For the longest time, I managed my things-to-do with a sticky-pad piece of paper that I kept in my wallet.  On this paper, I’d write in tiny script all the things that I needed to take care of or remember.  As I finished items, I’d just scratch them off.  At the office, I’d use Outlook, of course, and got fairly proficient at using the “Task” feature fairly effectively.  However, both of these systems suffered from a lack of flexibility and mobility.  For the longest time, I realized I needed something better to manage tasks and ideas.  Basically, I needed a way to capture ideas easily and quickly at any location.  For the longest time, I considered getting an iPhone.  Finally, with the help of a friend in Hong Kong, a colleague and I decided to bit the bullet and do it.  I wanted to buy in Hong Kong because there you can buy the unlocked iPhone and therefore don’t have to sign the nonsense two-year agreement.  So, whenever I arrive in the US, I can just pop in my T-Mobile card and I have instant access.  The same also goes for any country in Asia.

The iPhone is not the be-all-end-all device that constitutes my “new system”, but I credit it for really opening my eyes to the power of “mobile computing”.  I’ve had my iPhone for about four months now and I’ll never go back to a bulky system like Outlook and Office.  No way.  I can still remember coming back to the office after Christmas and Chinese New Year and thinking that Outlook felt like a large anchor around my neck.  This is one reason why I worry a bit about Microsoft’s future.  Much of the company’s revenue comes from cash cows like Windows and Office.  But, both of these businesses face huge dangerous flaming arrows from the likes of Apple, Linux, and a myriad of cloud computing companies that I’ve embraced because their product is simply better.

But, even before purchasing the iPhone, I started playing around with a couple of web applications:  iGoogle and Evernote, both of which I am very impressed with.  Evernote is a free fantastic note-taking application that leverages great search technology instead of organization.  So, I don’t worry about where I should put my notes, I just create them and Evernote indexes them, searching for keywords (even keywords within images!) so that when I later search for a note, it’s easy to find the notes I’m looking for.  The application is great because it’s designed to work on the internet.  There’s a browser plug-in which makes it easy to take notes while surfing the web.  See the video demo on the Evernote homepage for more.  iGoogle is great for pulling together a few simple Google web components into a single page that I can view without even scrolling:

(above) My own iGoogle page (I’ve chosen random themes!). Google Reader is the first Google application that I latched onto. It works great at aggregating the various blogs that I like to read. The Google translator is great for chatting in Chinese. When I don’t understand some of the characters (which is most of the time), I can just plug them in here and get a quick translation.  Of course, now that I don’t have to use Outlook, Google Calendar is a natural choice.  Features are still being added, and sync support for the iPhone was recently added.  I haven’t adopted this yet.

You can see another web app that I like to use:  Remember the Milk.  This a cute little app that is a very good note taking system, much better than my pitiful little wallet sticky note.  With Remember the Milk, I can create notes for on any date and write a note to remind myself.  I can also categorize and prioritize them which makes working on a family of tasks easy.

I’m also experimenting with my own personal Joomla! site, hosted on my personal web space.  Joomla! is a general purpose CMS system.  I’m using it an super note-taker.  Something where I want a little more organization than Evernote.  So, I have various project ideas and progress listed there.  I also use it as a place to organize jobs that I outsource to various people in China, or anyone really when I’m not using Elance.  For example, I had a word-processing job that I outsourced to a contact in China.  I created a video using the great Windows Media 9 encoder of my desktop where I walked through the steps that I wanted done for hundreds and hundreds of pages of material.  I then created an account for the person that was working on this job, then, uploaded the movie and the files needed.  It was easy for her to log on, understand visually what needed to be done.  It worked great.  This site would be perfect for this sort of job, but I really need job level access for each account I create.  Instead, site access is at privilege level, and there are only like three levels!  Not sure how I’ll manage this, but that will eventually be a deal-breaker.

The iPhone is what ties most of this all together.  There are Evernote and Remember the Milk applications for the iPhone, both of which work beautifully.  Unfortunately, Remember the Milk costs $25, but it’s certainly worth that.  The Evernote application adds audio recording support, so if I’m in a big hurry, I can create a quick idea or task note with my voice on the iPhone and it will upload in the background to the web.  That’s the beauty of all of this: it syncs easily with the cloud (the web) and is therefore accessible from any computer.  The concept is so simple!  I can still hear the whines of my MS colleagues, “Man, I can’t get Outlook to sync with my iPhone.”  I tell them, “Your problem:  OUTLOOK!”  Time to modernize!  However, the various Google applications still aren’t represented very well on the iPhone, but they’ve got the cloud-computing idea down and, of course, they work great on the browser.  I have no good Joomla! access on the iPhone, except for the browser, and that’s not good enough yet.

So, this new system is a work-in-progress, but the results so far are promising.

First of all, I have to apologize for the huge delay in an update to my blog. The last one was significant enough to warrant a decent amount of time before the next post, but this was much longer than I was anticipating. There were those who thought I’d be bored in the short time that I’ve been self-employed. Others suggested I might end up working too much on my blog.  I knew that neither of those would happen.  In fact, it seems like I’m busier now, especially with transitioning to the this new lifestyle.

One thing that I have to specifically mention is that what my friend and former colleague Peter, who quit Microsoft back in July and now lives in Shanghai, told me:  “You will feel a euphoria of having the freedom of setting your own schedule and working on the things you care about.”  That is certainly true; I feel it.  Despite feeling some anxiety during the transition period away from Microsoft, I now can’t imagine going back.  I hope I will feel the same way in six months.

Back in the real world, however, there are several pressing transition issues I have to deal with:  tax issues in the US and China, getting all of my outstanding expenses reimbursed, researching and setting up insurance, planning a move to a cheaper place (now that MS isn’t footing the bill), and a few others.  Here is the list of the various projects I’m working on now:

1. The aforementioned domestic issues, which need to be taken care of as soon as possible for peace of mind.
2. Setup the appropriate and best structures for being self-employed.  This involves lots of emails to lawyers and CPAs in the US.
3. Re-releasing my two shareware applications. I am combining the two apps into a single suite, redoing all the graphics and UI, fixing a few bugs, updating the name to something funnier, buying the domain name, doing some marketing and affiliate programs. My goal is to increase downloads by 10 times.  This should increase revenues nicely.  We’ll see; it will be a learning experience regardless and it’s fairly cheap to do all of this.  It’s been six to seven years, but I have been too lazy and comfortable to touch the code.
4. Re-release my Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto CD.  This has involved redesigning the cover professionally, getting a logo developed, and reworking the orchestral tracks, remixing the CD, and sending the tracks to the US for printing and hosting on CD Baby.  It’s been sold-out for three or more years now and, again, I’ve been too lazy and comfortable to do anything about it.
5. Release two reuseable CMS (Content Management System) websites for two different purposes, both of which are specific needs of mine.  One of them could turn into another side business, but I’m not focusing on that right now.  The other, maybe a little later as well, or just free software.  I’m hoping to outsource these to two projects different local companies in Shenzhen to see how well we work together.  The best company will win the big website I’m working on, which I’m still designing.

Numbers 1, 2, 3 and 4 should happen within the next three to four weeks.  That should free up time to focus on #5, which will also give me incentive and time to continue working on my other website idea.

So, what has my daily life been like?  Well, I’m trying to keep it as close to normal, structured life as possible.  I still have my weekends available.  It’s not so busy that I need to eat into weekend time.  So, I’ve been keeping a schedule Monday-Friday that begins around 8 am lasts through 5-6pm.  I’m working pretty hard to spend the requisite time outside so that I maintain the right level of social contact, otherwise, I’m afraid I’d get shiftless and lazy.  So, much of my time is spent working remotely.  There are also frequent lunches and usually activities every single evening whether it be Chinese Lessons, Basketball, or simple dinner with a friend.  So far, it’s working very well.

Here are some of the challenges, none of these is terribly serious:

• The internet is slow in Shenzhen.  It’s quite slow in my apartment at key traffic times.  This causes me to be distracted.  How so?  Well, I start working on a certain a certain problem, using a certain website, and it turns out that website takes a too long to load for my liking, so I multi-task over to another problem, and usually load another website.  Repeat, repeat.  Eventually, I’m bouncing around from task to task.  You’ve probably heard that it takes a lot of time and mental effort to make a switch from one task to another.  It’s true; I can really feel it.  I’m trying to minimize the distractions by:  Batching (like doing all my email only three times per week), and doing as much offline work as possible.
• Lack of focus caused by not adhering to a schedule.  Remember what I wrote above about my schedule?  Well, I’ve been 100% diligent about it when other people are involved.  However, when it’s just me, I tend to slide a bit.  Just a couple of days ago, I realized that this was causing me to lose focus.  By knowing that I have a hard break for a task, I tend to focus because I want to finish as much as possible before my time is up.  Of course, if I’m on a roll, I’ll reschedule an impending schedule item, but usually this isn’t necessary.  This reminds me of the Parkinson Law.
• Instant Messaging is hugely distracting.  OK, this one is easy to fix.  I enjoy chatting with a few US friends in my early mornings and I still allow myself to do this briefly, but if I’m on after 9:30AM China time, I’m often inundated with people who want to chat.  I’m often too nice to tell them I have to go; I usually let them chat until they’re done.  Bad habit, but easily managed by turning off Messenger by 9:00-9:30AM.
• Facebook can be a distraction, though I think it has huge amounts of business potential.  I’ve already made some important business decisions because of Facebook.  But, the other great thing about it though, finding long lost friends, can be distracting too.  I spend a lot of time on Facebook writing long emails with old friends.  I haven’t quite figured out this yet; there seems to be no single solution, but rather just learning to be more brief or only do this sort of activity on the weekend.

The official announcement is in! I have retired from Microsoft. I’m very excited about the new opportunities in front of me. With the right attitude functioning as your world lens, it’s easy to see almost limitless opportunity for stimulating and rewarding experiences. I’m really looking forward to this next phase.

Actually, my position was eliminated as part of the Microsoft layoffs. This did not come as a surprise at all to me. After all, my goal was to “work myself out of a job” by helping to create a software team in China. Three to four months ago, I realized that my job was basically done; my marginal value was rapidly dropping. That was a great sign, a feather in my cap. But, I was a little uncertain about what to do in the future. The safe thing was to move to a different position within Microsoft, but after an interview and a few meetings, despite being impressed with the people I talked to, I just wasn’t feeling it in my heart. I’ve always wanted to take some time off for various reasons, and when the official notice came, I realized that this was the sign.  (Like being struck over the head with a hammer!)  Now is the time.  I’ve been able to save a lot of money, and the generous severance adds to it.  Of course, the severance is just what China labor law requires.  Many people expected me to be upset, but I was well prepared for this and welcome the change.  To me, this is a win for everyone involved, and I let the team know it.  Though, I will greatly miss all my friends in the Shenzhen office!

Here’s the farewell email I sent out:

Hello all,

It’s sometimes hard for me to believe, but I will soon be leaving the company.  I have been transitioning for a week and Tuesday, February 10, 2009 is my last official day.  Sorry about the short timing!  My mission as “software mentor” at MACH has been accomplished and it’s time to move on to the next opportunity.  My time at Microsoft has been memorable, enjoyable, and educational.  Thank you all.  Of all my projects, missions, and assignments, my time spent at MACH was easily the most rewarding.  It’s been a thrill to see MACH Software Team’s numbers grow, ability improve, and respect and confidence increase.  I’m so proud to have been part of this team and will always cherish these times.  I know you guys will continue to be successful.  Don’t be afraid to push even harder.  Who knows how successful you may become?  I’ll miss each and every one of you.  But, don’t forget, I’ll still be around and available for dinner with all my MACH friends.

While there are numerous special colleagues I’ll have to thank over the coming days, there are four in particular that come to mind that I should mention in this email:

Brian Williams – Thank you for hiring me.  In college, I remember dreaming of working at Microsoft.  I feel satisfied now as I close this chapter of my career.
Jason Bluming – Thank you for being instrumental in creating the opportunities for the software team at MACH.  When I first heard about my position, I remember immediately thinking, “Yes!”  I’m so thankful I was giving the opportunity to come to MACH.
Matt Pedersen – Thank you for your wonderful blend of professionalism and friendliness.  You have been a great asset for me as well as the entire MACH Team.
Jimmy Hu – Thank you for spending time mentoring me.  Minute for minute, our meetings were the most valuable time for me that I have spent on the job.  I hope all others at Microsoft can find individuals who inspire them the way you inspire me.

I’m looking forward to seeing the next great technologies that come out of MS Hardware.  I am especially excited about seeing the results of <<secret technology>>.  I will be keeping an eye out.

What is next for me?  Well, my schedule will be very tight.  I do have opportunities I am expanding and exploring.  Plus, I want to spend more time improving my Chinese.  And of course, I want to see more of China.  All this will keep me quite busy.  Please keep in touch.  You can find me on Facebook and Twitter or through my blog.

Sincerely,
Theron
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I was overwhelmed with the number of private responses that I received, the vast majority from China.  It just reminded me of how special an experience it was.  The only thing I’m not happy about was being surprised that today was my last day.  By the time people in the US read this, my email access may be shut down.  I was indeed notified a week earlier and was given an option about the path I wanted to follow:  to stay and transfer internally, or to mutually separate.  But, I didn’t learn the final date until I officially signed the documents.  Well, I hope everyone who wants to will make the effort to contact me on Facebook or ask around and find out what the URL of this blog is.  As an aside, I did not provide an email address as a subtle jab at the pervasive email culture of Microsoft.  It’s time to modernize everyone!

Here’s a wonderful response from my colleague and friend Michael; it makes me feel so humble:

Theron,

It’s really hard to me to see you leave us, you’ve helped me and the team so much, in technique, in communication, and in many many things. We have had so much fun since you arrived China, I still remember the wonderful tour to Gui Ling.

Sometimes, I feel you are not typical American because I think you are much more open minded than many Americans. Maybe that’s why you can enjoy your life in China, I strongly believe that you can get a better opportunity, and continue to have great time in China. In this regard, I am happy for you.

The good thing is that we will still have chance to see each other, to talk, to have fun together, let’s continue this great friendship.

Wish you every good thing.

Michael.