode and that I’d be more productive.
- Easier to relieve stress. If I get stressed on a script that won’t work. I can easily just take a break, watch a movie, walk my dog, or take a nap. Sometimes it’s easier to just take a step back and clear my head to solve an issue.
- My income is directly in relation to my motivation and efforts. I can make as much in a year as I want. Though, it may depend on clients and demand. But I can charge what I need and I usually can find a client to fit that need. Where as before I was limited to a set budget. (it’s a good and bad thing really)
Before you think about working from home. Think about how your life will change. Think about your income and every factor that will change with day to day life. Make sure you are self motivated enough to get done each day what you need to. Or else one day you’ll be searching for a job, and take the first one you can get.
New lease on life
I took some time today to put a plan together. A daily goal list to be completed everyday, and a list of each task completed each day along with what I will accomplish the next day.
This way I feel I will be more organized and have a better overall happiness. Organization makes me happy and I’ve let it slip past me. I’m making goals, making me a better person to me and hoping it will pay off in the end.
I’m dedicated amounts of time to accomplish certain task, measuring how long I work on them. Reviewing and comparing what was planned to what was completed. Finishing task and goals make me happy. Having a short term plan makes me happy.
I hope I stick to it.
When I realized I’m an adult
Today, I realized that I’m an adult. At the age of 23, I now feel like I should be moving forward in life. I’ve been living as an adult for quite some time now, but I refused to mentally move forward. I started a business on the internet. I’m in business for myself and I just now realized what is really going on.
I spend day an night creating and designing websites for others; until today I was simply just programming, like how an artist creates a painting. Never did I stop and realize I am creating the income of several people. The websites I create and getting paid to make will be seen by an unknown number of people and will actually make some money, it’s not just a website to my clients. I am a business, I am designing a means of income for people! I mean, why else would they pay me to create these things.
It was a strange feeling to realize what I am actually doing. I started in this business as a hobby. Created several sites just for fun and for friends. Then, through a long list of happenings I started getting hired to do jobs for clients. I never stopped to consider the fact that I’m making business websites. Just a strange thought to be somewhat important.
Which brings me to my next thought. Where do I go from here? Now that I know that I have responsibilities and a need to move forward in life, it’s getting to the point where I’m getting a lot more work than I can handle on my own. Projects are starting to take longer and longer to complete to make all of my clients happy. I am not longer doing this for fun anymore, it’s simply my income rather than a hobby. I either need to expand with the growing demand of my services or get out of the game. I don’t know where to go next. I’m so used to just going with the flow and making quick for the moment decisions, there have been very few decisions in my life where I had to think long term.
So what do I do? Hire people to help me and work my self out of the programming aspect and become a manger, or continue to do what I’m doing now and never move forward in my career / grow up for that matter. I know it is time to grow up, I just wish I knew the next step.
I’m too busy working in my business to be working on it. I’m an adult now, and I feel as if I should know what to do. When I was little I saw my Dad make life changing decisions in an instant. Like he just knows what to do, very little thought… he just knows what is the right path.
Then again, life is too long to always be right. And too short to not take risk.