Three rules for sustainable and enjoyable work.

Over the last twenty years or so, I've consistently been a productive member of whatever team I've been in. As a subordinate, peer or superior, I've consistently rated highly on the "productive", "great to work with" and "all round nice guy" scales - sometimes to the detriment of my physical and mental health. Eventually, I figured it would be better to try and work "sustainably", rather than "AWESOMELY!!!". At the end of the day, I reckon your boss, or the client, or whomever it is you're working for, more than anything else, wants to be able to depend on you to be able to make THEIR problems smaller, not bigger. Counter-intuitively, working sustainably, not ridiculously hard and fast is the way to do this.

There are a thousand things you need to pay attention to, but they can be lumped into three categories of action - I call them three "rules". Really just a set of overall principles to guide your actions. Here they are:

Rule #1: DELIVER!!!
People like managers and clients love this one, and for good reason. It's comforting to hear that there's a set of rules, and that number one is "DELIVER!!!". It's really simple: someone (let's call them the CLIENT from here on) has the rank to look at your work and declare it "delivered". Your job is to make it so they can. This does not mean "exceed all poorly articulated expectations" or "work 20 hour days because someone is expecting you to do so". "Delivered" will mean different things at different times - between projects and even whilst projects are running, but you will only ever be able to "DELIVER!!!" when you know what "DELIVERED!!!" means, and who the CLIENT is. How...

Rule #2: Track all the things
ALWAYS keep track of what is happening during delivery. ALWAYS get what constitutes "delivered" on record, and make sure the CLIENT gets copies. ALWAYS track all the FACTS. This is not about proving your version vs. the CLIENT's version - it's about what really happened - because you can use that data to figure out how you can better DELIVER!!! in future. How...

Rule #3: Commit to NOTHING!!!
Yes - you just read that. This doesn't actually mean "never commit to anything" - rather, it means "ensure that you can deliver whatever you commit to". Anything you (even vaguely) commit to will turn into an expectation on the CLIENT's end. Your CLIENT's job is to squeeze you as hard as possible for as much delivery as possible, as soon as possible. YOUR job is to achieve your goals (whatever they are) by delivering as efficiently as possible. If you commit to doing the things you are sure you can deliver, delivery is assured. How...

In Summary:
These three aspects combine in a harmonious little feedback loop. When you're getting all three right, you will be approached for difficult and important, time critical work that is highly rewarding, because CLIENTs will know that you can make their problems smaller without adding drama to their lives. Or yours.

[edit] - title tweaked
[edit] - added links to "how" items
[edit] - added image

Hole-otron9000, ukiyo-e and stickers.

I'd much rather make something than write about it, but, well, I have my online presence to maintain, so here's something:

I think, because I work on code, and shiny new things all the time, I'm fascinated with old tech. It can be anything, from how Romans built aqua ducts to steam power. I was looking into how horn-backed sinew bows are made (as one does),  was looking for the recipe for the glue that would have been used at that time - and, among other things, found a recipe for "mucilage".

It's the lick-and-stick glue on those old style stamps...

cool. Now, my wife, being a junior school teacher, could potentially make use of this sort of thing - teachers are always on the lookout for stickers to put in books, so this could just work...

I ran off a couple of prints at the local copy shop, slapped the mucilage on the back, ran a perforated cutter over them and handed them over for testing.

Cute, and they worked nicely. But of course, I wanted to see how far I could take things, so I carved up some lino, and hand printed and aligned some stuff:

Of course, because I was going for a certain look and feel - those little punched holes in the paper, I built a machine to make that happen:

Here's a clip of the last little bit of punching, and the system resetting for the next sheet of paper:

I also ended up printing using a traditional Japanese method - because it gives a very pleasing look, is highly economical, and doesn't require fancy equipment like presses and such to turn out prints of decent size. David Bull has got some really great videos, and you can see the process and beautiful results on his channel: 

https://www.youtube.com/user/seseragistudio

I'm slowly moving to making a vending machine (entirely manual) for the stickers. See you in two years :)