I’ve been in a contemplative mood again recently. I still enjoy what I do, and am grateful everyday for the opportunities that have been afforded me, but I can’t help thinking of more. For me more doesn’t mean more money specifically, though it can certainly help to buy some of the things that I do want. The things that I want are freedom, purpose, and meaning.

Again, I’m not going to act like I don’t already have a tremendous advantage by even being able to take the time to consider these things. Instead, I want to think about entitlement.

Entitlement is like a slur, but it can be seen more positively as progress. I am entitled to a standard of clean and secure living that progress in the USA has brought. I am entitled to a communications platform that has reshaped humanity more rapidly in a few decades than centuries of slow developments before it because of progress in technology and cooperation among humans.

All of this is a lead-in to my focus of the week, and for the posts that I’m publishing. One of my constant goals is “write more”. Scratch that. one of my constant wishes is to write more, but it’s not a goal if I’m not working on actually doing it. Sure, I’ve been keeping a regular schedule for the past four months at This Week in Web, but it doesn’t fully scratch the itch. I’m starting with an overview of how I manage my time and work-life currently, with the following posts this week:

Tuesday: Methods and tools I’ve applied for organizing communication
Wednesday: Tools and techniques that have improved development tasks
Thursday: Maintaining a personal life, community involvement, and networks
Friday: Habits and tools I use for continuous learning

Even if you don’t end up using any of the tools or techniques that I discuss, I always think it’s worth introspection to consider what you’re doing. It often takes repeated suggestions for me to even look into something, and even more of a push to turn methods into habits. This week I aim to be part of that push for you.